Christmas Special Edition 2025

Welcome to a special edition of the Wife's Thoughts podcast. It's the Holiday edition of Wife's Thoughts. Let's get ready to gather around our virtual campfire as we talk about the holiday season in twenty twenty five. Merry Christmas from all of us here at Wife's Thoughts. Grab a cup of eggnog or hot chocolate or maybe some hot cider and join us for this special edition of Wife's Thoughts. Hey, everybody, welcome back to the podcast. Welcome to Weis's Thoughts. I'm Terry Weiss and I'm so glad you decided to join us for our twenty twenty five edition of Weiss's Thoughts. And before we get underway with this special edition episode here on the program, remember if you want to listen to each and every episode of Weis's Thoughts, you can go to Weiss Thoughts dot com w yce E Weiss Thoughts t h o U g h t s dot com. There you can listen to each and every episode of this podcast. If you want to come in on a show, you can do that as well and met much much more. And while you're there, won't you stop buy and check out Purplepitstudios dot com there you can listen to our other podcasts, as well as check out the blog Weiss's Life and so much more. It's all waiting for you at Purplepitstudios dot com. So let's dive right in. Oh, by the way, if you want to follow me on X formerly known as Twitter. If you want to follow me on X, it's at Terry Weiss. And if you need any type of voiceover work, if you had a podcast and you want to have some intros or some breakers and promotion for that, Or you have an audiobook that you've penned and you want it narrated commercials, what have you? No job too big, no job too small? Just go to Weiss Productions Wyce Weissproductions dot com. All right, enough of that, let's get into the today's episode, shall we. First off, how are you? I hope everyone is doing well. I hope you're prepared for the holiday season, because it is here. This is it. We're in the home stretch here as you'll be listening to this podcast as of the release, we're just a few mere hours, a few days away from Christmas twenty twenty five, and then of course the following week we'll be celebrating New Year's heading into twenty twenty six, and oh, my goodness, has it been a fast year? Or what. Hasn't it? I tell you it is. Wow, it has really been a fast year. As far as I'm concerned, it's been a pretty quick year. I mean, we've had so much happen. We had a you know, we've had a new administration takeover. There's been a lot of things happening in the world. There's been a lot of things happening in my life professionally and personally as well. Just a lot of you know, the good, the bad, and the ugly of this year. But I am so thankful for another trip around the sun and that I'm here and alive and well, and I hope that's the same for you and yours as well. We've had a few few struggles this year, but you know what, let's not let's not talk about the down moments, shall we. Let's let's talk about the good stuff. Did you do you to Christmas shopping? Let me ask you a question. Are you finding with online ordering, whether you're going through like Amazon or Walmart or whatever place you're happening to procure your gifts for this year? From Are you running into some of the same struggles that me and my family and people I've talked to and friends and relatives have run into. Why why is it taking forever to get things here this holiday season? Can you answer me that question? I mean, usually Amazon is right, you know, they're right on it. Man. You know, we're Prime members. We have been for over twenty years, for crying out loud, and they're usually great. You know, sometimes you get a delay of a day or so here and there. But it seems like almost every package and things we've ordered through Amazon, there is multiple day delays, you know, and just very poor communication on Amazon's part. I've known people too, you know, the missus w has ordered from Walmart and a couple other places, Kohle's Kohls, which is a larger department type retail store the northeast half of the United States. From whence the program cometh? And multiple delays and some stuff didn't even show that it's shipped. You paid for it, and you know she started shopping in November right after Thanksgiving online. I mean, come on, folks, come on, retailers and businesses, all right, Christmas comes, the holiday season comes. Every year. This isn't a surprise. Okay, this isn't like your first year being open Amazon or Walmart. And these ups FedEx, you guys are also to blame as well, I mean higher more people, all right, pay them a living wage. Do what you gotta do. This is absolutely insane. I had one individual, though, try to tell me that, well, you know, UPS had that plane. Terrible tragedy and thoughts and prayers to the families and that with that. But you know what, that was one UPS plane. They have a fleet to them, all right, fed Ax, what's your excuse? And there really hasn't been that much in the way of really bad storms this year or anything. In most parts of the country. It's been a pretty typical winner thus far. So what the hell is going on? Right? What is happening? I mean delays of pon delays, of pon delays. These retailers better get their act together, you know the postal ever, all of you, your shippers that are shipping this out, your retailers, these percumerant or these dispatchers and logistics people, you better get your act together because you know, one another person tried to tell me, well, Terry, you know there's more people shopping online. Blooney, Okay, blooney, I don't I don't believe that for an instant Okay, could there be a slight increase, sure, I suppose so. But again, this is your business. It's not like you're selling pizza or making you know, making cordu iyed slacks, and then all of a sudden you've got to sell other stuff and ship it. And you've never done it before. Folks, you've been doing this for decades. Most of you. Poor planning, poor execution, and probably I'm going to