Ordinary People Extraordinary Things
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Ordinary People Extraordinary Things
87. Lighting Up Lives with Christmas Joy with Tom & Kathryn Raper
Tom and Kathryn have turned their love for Christmas into a heartwarming ministry that lights up not just their home but the entire community. Over eighteen years, their festive display has grown into a spectacle spanning two acres with half a million lights. Initially a personal venture, it quickly became a beloved community tradition, offering joy when it was needed most, like during the pandemic. They share how their creative endeavor continues to evolve, capturing the essence of the Christmas spirit and the pure joy it brings to countless visitors.
What started with a few simple twinkles has blossomed into a grand charitable initiative. The pandemic inspired Tom and Kathryn to harness the goodwill of their visitors for a greater cause—supporting local food banks. Each year, this effort yields thousands of pounds of food and significant cash donations, underscoring the powerful impact of community generosity. Their story highlights the seamless blend of holiday cheer and heartfelt giving, demonstrating how even the smallest donations contribute to a larger mission of support and faith.
Beyond the lights and donations lies a deeper message about human connection and kindness. Tom and Kathryn’s journey shows how sharing your passions can touch lives in unexpected ways. Their story reminds us that joy, gratitude, time, and the power of a simple smile can transform lives. Join us in this celebration of creativity, community, and the enduring spirit of kindness, as we discover the many ways we can bless others this Christmas season.
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Welcome to Ordinary People, Extraordinary Things. I'm your host, Nancy Bruchier. I get to talk to ordinary people about real hope, so I'm so glad that you're here. We have over 10,000 downloads, and I want to tell you about a place that maybe you haven't watched, and I did say watched Ordinary People, Extraordinary Things. Check out our YouTube channel. It's at JenNancy G-E-N. Nancy, and you will see some of the podcasts and get to listen and watch them. So make sure to subscribe and follow on our YouTube channel. Well, welcome to Ordinary People, Extraordinary Things. I'm so glad that Tom and Catherine are here. Thank you for joining me, you bet.
Speaker 2:Thanks for having us.
Speaker 1:And this is just like a cold email that I sent out and said, hey, do you want to be on the podcast? And you guys were both so gracious to say yeah.
Speaker 3:Yes, yeah.
Speaker 2:I think your kids sent us a card.
Speaker 1:Oh, did they send you a?
Speaker 2:card yes of our house.
Speaker 1:Oh yes, Okay, thank you, I couldn't remember how that worked. Yes, so we'll get into all of that and why we would send you a card with your house on it, but if people don't know who you are, could you both give three words or phrases that describe?
Speaker 3:you. I'm a guy known for my Christmas spirit.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:I, you know, have a sense of creativity and just my life in general and the things that I try to do. And, yeah, just enjoy meeting other people.
Speaker 1:That kind of explains all of why you would invite people to your house to look at Christmas lights.
Speaker 3:A little bit. A little bit of the explanation.
Speaker 1:So how about you, Catherine?
Speaker 2:I would say three words to describe me would be doer. We like to get things done. We kind of can see a vision and get it executed. I would say humility. Tom and I are often, you know, asked to you know why do we do it and what do we get from it, and it's never been about that for us. So I would definitely say humble. And then, lastly, I would just say to describe us as happy, full of joy, the glass is half full, for sure, with us, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. So you are here because you have just the most amazing Christmas light show ever and it's free and I think that's what you're trying to say is and it's at your home. I feel like it gets bigger and bigger every year. It dances to music. You can walk through your like not your house, but your grounds, your and it's just so accessible and we have been going. I know it was before COVID. I feel like I always like time things by was it before COVID or after after COVID? But I feel like it kind of went viral almost after COVID. Is that that is true, okay?
Speaker 3:yeah, we definitely saw an uptick during uh yeah, the COVID time frame yeah uh, just people looking to get out and do something and so many things at that time were limited access and ticketed. Yeah, you have tickets, reservations etc. And we didn't. We didn't require any of that during that time frame, so it was uh, we definitely saw a large increase uh that year of just extra people wanting to see uh do something with the family do something and, like you said, feel joy.
Speaker 1:Right, I feel like Christmas lights bring joy.
