Greetings, and welcome back to ZacCast, your official podcast for local government nerdery of all kinds. I'm Chad. That is Pat. Today, we're gonna talk about the holidays. So why don't we just jump on in, Pat? What do you say?

Yeah, let's jump into it, man.

All right.

It's good to see you.

You too. So first up, uh, just a quick commentary, like a really brief commentary on some economic trends, retail sales forecast over the holidays. Um, I just saw that GDP for the last quarter was revised up to 5.2%. Um, we've also seen some articles here about retail sales forecast. The National Retail Federation projected earlier this month about 3% to 4% growth in holiday spending over last year, which is obviously still nominal growth, but that trend has kind of come down, and we found a CN- CNBC article that explains that that growth is kind of expected to be kind of pre-pandemic levels, right?

Mm-hmm.

So we've had a couple of years of inflation. Shoppers are a little bit more deal hungry, and so that rate of growth is expected to kind of drop down. So what do you think? I, I, I can tell you right now, Patrick, that I'm expecting certainly to spend less this year. That's kind of my expectation.

Yeah, I, I would, I would agree with that. Um, you know, one, just to kind of give a few numbers out there, um, between 2010 and 2019, the average growth, uh, in retail sales over the Christmas holiday period was 3.6%. Uh, current inflation sits at 3.7%. The GDP number being higher than inflation is a, is a good sign, right? Uh, seeing that GDP growth, uh, growing from, uh, from a pretty positive level. Uh, but yeah, I mean, I think personally for me it feels like this is a little bit more of a pullback year when it comes to, um, spending. But, you know, then again, we're also looking at data, uh, that comes into our platform, and we're seeing, you know, what I would consider, and we've talked about this for a few months, but we're seeing soft, uh, retail sales, right? Or softening retail sales, uh, that are coming in. So it looks like consumers are kind of holding back a little bit. Looks like these interest rate increases, uh, which the Fed has said they're not gonna make another increase before the end of the year, uh, it looks like those interest rate increases have kind of hit. Mortgage rates have dropped another 20 basis points or so over the past two to three days, so we're seeing a little softening in the mortgage rate side. So it just seems like we're getting through a cooling cycle or we're, we're in the middle of a cooling cycle. But yeah, I mean, I wish I could say that we were pulling back significantly, 'cause I'd love to save some money on the holiday sale side. Uh, and we've talked about this in previous years, but, um, you know, we do this thing where Christmas, where it's like we buy you something you want, something you need, something to read, and something else that's like a Santa gift, I think. Um, but, uh, you know, it's kind of... So we, we pretty much limit what we buy, but the size of those gifts, uh, can be pretty substantial. I will say it has been interesting to me just looking at the anecdotal data that's out there. I don't think, I said this to my wife, and my wife said, "Ah, I think it happened last year too," but I don't remember Black Friday sales being extended for like a whole week, right? I remember them starting early in the Thanksgiving week, like that happened. But if you watch all the commercials that came out yesterday, like after Cyber, uh, Monday, so yesterday was Tuesday after Se- Cyber Monday, right? Um, like Lowe's, Home Depot, Walmart, everybody is running... Everybody except for Amazon. Take note that Amazon's not doing that. I guess Amazon's probably hit their, their number for the year maybe, I don't know. Um, but everybody's doing like this, "We've extended Black Friday for a full week," or calling it some other sale, but it's the Black Friday deals are extended through this new sale. Um, and I find that interesting, because I think retailers are trying to hit a specific number, right? And just like baseball, the retail industry has become very Moneyball centric. Uh, and they have lots of data flowing in, and they know exactly what they're selling and what their inventory levels are. And it's interesting to me, it seems like that would be a sign that it, there were softer sales during the holiday periods than they expected, and that's why they're extending sales.

Yeah. You also have a lot of retailers that still have a ton of inventory.

Yep.

Um, one interesting thing, I saw a, I saw a video, I think on Twitter, where someone was at Target and, you know, they have all the Black Friday sale signs up, and they would go in and like slide out the Black Friday s- sale number, and behind it was the regular sticker price.

Ah.

And like they're all the same, so.

Yeah.

It's just sort of a, like a mental, um, barrier like, or, you know, sort of like a psychological thing where you see that this is a sale price, and so it makes you feel more warm and fuzzy about it, but in reality they weren't actually dropping the prices that much.

So what do you use, what do you use Black Friday and Cyber Monday for? Do y'all use that for Christmas shopping or is that-

We, we used to, man. We used to go-

Okay

... me and my brother would go wait in line at Best Buy at like 3:00 in the morning on Black Friday.

Okay.

Um, and fight the crowds, you know, try to... We'd wanna get a TV or I think one year he wanted to get a projector, like a, you know, like a HDMI or a HD projector. I haven't actually gone to a store on Black Friday in at least a decade.

Yeah. Yeah.

It's like well before we had kids.

It, it's, it's funny to me because, like, I've never been, like, a Christmas shopper on Black Friday, right? I've always had, like, one big item to get. So, like, last year I, I needed a Roomba vacuum. I needed to replace my old Roomba. I wanted to get the one that has the, uh, the automatic, uh, like, bag system to it where it, like, sucks out the stuff from the... I don't know if you've ever-

Oh, so like it goes back to a charging station and then sucks the, the receptacle-

It sucks it into, like, this bag receptacle and so, and, and for you, for every- anybody who's had a Roomba, like-One of the things I hated the most about Roombas is they, they would never be able to do your whole house without having to be emptied.

