Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree

Norah and Dad share their favorite holiday gifts, both given and received. 

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Intro music written and performed by norah marie.

Transcript

Dad 0:00

Hey Nora,

Norah 0:01

Hey Dad.

Dad 0:03

What did one Snowman say to the other snowman?

Norah 0:06

I dunno, what? What do they say?

Dad 0:09

Do you smell carrots?

Norah 0:12

No, Oh, it's the joke. Oh,

Dad 0:16

that's the joke.

Norah 0:20

I thought you were asking if the house smell like carrots

Dad 0:24

No,

Norah 0:25

don't really think they have a smell

Dad 0:27

my acting is just that good. That that was the joke.

Norah 0:31

was funnier than the joke.

Dad 0:34

No, I thought the joke was funny. See, cuz they're snowman and their noses are carrots. So

Norah 0:39

okay, but you explaining the joke makes it that much more not funny.

Dad 0:45

what are we gonna talk about this?

Norah 0:47

What are we gonna talk about this week,

Dad 0:51

I thought we were gonna talk about holiday gifts.

Norah 0:53

Okay. We're gonna talk about holiday gifts. I forgot what we were gonna talk about.

Dad 1:00

we are off to a crackle and start

Norah 1:02

We have to keep that part in I'm still coffin

Dad 1:20

Okay.

Norah 1:21

person would say

Dad 1:24

I'm still coughing. I'm still coughing. That might have been better than my snowman

Norah 1:31

I think that was better than your snowman joke.

Dad 1:33

Oh, man. All right.

Norah 1:35

You just got out. Dad did.

Dad 1:37

I got, I got out. Dad joked. Welcome back to the Nora and Dad Show. Uh, I'm dad and I'm here as always with the lovely and talented Nora. How you doing Nora?

Norah 1:49

Um, I'm pretty good. I had the flu this week, but I'm better now. So,

Dad 1:54

You had a rough week this past week?

Norah 1:58

exactly A week. It was not. I've had better weeks in my life. I think

Dad 2:03

Yeah. Flu shot, activated, and got the flu. Anyway.

Norah 2:07

You know, life is just unfortunately like that sometimes

Dad 2:12

Life is like a box of chocolate. Sometimes you get vaccinated and get the flu anyways or something. Something like that. I don't know. but you're f you're, I, I mean, I know you're feeling better now, but you're, you're feeling better now.

Norah 2:24

I am, I can breathe through both nostrils. Um,

Dad 2:31

Uh, flu. Recommended, not recommended. What's your take on the flu?

Norah 2:35

Um, it's definitely not fun to have. I would try to avoid it if you can. I personally thought it was worse when I had Covid

Dad 2:47

You thought the flu was worse? All right. We don't want either,

Norah 2:51

but when I had covid, I wasn't fully vaccinated yet, so that could be why.

Dad 2:56

But you now, but, but you now have the flu outta the way, so you, you can go like, you're good, you're good until next winter. As far as the flu's

Norah 3:02

is there only one strain of flu?

Dad 3:06

there's no, there's a couple strains every year. There's a, there's a flu A and a flu B. So I guess technically you could get flu

Norah 3:11

If I get flu b, I will not be a very happy person.

Dad 3:17

flu B, or not flue.

Norah 3:19

That was funny.

Dad 3:21

Is the question. I see you like that one. Okay. We're getting better. We're getting better. So I, I thought, since we're coming up on the holiday gifting season, whether your holiday is Christmas or Hanukkah or just a agnostic gift giving or whatever your, your December gifting holiday of choices, I thought maybe we could talk for a little bit about our favorite holiday gifts, maybe given. and received. So what is in, in your, in your 16 years of life on this planet, what's, what's the, what's the best gift you've gotten for, for Christmas?

Norah 4:02

Well, the one I've had the longest is my, my chocolate chip, my stuffed animal.

Dad 4:08

Oh,

Norah 4:08

I still have

Dad 4:09

tell us about, tell us about chocolate chip.

Norah 4:12

Oh, well, chocolate chip is this little crinkly guy. He's, um, a black, no, he's a chocolate lab and he is really tiny. Um, and he, um, I've seen pictures of what he's supposed to look like. He doesn't look like that anymore. he's lost both of his ears. They were sewed on by my grandmother. Um, kind probably like 10 years ago. She put him back on. and yeah, he, he just kind of lives in my room now.

Dad 4:37

He's hearing impaired.

Norah 4:39

Well, he got him back on.

Dad 4:41

Okay.

Norah 4:42

Um,

Dad 4:43

Oh, the ears are there

Norah 4:44

yeah, they, they fell off though, and grandma had to put him back on.