Speaker 3:Do you agree with that?
Speaker 2:Yep, absolutely Okay and I think that they, I think some visitors come, you know, maybe from in a dark place, especially during COVID, when there wasn't a lot to do, and I think they left our Christmas light display joyful, mmm, which is exactly why we do it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so how long have you been doing this?
Speaker 3:We've lived in the home for the current home for 18 years.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 3:Prior to that, previous homes, we had similar scenarios, but not to the extent I mean. There's a large reason that we can do what we do because we live where we live today. We can do what we do because we live where we live today. So it's been 18 years of lights and it has grown over the years.
Speaker 1:Do you mostly add something new every year?
Speaker 3:We tend to. It's not always the plan is to have something new every year, but we tend to. The plan is to have something new every year, but we tend to. Yeah, it's just because you do see the increase in the excitement and new things that we'll try and we'll see what people tend to like more than other things, and so we'll tend to extend on those things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so how many acres do you have that's full of Christmas lights Like? Do you have like how many bulbs Like? Can we get any idea of how vastly huge this is?
Speaker 3:Well, yeah, so we live on a property that's a little over five acres, and roughly two acres of it probably has something to do with the Christmas display involved in it, something to do with the Christmas display involved in it, the lights or the path or the, you know, the trails and the different areas where people can take pictures and things of that nature. We don't have an exact count of bulbs. We tried to count one year, a few years ago, as we were taking them down just to see how many there were, and we were at a few hundred thousand then, and we know we've added a few more since then. So we, we, we roughly guess that we're at something, uh, above 500,000 lights, or or so.
Speaker 1:Wow, I think half a million, something like that.
Speaker 3:Wow, so it's a decent amount of bulbs.
Speaker 1:yes, so it's like the I was just thinking of that movie Christmas Vacation where they turn it on.
Speaker 3:Yes, often, many times, we are referenced to Christmas Vacation as well as we do that ourselves. Does it cost a lot to run it? No, I mean, there's materials themselves.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah.
Speaker 3:They are what they are. I never add that up, because then that might be a little bit more of a reason to stop.
Speaker 2:A big number, yeah, a big number to think about.
Speaker 3:So we try not to add that up. But yeah, the very common question every year. You know this must cost a lot to run.
Speaker 3:The electricity bill is not that much and it's usually somewhere between $75 and $100 more than it may normally be, throughout the year, somewhere between $75 and $100 more than it may normally be throughout the year, Probably about the same as I would pay to run my sprinklers and run my fountain in the summer, as it is to run the lights. So yes, it's more of a cost, but nothing compared to the joy that Catherine referenced earlier right that it brings to people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, how long does this take?
Speaker 3:It's an all-year thing. Okay, I mean it's. You know, here we are June, you know talking about it, I've been working on things already in April.
Speaker 1:Have you.
Speaker 3:So to prepare new things or try to repair different things? Yeah, just things that get broken and we have to fix those things. So it's worked on throughout the year, but the brunt of the setup starts in October.
Speaker 1:October okay.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so when most people are thinking about Halloween, we're preparing Christmas, yeah, and then it goes through Thanksgiving, kind of our opening night of sorts every year. Thanksgiving night, that's the tradition. And then after it goes through New Year's, and after New Year's, yeah, that's really taking down is always less exciting than putting up, yeah. So it really is dependent on weather and when we can get to things from snow and all the conditions that we have as far as being able to get access to take things down. So it can take all the way through Easter in some years where it's just been too much to get to that fast to get it all put away.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it all comes down.
Speaker 3:It does all come down. We get asked that a lot. Do you we?
Speaker 2:leave it up and we just can't because of the weather, elements, wildlife and just the wear and tear on the lights.
Speaker 1:That makes sense.
Speaker 2:It would cause us more time. We'd have to use more time to fix everything if we left it out. Oh sure.
Speaker 1:But this is a true ministry, I feel like for you guys. I mean, this is a time commitment and someone seems to be out there every night. Is that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's really a. I mean, we can't leave our home.
Speaker 1:Just like, oh, let like, hundreds and thousands of people just walk around.