Mm-hmm.

And so they would just always stop in the middle of the room, like, "Change my," you know, or, "Empty my bin," right? And so this new system, it goes back to the base, it recharges, it sucks it all up, and then it goes and vacuums the same job again, which is an amazing enhancement of Roombas. But, like, last year it was Roomba, this year it was TVs, right? And I was fascinated, fascinated by the TV sales that were out there. Amazon actually was not the cheapest on Cyber Monday for TVs. Um, you know, basically same light TV, uh, from Best Buy was significantly cheaper. And it seemed... And I was checking these prices. Like, I was checking all the way from Black Friday through Cyber Monday, and I just kept checking prices, and it seemed like these retailers were really playing a lot of games with their pricing to move inventory, uh, and when inventory wasn't moving. So we got to, to the end of Cyber Monday, and there were $100, $200 additional drops on TVs, um, at Best Buy, that the same TV at Walmart didn't have the same price drop to, right? Uh, so it was just... It was really interesting to me to see. I ended up getting two TVs, um, and because I'm doing some replacements and some things around the house, and-

You got two TVs?

I got two TVs. I paid less-

That was a, that was a Back to the Future reference for all those-

Oh. Was it? Which, which, which Back to the Future?

The first one.

Oh.

Whenever, uh, he's having dinner with his mom's family.

When he's got the Calvin Kleins on?

Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. This is after he's already found himself in bed with his mom, right?

Yes. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. So-

What's a rerun?

What's a rerun? Yeah, there you go. Yeah, that's a good one too. Um, so I bought... Yeah, I bought two TVs. Uh, I bought a 50-inch TV, right? Which you remember back in the days, like when a 42-inch TV was, like, huge-

Mm-hmm

... and we were like, "Man, I'm gonna get a 42-inch TV." That was so awesome. Um, so I bought a 50-inch TV, and I bought a 75-inch TV, right? Now, I actually had to look at this. A 75-inch TV is, like, six foot one inches wide.

Mm-hmm.

Right? And then a little less than four feet tall, right? Um, which, you know, I'm like Tim, Na- Toby and Taylor on that one. Like, oh, oh, oh, oh, bigger is better.

Is that for your, uh, your little, like, movie room thing?

Yeah, it's for the little pool-

The TV room?

... like the TV pool house thing-

Oh, okay. So it's... Okay

... we're building. Yeah. So, uh, and-

So the issue with the TVs is not about the size, it's about the ratio of the size to the viewing distance.

True, but with, with, uh, with LED, it's not as bad as it was with, like, plasma. With plasma, you would have, like, viewing distance issues where you couldn't be too close to it, right? With LEDs, that's not really an issue as much. So we'll see. I don't know. I'm putting a 75-inch in kind of a small space, so you may have called me out there for some problems. We'll, we'll see what happens. But, um, and then the 50-inch, for all those that have talked to me offline, or I guess I've talked about this on the podcast a little bit, but, uh, the 50-inch is my Peloton TV. I have a TV now just to work out to my Peloton stuff. So, um, and so that, that's, uh, you know... It's gotta be big enough to where the trainer, like, feels like he's in the room, you know, and he's yelling at me. That's... The, the reason Peloton's so good for me is because it's like my high school football coach yelling at me from the other side of the, of the, uh, the weight room, "Fatty Patty, go faster." You know, things like that. So it's-

I'm glad to know that your coach hadn't already given up on you.

He never gave up on me.

Since even if you just look at the playing time sc- uh, stats, it seemed like he had.

Yeah.

So I'm glad to know that he was still pushing you.

Oh, thank you. Thank, thank you for that. My, my poor nephew, you know, good news is none of my, none of my old coaches listen to our podcast 'cause they're not data city nerds. Uh, but my old football coach, uh, at Katy High School is now coaching my nephew. Uh, and that poor kid, they, they're, uh, in off-season, they're calling him Patrick. He looks nothing like me, by the way. He's like, he's three inches taller than me and super skinny and, you know... But they're calling him Patrick, and I just think, I think that's so funny that they're doing that to him. So, uh, anyways, two TVs, 50-inch, 75-inch, uh, less than 800 bucks total for both those TVs.

Yeah.

And I was just shocked for that. And I am a big fan. You know, we could talk about this on another podcast, but, uh, what TV technology are you a fan of? Like, are you a Roku person? Are you a Google TV person? I'm a Fire TV person. Like, I like the Fire TV system personally.

Yeah. Um, I, I actually have preferred the, the LG platform.

Okay.

Um, it's just simple, and-

Is that a webOS, or is that their own platform?

It's, I think it's webOS.

Okay.

But the actual interface is just really s- really minimal and simple.

Okay.

And it's easy to get from, like, Netflix to Amazon to Disney to whatever.

Yeah.

Um, and it's easy for me to figure out like, "Oh yeah, here's how I go install one of these apps." We had a bunch of other types, like the Sony one was always awful 'cause it was running on Android.

