Participant #1:
Hello. Hello, beautiful people. Hello. Hello. Welcome to December’s Coffee Talk episode. Thank you for being here, everybody. Buddy. Yeah. Thank you for joining us. Yes. And thank you to everybody who submitted their traditions, their New Year’s and the old tradition. Traditions, even. Thank you. We appreciate it. Yes. I have a lot of reading about other people’s traditions and how they celebrate the holidays. Honestly, overall, ideas are like, wow, that’s really cute. I’ll do that. Overall, I’ve been really happy in general doing this Copy Talk segment. I think it’s been really fun hearing listeners stories and getting to read them. It’s been really enjoyable for me.
Participant #1:
Yeah. And I can’t wait to do another ghost one because that was I know. We had so many ghost stories. When we do another ghost one, we’re going to have to request anybody who didn’t hear their story already resubmit because it was just too many. There’s no way I’m going to be able to find them again. And as we learned on the part two ghost story episode, I did read a second story.
Participant #1:
You just wanted to make sure that they heard it first. Are you forgiving and caring
Participant #1:
before we get started on the stories this week, first of all, I’ve got two things on this episode, okay. The day that this aired, December 17, it is my baby brother’s 30th birthday. So if you are a cutie with a booty, okay, who wants to sound a little love? Why don’t you tell my brother happy birthday on this post when it goes up, and I will show it, send it to him. His name is Austin, and he’s very handsome, and I can’t believe he’s 30. Twin. He is not my twin at all. Well, in personality, yes.
Participant #1:
He is a lot calmer than I am. He has the exact same sense of humor as me, but he’s a lot, like, quieter. But happy birthday. Happy birthday to my baby brother Austin. I love you. Happy birthday, Austin. The other thing we have to discuss is that this is our last episode of 2021. We will be back the first week of January. I think it’s the 7th, right? That sounds right. Yeah. For our first episode of season three. So thank you guys so much for being here, for listening to us, for loving us.
Participant #1:
Yes. To see what’s going to happen next year, we would very much so appreciate as a Christmas gift, as a New Year’s gift, if you haven’t already rated the podcast on Apple podcast, we would just incredibly appreciate it. And for the people who have done that, we really, really appreciate you, like, so much. It’d be really cool if we could get, like, I don’t know, like, a couple dozen more reviews before season three starts. So we start off strong. We really appreciate that, like, a lot. And again, for those of you who have done in the past, we really appreciate you. Yeah. And maybe even listen to us on Spotify. So we get up higher in the ranks next year. Little review. That’d be so much fun. Yeah, that’s a new goal. Especially now that we were on the German charts for five straight weeks. I love that for us. That was amazing. That makes so happy Maria lives to Germany. I’m going to get again.
Participant #1:
Oh, goodness. Well, that being said, Maria, would you like to read our first story? I would love to. Okay, so this one is from Jillian and they say, hi, I’m a high school teacher and every year before winter break, my school has a winter celebration. This year they gave each advisory class a winter holiday to research and to teach the rest of the school about and naturally they gave my class the winter solstice. In my research, we learned the myth of dear mother, which I totally thought was really interesting. The myth goes on that on the darkest and longest night, the woodland creatures were cold and desperate. They went to the great bear and asked if there was something that they could do to help the animals survive the dark and cold. The gray bear sent the dear mother to the south and she returned with the sun between her antlers to warm up the animals and bring an end to darkness. This is really interesting because I learned that male and female reindeer both have antlers, but the female do not shed their antlers in the fall like male deer. So only the deer mother could carry the sun in her antlers. It’s also an insight into where we get the reindeer pulling Santa slay and the connection to the first night of Yule, which is also the winter solstice being mother’s night. We’re frigga and all mothers are honored and I hope this is something that you can share on Coffee Talk episode, which we did, but I love that I’ve actually heard that before. Yeah, I love that though. Now I’m going to hyper fixate on that. For the rest of the day, I will be researching reindeer antlers. I do not know that. I had literally no idea. That’s so interesting. I did know that their antlers are like fuzzy, though. Did you know that? Yes, they are fuzzy. So cute. And I’ve seen pictures of them shedding the fur on their antlers and it looks like really gruesome. So gross. Yeah, super gross. But still very interesting. Yeah, I love that. That make a cool ass photo. Feeling inspired. I also really just like that story. It’s a really good combination of traditional ideas of the sun’s return mixed with modern Santa, if you will, and like reindeer. You know what? I do think I’ve heard this story. I might have heard it. Yes. Maybe. I don’t know. I read so much on the holidays and Christmas and where it originates and stuff like that. It’s so true.