Speaker 2:It is a funny thing. Tom and I talk about that a lot. Yeah, you know we try to be out there every night, you know. If not, for you know we're open from 5 to 10 pm and if we can't be out there that entire time, at least some part of it. Tom's always out there about 4.30, quarter to 5, making sure that everything's going to come on, because we will have people that are there right at 5 o'clock, especially on the weekends leading up to Christmas. But we definitely try to be out there and greet as many people as we can, because that's what brings us the joy.
Speaker 1:Okay, and just kind of chatting with people and yeah, yeah Just saying I mean kids, seeing the kids enjoy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean our kids are older, right, they're adult children. So Now they started when they were younger. So my kids were climbing up into the trees, putting lights in the top of the trees when they were 8 and 10 years old, but now they're adults and so it's good to just see that, it's good to see the enjoyment out of the families that visit, and even those without families and even those without families. We get a lot of older generations or we will get buses that will come through that are visitors from different community groups that we'll visit Retirement homes, retirement homes, that makes sense.
Speaker 3:Those kind of people that get a chance to just get out and do something. So it's just as exciting to talk to them and see them get some excitement out of it and eyes light up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I feel like you can't help but smile.
Speaker 3:Exactly, we try Exactly. We try to keep that Exactly For sure.
Speaker 2:I think it helps too that, as Tom was saying, you know, with the two-plus acres that we have accessible during you know our season for people to visit, you can drive through, you can walk through. We have some people that they spend five minutes, we have other people that will spend hours. Yeah, but it's also accessible, and so we often get asked through our website or just you know other visitors that come. You know well, can I bring a stroller? Can I? You know, my husband's in a wheelchair?
Speaker 2:we say absolutely yeah absolutely yeah and I think that just helps really reach everyone yeah, so yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, like I said, this has become a tradition for our family. For sure, we have to go at least twice a year.
Speaker 2:We love that.
Speaker 1:That's awesome.
Speaker 3:A lot of comebackers, which is nice yeah.
Speaker 1:Do you hear that a lot? We do, we do yeah.
Speaker 3:But it's probably a 50-50 mix. I mean, half of the people we'll meet it's their first time and half of the people yeah, they've been coming for, or this has kind of become a tradition which we love to hear.
Speaker 3:I mean that's kind of exciting for us, that it's something that was good enough, that it wasn't just a one-time drive-by kind of idea and that people continue to get some enjoyment out of it. But others we will get many visitors that are, yeah, first time they've been there or heard about it or just and it is really all word of mouth. I mean it's something that is kind of just spread throughout the community by people knowing and telling friends Like you've got to go see this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yes, yes, for sure. How many do you count? How many Can you count? How many?
Speaker 3:We've taken estimates. Yeah, like COVID year was actually probably the easiest to get estimates because we were backed up the street and cars were. It was a traffic jam, so we could count how many people per car per hour, what those numbers were. Kind of Averaging, we're averaging, yeah. So from that. And then when we start to look at that as other times, or now post-COVID, or just in general, you do get some idea of how many people per car and how many cars per hour and that type of idea so it does equate to about 20 to 30,000 people will visit throughout the season.
Speaker 1:Wow, that is crazy.
Speaker 3:Like wow, it's a large number and some of those again would be repeats throughout multiple visits throughout that, that season, or you know. So it's not. Uh, yeah, because we don't. Yeah, we're not out there with a with a ticket or and and checking, you know per hour or just you know it's. It's impossible to understand if you know somebody's on one end of the property versus the other end of the property right, and so it's difficult to count, pull in and then never get out exactly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there will be plenty of people that um, that will, you know.
Speaker 3:park and watch maybe one of the light shows, and and then, yeah, and then take off after that, or or just people that will come, drive through and take off. It does provide something for a little bit of a different experience for everybody, wow.
Speaker 1:When everyone else is crazy busy for Christmas, you're like, yeah, we know, we're really busy.
Speaker 3:It's a different kind of busy.
Speaker 2:It's a different kind of busy, for sure.
Speaker 3:It's a second job for sure, sure, in the month of November, december. But it's enjoyable, right? It's enjoyable work, it's enjoyable just to see the amount of people that you are able to provide some kind of positive feedback on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, how long have you been taking donations for, like the food banks around Parker?