Dad 4:48

they fell off. Was that in your, w did that show up in your Christmas stocking at Grandma and Grandpa's? Is that the,

Norah 4:53

I was, um, zero years old, so I'm not quite sure.

Dad 4:58

I think Chocolate Chip might have been in your, might have been in your Christmas stocking. Chocolate chip has gone

Norah 5:04

He's gone through it. He's gotten puked on, he's been left on airplanes,

Dad 5:10

Well in, in, in a hotel

Norah 5:11

Oh, a hotel. Not airplane. I

Dad 5:13

you left him in a hotel and the hotel had to, ma had to mail chocolate chip back to us.

Norah 5:17

You know, he's been on lots of adventures.

Dad 5:20

Yeah. And do do you think chocolate chip's gonna be with you like, like for the rest of your life?

Norah 5:26

I'll, I'll keep him there. I, I don't like he says he's not, he stays in a little trunk in my room cuz I don't know what I'd do if Dante came upstairs and tore him apart. Like, I think with any of my other

Dad 5:37

is a

Norah 5:38

animals, like I could bear with that. Like it would not, I. I mean, I might be a little upset, but I would not end it do, if Donte got the chocolate chip, I would have some very harsh words to say to him. So

Dad 5:53

You know what my least favorite of, of your Christmas gift?

Norah 5:55

what?

Dad 5:57

Barbie Dreamhouse

Norah 5:59

That was a awesome Christmas present.

Dad 6:02

because that was assembly required. Um, and oof

Norah 6:07

Not fun,

Dad 6:08

of, not yet, not that, how do I say this For the, I, I, I should slap a parental advisory on this episode for, so, um, little children don't listen, but

Norah 6:19

Um, well, you should tell Donovan not to listen to then,

Dad 6:22

Yeah. So in in our house we have two categories of gifts. We have the wrapped gifts that come from mom and dad and whomever, and the unwrapped gifts that Santa lives under. The tree leaves under the tree.

Norah 6:34

too busy to wrap presents.

Dad 6:36

he doesn't, he doesn't have time to, he doesn't have time to wrap gifts. And the el the elves can only do so much. They're, they're busy. They're busy, you know, putting stuff together. And then, yeah. And so that Barbie dreamhouse appeared under the tree, fully realized and assembled as Malibu, Barbie's, ger ba, whatever, Barbie's, Mali, whatever the Hecker was. And, um,

Norah 6:56

Barbie Dream House.

Dad 6:58

And, and I think you played with it for, I don't know, like a day. And that was the end of Barbie's dream

Norah 7:03

No, I played with it. I play with it a lot Until Donovan got his stupid Disney coin stuck in the elevator, then the elevator was unusable.

Dad 7:16

Ken. Ken's not down with the elevator repair.

Norah 7:18

No,

Dad 7:19

There's no, there's no el, there's no elevator repair, man, Ken, that can come and fix the elevator.

Norah 7:23

not in my Barbie universe.

Dad 7:25

not in your Barbie universe. Yeah. I figured you were gonna say your, your Telecaster was your

Norah 7:31

Well, no, I, I said that was the longest one that I've had. I

Dad 7:34

Okay, so, so what was your, now now I'm putting words in your mouth. So what was your, what was your favorite holiday gift of all

Norah 7:41

I have to think of what has been holiday gifts and what has been birthday gifts. Cause I've gotten some pretty cool concert tickets for birthdays. Um, I don't think you've, I don't think you've ever gotten concert tickets for Christmas. That's from Leah birthday thing. Correct me if I'm wrong though.

Dad 7:58

I think that, I think that is

Norah 7:59

Okay. Um, it's probably between my two guitars cuz I really like, well my other one's dead. She's in my closet, Um, my first acoustic guitar and then my, my Telecaster. I really like both of those.

Dad 8:15

Hard to go wrong with the Telecaster.

Norah 8:17

Yep.

Dad 8:19

I have to say. I'm super excited about one of your Christmas gifts this year, and that's all I'm gonna say.

Norah 8:23

Well, I haven't even told you what I want for Christmas.

Dad 8:26

I, well, you've told me, you told us you wanted like nail polish and sheets, which is like the worst Christmas list ever.

Norah 8:32

I want new bedding. My bedding has been through it. It's had Ryan throw up on it. It's had Dante throw up on it.

Dad 8:40

All right, so nail polish and sheets is the exciting, is Nora's exciting Christmas

Norah 8:45

I don't know. I feel that I am pretty, I'm pretty content with what I have in my life.

Dad 8:50

All right. Well, I, I, I went off script and I'm really

Norah 8:52

Okay. I'm excited too cuz I don't know what to

Dad 8:55

Yeah. I, I know, I hope, I hope you like it. We'll, we'll have to update everyone on a future, on a future

Norah 8:59

Yeah. Coming soon.