Participant #1:
So much. How about you story is by Erin. This is kind of just more of like their tradition that they do every year. But I love it for you. We love having a fire with close friends, those who are practicing and not get together outside before the actual Christmas season hits as a little downtime. We live in Massachusetts, so normally the chilly weather is accommodating. One thing we like to practice is watching which way the wind blows the smoke. From the Ul log. If someone smokes out the entire fire, we usually say that they’re going to have the biggest blessings for the season. And we sometimes rotate around the fire so it’s more equal exposure. A little smoke show for everyone to kick off the holidays. I love that. When I was growing up, my mom used to say that smoke follows beauty. And so every single time that the smoke was chasing me, she’d be like, oh, just because you’re pretty, or like when the smoke was chasing hers or my brother, dad, or anybody. And I always just thought that was really cute. So I love the idea of instead of it being like it’s following beauty that it’s following like big blessings. Oh, I love that. So cute. I love hearing these. Me too. I think this is great. And honestly, I cannot stress enough how happy I am that we’ve added this user submitted section or not user listener submitted section to the podcast. I just think it’s wonderful. I love connecting with everybody’s stories. Okay, you’re ready for next one? Okay, so this is from Emma and they say, first of all, I love your podcast and have binged all of your episodes in the past two months and wait for every new episode to come out after finally embracing my witchy side, partly due to your podcast. Thanks. This is my first you’ll celebrating after finally considering myself a witch. And thankfully my husband is open to celebrating with me as well. A few years ago, I found a tradition where you turn off all the lights in your house on you to contemplate the previous year and the darkness of the night. Then you light one candle in the middle to represent the return of the sun. And after, my husband and I will take turns lighting our own candles and talk about our intentions for the following year. Once that is done, we turn on the lights and leave the candle burning overnight, which might be an electric replacement because Cats has always fire safety. I’m always super excited to make this a tradition I’m super excited to make this a tradition with my husband and I finally have you as a holiday to celebrate. Thanks for doing your podcast. It’s been inspiring and joy in my life. If you could choose this email or can use my first name. I love that store. Like not star, but that tradition. That’s a cute tradition. Thank you. Yeah, I know. Thank you for listening. Yeah, I’m not helping that makes me happy. Did you want to say something? Sorry? Oh, I just wanted to say that that’s kind of like what me and my family do as well is that we actually turn off all lights in the house and we just light a bunch of candles. We like so many candles that we don’t have to run the heater that night. The house because of all the candlelight. That’s really cool. Have you seen those things where people put the candle over the terracotta pot to warm up spaces? No. I’ll send you a link. It’s very interesting it’s been for people that are houseless or when Texas had that storm that knocked out all the power for people, that’s when I saw it. It was going around then because people were without power and Texas was their first big snowstorms. They didn’t know what to do. So it was like one of those survivor things. I love that. I’ve always wanted to try it. Yeah. I wonder if you put like herbs and stuff on the herbs or oils on it so it smells good. I’m going to try it. I’m going to try it tonight or tomorrow because we are actually in a snowstorm. It has snowed so far a foot since in the last 2 hours. So you can just send half of that to me. I would really like snow. I do not understand it. I only like snow. I just want it during the holidays, during winter solstice and Christmas and that’s it. Then it can go away. Like I just want a white holiday. I would appreciate it. And instead of it being like 70 or 80 and it being very green and nasty, no thanks. For me, snow is awful. I don’t like being freezing cold. I don’t like being wet. It’s actually a sensory issue for me. I don’t like the sound of feet in snow. That like crunch noise is like styrofoam to me. Absolutely despise it. And shoveling snow, the act of having to do that, honestly should be illegal. We don’t have robots for this yet. It should be illegal. Honestly making me do it. You should go to prison. So I am not a snow fan. I am not a summer fan. I am not a winter fan. I am a spring and fall girl. Okay. Gorgeous, gorgeous girls love spring and fall. Yes. Seriously, just like one week of solid winter and I’m good. And if I could have one week of solid summer, I’d be good. And as you said, fall and spring the rest of the time. Summer is good when it is not August and it is 112 degrees outside. Winter is good when it is not snowing. I love rain because I grew up in the San Francisco Bay area, right. And I lived in San Francisco forever before moving to the woods where we live now. And it was just all fog, all mist, all rain. Love that Chef’s kiss. It’s beautiful. I would do that all winter long and be the happiest girl live, but as soon as you include the snow, I’m like, get my ass, I’m a celebrity. Get me out of here. I just can’t do it. It’s not for me. Never mind. I take back spring. I don’t like spring here. I’m a moderate weather queen. Okay? I can’t in spring. All that green junk, like, it’s disgusting here. Disgusting. No, thanks. Anyways, I love it. Gorgeous. Gorgeous girls love spring and falls. Anyway, let’s move on to the next story. This one is from Julia. I am a new listener into the podcast, and when I saw that you were looking for stories about your traditions, I thought I would shoot my shot. My name is Julia and my family has been doing this one tradition since I was a kid. Every year, my aunt throws a huge Christmas Eve party at her house. It’s super old, cool, cozy house, and there’s a ton of people there every year, so just overall a good time. At the end of the night, she hands out little slips of paper and everyone writes a wish and tosses it in the fire. The idea is that it will go up in smoke and if Santa is flying by in his lay, he will catch it and bring you your wish next year. If anyone else in my family is a witch, it is 100% of my aunt. And lately I’ve been thinking about this little tradition almost as a spell or manifestation that I’ve been doing since I was a kid. And then she says, anyway, I really enjoy your podcast. I hope the tradition of mine is at least entertained you. It looks like Julia said here that Robin is beautiful, perfect and smart in every way. This is so crazy. Thank you, Julia.
