Traditions: Then and Now with Sabina Wallace

This podcast was transcribed using Descript. Please forgive any typos or errors.

Brittany: Hi friends. Welcome to Life with Loverly. I'm your host, Brittany Sjogren. I'm excited to share my heart with you beyond the 15 seconds we get on Instagram. Grab an iced coffee and let's do life together. 

Hello hello. How are you guys? Happy Tuesday. We are coming off of a fun-filled week. Chris keeps joking or he was joking last week that I was doing a mom adventure week and that he was on dad duty solo. With the holidays here, I feel like there's always events happening and last week kicked off so many things that we had going on. Wednesday night, I had an ornament exchange with some girlfriends, which was so much fun. And then Thursday, I went to Atlanta to hang out with a friend of mine who was in Atlanta from out of town. And then we had a birthday party on Friday night, and then Sunday, we did lunch with Santa and then I had a fun little girls white elephant exchange, which was so much fun. I'm coming off of a very festive week and I feel like that's just part of the holidays and you get this rush, it's busy, but you're having so much fun doing it that you don't realize how much is going on. I feel like after the holidays, that's when people crash and I can totally see why after how busy my week was last week, but it was so much fun. 

I'm excited for today's episode. I have a special guest for you guys. Somebody that y'all have been requesting like crazy ever since I started the podcast. I've brought my mama on today to talk about some holiday traditions and some things that we did when I was a kid and as we're making new traditions with the girls and other family members, I thought it would be fun to have her on. So hi mom. 

Sabina: Hey sweetie. 

Brittany: how are you?

Sabina: I am great. Thanks. 

Brittany: I'm so happy that you're here today. Who would've thought that you would be on a podcast? Who would've thought I would have a podcast? 

Sabina: That's so exciting. And I'm glad to be here.

Brittany: I think it's funny because you were one person I feel like when podcasts started to become a thing, you were like, so I'm listening to this podcast. That was something you always did even before I really listened to podcasts. When we sit down and really think about it, this is so wild. 

Sabina: Wow. Yes, it's awesome. I know. 

Brittany: So for those of you guys who don't know my mom, or maybe you're not familiar with her on Instagram, I figured that maybe you could tell us a little bit about your background. Where you're from, what brought you to Georgia, anything that you would like the podcast fam to know, we'd love to hear a little bit about.

Sabina: Okay. I grew up in Canada and was there for 18 years. When we talk about Christmas and Christmas traditions the snow is always such a big part of that. We did so many activities all around Christmas and in the winter. Skating and skiing and building snowmen and having a skating rink in the backyard, all those kind of things. It was really fun and festive. It was great. I came to Georgia when I was 19 years old. I came down here to run track at the University of Georgia and just never left. Met your dad here. He was on the tennis team, of course.

Brittany: Didn't you guys meet in chemistry class? 

Sabina: Oh, we did meet in chemistry class. It was fun. We didn't learn a lot of chemistry that we eventually did. But it was a lot of fun and we dated all through college and then married and of course stayed in Athens because that's when dad got the job as the women's tennis coach, so we've been here ever since. 

Brittany: It's so crazy to be back in Athens. So for those of you that don't know, I grew up in Athens, obviously we lived here and then I moved away. Moved to Atlanta after college and then just last year, moved back to Athens. I always knew growing up here that I wanted to end up back here because it is such a great town. So I totally see why you've never left. 

Sabina: We thought it was a great place to raise a family. We're excited that you guys are here, both you and Jared, and that you're raising your family here, because it's a great small town vibe.

Brittany: That's great. And you were a teacher?

Sabina: Yes, I was. After I finished college then I taught health and PE for about six years and then went back and got my early childhood and went into the classroom. I taught kindergarten through fourth grade, never taught fifth grade, but had a piece of a number of grades. Predominantly I taught fourth grade I really like that. And then did a little bit of other grades as well. So yeah. 

Brittany: I always thought it was so cool that you were a teacher. You were teaching around the grades where I was or a year or two behind, but you always knew what we were talking about. Even though it was different schools, I just always remember this is cool. I have my own teacher at home and I always wanted to be a teacher because my mom was a teacher. So that's what I want to be. Didn't work out that way. Here we are.

Sabina: That's okay. You've done wonders. 