say the number one culprit poor staffing and poor training of your staff. So that's my rant regarding the Christmas holiday this year. But I digress. You know, you do what you have to do. But remember, folks, at the end of the day, I want you all to remember one thing, one simple thing. We the people have the power because we can vote with our dollars. You can choose who you spend money with. You can choose what these services are that you subscribe to. Okay, you have to be willing to endure a little pain. But at the end of the day, if they don't get your money, and enough of them don't, they will change their behavior and adjust because these businesses are desperate. They want your cash, just saying, and I have no problem breaking ties with a business I've been with for decades if the service level falls below acceptable and they don't do anything to change that behavior. I mean, that's just that's just common sense, right, It's just good economic sense on all levels. But anyway, I digress. So are you ready for this holiday season? Did you get all your shopping done? And hopefully most of your things that you've ordered arrive. It seems like it can sneak up on you. But you know what one thing me and the missus started doing a number of years ago is that we start, like at the end middle to the end of October, we start looking for sales and looking for you know, certain gifts. You know, oh we see that, Hey, that's a good idea for so, and we buy just in little little spurts and increments, so you know, you're not running around last minute. And how you know, there's a lot of people out there that do they got to they wait till the last minute, because what's the what's the usual defense. I'm so busy, I am so busy. That I just can't get to the store, I can't get to a computer terminal. No, you're lazy. Okay, you're lazy, and you just want to wait till the last minute, and then you get what you get. You got what you got, and you get what you get at that point, I'm sure. However, that being said, you know, if you put a little planning, a little pregame planning, as they say in the sports use a sports metaphor, you can really lessen your holiday strife and aggravation, or some might call it holiday stress by pre planning. It's a simple thing to do. It really is. Why not write? Why not do something that will help make your job or your obligations through the holiday season easier. Announce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, as they say, or he who doesn't plan is bound to have some issues. As I like to say, why not? So, I mean, just start planning for things a little bit earlier, you know, do your shopping a little earlier, make sure you got enough, you know, if you do cards, Christmas cards and things of that nature. Speaking of Christmas cards, when did people really stop sending just Christmas cards in the mail? I understand that stamps can be expensive, and if you're sending out forty fifty sixty. But that's kind of part of the holiday season, you know, me and the wife still do it. It's nice just to get that card in the mail. And we have a wall type of unit that you slide the cards into and we get you know, we and those have been dwindling every year. People just don't seem to send cards anymore. I mean, a little handwritten note, you know, happy holidays, Merry Christmas, happy Honica, what have you? The least Navidad? You know, that's nice to get in the mail. I think I think that's a true that we as Americans should bring back send out cards and little notes to people around the holidays. You know, spend the thirty cents or forty cents or I don't even know what the heck of stamp is nowadays, but it's nice to, you know, spend that little bit of money, you know, get the cards. I mean, you know what we do every year after Christmas, the wife goes out and they have the clearance with the Christmas cards and they're usually fifty sixty seventy five percent off, buy them in bulk. Then right after the holidays, absolutely you save a ton of money. Same thing with wrapping paper and bows and all that kinds of merchandise. Get it after the If you like lawn decorations and you want to put up you know, to display in the front lawn, go to the retailers after the holidays, usually within a week or two after the holidays and stuff in the new year. They got sales galore because they want to move that inventory. They don't want to sit on that in their warehouse till next year. A majority of them. And you can score some fantastic buys. Absolutely you can. So listeners, are you looking for a simple way to level up your focus and energy? Well, you know, on. This podcast, I talk a lot about health and vitality. That's why I'm excited to share some information about empower Plus. It's a functional superfood green powder from in Dear Life. It features powerful ingredients like lions main for cognition and broccoli microgreens for anti inflammatory support and it's all in one scoop. Want to try it out, well right now you can get fifteen percent off your entire order. That's right, fifteen percent off your whole order at a Dearer Life. Just visit a Dear Life dot com. That's ed E r R A l y fe dot com. Use my special code Weiss Save. That's WYCEE sa ve e. At the checkout, that's Weiss Save for fifteen percent off at a dear life dot com. Fuel your thoughts and save today. Hey, thanks for listening to the podcast. And by the way, don't forget to drop by the website Purplepitstudios dot com and check out all the other podcasts that we have to offer. Just go to Purplepitstudios dot com and find your favorite podcast there. Now, let's get back to the show. We're in his sunglasses indoors just because he wants to. Let's get back to the program. Here's your host, Terry Weiss. Welcome back to the podcast. Welcome back to White Slot's the Holiday edition. And you know we really need some hollow day music. Come on, play some play some holiday music. Will Yeah, there we go. That's that's better. Yeah that there you go. That's