Dad 9:01

yeah, so my favorite gift, I'm gonna put these in, so, oh, so let me, well, alright, so, we'll, I, I wanna get to the favorite gift you've ever given, but we'll come back to that. So, so I think it's more fun to give gifts and get gifts personally. But the best gifts I ever got, I'm gonna put these in two categories. I'm gonna go with Childhood John, and then Grow, and then Grownup John, childhood dad and Grownup dad. So as a kid, the best gift I ever got was the, um, the Star Wars Death. Star Playset was the bomb when I was like five years old, cuz I was, I was just all about the Star Wars when I was a little kid and I had all the Star Wars action figures. now probably would, would be worth like an original, like 1977 Kenner toys. Luke Skywalker action figure would be probably worth a a lot of money now. And they're all just Grandma Grip, got rid of all of them. But when I went to college, so, uh, but um, the Death Star Place at was awesome and I loved everything about that and I played the heck out of that thing. And, uh, for. Hours and days and years I think I played with, and I loved every second of it as a grownup. Um, your mom has given me two gifts that I, that I, uh, that I thought were amazingly, uh, amazing and amazingly thoughtful. One of which was, um, the, on one of our very first dates, uh, we went to dinner and we ordered this. Wine called fofa, which is a wine. I mean, I knew nothing about wine back then, but um, I liked the name cause it sounded funny. It was fun to say fofa. And so that's what I picked off the menu and it was really, really tasty. And it's a wine that we've never been able to find ever since. And your mom tracked down the winery, um, somewhere in Italy, like north of Venice, somewhere in Italy, and tracked the wine down and, and ordered. The wine to get shipped here. And that was Christmas one year. And then the album, and then the albums that you helped her, um, pick out and make you and your mom ordered, um, like a bunch of LPs and had them and mounted them like in glass frames, um, of my favorite artists. And then they hang on on the wall, my office, and they're right across from my desk. And every time I look up from my desk, I see them and it makes me smile. So,

Norah 11:22

Well, and if I know Flyer was not a Christmas present, but he was still a present, where does he

Dad 11:28

Flyer was not, flyer was not a Christmas present flyer was my very first dog. He was a beagle. That my dear college friend Sarah, um, when I graduated from law school, uh, decided to gift me with a dog as a graduation present, which is a heck of a gradu. I mean, I was gonna, the, the plan was to get a dog cuz I was gonna be moving out into. My own apartment. So the plan was to get a dog. Um, I wasn't planning on someone to give me a dog, uh, an eight week old puppy as a gift. Um, but Flyer was, yeah, flyer was also an amazing gift. So, um, not a Christmas gift, but an amazing gift nonetheless. So, all right. So in terms of gifts that you've given, what's the best, what, what, like, what sticks out in your mind is the best gift you've ever.

Norah 12:12

I feel like I have not started giving gifts until recently, so I'm trying to think because I haven't had money to spend on people until recently.

Dad 12:21

But you could, you, you made gifts for a while.

Norah 12:24

Yeah. But I'm trying to think.

Dad 12:27

Sometimes the gift that comes from like your heart is better than the

Norah 12:31

I think my favorite gift that I've given someone is probably. The one I made for Ryan last year for our anniversary slash Christmas, it was that little like booklet thing. I had all of our memories in it.

Dad 12:47

booklet of memories. That's a, that was a very thoughtful

Norah 12:49

it was.

Dad 12:51

Yeah.

Norah 12:51

Ryan cry, so

Dad 12:53

Uhoh, is he gonna be okay with you sharing that on the podcast?

Norah 12:56

I can probably make that out.

Dad 12:58

Do I need to, do I need to like bleep that out?

Norah 13:00

edit that out.

Dad 13:03

Maybe edit that out. Have maybe clear, clear it with him between now and when I edit later on tonight or tomorrow,

Norah 13:08

Okay. Um, but that

Dad 13:09

and we'll see. We'll, we'll, we'll see if that, we'll see if that makes the cut.

Norah 13:12

um, that was a pretty good present that I've given. I've been a part of presents, like helping pick out stuff.

Dad 13:21

Yeah.

Norah 13:22

Yeah.

Dad 13:24

So,

Norah 13:25

I, I'm excited for my presence. I'm getting everyone this year.

Dad 13:29

oh, I can't wait.

Norah 13:30

You told me I'm not allowed to get anyone presents, so I'm gonna do it.

Dad 13:34

well, I'd rather you not like you. You work hard for your money and you're saving for a car, and I'd rather you save your money than spend it on me and your mom.