Speaker 2:So we started that in the year of COVID, so in 2020. As I mentioned before so often, when Tom and I would be out there, you know people wanted to hand us money for us and we always just turned it down, you know, shook our head.
Speaker 2:You know thanks, but no thanks. And then, in 2020, just with some of my community partners you know that I volunteer with I knew how great the need was for food in some of our local food banks. The visitors want to be generous, so instead of us taking, you know, money from them or taking their money, let's let's just say if you want to bring something, bring, bring a can of food. Yeah, and that just turned out to be, I mean, it just multiplied and multiplied the turnout that the community uh, brought I mean donated that year was was just off the charts, really. Um, so that's when the, the donation started was in 2020, and so we we average about 7,000 pounds of food each season.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:That's give or take. There's been higher, there's been lower, sure, and that's just Tom and I, you know, filling up the back of our truck, you know, and, and you know, taking it, taking it to the food banks, usually on Monday mornings after a busy weekend, and we just, you know, we take nine or ten truck loads at least a season. Wow, we currently spread it out C-Corps here in Parker gets some of our donations, parker Task Force, obviously, here in Parker, and then Help and Hope Center in Castle Rock. There's plenty more, you know. We wish we could, you know, spread it out even further, but right now, those are the three that, for four years now, you know, have received our donations. And then, I think it was in 21, or maybe it was 2020, I can't remember we did. Also, after speaking with one of the food banks, you know, we realized we could take cash donations, okay, and so every penny that comes in goes back out to those organizations, and so we average about $10,000 a season in just cash.
Speaker 1:No, yeah, oh,000 a season in just cash. No, yeah, oh my goodness, yeah, yeah, how I mean what started?
Speaker 3:as hey, let's put a little red wagon out there to see if we can capture a few cans of food.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 3:Has turned into, yeah, 30,000 pounds of food and $30,000 or $, twenty five thousand dollars of donations cash
Speaker 2:donations yeah and those organizations can do so much more with that dollar than we can. If you know, they can take a dollar donated right and buy, you know, 10 bushels of bananas where if I walked into the store I we can maybe buy three bananas. So it's just, it's wonderful to get the money into into their hands and what they can do with it. And so all we're doing with that is we're just providing the platform. Yeah, you know, a lot of people don't think, unfortunately, to just go to the food bank and donate Right, but I think, because of what we're offering, they want to give, and so all we're doing is providing the platform. We'll get it where it needs to go. That's also amazing.
Speaker 3:It also becomes easier because you might not feel um the same about going into the food bank and saying, hey, here's my two cans sure versus versus we.
Speaker 3:We give them an avenue that, yeah, they can drop off one or two cans sure and that one or two cans will become $5 yeah, so it makes it yeah it gives them an easy way to still feel like they're doing something good, but maybe not, you know, feel bad about the fact that they're only walking into the food bank with $5 or or a couple cans. So I mean it definitely all adds up. And yeah, it was definitely Catherine's goodness.
Speaker 2:She came up with the idea.
Speaker 3:We come up with the craziness of hey, what lights can we put out there?
Speaker 2:And she came up with a good idea of hey, how can we?
Speaker 3:turn some of these donations Because prior to that it was people wanting to give us money and we didn't want to give us money and we didn't want to take the money and we encouraged on the website and everything else to to just say, hey, you know, you can still give to your church. And that's what we would tell people prior to that point was just don't, don't, don't, don't give your donations to us, but provide those to other avenues.
Speaker 3:You know, go give them to your favorite charities yeah so but this now this allows us to combine the two together.
Speaker 1:That's remarkable, that is so amazing, that's wow, so yeah. So your website at it says something about like the true meaning from christmas and this really is a I feel like. I feel like it's a huge ministry for you guys to not be like on a podium being like, hey, do you know Jesus? You know, but to still do that in such a safe way for people, do you agree?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean we definitely we cater to the joy of Christmas.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 3:So there's lots of things that we do that are just hey, there's lots of things you celebrate at Christmas and gifts and presents and lights and everything but we are very prominent about the fact that we still are we're born and raised in Christian families. We still are, we're born and raised in, you know, christian families and that still is why we any of us can celebrate the holiday right. So it is something that we don't try to be shy about, the fact that there are, you know, between every traditional Christmas song you're going to hear, you know, one that's more faith-based. So you know, all of those things, yeah, come together and it's certainly an important part of you know what we're doing from a messaging perspective, or just you know what we as a family would celebrate, right, it's not, you know, it's many of those things to us as well.