Brittany: So you started talking about being in Canada and the snow and all the things that, you would assume a Canadian winter would be. But in Georgia it's quite the opposite. We don't really get snow like that. How is that like different from your childhood compared to my childhood. 

Sabina: Wow. I just feel like in the winter, you wouldn't think we had a lot to do, but we did have so much to do. It was very cold up there, but we knew how to dress for it. We had layers and layers of clothes on and and so we did a lot of outdoor activities and we we skated and skied and went tobogganing all the time. It was just very busy and and we spent a lot of time just getting warm after being freezing cold we'd come in, then my mom would have hot chocolate for us and, we'd have to sit on the floor and put our feet right up against the radiator because that's where our feet would thaw out after being frozen and our hands. It was just a lot of fun. We had a lot of fun doing a lot of fun things. For you guys, everything that we did was more outdoors and we got real excited. If we did get any snow we would be running out and I would bundle you guys up and take you out and we'd try to make a snowman and do those kinds of things. But it was really different.

Brittany: I remember that one picture, I was probably one or two and I'm like bundled up in that, snowsuit and you, and I guess dad took a picture of us coming down a hill on a trash can lid or something. I'm just so bundled, like Michelin man style couldn't even move.

Sabina: And I think that part of that had to do with me. To this day is when it gets cold out, I'm like, okay, the winter's here. We've gotta just bundle up, like we're in Canada. And so, I felt like I always would send you guys to school with an extra coat or extra layers and your gloves and your hat and your mits and everything, because you needed to be warm. Even when I taught, I would really bundle up my children before we went outside in the wintertime, because it was just cold. 

Brittany: You appreciate the being so bundled up, whereas I feel like down here sometimes I'm like, oh, I'll be fine. It's 30 degrees. I'll just make it to my car without a jacket. But really it's freezing and you are always like, no get your coat on. 

Sabina: Just take it with you. You'll just have it with you. 

Brittany: It's such a mom say that's so funny. So you have siblings and is there anything that your mom and dad did with you guys at Christmas that you passed on and to our family?

Sabina: I would have to say that a lot of the same food we eat at Christmas , I tried to do the same thing that grandma did make. Then I guess Christmas Eve, we would all be together and we would go to church and just do Christmas Eve mass there and then come home, open a gift And so that's one of the things I think that we got, doing opening a gift Christmas Eve for us as you guys were growing up and then in the morning we would, let you have the rest of your gifts. But I think we just. Some of those things and just tried to spend as much time together.

I remember because my parents both worked full time jobs, but right around Christmas was a time that we spent with our families and that was our time together. That was just we would go out sledding together. I remember dad and mom being with us and actually going sledding with us.

 And so it's just a great time for family and I think. Usually around Christmas was time that I was able to spend because I was a teacher at home with you guys. And dad usually had those couple of weeks off as well. So I feel that during that Christmas time, we really did have a lot of time to spend together and do Christmas festivities go and see lights.

We would always ride around and see lights up in Canada. I remember that we would. Go nightly and just go for rides in the car. And, probably because it was so freezing out but around here too, I was really worried about that. When I got down here, I was thinking, are there, is it going to be the same?

Are they want to have lights? And to my surprise, everybody just lights out here as well, too. So it was something that we did with y'all. 

Brittany: I feel like that spending time with family is what I really remember. when people say oh, what's like your holiday tradition. I feel like. Just being together as a family.

And it sounds like that's what you guys really did or that's when like you said, your parents had off that time. So that was like core time to be together and make memories with your family and just enjoy. The Christmas spirit. And that's, I remember us, let's watch a Christmas movie together tonight.

Sabina: Christmas movies were huge. It was like, we couldn't get enough Christmas movies and everybody would get so excited about putting their jammies on and getting on the couch and, just cozying enough and Christmas movies were always. Just so happy and yeah, so it was all, it was a lot of fun.

Brittany: I can't wait for the girls to appreciate the Christmas movie, two and one. They're not quite there yet. But I feel like that's something that we'll be able to bring back out. And some of those like older classic movies that we always watched when we were a kid I think that would be so fun to do that with them.

Exactly. So you mentioned the opening one gift on. Christmas Eve. And that was always one of my favorite things, because I, I love like gifts and

Sabina: you were the worst I used to have to hide so much from you because you wanted to know everything and where everything was. What's in here. I'm not telling you what's in there.