Yeah.

And it was, it would crash like every day. I just never liked that.

I mean, I love my, I love my Apple TV, like in, in my media room, that's what we have. We have an Apple TV in that runs that. It runs so much faster than anything else, and it's just more, it's just, it's just better. But the problem is, is like I don't... Especially now when you hang TVs on the wall, like it's so nice to not have any wires going to the TV at all, right? It's just plug it in, it's Wi-Fi, no wires. It's awesome. Um, but so I, I don't really use Apple TVs on all my other TVs. So I, I have some gen... I have like two gen one Apple TVs that are no longer used in my house. They're just like, you know, hockey pucks that lay around. So, but yeah. So I mean, that's what I use Black Friday for. It's always like one or two items that I'm gonna go get, and then I spend the whole weekend checking on prices from 50 different places on one or two TVs.

Sounds like a good use of your time.

It was a fantastic use of my time.So since we're talking about holidays, we'll talk-

Well, hold on real quick, real quick.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

I wanna go back to the Roomba question.

Okay.

Because I saw something at ... I got my kids haircuts, uh, this weekend, and I saw something that I'd never seen at a haircut place, which is ... It was, like, a kids' haircut place, so maybe they were just trying to be super efficient about it, or I, I don't know, but when they would sweep the hair up, they just had this little vent at the ground level on the floor, and they would just push the hair up, and it would just suck it up. So, like, they didn't have to actually scoop the hair up.

Did you go to Sport Clips?

No. Do they have that at Sport Clips too?

Well, they, they used to have the vacuums, but, like, the newer ones have that, just, like, it sucks up off the floor.

Yeah. I'd like to do that at my house.

I've always had a dream of that, like an internal vacuum system in the house.

Yeah. Where you could just-

That'd be awesome

... over to the wall, suck it up. It'll be good.

Especially at your house with, like, the nine kids that y'all have.

And the dogs, all the dog hair.

Well, I'm including the dogs and the nine kids.

Oh, okay. Yeah.

But, yeah. Well, is that right? Is that right?

That's right, yeah.

Yeah. You add 'em all up.

Five plus four.

Five plus four.

Aggie math.

That's nine. Hey, you gotta get, you gotta get there. So

All right.

Uh-

So speaking of holidays-

Yep

... Patrick, we had, uh, in Hudson Oaks, a rather large holiday festival, um, both in terms of, like, actual individual events, but also a big light display-

Yep

... at the park.

Still large to this day. They still do it.

And so we're going through some of the TML Connect news, and, like, a third of the articles are about everyone's holiday events. And so we figured let's just talk about what goes into a holiday event, um, all of the planning, all the effort, whether it's a, like, a one-day thing or, like, a parade or an ongoing thing that people can come to on a daily basis. Particularly maybe, Patrick, about how fun it was to actually build those light shows.

Uh.

'Cause you've asked me a lot of times if I was ever gonna do that at my house, but-

Yes

... I don't know if the software's changed, but I don't use Windows machines, and that was pretty much all that was available, you know, six, seven years ago, so.

Yeah, I ... W- remember, we had to buy an actual, like, laptop computer to just program our light shows.

Right.

Right? Yeah. So I, you know, uh, I miss it, to be honest. Which by the way, have you started setting up your, your, uh, Christmas vacation house yet?

Uh, so I am ... We are scaling back this year.

Whoa.

Yeah. I'm taking a year off.

So no drum roll please. Oh.

So we have the lights on the house, and we're doing some of the inflatables and the, like, the vertical elements.

Right.

But I'm not putting lights all over the ground this year.

So, so my house is under construction, right? I've got a lot of construction going on at the house right now, and so, uh, we don't have gutters on our house right now 'cause we're redoing the soffits and stuff. And so, um, I'm not putting up Christmas lights. So I ordered ... This is actually an interesting story. I ordered a Grinch, because that's all that we're gonna put up is just a Grinch that's stealing all the Christmas gifts. It's just gonna be an inflatable. It's, like, nine foot high by 12 foot wide or so, and that's gonna be the only Christmas decoration we have this year, which I think is fitting. Um, but, um, we ordered it from Bed Bath & Beyond.

Hm.

They're not even open anymore.

I know. I was gonna say, didn't they file for bankruptcy?

But the irony of this is I was sitting in the car, and I was thinking to myself, the irony of ordering something online from Bed Bath & Beyond is one of the major reasons they went out of business is because they absolutely refused to have a strong online presence, e-commerce presence, right? So they go bankrupt. Somebody buys the name and turns them into an e-commerce provider. By the way, still waiting on that Grinch to arrive. Told my wife yesterday, "I hope this is not a fake website that we bought this from." So ... Because we keep getting notifications that it's getting kicked back another day, another day. So it's supposed to be here on Tuesday or yesterday, and it's now gonna be here on Friday. It's been kicked back three times so far. So we'll see, you know, whether this is real or not. But i- interesting tidbit of, uh, a brick-and-mortar company who refused to be an e-commerce company, which is now an e-commerce only company, which is, you know, just wild to me. But yeah, so Christmas decorations. Uh, first off, Chad, did you ... So when we worked at Hudson Oaks, small town, love it, you know. Talk about Christmases in small towns are just a ... It's an incredible thing to do from a management perspective. But we would kind of as a city, as a staff, like, we would shut down for, like, a two weeks probably and just decorate stuff, right? So-

Yeah, pretty much

... you know, h- how did you feel as a guy with a master's degree, assistant city manager, putting up Christmas lights?