Speaker 2:So yeah, we hear it often from visitors that they'll say you know? Oh, I see, you guys are believers. You know because they walk through our display. Or they hear it, yeah, or you have a little.
Speaker 1:I think you have a nativity and yes, yeah yes, and you don't like scream it like so people would be like I don't feel comfortable. But I think that you definitely get the sense that, yeah, but you say that you got. You get that from people absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll hear that. I'll hear that many times over the you know, over one season. It's just, you know they'll come up and put a hand on once they realize you know that we're the owners, you know they'll come up, put a hand up on you know on us and just say, you know you guys are believers, like that's awesome. So you know and you just don't and the other side of that is you don't know the impact that you're making in the moment to somebody that maybe came for the secular version of Christmas and then walked away with huh.
Speaker 2:So if a seed was planted, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that. I love that. That's so neat. How would you encourage others who have a gift Maybe it's Christmas? Lights but maybe it's. I was just so excited to have you guys on because I thought what like Christmas lights? It seems very like small.
Speaker 1:I mean, you guys do it big but just the idea that everyone has a gift or a passion and you can make anything of that into like sharing joy, sharing your faith, like do you have any thoughts that you would share with someone that's like I don't, I don't know. I really like like cooking, or you know something that they feel like wouldn't show that.
Speaker 2:Would you have any thoughts on that? I would say I think, first and foremost, it's just remembering that God gave us all unique gifts and I don't think there's a measurement to them. I don't feel like you know, like you said, the Christmas lights is a pretty small thing and people you know wouldn't think that it could be so big.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that you could give that much money.
Speaker 2:I mean this is incredible, exactly, and I think we, just as people are our own, we're fearful and so we think that, oh, our little talent or gift or whatever our passion isn't going to amount to anything. But clearly it does. You know, and I'm, I'm asked all the time. I mean, if you know about you know how did your husband get into this? You know what made him start it?
Speaker 2:and because, again, it is such a small thing, he likes Christmas lights you know, period that's it, and so I think it's just, I think it's being in tune with knowing the talents God gave you and how to, how to execute that in a way that's going to grow his kingdom. And it can be like you said, it could be with anything. It can be cooking and cooking could turn into you know somebody, just you know likes to cook or bake, and they can. They can go serve the community in that way through their local church or through you know. Just another avenue and and who knows where that's going to take you, I think that if you, like I said kind of with the humility part, I think if you can start with a little seed and it'll grow without you worrying about it growing and then the fruit comes like it has.
Speaker 3:For us it's just amazing, I think a key to it is that it's something that we enjoy, so it doesn't feel like a hassle. It doesn't feel like something that I'm having to do this work and it's not a burden from that standpoint, because we enjoy it so much. The that just makes it that much easier. Yeah, yeah, I mean you.
Speaker 3:you get your moments when you're tearing down a half a million lights where you think, oh my gosh, am I going to be able to do this again next year, right? Or you know, 10 years from now, when I'm, you know, older, uh, will I be able to continue this tradition kind of idea, right. But when you think back to the excitement that it brought and you just enjoy it when you start putting them out again the next year and then all of a sudden you get that bug again, it makes it that much easier. So part of that is just finding something that if somebody has a given talent they know how to bake, they know how to, and they enjoy that then that's good right.
Speaker 3:Then use that right and nothing has to go to the extreme. That we've done Well, but you probably never thought, right?
Speaker 1:I mean 18 years ago, when you started doing this on your property. Did you ever think?
Speaker 2:like 20,000 people are going to walk through here.
Speaker 1:No, I mean, or did you maybe?
Speaker 2:No no.