a lot better. It's kind of around against it's holiday music. It's a big band. Welcome back to White Slots. I'm Terry Weiss, your host the Christmas Holiday Edition twenty twenty five, and thanks so much for spending some of your valuable time today. Before the break, we were talking about, you know, nabbing those sales after the holidays, you know if. You want to. And why people don't seem to be really sending out Christmas cards anymore. I don't know is this Did I miss a memo? Is this a thing? Give me some more of that music, mister producer. This is Christmas Eve, this is holidays, all right? Whatever? Okay? Oh there we got the whole band's coming in. Oh yeah, my war Bonds. That's what I think of an I hear big band music. You know. Anyway, that shouldn't be talking about that holidays. But I welcome back to the White Thoughts. I'm Terry Weiss. Thanks so much for dropping in today. Gang. We appreciate it and hope you all are ready for the holidays and ready and raring to go. It's coming up here in just a few short days, just a few short hours away, and we are all set. You know. The wife did the cookies here over the weekend, and of course me and my studio buddy, mister Benson, our cat, we are in quality control, like I like to tell her, we're in quality control. So we get to uh, I like them when they come out of the oven. They's just a little let them cool off a little bit, but they're a little warm and you can enjoy them then with a nice glass of milk or water, what have your a cup of coffee or tea, whatever your beverage of choice is preferably something warm in a winter a winter's day or eve. But that's where I kind of got to watch the pounds here now during the holidays, because we've got Christmas here in the US, and then the week after New Year's that's when usually all the feasts are coming. So you know, by the way, just touching, you know, back a couple of programs go, I have lost quite a bit of weight. I am down to like two hundred and six pounds. I must say. I just wanted to let y'all know that. So we're very happy for that. Hey, come on, now, that deserves a little cheer something. Yeah, there we go, two hundred and six. I'm proud of myself two hundred and six man. Yeah, yeah, there you go, two hundred and six pounds. I'm very proud of that. And doing the intermitt into fat kind of thing. I don't even really call it intermittent fasting. You can listen a couple of shows back to the weste Thoughts podcast. Just go to Wesese Thoughts dot com and look it up. There's a description on each show there on the website. Another shameless plug and it's I just call it a lifestyle change. Although I have to be honest. I have to be honest, and I did break it last night last night before I recorded the podcast here for us and came into the studio today. The previous evening, I broke down and had four Christmas cookies and a glass of milk at about ten thirty in the evening. I know, I know, but you know what, that was the first time since uh what was it October? The beginning middle of October, so over a couple months that I did not break my no re eating rule after six pm. And we're going back to that, you know again. It was just one little I figured, hey, it was a special day. It was the day that Christmas cookies were baked. And I just. Was re loounging and I said, you know what, one one little thing ain't gonna hurt so and it didn't as long as we don't turn it into a nightly routine. But anyway, are you ready for the holidays? I am. Our family is. We're ready, root and rare and to go. We usually have a big shin dig every year at our home. We have the family over and it could be anywhere from thirty five to forty five people, sometimes more, and it's all family and you know, family relations. So it's our annual and we have it on Christmas Day here in the US, on the actual December twenty fifth, and it's nice. We get together for about six to eight hours, have a nice big meal, get to see everybody. We get to see the grandkids and et cetera, and the family members and the in laws, and it's just enough time to enjoy them, but not so much that it becomes like, Okay, can you go home now kind of thing. I know, that's terrible, Terry, that's terrible to say, Terry, How could you do that? It's just one of those things, know how it is with some in laws. You love them, you still love them, you wish the best for them, but you. Know, we'll see it. We'll see at the barbecue in the summer or something, or the next birthday party. No, that's I digress. But it's nice. You know, they have the holiday parties and that around the season and do all that. But let me ask you this. Okay, we're talking about Christmas, We're talking about the holiday season, and Christmas is the biggie. Do you think or do you feel that for those of us that celebrate Christmas or you know, whatever your faith may be that you celebrate, do you think that it's lost some of its luster in the past to say, five to ten years now, A lot of people say it is highly commercialized. And I do agree with that to an extent, to an extent, and let me let me explain why I make that statement. It has become high commercialized because here, especially in the United States, they start advertising around September into September. They're starting with the pre Christmas roll out. I mean, we haven't even had Halloween. Right now. When I grew up, when I grew up back in the day, we didn't celebrate yees only Clinton Bill Clinton when sorry. Back in my day, though, when when I was a little a wee lad, we didn't see advertising and really started to get into the swing of the Christmas holiday season until after Thanksgiving. And it seems like now they're pushing everything even before Thanks. It's just it's almost like a year round push to try and get your dollars and commercialize it. You know, if you don't buy this and that and the other thing, then you you just don't care about those you love. Boloney. Now, I made the statement a few moments ago that yes, I do