We Are Family

Norah and Dad recap their busy family Thanksgiving holiday weekend, including a couple of holiday meals for Norah, Christmas tree trimming, Keepsake ornaments, weekend holiday dinner, this fun horse racing game, and lots of family time.

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Question? Ideas for a future episode? Email us at norahanddadshow@gmail.com.

Intro music written and performed by norah marie.

Transcript

Dad 0:00

Hey Nora,

Norah 0:01

Hello dad.

Dad 0:02

do you know what the fastest way is to get eggnog to the party?

Norah 0:06

I don't, and I don't wanna know

Dad 0:08

No. You use the Eggspress Lane

Norah 0:13

Boo.

Dad 0:16

What are we talking about this week, Nora?

Norah 0:19

We're talking about Thanksgiving weekend.

Dad 0:34

welcome back to the, I don't like the way that well come

Norah 0:40

I don't like how that sounded either.

Dad 0:44

Welcome back to the Nora and Dad Show. I am as always the dad with the bad dad jokes. dad, and I'm here with the lovely and talented, my cohost, the one and only Nora. What's Papa Nora?

Norah 0:59

Nothing much back to school tomorrow. Then I have three weeks and then I'm outta here. Peace

Dad 1:05

You're Audi, 5,000 for winter break.

Norah 1:07

Well, I actually only have like a week and a half. So

Dad 1:11

You, but you have a busy, you have like a busy three weeks.

Norah 1:14

I do, but I only have a week and a half of classes. The rest of it's just review. So

Dad 1:19

Yeah. But you've got, you got your musical, you got your mock trial, you got exams and papers, so it's gonna be.

Norah 1:28

one paper.

Dad 1:29

It's gonna be a busy home stretch to get you to winter break, but thankfully your school was kind enough to give you the entire week of Thanksgiving off so you could rest up and get ready for the home stretch to winter break, which is awesome. I've never heard of that before.

Norah 1:44

I think some other schools are doing that this year too,

Dad 1:47

Even like when I was in

Norah 1:48

common.

Dad 1:49

like when I was in college, in law school, we got the, whatever, the five day weekend, you got the nine day weekend, which is, which was awesome.

Norah 1:56

awesome. It was very nice.

Dad 1:58

You,

Norah 1:59

to go back though.

Dad 2:00

you I'm ready for you to go back to.

Norah 2:04

What?

Dad 2:04

ready at. Well, it's, it's, I mean, like, my, my routine gets disrupted when you're not in school. So,

Norah 2:11

mine as well.

Dad 2:12

not, not to make it all about me, but I'm gonna make it all about me. No, it's cuz I'm used to, you know, driving you to school in the morning and then I go into work cuz my office is not too far from the school and then I swing by school afterwards and I either stick around for mock trial or pick you up or whatever. But it's just when you, when you don't go to school, it feels. My routine gets like thrown outta whack. So I, I like it better when you're in school. That's all.

Norah 2:35

all I suppose

Dad 2:38

So how was your Thanksgiving weekend?

Norah 2:41

I thought it was pretty good.

Dad 2:44

You thought it was just, just pretty good?

Norah 2:46

I, I, I have fun

Dad 2:47

We had a lot of family time.

Norah 2:50

Yes, we did.

Dad 2:51

I mean, if, so, if I could put the Thanksgiving, I can put the Thanksgiving weekend into categories. Like we had a lot of family time. We decorated the house for Christmas. We got the house all ready to go for Christmas, which is awesome. And I watched, I watched a lot of soccer, which you did not wanna watch with me.

Norah 3:08

I

Dad 3:08

so disappointed that you don't have like the, like the patriotic fever for the US men's national team and the, and the world.

Norah 3:18

I mean, I hope they win, but I'm not gonna be upset if they lose.

Dad 3:22

Really

Norah 3:23

Yeah.

Dad 3:27

You won't be like devastated, you won't cry. Tears of sadness if the US loses to Iran on. Tuesday, I guess this episode will come out Tuesday morning, so by the time this comes out, we won't know the results. But you, so Tuesday afternoon you won't cry. Tears of sadness if, if Iran marches on in the next round and sends the US home,

Norah 3:46

No, I'll be busy at school.