Speaker 3:That is another part of the equation, right? It's not something that we are trying to figure out okay how am I going to get five more thousand people next year? It's just more of the the fact that, hey, you know what I I've, it'd be cool, I'd like to see that tree do this. Okay, let's make that tree do that, right? So it's those types of things that keep it going right. Not necessarily that we're after some kind of presence or some kind of wanting to be known by that. It just happens that we are.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think we get that too. We'll get that on the nights we're standing out by the fire pit and you know, and then somehow, you know, a group of people walk by and realize that you know, they'll hear, they'll overhear us talking to other visitors, and oh, they're the owners. And they're often I think they're often surprised that we're just normal, that we're just a family. Um, because we get asked you know well who, you know what companies you hire, right?
Speaker 2:and we're looking at each other going, well, it's us and our grown kids and right um, and I think there's, I think the community buys into that even more because we're just, yeah, a family doing it. It isn't commercial. Some of some of the stuff tom's does is very commercial, like, yeah, but it's it's does is very commercial-like, but it's not. You know, we're not sponsored, we don't. You know, this is all just out of the love of our heart and, again, you know the passion that he has to do it.
Speaker 1:Well, it's just really fun to see something that just started out as like, hey, let's just. I love doing Christmas, my husband loves doing Christmas lights too, and him and David almost always like, add one thing. But the idea that, like I'm talking to someone that's listening, like you don't have to know what God's going to do at the end, Like you know, like, oh, if I keep this up, then, wow, I'll see this big ministry and I'm using ministry, you know, as a um, just because I think it is like and I think that we think that ministry is something that. But it's just showing people joy and love and I think you guys do that so well. And it's just fun to see what God does just through passion and using his gifts and saying, hey, God does just through passion and using his gifts and saying, hey, someone wants to give me money, why don't I give that to someone else? And how that's become such an amazing way to bless others.
Speaker 3:It is yeah and again in this case it's simple in the fact that we just enjoy what we're doing and then that shows and that other people enjoy it as well, and that for some people then that's something that they feel like, hey, I want to give back to that or I want to support that with the donations and the CAM goods and the things that we do collect. So it's turned into something much bigger as you say than we would have ever anticipated or something that we were ever after.
Speaker 1:Right, right, right. Well, this has been so fun and it's getting me in the Christmas spirit even though it's only June, but I wanted to do this early, obviously because you start ramping up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you Anding up. Thank you.
Speaker 1:And I'll obviously put your website on and I hope that everyone listening can go and see it for yourselves. So what is your favorite Bible verse or story?
Speaker 2:My favorite Bible verse is Psalm 4610, which is Be still and know that I am God. I can't even really elaborate on that because I just feel like the Bible verse says it all Just be still, Let him work his wonder.
Speaker 3:For me, yeah, so I have an odd one because I had a father that Don't miss it.
Speaker 2:So I would say's favorite um bible story is the story of shadrach, bishak and abednego.
Speaker 2:Oh, I, love the fiery furnace and so it's not everyone's. You know you don't think about that at christmas, you don't think about that as a as a favorite bible verse. But when, um, you know he was ill and we took care of him the last year of his life, and what a blessing that was. But when we were all gathered in his home when he passed away, the chaplain was there from hospice and asked you know, what favorite Bible verse would you like me to read? And Tom's sister knew that—well, kind of chuckled, because Tom's sister knew that it was the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, Because Tom's sister knew that it was the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. And so the chaplain read it and after he was done he just said you know, I have to say this is a first, Because that's not a typical story that you're going to hear at a bedside death. You're going to hear Psalm 23 and John 3.16 and all of those.
Speaker 2:And it was you know, so it's just a special story for him and and all of us. So now, every time we hear any, any, any um you know, reference to Shadrach, meshach and Abednego, we all just kind of smile.
Speaker 3:Yeah so and certainly it's one of those things that my father those genes are in me that's what leads to this Christmas light thing. My parents were decorators of the house inside. Oh okay, so they were a bit more, just the fact that they liked to decorate internally. And I took it externally as our family grew. So the correlation there between my father and that verse and his passing and that. That's probably where I come to now for a verse reference.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's it nothing to do with christmas anything else which makes it even sweeter, though.
Speaker 2:Well, and I think too, getting to what was, as tom was alluding to, just the multi-generations, because that is definitely where it started.