Norah 13:41

Oh, but it makes me so happy to spend it on

Dad 13:43

I then, I'm not gonna say no to a gift. And if that's what makes you happy, my dear, spend away. And I'm very, I'm very excited to see what, what will appear under the tree. on Christmas morning, the, the best gift I've ever given. No questions asked, will never be topped for the rest of my life. Is the painting that's on the mantle in our family room above the fireplace,

Norah 14:06

Yeah,

Dad 14:07

know? Do, do, do you know the story of that painting?

Norah 14:09

I don't. I just know that it's been there for a very long time and it's really annoying to dust around.

Dad 14:15

Oh, I'm sorry. It's a large painting of three children laying with their heads, pointing at each other in like a triangle, making snow angels. so it's a, like a snow. Canvas like painted on a canvas with three children each wearing a different color like Parker with their heads pointing in a triangle towards each other, making snow angels. And when your mom and I were dating, we. Were going to dinner and we were walking through Tremont, which is a neighborhood in Cleveland where I lived. And there was an art gallery that we walked into and that painting was hanging on the wall. And we both looked at it and it kinda, it just makes, it just made us feel like warm and happy. It's a very, like, very, Just innocent, just look at it and the, just the innocence of the kids and it just brings you this kind of warm, very happy feeling. And we both liked the painting a lot and we looked at the price tag and it was, it was a money we did not, wanna spend at that time. And so we didn't. And and then like a year or so later, for Christmas, I went back to the art gallery deciding I was gonna buy that painting for your mom. And it was of course gone because art galleries rotate their art. They don't keep the same art there. and I described the painting to the owner of the gallery who said, oh, that was by so-and-so artist, whatever her name was. And he gave me her phone number and I called her hoping that she would had not sold the painting and still had it in her possession, which she did. Um, and she sold it to me, and then I gave it to your mom for Christmas and, and, Christmas, like the first first year we were married. And that's, hands down, that gift will never be topped. Uh, period. it, it's, I try.

Norah 15:56

that story. Sounds like a pretty good gift.

Dad 15:59

so now, you know, when you walk into the family room and you look at that painting, now you're gonna think, oh, you know, you'll, you will forever think of that story

Norah 16:05

I will, instead of thinking, oh, I have to stick my arm underneath this painting

Dad 16:09

to dust. Yeah. But you don't dust anymore. Your brother does. You guys swap

Norah 16:14

I am really good at mopping and he's better at dusting than I am cuz he's a little bit taller than me. He has long arms, he can

Dad 16:19

Uh, I don't think, okay.

Norah 16:21

stuff. What?

Dad 16:23

think both. I think both of yours. Definition of good at dusting needs. Um,

Norah 16:27

Oh, he's better at dusting than I

Dad 16:29

needs a, needs a little dusting of itself? I

Norah 16:31

I'm pretty good at

Dad 16:32

so. So big plans for your holiday break. Besides sleep? Besides sleeping in.

Norah 16:41

I already did a lot of sleeping in, so

Dad 16:43

You did, you're

Norah 16:44

got in the early start to winter break. Um,

Dad 16:48

really, nothing really on your holiday list this year besides just like nail polish and, and, um, sheets.

Norah 16:58

yeah,

Dad 17:00

Okay. All right.

Norah 17:01

I mean I sent Ryan this necklace that's really pretty, that's not super expensive. That's really it though.

Dad 17:10

All right. Well, we'll, um,

Norah 17:13

Oh, a leopard gecko. Or a crested gecko. And that's not gonna happen. But I

Dad 17:17

that ain't happened. And we have, we have enough, we have enough animals in our house with two dogs. all right. Well, would we, um, when we come back, I don't know, should we, should we record over the holidays or should we, or should we not record over the holidays?

Norah 17:28

We'll see.

Dad 17:29

We'll see. We, we may be back with another, with another episode before Christmas, or it might be after Christmas and we'll have to see maybe, we'll, we might take a little Christmas hiatus, hard to say. but, we will be back at some point and we'll update everyone on the Christmas gifts for 2022 and whatever else happens to be on our minds. Nora Marie, where can people find you? Um, if they, oh, and I should add, if we're not back before the holidays, um,

Norah 17:55

I have a

Dad 17:55

December 30, December 30th, the old wine cell in Stead falls, come see the norm. Norm Marie live. Um, Uh, live and acoustic. at the old wine cellar in Olmsted Falls, Ohio, December 30th from six to nine. Six to 9:00 PM So, but if people wanted information on you, where do people find you?

Norah 18:17

Find me at Nora Marie Music. Nora with an h.

Dad 18:21

You can find me, all over the place at John Hyman, uh, NOH, j o n h y M a n. And everybody, if we don't see you before, everybody have a wonderful, um, a wonderful holiday season and we'll see you guys on the flip side. Love you,

Norah 18:41

Love you too.