Dad 3:48

our, our mortal enemy going back, like, going back like 40 plus years.

Norah 3:53

I'm learning about that.

Dad 3:55

Yeah. It's, are you learning about the hostages in the, in 1980?

Norah 3:58

Oh, we, we just finished Israel, so we're now moving Toran and Iraq

Dad 4:04

Okay.

Norah 4:05

and then Saudi Arabia. We have to fit all of that into one and a half weeks. I don't know if we're going to,

Dad 4:10

That is a heavy week and a half of stuff to study in school.

Norah 4:13

yeah, yeah.

Dad 4:15

Geez.

Norah 4:15

want that class to end.

Dad 4:17

Okay, so where do you wanna start? Do you wanna start with family time over Thanksgiving, or do you wanna start with our, our Christmas decorations?

Norah 4:24

Christmas decorations.

Dad 4:26

decorations. So, We put the tree up. It's an artificial tree. I've only ever had an artificial Christmas tree this year I am, let's see, my very first Christmas was in 2001 with your mom, so that makes me 22 in Christmas years this year. So this will be my 22nd. Christmas celebrated on this planet. So I've only ever had an artificial Christmas tree. Never had a real one, but we got a new tree this year, which is really exciting. And it is, I know how fancy it is, but it's not, I mean, they have some that will, like, you can press a button, like, and it'll change from like white to color or color to white, or you can program like light shows. Ours just, it's just. Lights, which is fine. It's classy. I like the white lights. And then we we decorated on Saturday, which is our as, as is our family. We decorated on Friday, which is, see I told you, when you're not in school, my whole like routine gets thrown outta whack. I don't even know what day it is. What day is it now?

Norah 5:33

Sunday

Dad 5:34

Sunday, Sunday. Oh, cuz you're back to school tomorrow, or, that's an easy point of reference. We decorated Friday. As is our family tradition with with ornaments. We always buy each other a brand new ornaments. That is, I guess the, the idea is that we find one of the what, one of the hallmark keepsake ornaments that, that.

Norah 5:59

Okay.

Dad 5:59

To the purchaser, which is usually me or your mom. Signifies something like about that person, right? So your ornament this year was, was what, what, what ornament did you get to put on the tree?

Norah 6:10

I got two.

Dad 6:12

Okay. We'll start with the ones from us.

Norah 6:14

okay. I got Buddy the Ls

Dad 6:17

And why did you get Buddy the elf?

Norah 6:19

Cause that, that's the musical this year, or one of the musicals this year.

Dad 6:23

Yeah, so you're deep in, deep in elf stuff at school. So I thought

Norah 6:26

I am.

Dad 6:26

elf would be, would, would be inappropriate. And it's like super Christmasy too. And we always watch the movie and it's a fun movie.

Norah 6:32

I know the movie very well now,

Dad 6:35

your your brother got a a Super Nintendo console ornament that plays. I don't know, Mario or something. Song that seems to go on when I hit it in, when I hit the button in the store. I didn't know the song was gonna play for like two minutes and it was loud and it just went on. There's, and there's no way to stop

Norah 6:53

I had that same issue

Dad 6:54

I got your mom a, like a flower shop window ornament cuz your mom loves flowers and you guys and your mom got me black Panther or.

Norah 7:05

yes.

Dad 7:06

So those are the newest additions to the to the Hyman family tree. And then you and Ryan also exchanged ornaments.

Norah 7:15

Yes, I got a an axle lottle thing from Minecraft, which I quite like

Dad 7:22

what is that now?

Norah 7:24

an axle lottle

Dad 7:24

you, you need to speak like English.

Norah 7:26

that is English. It's like an animal that lives in, it's, it's real, like it's a real animal.

Dad 7:32

What is it?

Norah 7:33

it? An axil.

Dad 7:34

An alot?

Norah 7:35

Look it up.

Dad 7:37

I've never heard of that before.

Norah 7:40

Oh, they're

Dad 7:40

spell Axle

Norah 7:42

I'm not the best person to,

Dad 7:44

Axo? A X O T O. Oh my God. It is a real thing.