Participant #1:
It’s crazy that you would say that. You definitely added that part. Oh, my goodness. Okay, you got me. She didn’t add less at times, but we all know everyone’s thinking it, so I’m just fine. True, you can’t see it, but I am brushing my bangs to the side. That is so true. I really love this bike. That is so cute. I think it’s so cute. And I love the idea of doing that because I do something really similar on an actual spell level on New Year’s Eve. And I think that that specifically is really beautiful. And I actually may be stealing it when my child gets a little bit bigger because I think that’s fun. That is so funny. I don’t know. Everyone has such cool family and tradition growing up wise. I love it. That’s like very witchy. That’s so cute. That’s literally so cute. I’m going to be doing that. I’m going to be stealing that. Thanks, Julia. Thank you, Julia. And putting it into my pocket.
Participant #1:
Are you ready for the next one? I am. Okay, so this is from Morgana, and it says good night from Brazil. I’m so wrong name. I guess I set up top, but you can call me by my witch name, Morgana. Okay, I didn’t read the rest of the sentence. I’m 24 and love your podcast. Wishing you girls a great beginning of the year. I was listening to this week’s podcast episode, and you said that there was only one submission about your tradition, so I decided to share mine, although it’s quite a recent one, so since I was a kid, my whole family used to join in by my aunt’s house. It was so magical. Of course, I was a child hungry for a good feast and presents. Her apartment was really big, and the decorations reminded me so much of more American Christmas time. A big tree, lots of decorations, and more togetherness vibe ever since you passed about ten years ago. This time of year was never the same for the family, so we stopped gathering around every year. It just wasn’t the same without her, the glue that held us altogether. But now, after living with my husband for four years, we started regaining that yell and Christmas vibe. We live very far from our family, so we call them and spend hours hanging out and talking. The Internet helps to bring us closer, and we all play games, feast, and have fun. I learned that even though it is not the same as what it was when I was a kid, I’m still really happy and learning to continue this tradition to bring the family close when we’re so far away physically. Thank you so much for all the laughs. In the effort to bring episodes to us public, we have a great final weeks of this year and an amazing beginning of 2022, full of happiness, health and positivity. Oh, I love that. Me too. I really like these stories, guys. They are so heartwarming. Which is why I am very excited to read this next one, because this one, the subject line says, the uncle who mysteriously disappeared. I didn’t see that one. Oh, yes. I would like to be very transparent before I read this one. I purposely have not read this one yet. Okay. I’ve tried to read them before. I read them out loud here. Right. That makes one of us. I have not read this one out to myself yet because I want to be surprised with what happens. The subject line pulled me in. IDA, thank you for sending this. Find out what happened. Yeah, I’m really excited. I was saving this one for last because I really want to read it. Okay. Hi, Maria and Robin. I have a funny story I want to share from Christmas Eve. Feel free to change it to New Year’s Eve or just leave the story out if it doesn’t fit the theme. Well, guess what, IDA, I am excited to read this one. It was Christmas Eve. We were expecting my grandma and two of my uncles for dinner. They were all driving together through the forest up the snowy road to our house. It was dark and freezing outside. The road was steep and slippery, so they had some trouble driving up. When they finally arrived, it was only my grandma and my Uncle M. They came in all worried and bewildered because somehow my Uncle Anne had mysteriously disappeared on the way even though he was sitting in the back of the car. It was some chaotic and confusing moments while we were all trying to make sense of this. He was nowhere to be seen, and I believe his phone and jacket were still in the car. After a while, somebody finally knocked on the door. It was my Uncle Anne, all cold and covered in snow. Turns out that when they struggled to get the car off the road, uncle N had jumped out of the car to push it, and they had not noticed. They accidentally left him on the road,
Participant #1:
ripped away to our house. I’m so glad that I saved this. I’m so glad I didn’t preread this.