believe Christmas has become extremely commercialized, wanting us to spend, spend, spend. Okay, However, it's if you let it affect you. What do you mean, Terry, Here's what I mean. You can be blasted with advertisements all day long. They tell you this. This says you have the choice to not participate. You have the choice to not get drawn into the group mind think, the mass mind. I don't know if you want to call it programming, the mass mind, assimilation of you gotta do this, you got to buy that, you got to spend this much money, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. You have a choice. I want you to remember one thing, my friends, and the more I gain in years, the more I'm realizing this and becoming even more attuned to my own inner being. You, Yes, you, I'm talking to you. Listen up, have a choice said everything in life, everything, because it's your life. You don't owe anybody for your life. I mean, well, with the exception of your mother and father who brought you into this world. But what I'm saying is when you become a self aware sentiment being usually within our teenage years, we start becoming more aware that hey, I can think independently. I you know, and you've here. You've heard it said in so many self help gurus or life coaches, or movies or sports metaphors, psychology, psychologists, what have you. You. It's your life and you are ultimately responsible for you. Now, yes, you can have some pretty crappy things happened to you in your life. I have, everybody does. It's called life. But at the end of. The day, at the end of the day, it's your life. So you don't have to be drawn into the constant advertising of Christmas and the guilt, the shaming, and the guilt sometimes that they do, you know, which is sad. I'm sorry to see that. I just maybe maybe it's my own nostalgic recollection, but I seem to recall Christmas being a little bit more magical when I was growing up. Even in my teens and even my twenties and thirties, it just seemed a little more magical. We were kinder to each other, and we carried that kindness not just throughout the holiday season, but it seemed to, you know, flow over into the rest of the year at least it seemed like it, okay, And I think we've lost a lot of that, especially in American society, with us being so divided and you know, I'm having a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Who did you vote for? What the hell does that have to do with eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich? You know, I mean, I'm I don't know. Maybe you can call me a conspiracy nut or something, but I just have questions. Who is really gaining from us being at each other's throats all the time and being so divisive. What entity or entities or group of people or corporation or something. Somebody's got to be benefiting from keeping us distracted by all this. Because I'll tell you something, folks, and I really do believe this, if we could all just kind of tone down everything, the rhetoric and the division and find common ground on a lot of things. We're not going to agree on everything. We're not. I get it, but I'm sure we can find a lot of common ground. Everybody wants the best for their children. Everybody wants to be healthy, happy, safe, be able to afford to live, be able to afford maybe to give their children a little better life than they had, be able to afford to li live a little better than their parents have, and help people out and just be happy. You know. I don't think anybody wakes up in the morning and says, oh, I can't wait to go through the daily grind and worry about paying my bills and worry about God if I get sick, how am I going to pay a hospital bill or whatever. Nobody gets up and looks forward to that We're all on this planet together. We're all in this together, and ultimately, ultimately, I think it's incumbent upon us, not only as Americans, but is just basic human beings that are all on this planet, traveling hundreds of thousands of miles per through space and going around the Sun every year and existing. It's ultimately up to all of us, as human beings, as spiritual beings, as entities, as souls to love one another to try and be a little kinder to one another and try and share that love and kindness. And if you have children to maybe not even maybe, I would say, I would implore you to invest in your children and instill in them these basic human qualities, because I've said it so many times on this program, My friends, we only get one ride of ours, I know, on this mortal plane. We're here, and our time here is like and it's gone. I mean, even if you lived one hundred years old, what's one hundred years in eternity. Yeah, there's gonna be good days. Yeah, there's gonna be crappy days. There might be periods of time where you have struggles to go through mental, physical, emotional, what have you? Financial, it doesn't matter. Try to learn from every experts and try to pick out the best of every experience, and along the way, try to spend some time sharing yourself and time and love with others. And I think it'll go a long way to making this planet a better place to live, and our time that we spend here, no matter how finite, it might be a better journey. Hey, thanks for listening to the program today. I truly appreciate each and every one of you out there, and remember to see a change in the world, you have to be the change in the world you want to see. It all starts with you, the person looking back at. You in the mirror every morning. Remember to be kind to yourself, be kind to others. If you want to tweet at me on Twitter, it's at Terry Weiss. Stop by the website Wife's Thoughts dot com just to make sure you spell my name right Wye Thoughts dot com, and hey, leave us a positive rating and review on your favorite podcast provider. Won't you tell your friends, tell your family, tell your pets about White's Thoughts, and I look forward to gathering yet again around the virtual campfire with you real soon. Take care.