Norah 7:49

Yeah, and they're really cute. Look at'em. They're like little fish

Dad 7:51

It's a, it's a metamorphic salamander. Closely related to the Tiger Salam.

Norah 7:56

they're really cute.

Dad 7:58

Axle Lotts are unusual among amphibians in that they reach adulthood without undergoing metamorphosis. Instead of taking to the land, adults remain aquatic and guilt. The species was originally found in several lakes underlying what is now Mexico City, such as lake, I'm not gonna pronounce that word and I'm not gonna pronounce the other, the other lake word. But they're under what is now Mexico City as I don't speak Spanish. These lakes were drained by Spanish settlers after the conquest of the Aztec Empire leading to the destruction of much of the a lot's natural habitat. I'll be darned okay.

Norah 8:36

Yeah. So I got that.

Dad 8:38

There's your, there's your science lesson for the day,

Norah 8:41

and I'll maybe, I'll, maybe I'll learn about that in ecology during our

Dad 8:44

There you go. Okay. And so, and then you

Norah 8:47

Ryan a, a silly dog that looks like the family dog at their.

Dad 8:53

Lovely. And the best part of decorating the tree, other than seeing the ornaments that we purchase for each other to add to the tree is going back. And as we decorate the tree, we now have at least, you know, you have 16 years worth of ornaments. Your Donovan has 14 years worth of ornaments. And me and your mom both have, you know, 20 plus years worth of ornaments to go on the tree. That kind of takes us back. It's like a little walk down memory lane as we

Norah 9:18

And Ryan has two

Dad 9:20

And Ryan has two. Yeah, but we have, and it's kind of a little the tree becomes like a time capsule of our family,

Norah 9:27

Mm-hmm.

Dad 9:28

so lots of buzz light ears are on the tree. There's lots of Sesame Street on the tree because you were in your younger youth. You were a major Sesame Street stand. Like you loved the se.

Norah 9:45

Thees.

Dad 9:45

The se you never heard it called. Maybe I just made that up.

Norah 9:48

No, I definitely think you just made that up. That's awful.

Dad 9:52

Why is that awful?

Norah 9:53

just is. I don't like it.

Dad 9:55

Right? I'm gonna send this off to this SMB workshop and see if it's acceptable if we call it thees.

Norah 9:59

It isn't,

Dad 10:04

Remember, do you remember going to Sesame Place when you broke down in tears because you didn't get to meet the you didn't get to meet the characters?

Norah 10:11

I don't

Dad 10:13

There was a

Norah 10:13

word for it.

Dad 10:14

there was the parade down, whatever the, the main street equivalent of Sesame Place was and all the characters they pulled kids out of the crowd to march down the parade route with them, and you really wanted to get picked and you didn't get picked, and you just started crying. And us an employee felt really bad. And so they took us to the backstage area where we got a private party with all of the, with all of the Sesame Street characters

Norah 10:41

Oh wait. Actually,

Dad 10:43

actually, yes.

Norah 10:44

It seems a little excessive.

Dad 10:46

So I suppose the moral of the story is if you cry a lot, you get your way, but I'm not sure that's a great lesson to teach a kid.

Norah 10:53

Yeah. I don't know.

Dad 10:54

Yeah. Now I'm not a fan of that lesson at all. But it was nice to have the private Sesame Place party, I suppose.

Norah 11:01

Yeah, I mean, I'm sure I enjoyed that.

Dad 11:02

You got hugs from Cookie Monster and Elmo and Bert, Ernie and Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch and everybody. They were all there.

Norah 11:11

They were all there.

Dad 11:12

They were always Cause Cause Well yeah, cuz it was Sesame Place. That's what they do. That's where they live.

Norah 11:19

Okay.