Brittany: So I remember I used to be like, can you. Tell me what's in it. I don't have to take it, but I can just know that it's coming right. Such a planner. No, we don't do that. So I know. So I was least giving the one gift on Christmas Eve like fed into my exactly. She's want to burst if she, we better give her one, but that was always fun.

 And then, waiting and doing like all the Christmas presents the next morning and then would we do, I can't remember, did we do stockings first or would we do stockings last? 

Sabina: Gosh. I can't remember. I feel like we did a little of both. I feel like some years we did it first and then other years we did it last and I think we just went off what you guys wanted, yeah. We it didn't really matter too much to dad and I, and it was like do you guys want your stockings first? Or do you want to open your gifts and right. Get. Get together and decide what you wanted and we would do it. So it was fun. 

Brittany: So funny. It's so crazy to think. Like I was telling the girls last week that I remember so much of our Christmases growing up, dad would record the whole like Christmas experience. And then we would watch it years later. Yes. What was that like on like your side of it?

Sabina: It was funny because dad was really serious about recording everything and so he would even set up the tripod, put that. and back then it was like huge camera. 

Brittany: Something you would see from like a TV station, anchor camera situation, 

Sabina: carrying it on your shoulder. Because he didn't want to walk around. Although he did if we went outside, then the camera came out on his shoulder, but for the most part, it sat on a tripod.

Filming the whole morning, so it was really boring at times because, we're just walking around and this oh, okay. Let's open another present. Yeah. So it was it was of funny, but 

Brittany: I feel like some of those videos remind me of Collins now because. I think back to times where I would be like, oh wow, look at this. And that's Collins does that now does. And she'll be like, wow, look at it's the like surprise, but the way she says it,

Sabina: it's almost like you're just supposed to say it. 

Brittany: That's so funny. That's what she's been saying lately.

She'll. That's so funny, but like not laughing. Okay. I don't, 

Sabina: what does she mean by that? Yeah. 

Brittany: Yeah. So I wonder how many other families out there have. had the same, like dad videotaping all of this, but he always did. He was videotaping like our first day of school. Oh yeah. Like I there's one video where he's okay, Brittany, how do you spell your name?

Let's work on spelling your name to go to kindergarten or whatever year it was. And I'm just like, Not even interested. And he's like, like,

Sabina: and I'm running around behind, like just trying to get you guys in the car. I'm like, excuse me. Get underneath. 

Brittany: And definitely like the difference it's so funny. Cause you would be like getting lunches and stuff and dad's just, okay. 

Sabina: Take your lunch and go out the door. Yeah, I'll be right behind you. 

Brittany: it's so funny. So obviously the girls are here. We're all here. Like our whole family is here now. What kind of traditions do you want to start with? Like the girls and then Levi?

So Levi is my nephew, so my mom's other grandchild and. Collins Levi and Hazel are all in between each of us. It's 10 months in between like Collins to Levi to Hazel so they're all very close in age . But what kind of traditions do you see us starting or what are things like as a grandmother that you want to start with them to start something.

Sabina: The one thing I really want to do is of course, bake cookies and do all those fun baking kind of things or gingerbread houses or whatever. I think that'll be fun to do. The other thing I think that's really important is just helping them to learn what the. True meaning of Christmas is and when you guys were little, we would always, dad would read the Christmas story Christmas morning and, we didn't do it every year because as you guys got a little bit older we changed up a little bit.

But we would. Bake a cake and make a cake for baby Jesus, because it was his birthday. And I think that would be a fun thing to do. I think Collins is really into birthdays right now. So I think it'll be fun to somehow incorporate that in this year. And I think you've already started doing that.

Brittany: Yeah, it's funny because after church on Sunday, they gave all the kids this little silicone star, like baking pan and in it, it said, Jesus' birthday is on Christmas day, bake a cake with your. Kids and tell them like the true meaning of Christmas and then, sing happy birthday to Jesus And so at this point she could care less about Christmas. Collins is all about going to Jesus's birthday party. 

Sabina: so we need to play that out. That'll be awesome. That'll be really cool. Yeah. 

Brittany: To the point, we wrapped up some presents for the girls and had them under the tree and she got home from school that day and she was like, are these for Jesus' birthday party?