Participant #1:
Could you imagine, like, taking your uncle’s probably been abducted by aliens from the backseat. No lie. The funniest thing I’ve read in weeks. That’s so good. Thank you for that very much. So IDA, that is fucking incredible. I will be thinking about that all day. Have to walk far. Could you imagine having to walk, like, 5 miles? He said that the coat and jacket or whatever, his phone and jacket were still in the car. So, like, he didn’t even have a jacket. He had nothing. That’s really funny. I am so glad I waited to read. As soon as I saw the headline of that one, I was like, I am calling dibs mentally on this, and I will not be pre reading this in any capacity. So that was a good story. I like that. That was so good. Thank you for that. Well, I believe that’s all of our stories now. Yeah. Thank you guys. I think so. Thank you guys for submitting. Wait, we have one more. We didn’t do grace right. Yeah, we did. No, we didn’t. We did. You’re right. Okay, good. Not brain fog or anything like that. We have not okay. With mom brains today. Two women with ball brains just desperately trying to scrape by. I really should have had, like, a second cup of coffee before coming up on here, but here we are anyway. You ready? Yeah. Grace, my witchy mother has done this tradition for as long as I remember because yule is also the winter solstice. This was a good way for my family to teach me and my brother about the patterns of the sun and whatnot. My mom would turn off all the lights in the house as my brother, dad and I would gather in the living room. Once she returned and the house was completely dark, it was nighttime and we were always excited to stay up. We would sit in silence and my mom would prompt us to think about what we were saying goodbye to after this year had ended. Once we were done, my mom would light up the Eulog or some other candles sitting in the middle of our circle and we would talk about our hopes and expectations for the new year and things we are grateful for. Then my brother and I would race around the house and turn on all the lights and my mom would burn incense. As a 21 year old in college, I still love this tradition every time I come home for the holidays and I think it’s a great way to practice mindfulness with children without it seeming forced. I remember taking it really seriously as a kid and now I’m on my own path and I’m so happy. My mom taught this at such a young age. Happy holidays. And I really love the show. Love Grace. I love that. Really cute. I like the part where they go and race and turn on all the lights after they have their little moment together. I really like that. I got to say, with everybody’s stories, but this is a really good example of it. I really like how many of you guys have parents growing up that made sure that your wishes or dreams were something that you got to talk about. I think a lot of people I think it’s fair to say a lot of people are lacking that, unfortunately. And it’s really refreshing to hear these really sweet stories where your parents made a space for you to talk about your goals and your hopes and your dreams and I think that’s really nice. I love it. It’s so heartwarming. I think I’m going to do that with my Witchling. That’s really cool. I am 1000% stealing the wishes and the fire thing, without a doubt. I think that’s the cutest thing I’ve ever heard in my entire life. Twelve out of ten, everybody love it. I love the imagery of Santa coming and getting the message out of the smoke. Me too.
Participant #1:
Thank you so much, guys. I appreciate all of you and we are excited and happy to see you in the new year with season three. Truly. Like, I know that Marie and I said this a bunch of times, but especially with the season ending and a new season starting, we really appreciate you guys a lot. I’m going to speak for both of us here and I know that I can do that. The podcast has become something that’s become really important to both of us in more ways than one. And I just want to take a moment to thank everybody who is here with us and sits with us every week and listens to us fumble over our words and have insane UPG conversations and just get absolutely cackling, which is for those of you who tolerate the supreme jokes and just all of our shit posting we do on here. I really appreciate it. Maria really appreciates it. I know she does. Oh, yeah. Especially I have such a hard problem, like, speaking because of all my health stuff. So I appreciate anyone who takes the time to actually listen to me and knowing that so many of you actually stay and take the time to listen to me, to try to understand me. Like, I appreciate that more than I can ever express. Yeah, we got a lot of gratitude over here. Over here at Coffee and Cauldrons. We have a lot of exciting things that we have tentatively planned for next year, and I’m excited to see where that goes. I’m just happy to have you all along for the ride. So thank you. We hope everyone has an amazing holiday. However you celebrate, please be safe. Don’t drink and drive. Don’t bring your houses down. Remember, if you don’t have anybody to celebrate the holidays with, we will gladly take you in as our children. We love you very much. And even if your family sucks, we are your new mothers now. We love you and we’re proud of you. Yes. You’re just too cool for everybody. Like, screw everything. It’s honestly on them. It’s really sad. Let’s pity them.
Participant #1:
Bye, everybody. Bye.