Oh, I had no problem with it. I mean, the only thing that kind of sucked about it was that I would then go home and do the exact same thing. So I was spending, like, 12 hours a day putting-

Yeah

... Christmas lights out. Um, but I mean, the, the great thing about a small city is that you get to have that change of pace, and so, um, you know, taking a week and, you know, spending half of the time or, you know, whatever it is doing something totally different is fun, right? It's, it's ... If, if that was all you did all year long, it would become grinding. But just to spend, you know, 20, 25 hours in a week doing it was just different, right? So it, it wasn't a-

W-

... it wasn't a chore or a burden.

Would you say your, like, your favorite time of the year in a small town was December, like November through December, or would you say your favorite time of the year in a small town was, like, the July timeframe, like, the July 4th timeframe?

No, I hated our July 4th event.

How can you hate American independence?

I, I don't hate American independence.

Like-

I hated the event

... it's fast cars and apple pie, man.

I know. I, I wanted to do, like, a dramatic reading of the Declaration, and that never happened.

Oh, I do remember this. I do remember this. We did read, like, a Thomas Jefferson letter at one, though-

No, you didn't

... if I remember right. Yes, we did.

Well, it was after I left.

Yeah.

Uh, but I didn't like that one because it was, it was hot, and there were so many people all at once, and then getting them all out of there, there was always some drama

Okay.

To put it lightly.

We have some good stories of Chad getting mad at bus drivers.

Not bus drivers. The, the-... law enforcement that would come help us.

Yeah, to, I mean to put that into perspective, we're-

'Cause we have like, we have like a logistics plan in place, and it would get totally disrupted by people who weren't, who came in to help and weren't part of all of the planning, but just-

Yeah

... wanted to take over.

Yeah. And-

It didn't work out

... and, and to put this into perspective, like we were, at the time, we were a town of like 2,000. Now there are probably almost 5,000. But at the time we were like a town of 2,000, and we were hosting like 8 to 10,000 people for July 4th, right? So-

And they're all waiting

... it was a, a pretty-

At 9:30

... pretty sizable undertaking. Yeah. Uh, thankfully some of the surrounding towns have started doing some July 4th, uh, events that have taken a little bit of the pressure off, uh, of, of that event. But, um, yeah, I mean, the Christmas event probably was my favorite event. I, I loved booming forth, man. Like, I just, I love the laying, sitting i- in the grass with my family park moment of fireworks over the top. In India it was always like a 3D fireworks show, right? Occasionally one would like come towards the crowd. Just kidding. But, um, the, the Christmas event was probably my favorite time of the year. Mainly 'cause just the culture of our staff around that time, like just the, the giving nature and, you know, we did Angel Tree as a staff, and we did... We just did a lot of really cool things that were-

Did the Wii bowling tournament that turned into the cornhole tournament.

The Wii, yeah. Yeah. But it was just, it was a lot of just like, we spent like the whole month of December doing nothing but like team-building, right?

Mm-hmm.

Like cultural team-building. And then just giving back, like community give back events. And so-

Yeah, the-

... things like that, so

... Salvation Army.

Yeah. I mean, you know, bell ringing and all that kind of stuff. Like there's just-

Why was it always the most frigid day of December?

Dude, you could pick it, and we were always on a different day.

It wouldn't matter what day you picked. It was always gonna be like 25 degrees.

But whate- And, and I blame Shelley for that, 'cause Shelley's the one who always booked that if she listens to our podcast. But she would, even i- if she did listen to our podcast, she would never actually admit to listening to our podcast. She wouldn't give us that benefit. But 100%, Shelley would pick it like in November, right? She'd pick the day, and we would all say, "That's gonna be the coldest day of December." And it al- it was like 14 degrees. So bad.

25 mile an hour winds.

So terrible. Yeah. I will tell you, there was like a really, really cold day, and I was not feeling well. Uh, and shout out to our police chief, Mike Baldwin, who came out there. And, uh, I rang for like 15 minute- I think we normally rang for like half an hour or an hour. I can't remember.

It was an hour.

It was an hour? Yeah. And I rang for maybe like 15 minutes to 30 minutes, and he came out and rang my, the rest of my time period, which was nice. Uh, and then I went home.

I will tell you, the, the best part of that for me was because our staff was like 65% police officers-

Mm-hmm

... right? Um, you were always gonna either have an officer there before you or after you, like relieving you or you were relieving them.

Yeah.

And to me, one of the coolest things was getting to see all the people coming into the store who knew the officers.

Yeah.

Right? And they would like t- chat and talk to them, and you could tell that there was already a relationship between them.

Yeah.