Speaker 2:But I think for me, when you know we ramp up, you know September, october, and we know we got to start getting, you know, getting everything out.
Speaker 2:For me, as a mom and as a wife, it's so fun to see our whole family together, you know, and, like Tom said, our kids were young when we first started this, this, and now they're, you know, they're pretty much all knocking on the door of 30 or older than 30, and we're still out there doing it together and it's, you know, you don't get a lot of that as your, as your kids get older and everybody has their own families, you know, separation happens just organically, and so for me it's always fun just to kind of be a, you know, kind of being seen but not heard out there, because I just like to listen to the conversations, you know, between our kids and between my son and, you know, tom, and then, when Tom's dad was alive, between them, just to hear, because I think to me again, the platform is just the lights. That's the excuse why we're all together, but it provides such a great opportunity to just talk about anything you know, that's so great.
Speaker 2:So that's definitely a highlight for me is just the family time, because it is an all day, every day for many up to you know, at least a month or six weeks, and so we're together a lot, and that's good and it's bad, but for the most part, you know, we're eating meals together and we're just conversing and it's great.
Speaker 1:It's great. That is so cool. I love that. What are you grateful for?
Speaker 3:Well, just the ability to do all of that stuff that we're talking about. The ability to do all of that stuff that we're talking about, it's a blessing to live where we live. I couldn't do what I do if I lived in other places, right? Or if I was in an apartment somewhere or in some more traditional neighborhoods or whatever, which we used to live in the past. So I'm blessed with the fact that we live where we live and we're able to do what we do, and I have the capabilities to kind of think it out and put that creativity in place and leverage it for what's a nice purpose.
Speaker 2:I would say I'm grateful just for time. I think you know just time, kind of like I was alluding to before, just time, time to be together, time to be alive, to be able to do this, you know. Time with each other, time with our kids, time with all the visitors, you know, and, like I said, there's some visitors we never get to talk to. Others we see year after year and you get to see, you know, but they've added a new baby to the family or something like that. So time just to have that time, and, like Tom said, we're not guaranteed, you know, tomorrow, and so you know, god willing, as long as we're able to still physically, you know, do this, we will do it, but we all know how precious time is. And just to be, you know, again, like what he said, to be the time to be outdoors together, to do this is just great and, yeah, I would say time for sure.
Speaker 1:That's awesome, yeah. And what kindness have you received or given in the last week?
Speaker 2:For me and you actually said something about this earlier is, to me it's not one thing, it's a smile. I tend to give them often and I think when you give them, you notice when you receive them. And so for me it's not any words, it's not any action, it's, it's just a smile, it's just. You know that somebody you know smiled at you today. You walked in some in a door and the person walking out smiled. Because I think we don't do a whole lot of that anymore. We don't have a lot of face-to-face interaction. People have their noses in their phones or in their computers and when we're driving we're just in a hurry to get from point A to point B, and so just to take a second to smile, because who knows what their story is that day. And if my smile made a difference to them or maybe changed a decision that they or wrote a path they were going to go down, that you know you can't beat that. So I would definitely say a smile nice yeah well.
Speaker 3:I'll just tie it back to this this opportunity, I mean this, uh yeah, having a chance to meet you and your kids and being able to address some of the questions. Some of these things we get asked over and over every night but the other things are just. It's good for people to understand some of the benefit of this. Opportunity gives maybe more people to understand some of our background, our story, you know why we do what we do and what it's all about.
Speaker 2:And it'll touch more people through you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I appreciate this act of kindness. Well, I'm just excited that I got to learn more about you.
Speaker 1:I know we've met a few times, excited that I got to learn more about you. I know we've met a few times, but you know it's it's always very brief, you know. And so what a fun way to just, you know, start the Christmas season when this comes out and a reminder, that joy and a smile and using your, your gifts and just blessing others and in a way that I feel is kind of like a little bit different, it's so fun For sure. Well, thank you for being on and taking the time to chat with me.
Speaker 3:Thank you, Nancy. Yeah, we appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening. We truly wouldn't be here without you. Thank you for listening. Thank you for listening. Thank you for sharing. If you haven't found our YouTube channel, it's at JenNancy to watch our podcasts.