Yeah. So she's not even it's just so funny to see the way that their little minds work, but she's so into birthdays. And so we've told her we're want to do a cake and so I think that'll. Really fun, but I always remembered us like at our old house. Yeah. Baking like a big sheet cake Uhhuh and yep.

Blowing out candles, singing happy birthday. Blowing out candles. So I think that'll be a fun tradition and carry on 

Sabina: I think so too. I think it opens up a lot of doors just for why we give gifts to other friends and other people we'll be able.

I think by doing that, I felt like it's just easy to carry into as you get a little bit older to understand, it's not only us celebrating Jesus' birthday, giving to people who do so much for us all year round or just,

Brittany: you guys like always led into that very easily. And then even I remember we. Would do like we would adopt a family or do the the shoe boxes. 

Sabina: Yep. We'd go shopping. Was that operation Christmas child. 

Brittany: Yep. So fun. Like things like that, that it was always so fun for us to go shopping. For the family that we adopted.

 And get the other kids toys based off of what we were wanting and right. I think they're really going to like this. Like I just vividly remembered Jared and I being like, we should get them this, or they need like socks. Like what about these socks? 

Sabina: And we usually try to adopt a family or get a family.

Had kids the same age as you guys so that you guys could even understand it too. Oh my gosh, we're shopping for this other family. We're want to, yeah. These kids are want to op and of course I would be like, you guys are, they're want to open these gifts on Christmas day and they're want to be so happy.

And yeah. So you guys really enjoy doing that.

Brittany: I think that will be fun to, because while baking cookies and having gingerbread decorating and different traditions like that is great. I also want to instill traditions that are want to. Be life skills. Absolutely. If that makes sense.

Absolutely. And help them in other times all year round, not just in the month of December, in the season of giving know. So I feel like some of these things can really get those other balls rolling.

Sabina: I think so too. I think I think that's a good thing for sure. 

Brittany: I guess what would be some advice that you could give our listeners around Christmas?

It's so there's so much like hustle and bustle, but as a mom, like now as a grandma how do you feel like you stayed grounded during this holiday season where you can get easily overwhelmed? 

Sabina: Absolutely. I love the idea that they've, right around the Christmas holidays, they've got so many activities to do.

There's parades, there's lights, there's, all these skating. Yes. All these things to do. And it's really wonderful to have all that, but I. Again, I think one of the most important things that we tried to do and I feel like my parents did it too, is we did those things, but we tried to remember that us spending time together and not being so rushed was really important because That was when we laughed the most.

That's when we had fun. That's when we did silly things, instead of maybe, okay, we gotta go here. Okay. We gotta go there. Okay. We're done that. Now let's go do this. And, and everybody's tired and exhausted and just want to put their pajamas on and, watch a movie or something. So I think, just trying to remember that just having time to be with your family and treasure that time spent together. Is a great thing. 

Brittany: And I think too, like spending like time being intentional with. Those ones that you love and , and even like in gift giving, like it doesn't, you don't have to give so many presents and if what you are giving has like good intentions behind it.

, that's one thing I feel like I talk about a lot, just, on Loverly Grey right now, we're sharing a lot of gift guides and a lot of ideas. And. I feel like I'm constantly reminding people learn a little bit about what the person who, the person you're gifting, what do they really like?

I can tell you like 10 things to gift your mother-in-law, but you have to take a little bit of time to be like she really does this, or yeah. What are some things she's been thinking about and even getting to know people again I feel like exactly.

I don't know. Yeah.

Sabina: I think that's a really good idea too. I think another good thing to do with with kids maybe around Christmas And I feel like we did this a couple of times, we have, we all tend to have a lot of toys. Kids tend to accumulate a lot of toys or a lot of things. And so it's also a great time because if you've got a little bit of time and you can spend with your kids, Going through some of your, some of their things, that there's a whole bunch of other toys getting ready to come in or other things.

And so maybe going through and saying, why don't we go through some toys and, take it to the Goodwill or take it. And you can go through a whole learning experience at that point, just saying, we're want to be able to give, we're want to give some of our toys away to other kids. 