Uh, 'cause you don't get to see that when you're at City Hall 'cause they're all out in the field, so that was-

It is cool. You know, I, I've been a resident here for a long time too, but it is cool to like be mowing your lawn and an officer jump out of the car and say hi to you, right? Know you by name, right? And, and that's, that's always kind of been the community there. I'd, I'd be curious to know like with the growth that we've had in the area, whether that's still the same, but, um, I know most of the officers still. Um, I didn't know one the other day who happened to, uh, pull me over. Uh, but I got to know them very well afterwards. So um, but anyways, I, I... The Christmas event is, it's a lot of fun. It was a lot of work though. And we did, we did like the light shows, you know, like the, uh, Christmas light fight stuff if you guys watch that on ABC. Uh, we did all those light shows around our park. And so we had this tunnel system, and it would dance to the music, and we had trees that would dance to music, all that type of stuff, and, uh, it was a pretty extensive little show. Um, they, they've got a little more professional now. I know they, they bring some people in to help them decorate, uh, and, and do some other stuff, and it's, it's still pretty cool. But, uh, some, some of the big like decorations that we've bought, uh, they've added to that and they've done some more. It's pretty, it's pretty cool, man. Like still to this day it's, it's, it's, it's a very fun event. Um, but it was, uh, it was hard work, right? I mean, it wasn't easy and we had to go out there, and it was constant maintenance.

Mm-hmm.

'Cause it, our, it, the show ran every night, right? From, uh, basically Black Friday all the way through New Year's, the show ran every single night. And so-

And you'd change it like once a week?

Yeah, and you'd always have kids that would unplug stuff, and we would change the music once a week so that the next, you know, if you wanted to come back out the following week and then, um... And then, you know, some of the events team did a really good job of like adding the hot chocolate vendors every night and that type of stuff, so it kinda added to, to, uh, what was there. So, um, yeah, I mean, I, I, I thought that was a, I thought that was a blast, to be honest.

Well, now you got a hot take though.

What's that?

About decorating.

What about decorating?

I don't know. You said you had some kinda hot take that you didn't want me to weigh in on yet.

Oh. It's all coming back to me now, Chad.

It all... Yeah, Celine Dion right here.

Okay, so big debate. In my world, this is a big debate. Do you put Christmas up before Thanksgiving?

You're asking do I?

Do you find it acceptable for people to put Christmas up, Christmas lights, Christmas trees-

Mm-hmm

... Christmas music in a store?

Okay.

Like, do you find any of that acceptable?

So let me, let me start with our system.

Okay.

And then we can go to the stuff that's like out in public-

Mm-hmm

... and kinda treat those separately, okay? So we have our Christmas lights strung around the house whenever there's an available time, as long as it's before Thanksgiving. So the guy who does our lights, he does so many houses that he will start like towards the end of October. In fact, sometimes he'll do, he'll do, um, Halloween lights and then just change out the bulbs.

Okay.

So usually I will tell him, "Whenever you have availabilityAs long as it's before Thanksgiving, that's fine. We don't turn them on until Thanksgiving. Um, when I would do the whole Griswold set up outside, I would have to have the lights on the ground in the yard before Thanksgiving, and then we would wait until Thanksgiving to put all the vertical stuff up.

Okay.

And that would usually take, like, the weekend, and then maybe another week of sort of stragglers, but we'd have the bulk of it done the week, uh... the weekend after Thanksgiving. But in order to do all of the vertical stuff, you have to have the stuff on the ground first. And so I would usually start around the beginning of November. Like, r- as soon as the grass really stops growing and I get my, my last mow, then I would go out and start to string all the lights on the ground. On the inside of the house, we usually have, uh, the Christmas tree up and decorated, like, the week of Thanksgiving. So the last three or four years-

After Thanksgiving or before?

The last three or four years we have had it done before Thanksgiving, but that week.

Okay.

And then, then my wife will go out and she'll, like, do the interior decorations usually that, that week or shortly after Thanksgiving. We did it early this year because she took a trip on Thanksgiving, uh, with a couple of the kids, and so she wanted to have that done, so she did it before Thanksgiving. Um, but, like, I mean, I don't have a problem. To me, with, especially with, with kids and with work, like, as I get older, the season just goes so fast that it's really hard to, like, take it in and kind of get into the Christmas spirit.

Yeah.

And so I don't mind having the stuff out a little bit longer because the kids get really excited, and it kind of puts you in a m- in a mood earlier. Um, the thing I hate doing is the elves, but everything else I'm okay with.

You're still doing the elves?

I s-

The elf on the shelf?

Yes.

Yeah. It's terrible. We never gave into that. We talked about this a couple years ago.

Yeah. Yes.

But yeah. We just never gave in to the elf on the shelf. So I will tell you, I don't mind people putting up Christmas lights early and not turning them on, but putting them up and then turning them on, like, that just... that kills me. I c- I can't do it. It's not Christmas yet. Christmas season doesn't start till after, after the pumpkin pie season.

Yeah.

Like, they're-

I, I-

... different seasons to me.

