I’m like halfway through the ep - just getting to the spicy candy bit.
@Cody - have you/your girls found tajin covered candy? Costco has a big ol pack of tajin covered gummy bears that are real good. I know the local Mexican grocery by us has tagin covered everything
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The Booth is becoming one of my favorite pods. Love the rapport you guys have developed.
Had to comment about the trains. I have my Lionel sets given to me by my uncle. We set them up around the tree every year growing up. I have continued the tradition with my kids and grandkids. I get a little carried away some years but the kids love them.
Keep up the great work and Congrats Neil!
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@Cody thinking about your mouth stimulation situation, you may want to try Vicks Vapocool Severe menthol cough drops. They work fabulously for intended usage, but I find myself popping them when I need a pick-me-up as well.
Very begrudgingly a current member of team fake tree. We were a real tree family my whole life. I think one year we all went to a farm to pick up the tree, but most years, my dad would just do the same thing as The Franchise and hit a lot somewhere.
My parents switched to a fake tree once my siblings and I were all out of the house. I remember driving the 7 hours from Wilmington, DE to Erie, PA circa 2008 and coming in the door late Christmas Eve to a fake tree. I was shook then pissed. I loved being a real tree house.
Fast forward to today, and with a three-year-old at home the fake tree just is way more convenient. As soon as my daughter is old enough and understands not to mess with the tree, we will be going to a real tree. Just thinking about the smell of a real tree gets me excited for Christmas.
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Always grew up with a real tree. Family made the switch about five years ago to fake. I definite miss having a real tree and the smell of pine needles but fake is so convenient. It’s also nice to be able to have it up longer without worrying about it dying. I’d like to go back to a real tree at some point but enjoying artificial for now.
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Here is where I insert the Whynotboth.gif
We have a fake tree for the living room. I somehow ended up with all the white lace ornaments my grandmother hand-sewed, so we put those on the fake tree with white lights, pearls and set it up where you can see from the street to try and trick the neighbors into thinking we fancy. That will probably go up this weekend.
Then we get a real tree for the family room where we hang multi-colored lights and all the ornaments my son makes at school, my sports-themed ornaments from my single days and ornaments my wife and I collected on our trips. We’ll get that tree about 10 days before Christmas to make sure it makes it to the new year. If we were forced to downsize into only doing 1 tree, this would be the one I would pick.
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@cody I’m with you on hot tamales. One of my favorite candies. I’m really a sucker for any kind of jelly candy, like those, Mike and Ike, jelly bellies, etc. The thing I do love about hot tamales is that I usually can’t do a whole box at a time because my stomach will get a little upset before I get that far, so it helps keep me from overindulging. Along those lines, when I quit dipping, I used breath mints a lot to help with the oral fixation stuff. Specially, the cinnamon altoids. They’re harder to find now, but they’re pretty spicy, and healthier than the candy, so maybe give those a try
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We buy a real tree every year the first weekend in December and have it up until the 29th or 30th. Last fine, always.
Would you have it up longer than that?
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I know it is all you know, but that thought of having Christmas in Summer plays with my mind.
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If it’s real then likely not. Our fake tree went up the weekend of Thanksgiving and will likely be up till early-mid January/whenever we eventually are over it.
Team real tree. Have always made a fun day out of going out to saw one down. Growing up was a competition to see who found the best tree with siblings. Place we go has fun shed with cookies, cider, homemade gifts. Great memories outweigh needles, watering, etc. @MerchCzar we also do vacation ornaments and ya gotta get a big dangly ornament for those gaps. My wife also had 0 ornaments while I had dozens, St Nick day gift we would get each year. Love playing the holiday oldies and decorating. Wife does have some village action going on as well. We grew up Griswoldey so exterior illumination is my jam. I’ll agree with @Tron inflatables stink but colorful lights beat white or blue.
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@Sweet_Cupn_Cake I love all of this but is that an old TV turned into a bar?? I NEED to have one of those!!
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It is. Made it myself too for wife about 8 years ago as a bday gift. Im sittin on another one (not same tv but another old one) in the garage I havent touched yet too.
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Team real tree with soft white lights, from the local Garden store. It’s small (just shy of 6’) but it’s plenty for my wife and I.
It just makes the room feel so warm and cozy
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It never felt right my whole childhood.
All the songs don’t make sense.
Christmas lights are only visible after the time that kids have gone to bed.
Prawns and oysters and cold meats are not “Christmas food”.
I’ve had a couple of cold Christmases in the UK and it’s just better in every way.
Though there is a good Aussie Christmas song celebrating the way we spend the season and the distance we are from the world and so many of our family and friends etc.
The first half is hilarious and then the second half makes me cry every time:
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Closest I’ve been to a “summer” Christmas is Singapore or the Dominican Republic right up to the holiday. But I play this song every Christmas Eve. One of my favs and I’ve never even been to Australia.
My other must play that night is Christmas In Hollis by Run DMC.
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Yup, full agree on this (apart from maybe the prawns bit as they are elite), as does my American wife who struggles a bit with the hot summer Christmas.
One other thing about real trees here. We have done it a few times here, and the process of finding & cutting it down, etc is fun, as is the smell of it whilst it lasts. What’s not ideal is when all the fucking spiders, moths & other various creepy crawlies that have taken up residence in it decide to come out when you have it in your lounge room 
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I have that for travel because i have two teenage boys and just by way of preparation for others, it is way huger than it looks in pics.