Brittany: I love that. We saw a picture the other day that had a sign on a Christmas tree, we might even have mentioned this in the podcast the other day. because I think as like new moms, a lot of us are okay, our kids have so much stuff. Which we're very like thankful for. But how can we like teach them to . You know that it's not just about gifts and that, we need to share with others. But there was this they had a Tupperware that was right next to the Christmas tree and a sign on the tree that said before you get new gifts for Christmas please go through and take some of your toys that you're not playing with anymore. 

Sabina: Great.

Brittany: Put them in this tupperwear. Yeah. And we're going to give these to kids in need. I just thought that was so cool. And obviously you don't have to do it that like boldly, however works best for your family. But I think putting the idea of you don't just keep getting, like receiving, it's always good to give need to give. So something like that, I feel like would be a fun thing to do with the girls. 

Sabina: Yeah, I think so, too. It's all put everything into perspective. It really makes a difference.

Brittany: So true. So speaking of gifts, do you remember like a gift that you gave to Jared or myself that you felt like this was like your favorite gift that we ever gave you?

Sabina: Oh boy, let me see. I think for you, it was Barbie things. Because you were in the Barbie stuff. And so we gave you that Barbie camper, that one year and all those things.

Brittany: I remember had like a Barbie doll house that I thought was just like, the like most awesome thing ever. 

Sabina: Where you had everything right there. And then of course, Barbie had all these clothes. Of course. 

Brittany: Wow. This is really a, this is where it all came from.

I feel like Jared, the thing I remember that he like loved the most was the drum set.

Sabina: Oh yeah. 

Brittany: An actual, like legit drummer, set. Which I think maybe you guys were like, huh, we didn't think this one through. And he's like playing the drum set like all hours of day.

Sabina: Well, We did put it down in the basement though. So he, we didn't leave it upstairs. We did have it down in the basement. So it was like, okay, now go downstairs. You've got something down there.

Brittany: It's actually funny. Where we live now, my next door neighbor, I guess one of the rooms on their house that's like facing our house. Somebody who lives there plays the drums . And so there's times when it's just like a Sunday afternoon and they're just like drumming away and I'm sitting in our house and I'm like, what is that? And I'm like, it's so crazy that I can hear and it's not very loud.

Yeah. But it always reminds me of Jared's drum set that he got for Christmas. Yeah. 

Sabina: Yeah. I'm sure Ben next door could hear it all that Christmas.

Brittany: I know. Another tradition that I feel like we haven't touched on yet. And this is something I think we did when we got a little bit older. Was you and I always did the stockings.

Sabina: Loved it. That was so much fun because we would wait on purpose. We would wait until Christmas Eve. That was so the very last day of shopping when everybody's going crazy, we. Let's go do Christmas stockings.

Brittany: Yeah. That was always like you and me. I feel like that kind of started maybe in high school. Maybe a little before, but I think I vividly remember. And loved it.

Sabina: Cause I needed help cause like dad and Jared, they were like, oh, it's Christmas, stockings, whatever, and I'm like, look, I need some help here. So come help me do this.

Brittany: And I always thought it was like fun.

Sabina: You were very good at it. 

Brittany: Yeah. And maybe that's where my, I love like putting gift ideas together. And I think that's one place, I was able to really thrive cause we would, so you and I would do each other's stocking. But then we would like together do the boys.

Sabina: Right. 

Brittany: Because you and I, at that point, like we wanted like similar things. And the stockings were, we were going to like target and, getting little things. Yeah. And maybe we got like a gift card, something else but it was always like lip glosses. Or nail Polish or like small, yeah. Little fun things that were practical. But it was always fun to be like, Ooh, this is a cool thing. 

Sabina: And it was really fun to see. Just different people. I loved watching people that day. Because, there were total, there were people that were totally just crazy panicked. Oh my gosh. Panicked and crazed. Oh my gosh. I have no more time. I have two hours left and then all the stores are going to close. 

Brittany: I feel like a lot of like guys it was like last minute oh no, I didn't get anything. Like now I'm doing Christmas shopping for the first time. That was always like something really fun. I think back on and I can't wait to do with the girls. Maybe we should even go do it again this year. 

Sabina: That would be really fun. I would love to.

Brittany: Another thing we were always in like a Christmas play. For several years in Athens, there was this thing called the singing Christmas tree.

Sabina: Yes. It was awesome.

Brittany: That our church put on. And it was like four days of three shows a day. 