I think it's important that we keep Thanksgiving, like, as its own holiday, 'cause it's an important holiday to just have a day where you reflect on things that you're thankful for. Um-

Yeah

... so it has a lot of value as its own holiday. I, I don't like it totally bleeding. Like, when you talk about at stores, right? I understand if you have to get out, you know, Christmas decorations, right? 'Cause they, they start getting out, um, Halloween decorations at, after Labor Day. Uh, you know, they'll put the summer stuff away and start getting out all the g- the Halloween stuff. So, like, I understand that they have to get that stuff out because you have to buy it in order to get ready for it. The Christmas music I'm not as big of a fan on, uh, of, when they start playing that at the beginning of Thanksgiving. But yeah. I mean, I... There's a, there's always a question of logistics and, uh, are you gonna have enough time to get everything ready if you waited until right after Thanksgiving. Um, we were watching a Christmas movie yesterday or two days ago, and, like, they didn't put up their Christmas tree until the 22nd of December. Like, to me, that's, that's lame.

So it i- it is interesting. When I was a kid, we would always do... we'd always go cut a Christmas tree down and, um, and do live trees, and we always waited until, like, a week or two before Christmas. Like, we never did it super early. Um, so, and I've never really asked my parents that, but I think that maybe, like, with an older generation was more common-

Mm-hmm

... to wait till closer to Christmas to do that. Um, that'd be an interesting conversation to have, but yeah. So for us, like, our family routine is it's Thanksgiving... My, my wife has these decorating boxes. They're like these totes, right? And, like, every holiday has a tote. And so it's like, "Hey, time to bring out..." You know, we have to go to the attic, which by the way, when you have a kid who is old enough to go climb up in the attic and bring a box down, that's a game changer. It's fantastic. So go a-

Yeah. That's why we built-

Yeah

... that's why we built the elevator-

Yes

... on my loft here.

Yes.

That was the-

Yeah. You have, like, a-

That was-

... like, a wheelchair lift basically, right?

Yeah. It was the best-

Yeah

... $1,000 change order that I've ever- ... have spent. 'Cause it's this, like, totally custom designed and, and built, and it's just a pulley on a-

Wow

... um... And then there's, like, a rail system that just pulls up this little, uh, platform. It's wonderful.

Yeah. It's pretty nice. That i- that is pretty nice. Um, so I, I, I think, um, I think, like, for our holiday, so it's usually the day after... So Black Friday, day after Thanksgiving, we get everything down. We get the tree down, 'cause we have a fake tree. We don't have a real tree. Um, we get that down. I set up the tree and I do that, and then, um, we turn on, you know, the fireplace and we turn on a Christmas movie, and every year we kinda watch a, a different Christmas movie, which I don't know. Have you... Are, are you guys watching The Santa Clauses on Netflix? Have y'all watched that?

Um, no.

Okay. There's a new season this year.

We're starting to burn through the Christmas movies, like the Hallmarks, and there's a couple on Netflix. There was one on Netflix, by the way, with, uh, Jason Biggs and Brandy and Heather Graham.

Okay.

So stupid. Don't watch it. I mean, they're all stupid. Like, all those kind of Hallmark Christmas movies are stupid.

Yeah.

That one was just really too much.

So we, we try to kinda take in, like, a traditional Christmas movie every year. So, like, you know, we watched The Grinch one year, and, and then last year we got into this show on Netflix called The Santa Clauses. Uh, well, it... Is it on Netflix? I may be wrong. Maybe on Max. But anyways, watched The Santa Clauses and, uh, and they have, like, a new season, but-I actually put a poll out there to some of my friends whether it would be appropriate for my kids. My... I've got almost a 12-year-old, and I've got almost a 9-year-old, right? And I asked if it would be appropriate for my kids to watch Christmas Vacation. Um, now, I have not watched, like, a streamed version of Christmas Vacation or, like, a DVD version of Christmas Vacation, right? I've watched it on TV, and a lot of the stuff that was on the streamed version is kind of cut out of the TV version, and I didn't realize that. Uh, but we did watch Christmas Vacation. My, my kids thought it was quite hilarious, but we had to have a lot of conversations about, "That's not appropriate to say," or, "That's not appropriate to say," and, you know, that type of stuff. But it's, um, I mean, such a great, great movie. I mean, just so funny. Uh, and so we, we put up the tree, and we do the decorations, and that type of stuff, uh, and put up all of our ornaments and, and that. Um, we have kind of a hybrid tree between, like, a, you know, what I would say, like, a family-style tree and, like, a decorator-style tree, right? So we kind of have, like, the fancy ribbon and the things that come out of the side, and we have, like, the, the big pine cones that fit in there and that type of stuff, right? And then we have, like, the kids' homemade ornaments that they made when they were in kindergarten and first grade. And, you know, we have, like, their paw print, you know-

Mm-hmm

... dog paw print that's hung up, and stuff like that. So, um, you know, little stuff. What, what do y'all have? Do you have... Do you have one tree?

We have two.

Okay.

So we have-

So you do have one decorator tree?

A couple of years ago we got... So the entry into our house is the full... It's, like, the two stories. It's, it's, like, open.

Okay.

So, um, a couple of years ago we needed to get a new tree, and we were just like, "Screw it. Let's just get a huge tree." So we got, like, a 12-foot tree. And it's way too much effort to decorate, so there's this lady in the neighborhood that comes over and does, like, the formal stuff, like the ribbons and-

Yeah

... like, the s- the little leaf spr- like, branch sprig things that are, like, sparkly.

Mm-hmm.

And she makes it look nice, and then we put some ornaments on it.

Okay.