Dad 11:21

Okay. Yeah, so. So you lots of Sesame Street ornaments like I said, cuz you were a big, a big fan of the ses. Yeah, it is a lots of, we've moved on to the Marvel ornaments now. We have lots of Marvel ornaments. It's just a, a lovely walk down memory lane of. Of our family and kind of everything that, that is the ornament, the ornaments speak to kind of us as a family. So the, the tree just becomes a nice kind of, I was gonna say living like memento, but the tree's, not, it's an artificial tree, but it's, it's, it's a, it's, it's a tree. So and it's, I can see it from where I'm sitting as we're recording. It's, it's, it, it act, it actually looks really nice. So, so that's up the house is, the outside of the house is decorated with lights. The stockings are up on the mantle. We're we're, we're ready. We're ready for Santa to to visit the house.

Norah 12:11

Yes'.

Dad 12:12

Are are, are you ready for Santa Claus? Are you gonna go to bed Nice and early on Christmas Eve so Santa can deliver the gifts

Norah 12:17

I go to bed nice and early every night.

Dad 12:20

you do. You're the only teenager in America that is likes to be in bed by nine o'clock at night.

Norah 12:27

I enjoy my sleep.

Dad 12:29

I know you do. It's great.

Norah 12:30

I don't know, it's not like I have like.

Dad 12:33

Most teenagers stay up until like, I don't know, like, like your brother, like till like 1, 2, 3 in the morning doing whatever, and you're like, nine o'clock, like lights out, I'm done.

Norah 12:43

I don't know. I don't like staying up late unless I have to. Like even when Ryan's over, the latest I stay up is probably like 1130.

Dad 12:51

what a fun date you are.

Norah 12:54

Yeah.

Dad 12:56

Ha. And so that was, I guess that was part one of the holiday weekend. And then part two was a whole lot of family time, which was also which as we talked about last time is my, is like my favorite part of Thanksgiving. But we got it in, we got it in two doses. So we had the Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday at in Kathleen's house with like the whole family. And minus your uncle Pat who was down in Kentucky and, and then oh, and Uncle Jerry who did not come in cuz he was having car trouble. So we were Oh. And Anna did not come in cuz she's a doctor and she was on call. So we had, most of, most of the family was there. And and we, and we feasted we feasted a lot. Did you say you did or did not have my smoked.

Norah 13:48

I did. Donovan didn't

Dad 13:49

You did, Donovan did not. How was the how was the smoke? Turkey?

Norah 13:53

it was very TAs.

Dad 13:54

Yum. Yeah. I would never I don't think I'd ever cook a Turkey in a different way ever in the future other than what I did, which was to, which is, this is my new favorite word, spatchcock, which is where you cut the backbone, the spine out of the bird, and you kind of, Flat, which they say make allows it to cook. It definitely cooks faster but also more evenly cuz you're getting rid of that big open cavity in the middle of the bird. And then on, yeah, and then on the smoker. And it was, it was it was amazing. I thought it was amazing. And you did not you did not get your pie on Thursday night.

Norah 14:30

no, I didn't, I wasn't feeling good.

Dad 14:33

Yeah, that was your second thing. It was your second dinner. So

Norah 14:35

yeah, I had, I had a, I had a slice of pie at the first one.

Dad 14:39

yeah. It's understandable why your belly might not have you. You've reached at the, the ripe age of 16. You've reached the point in your life where you now have two Thanksgivings to go to.

Norah 14:49

Yeah.

Dad 14:50

Yeah. Mo Yeah. Yeah. So you were, you were. No, it, no, it, it is normal. But it's normal. Like when you're in a No, it is, but usually, I don't know a lot of, I don't know. Do any of your friends go to two Thanksgivings?

Norah 15:03

I don't really have any friends that are in relationships.

Dad 15:07

That's what I'm saying. So it's like a relationship thing. But most 16 year olds are not at that point in their life where they have two Thanksgivings to go to. So,

Norah 15:15

I see what you're saying now.

Dad 15:16

ah, so yeah, so understandable why you might be full and not ready for. Second pie on, on on Thanksgiving night. And then last night, Saturday nights we had not really second, second Thanksgiving, but your family dinner. We've historically done a family adult dinner on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. We did not do that this year. It's usually when we do it, it's been out at a restaurant and it's, it is no kids. That's why we call it the adult

Norah 15:44

too many adults were missing this.