Sabina: Yeah. So it was intense. It was quite a production and they did amazing Christmas. I don't know. It was just the festivities around it. There were so many people involved. Yeah. But everything just ran so smoothly and they'd done it. I think for 25 or 30 years.

Brittany: I think a long time, but it was like a play , but there was a lot of Christmas music. And then, but it was telling like the story of Jesus' birth and leading up to that. But I just remember like walking down the middle of the aisle with all of the props. 

Sabina: And everybody made the props. So there were people that were involved, like the singing Christmas tree was actually made of people in the choir. So it was a, in the shape of a tree in the shape of a tree. And the choir was standing. All the way up in the tree.

Brittany: It was like each person was an ornament. 

Sabina: We had certain bib that you had to wear around and you had certain things that you had to wear and yeah. But it was awesome. So it was something that families really did partake in the whole part. Some people sang, some people were in the play. Some people did props. 

Brittany: There was like multiple roles too, like for the whole family. 

Sabina: It was really good. And it was the thing that was great too. Is there was no admission, like you, just had to get a ticket. So if you got the ticket, the tickets were free, but they needed to do that in order to, make sure they had enough space, but it was a gift to the city of Athens and anybody in the surrounding areas. It was, yeah, it was pretty cool.

Brittany: It was really fun. But that was also I feel like for a few years that we like participated in it and were actually like part of the play . That was crazy. The like the practice leading up to it. I think it was always like the weekend before Christmas or two weekends seemed like before. Then afterwards it was like, okay. Wow. We've just been so busy then it was like time to relax and rest before like actual Christmas festivities started. 

Sabina: Those years that we did it, I think. I probably tried to plan a lot of our stuff, getting things done before that. And then, like you said, there was a little bit of time left before Christmas and new year's where you could really enjoy family again. 

Brittany: Yeah, but that was always so fun.

Sabina: It was excellent. 

Brittany: Then I feel like we later started doing Christmas pajamas I guess I just don't really remember if we did that like younger or I don't know if it was really a thing. 

Sabina: I don't think it was a thing, but I think as soon as it started becoming a thing,

Brittany: That's when we started.

Sabina: Yeah. We jumped on board. We were like, yeah. Pajamas matching. 

Brittany: In some years we would do, it wasn't necessarily like a Christmas themed pajama. It was just like a matching like two of the same. But not necessarily Christmas trees. It might be like pink hearts or something, whatever was available. Whereas now it's your whole family is in one print and like this family is in like a different one, but it's coordinating, it's so much bigger and more intense than what it used to be, but, and it started out with just you and I matching, because the guys didn't really care. Then I remember that year we put all the guys in the onesies.

Sabina: Yes, Yes. I remember. 

Brittany: And Chris was like, I'm not wearing the onesie. And I was like for the photo yes you are. 

Sabina: Of course you are. Yeah, we had some great pictures. That was fun.

Brittany: They were like, what is this? Yeah, I love the Christmas pajamas. I love like just those cozy.

Sabina: I love when we got one for Leah. As soon as Leah came into the family, then there was like three girls.

Brittany: I remember one year we did Christmas with Chris's family. And I took a pair of the matching pajamas that we had up to his mom. And so on Christmas morning, like she and I were matching. She thought that was really special too, because she doesn't have any daughters. So it was like nice to be included in like my tradition. I don't know, I think that was one of the first times I realized, Chris and his family have traditions. We have traditions, like how are we want to cross them? They always made cinnamon rolls before they open presents. And so now, even if we're not all together with them, we always do like cinnamon rolls. I feel like sometimes we eat them. Sometimes it's like a formality, Chris is yeah, hold on. I'm like, I don't want to eat that yet, but I want to' still make it right. Which I love cinnamon roll. So I'm always like, okay, I'll eat yours. Pass it over here. 

Sabina: I remember Christmas morning, too. With you guys, I'm sure you remember this, but it was like, okay, getting mom and dad up and waking you up and everything like this and you'd get us up. And we're like, we're not doing anything until we get our coffee. So you can just look at the gifts, don't touch them. You can just look and think about which one you're going to open first. But dad and I are getting coffee first 

Brittany: I like totally respect that now. Yes. I feel that on a personal level. I feel like I remember always blasting Christmas music.

Sabina: Oh yeah.