But upstairs we have the kid tree, which is, like... It's, like, five-foot tree. You know-

Okay

... it's small. It kind of is in the loft upstairs. And then all of the ornaments that they make from school and camps and stuff like that, that goes up there.

Yeah.

So that's kind of, like, their tree.

And which tree does Santa Claus go to?

The one downstairs.

Oh, the decorator tree?

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

Interesting.

Santa would make too much noise putting toys upstairs, 'cause it's, like, right by their bedrooms.

And anywhere in your house, do you have a Peanuts tree with, uh-

No

... Linus's blanket? Okay.

No. That... Um, my wife really, really hates Charlie Brown.

Whoa.

Yeah. Just hates Charlie Brown.

We're gonna have to have her on the podcast-

Yeah

... to talk about this, Chad.

So I, uh, I watched the Charlie Brown Christmas, Christmas with my oldest a couple days ago while she was gone, but I think that's the first time... He's o- He's eight. That's the first time he's ever seen it. She-

Did he sneak around and watch it, or was he annoyed by it?

It's 25 minutes. He's... Yeah, he's fine.

Okay.

She, she just despises Charlie Brown. Like, not-

That's so funny

... not the Christmas thing, j- everything about it.

Wow.

Yeah.

It's almost un-American.

It's, it's bordering on it, for sure.

Yeah, correct. Yeah. That... I, I mean, I would expect that from a Canadian, but not an American. So all right, last thing for wrap-up. Right now-

As we sit

... and you're wearing your T-shirt. As we sit, Texas is ranked seventh?

Number seven.

Number seven.

Still.

There are three teams in Texas' way to play in the college football playoff. Okay.

That is correct, Bob.

But here's the funniest part about this, and I think this is just gonna send Texas fans up a wall, right? The SEC championship game may be the most important game for Texas.

Um, I think at best you could say the second most important, because obviously-

Two

... we have to win, uh-

That's correct

... this weekend.

Who do y'all play?

We play Oklahoma State.

Oh, which, hey.

The Pokes.

You, you play them at Bedlam, or you play them in-

No, it's championship game. We play them at AT&T Stadium.

Oh, that's right. I'm sorry. And you're going, right?

I understand that you don't know what a championship-

Have y'all ever won a game that you've gone to?

I understand that you don't understand what a championship game is, 'cause it's been-

So long

... almost 30 years since you've been able-

Did you see the bonus... Did you see the bonus structure that we're giving to Elko, though?

Yeah, it's pretty safe for you guys-

But-

... from a financial standpoint. But yeah.

Yeah, so, so to clarify, right, the Aggies have fired Jimbo Fisher and paid about $76 million. We've already talked about this. Chad got all his jabs in. We're good to go there. We've now hired Mike Elko, who is going to be the savior of the program. This is how Aggies think, right?

Uh-huh.

Like, this is just who we are, people.

Hi-

Okay

... you fire Jimbo, and then you hire his former assistant.

Well, first off, who had some of the best defenses in the country, right, and is well-respected. But defense was not our problem this year.

Exactly.

So hey, hey, it's a new year. It's a new team. It's a new guy, right? We're, we're always on our high horse until we get knocked off. Um, and... But his bonus structure is basically, like, make it to the college football playoff, million and a half dollars. Make it to the national championship, $2 million. Win the national championship, $3 million. Like-

Yeah.

I think he's-

I think he can make up to, like, 11, $12 million if he really wants.

Oh, he could be the high... He-

Yeah

... I think he can be the highest paid coach in the-

Those are not stacked-

... in the nation

... are they? Those are, like, the highest of this group?

I don't think so. I think they're stacked.

Oh, my gosh.

Yeah.

That, that would be such an-

I think they're stacked

... Aggie thing to do.

But I mean, like I said this before-

It's not worse, though

... Aggie football, Aggie football has so much money, right? Because we're such a large university. I know you guys only have, like, 40,000 students at your university, but we have, like, 70.

That's because you admit everyone who applies.

We, we don't admit everybody who applies.

No. I'm gonna look this up right now.

I didn't get in. I didn't get in originally.

This is live fact checking.

I had to go to Blinn.

Yeah, that says a lot, though.

It does. It does. If I, if on the line there's a lot of people ahead of me. So, so anyways, we, we've got Mike Helco coming in.

63%, come on.

63% what?

Acceptance rate.

What is yours?

I'm about to look that up too.

Okay. It's, like, 75.

33.

Whoa.

Yeah.

Really? There's that many people that wanna go to Texas?

Yes, that's why we're considered a public Ivy.

Wow, you did not just say that.

Yes, I did. I went there.

Okay. Hey, who ha- who has the most Fortune 500 CEOs of all college universities?

I don't care.

I just, I just throw it out there.

You're going for volume.

You know what they call-

Quantity over quality is what you're doing

... you know what they call an Aggie?

Quantity over quality is what I'm saying.

Boss. That's what they call you.

Anyway, keep going.

Sorry. Back to this. So Texas. So here's the deal. So Texas has one major win this year against an SEC team. They beat Alabama in week one, right?

Week two.

Week two? Okay. Really early on.

We have more road SEC wins than you do, though, just to be fair.

Got you.

Okay.