Dad 15:46

Yeah, there were a lot of adults that were missing and then it's, it was and then you gotta find sitters for the littles and whatever. So we did not do second we did not do adult dinner. We did a family dinner at at your cousin's house where your Uncle Mike cooked a, an amazing prime rib. And we. Ate and we drank and we laughed and we played this rocking like horse racing game that I had never heard of before, but it was like a tremendous amount of fun.

Norah 16:17

Yeah, I thought it was fun. I, mom and I did really well on our team.

Dad 16:21

You did. Do you want to maybe try and explain like, how the game is played?

Norah 16:24

Let's see, so it's like, it's a horse betting games. You get poker chips and. At the beginning of the race, four horses are taken out. So you roll the dye to see which horses one through 12 will be taken out and it, so the first horse, you have to put one poker chip in. If you had that one, and then the last horse, you have to put four and you kind of like go one to four, how many chips you have to put in, and then you just keep rolling and whatever number you roll on the die that. like that's number of the horse. And then you have to move that horse one spot, but it's also based off of the probability. So like seven has the most number of like possible outcomes you can have while rolling a die. While one and 12. That can only, sorry, I thought, oh yeah, nevermind. It's two through 12. Two is, you can only get that one way. It was a very intense game.

Dad 17:25

it was. And then your Delta playing cards what, two through Queen. And that's the cards that are in your, you get the Delta four cards and the cards in your hands correspond to the numbers of the horses. And then if the horse that wins, the people that have, that are holding the cards for those, those number horses split the pot. As the pot builds as you, cuz you, as you're rolling the dice and this horses that are scratched not in the race. If you roll those numbers, you keep throwing chips into the pot and then you split the pot at the end. Or if you're lucky, which I don't think happened to anybody last night you're the only one holding a card and then you, you take the whole pot. But it was. He was super intent as we're all standing around the, the kitchen island rolling dice and like screaming. As my apple watch is telling me our decibel level was too high last night as we're screaming at the top of our lungs cheering on the horses, trying to trying to win the pot of chips. It was great.

Norah 18:21

Oh, the dogs were barking. It's going crazy.

Dad 18:25

Yeah. Like, I've never, yeah, it's, it's like the most, I've cheered and screamed playing a, playing a game in some, it was a lot of fun. So I gotta figure out, I'll, I'll find, I'll find a link and I'll drop the link in the, in the show notes just to like, where you can, like, if you wanna play where you can actually find this game. But it was a tremendous amount of fun. And now we, and now you're back to school and we move on to the to the rest of the holiday season. So good luck getting through your last three weeks of school.

Norah 18:55

Thanks.

Dad 18:57

Yeah, I, I mean, I think you'll be, I think you'll be fine, but

Norah 19:00

I'll be fine.

Dad 19:01

yeah. And then on to second semester, and, and then you, you'll

Norah 19:05

We get like a nice two and a half week break first,

Dad 19:08

do you guys get the longest winter break, which again is super nice, but. Two and a half weeks is a long break.

Norah 19:16

and then third quarter is easy peasy.

Dad 19:18

Easy peasy

Norah 19:19

have like no full days of school

Dad 19:23

I know between the holidays and then teacher in service days and whatever, parent teacher conference days and spring breaks and other things. Yeah, you have very few. And then snow, the inevitable snow days that we're gonna get here in northeast Ohio, you have very few full weeks of school between when, when you go back and like and when school ends in May.

Norah 19:46

No. After spring break is when it picks up, it's just third quarter. That's pretty.

Dad 19:51

Yeah. Well, so good luck on your last, whatever. Good luck on your last three weeks of school. And yeah, we'll see everyone back here in two weeks with lit with another episode. Anything, anything else you wanna add?

Norah 20:02

Not really. Hope you had a good Thanksgiving.

Dad 20:05

We did. I hope everyone else had a good Thanksgiving too. We'll be back in two weeks or maybe we can, we'll pick up on the holiday theme and we'll talk some about, we can talk some about Christmas in two weeks. How's that sound?

Norah 20:16

that works for me.

Dad 20:17

That works. All right. We will see everyone back here in two weeks. Love you, Nora.

Norah 20:25

you too.