Brittany: Like as soon as Thanksgiving was over you pulled out all of your Christmas CDs. Remember that CD deck we had that was in the car? 

Sabina: Uhhuh yes.

Brittany: We'd be like Nicole Nordeman christmas. 

Sabina: Yeah. 

Brittany: Then we would listen to that, like all 12 songs. And then we would change it to 

Sabina: Michael W. Smith. 

Brittany: Exactly. But you and I would like, I remember like singing, like belting songs in the car.

 Wherever we were going 

Sabina: On the way to school, shopping and back and forth to the lake.

Brittany: We weren't talking. We were just like, we were singing, singing. 

Sabina: Yeah. We were a singing family. 

Brittany: It's so funny. I remember this is not really related to Christmas, but there, the radio station here growing up was Magic 102.1. We always listened to that. Yeah. And I remember at one point when I was in maybe middle school. I was like, I think I know every single song that they play on the radio. Like I was confident I could sing every single song that the radio played. and I remember thinking I wonder if other people's know this many songs because I know every song that they play. Just because we always listened to music and that was I feel like I've started putting Christmas music on throughout the house when we're home with the girls. Collins is just like, where's this music coming from. So that's always fun.

I'm excited to be back here and to have some of these traditions that we did and start new traditions. But also keep those core values of things that are really important to us. Just remembering okay this is a time we can just spend with family and that is enough. That's what we want the end of the day. So that's important. 

Sabina: I was just going to say the rest of the year seems so rushed and busy a lot of the time with school and everything. So it is really nice to have a few times in the year where you can just like chill and just be a family.

Brittany: Yeah. Before we get out of here we asked the Life with Loverly Instagram this week, we told them that you were going to come on and they asked us questions that they would want you to answer. So I'm going to go over a few of those questions. I think some of these will be fun to hear what you have to say.

Okay. First one, I think the question people are like really wanting to know is what was your thought when I first was like, I'm going to start this blog and See what happens. What were you thinking when I told you that? 

Sabina: I always thought the most important thing was for you to follow your heart and do what you wanted to do. But I totally didn't quite understand it at this point. And you were trying to explain to me, this is what I'm going to be doing. And I thought, okay, that's good. That'll be nice. I think the time that I really got a little bit concerned was when you were said, I think I'm going to quit my job and I'm just going to do my blog, because I need to do it full time. And that's when I really sunk in to I need to really find out what this is all about. I need to really, I, not that I didn't know, I trust what you were doing, but I was. She's really serious about this. And I really need to, I just really need to learn as much as I can about it, v it was fairly new. When you think about it you did start when things were beginning with all this . So I of course got on Instagram and started following all these people and seeing all these things. It was really fun to just see you grow and develop. The more I saw you and the more time goes by, the more excited I get for you, because I'm just I'm in awe. I'm amazed about how well you're doing this and how much you truly love what you're doing. That's really important. So I think that as long as you're happy, then I'm happy. When I see that smile on your face, I know that I can be happy for you. 

Brittany: So sweet mom. I'm gonna shead a tear over here. It's funny because I feel like several times you're like, I don't like fully understand but you always were like, you've always loved clothes. It like made sense yes to you, but it was just like a new way of sharing clothes. I used to write in my agenda like in high school. On the day of the week, I would write what my outfit was. So that I like wouldn't repeat the exact outfit within a certain timeframe. I would be like, okay, Monday, two weeks ago, I wore this floral blouse with these pants, but now I'm gonna wear that same blouse with a skirt. So that's not technically the same outfit, but I'm using that piece again. I wonder if I still have some of those.

Sabina: We need to look. I wonder if it's here or at the lake.

Brittany: For a year, every single day, I wrote out what outfit I was wearing. 

Sabina: We need to find that. That would be really cool. I bet you it's in your closet probably is upstairs. I'll have to look.

Brittany: So another question, what was I like as a child? 

Sabina: What were you like as a child? I just want to say you were very close to perfect.

Brittany: Thanks. 

Sabina: And no, I'm serious. Like you were always a really easy baby. You are a very easy baby. You are very happy. Go lucky. You followed directions you listened, you were you were really a joy to have. I didn't I didn't have any problems more with you. I would just look at you if you were doing something you weren't supposed to do. And if I looked at you a certain way, you knew. And you were fine with that. You didn't push it very far, and I don't know. We spent a lot of time together. I think it's really important, to teach your children as they're growing what they can and cannot do.

Brittany: I feel like I was a little mom to Jared.

Sabina: You were. When he came along you guys were 21 months apart. So it was a really fun time for you to have this like baby, all of a sudden.

Brittany: Like my baby doll is a real baby. 

Sabina: So you really took to doing that. I think we just tried to teach you how to be nice to Jared and do things like this for Jared. And just because he was a new baby and you at that age just really loved it, but you were really easy going laid back. We had a really good relationship growing up. I feel like I don't know if part of it was because I was teaching and I taught young kids. Then I taught kids when you were younger, the kids were older, so I could see things that maybe these kids were doing. When I coached cross country and track, I was working with high school kids too. So I saw a lot of kids at different levels. So I saw a lot of behaviors and stuff. So I feel like what I tried to do as a parent is try to talk to you about different things before, before you were actually even getting to that age because I don't know, it just seemed like it would help you to understand and move into each stage better. You seem to do that well.

Brittany: I feel like we were close. Like you were definitely like the parent yes, we were friends, but you were like my parent first. I feel like that, made a big difference in kind of maybe the way I turned out plus like our relationship now. I don't know you weren't trying to be like my friend you were being a parent in the times. I needed you to be a parent. Even though at the time I was like, probably frustrated or annoyed that you weren't like being my friend. But I feel like that's something I always think back on I'm like, so appreciative that you parented me when I needed to be parented.

Sabina: I remember one of the things I remember when you were, before you became a teenager, I was nervous about it because I'm thinking, oh my gosh, I felt like I, we had such a good relationship and I was really worried about it changing when you became a teenager. Who knew what was going to happen.

Brittany: All the hormones and, you know.

Sabina: All the things. So I remember saying to you, I remember talking to you having a discussion saying, Britney, look, we've got a couple of years coming up where, we're not supposed to get along. This is what happens sometimes is sometimes mothers and daughters or mothers and fathers and children don't get along very well when they're teenagers, beecause they've got hormones changing and all this. And I said, so we're not supposed to get along then. So I just want you to realize that. But I also want us to think about it because I really don't want that to change our relationship. I don't want us to still be able to be close. One thing I always thought was really important was communicating with you guys what we were getting ready to go through. Not just you guys being blindsided by it, but , this is going to be the next part of our lives and this is what's supposed to happen, but this is where we need to like buckle down and let's work together. Let's not let this happen. It does not be this way.

Brittany: Communication was always like such a big thing in. We would always have like family meetings it was like, we're gonna talk this through, or we're gonna explain why this is the way we're doing it. We're the parents. Looking back, I appreciate all of those type of conversations. It's kind of crazy to think about. 

Sabina: It is. And I think what, like television was one thing I remember you guys wanting to watch certain things and they were maybe just a little bit older than what we really wanted you to watch. And instead of saying, no, you can't do it. Don't even think about it, blah, blah, blah, blah. We said, You will be able to do this, but you might not be able to do it for maybe a couple of years, because then you're gonna be old enough to really understand what's going on in this program. But right now it's a little bit older, so you will be able to watch it. But right now that's not a good idea, so we're not gonna watch it. You guys seem to be okay with that. Just as a parent and you're gonna feel this too. You're probably already understanding and realizing that as a parent, you gotta try and figure out the best way to handle the situation at hand. You really have to think about it. You really need to think about it as being a parent.

Brittany: Yeah. It's crazy. I think that's all we have time for today. I really enjoyed this. It's been fun to talk through some of our past traditions. It's reminded me of things that I wanted bring back out and do with the girls and start some new traditions.

 So thank you for just always being this great supportive person and I come to you with these crazy ideas. I'm like, mom, okay, I think I'm gonna do this, or we're gonna do this. What are you thinking? You've just always been so supportive. So I appreciate it. I love you. 

Sabina: Thank you. I love you too. You're doing great. 

Brittany: All right. We'll have to have you on again. I'm sure there'll be some other fun topics that we'll be able to talk about in the future, but appreciate you being here today and you know what friends, we will talk to you guys soon. Thanks for listening to today's episode. I can't wait to continue these conversations with you over on Instagram at Life with Loverly until next time.

That was perfect.