I stuck my tongue out at you. So, um, I can't wait till you come to the SEC next year. Like, these are gonna be such great conversations. You're gonna have to play real football every week. Like, you have played fake football for, like, four straight weeks. You almost lost to the Cougars, the next Cougars. You almost lost to, like, the Tortillas-

We did not almost lose to BYU

... you, it was-

I'm sorry, Michael. We did not almost lose to BYU.

The first half was a little sketch. Uh, and then you, you did dominate Texas Tech. Like, I mean-

Sorry, Allison

... I'm s- I'm, I'm sorry, Allison, but the Red Raiders were terrible. I was hoping that the Tortillas would be so much better than they really were, but they weren't. So, but if Alabama in the SEC championship game plays Georgia, and if Georgia wins, Texas has got a pretty decent shot of getting in the top four, right? I mean, somebody else has to lose, right? Like, a who has to lose?

We need Florida State to lose.

Okay. So Florida State has to lose, and then you-- maybe you would squeeze in there, blah, blah, blah, blah, whatever, right? But here's the deal. If Alabama beats Georgia, it doesn't really matter. Alabama's gonna get in.

Mm-hmm.

And Georgia's gonna get in.

They're gonna play again in a month-

They'll play again in a month

... as the one and only seed.

Texas is gonna get left out by their new SEC foes, right? And they're gonna get left out for a team that they beat, all because that Oklahoma territory team that y'all lost to has lost to some terrible football teams.

They lost to Kansas and Oklahoma State, who are-- they're not, I wouldn't say terrible. I mean, they both have winning records. Did y'all beat anyone with a winning record?

We did beat people-

Power-

... with a winning record.

A Power Five, Power Five team?

Come on. I think so. Arkansas?

Arkansas does not have a winning record. I don't, I don't think that you beat a Power Five team-

Yo

... with a winning record.

Honest to goodness truth, we, we need to, like, post the videos of our podcast because your facial expression when I said Arkansas was awesome. So anyways, um, who else did we beat? Mississippi State? Did Mississippi State, uh-

No, they just fired their coach

No?

Oh, but so I was gonna say-

Oh

... that is the worst incentive, uh, contract. Their new coach, Jeff Lebby, the, uh, offensive coordinator from Oklahoma, he's gonna get a million and a half dollars just for winning the Egg Bowl. Like, that's his highest incentive. You s-

Yeah.

Lane Kiffin tweeted about it. He, he did one of those, like, face palm emojis.

Oh, Kiffin. Kiffin's so great.

I like him.

You like Kiffin?

I like the, uh -- we talked about this. He's, like, the heir apparent from a personality standpoint to Mike Leach. He just doesn't care.

Yeah, that's true. That is true. And he, technically, he worked for Leach, right? Didn't he work for Leach at some point, or he was friends with Leach?

Don't know.

Was he a t- I think he was a Tech guy at some point. Did Kiffin come to Tech?

I'm trying to look up-

I don't know

... your schedule first.

Okay. Anyways, all that being said, for all our Texas fans out there that went to the Texas University, it is very, very sad to hear that you may not make a playoff with one loss bec- all because Oklahoma. I mean, if you had to blame anybody, you have to blame Oklahoma because Oklahoma had two terrible losses. That's, it's just atrocious. The Kansas loss is probably worse than the OSU loss. No, the OSU loss is worse than Ka- uh.

The OSU's loss is a rivalry loss.

Yeah.

Okay, so New Mexico four and eight. Uh, Louisiana Monroe two and 10.

Mm-hmm.

Auburn six and six. That's your closest one right there.

Hey, there we go. 500, baby.

Arkansas four and eight.

Ugh.

South Carolina five and seven. Mississippi State five and seven. And Abilene Christian five and six.

Okay.

You would've had a legit claim if Auburn had held on on a freaking fourth and 31.

That is, that is true.

So I know what you're trying to get my goat here.

You talk, you talk about a great pass, though. Was it, what's that quarterback's name? Milford?

Milroe.

Milroe? Yeah. You talk about a great pass. That was a great ball.

Anyw- I know you're trying to rile me up here.

Mm-hmm.

But I can just tell you, if we don't make the playoffs, we don't make the playoffs. I'm not gonna get upset about it.

Chad, acting like you don't care about Texas football. Like, you go into the closet after this is all said and done, and you just, you erupt like the Hulk.

Hey, if we don't make the playoffs, we should've won that game. That's that simple.

So you are-- so basically what you're saying is you've already erupted like the Hulk. So you've already taken care of your anger-

No

... after the loss to Oklahoma.

I wasn't so worried about the loss to Oklahoma because I figured we get to play them again. That's not gonna happen.

Okay.

Um, so I mean, all we can do is just win Saturday if we get to play again.

So is Oh- is Ohio State in front of y'all?

They are, but they won't be if we win 'cause we'll have a conference championship.

Okay.Interesting. And a-all of Orange Bloods is just talking about all these possibilities, right?

Of course.

Like, it's just constant-

That's what message boards are for.

Yeah. Are you a paid member of the Orange Bloods message board?

Absolutely.

Okay. Just, just gonna call that out.

Are you a paid member of TexAgs?

Oh, you actually know our website.

Of course I know your website.

Okay. You get o- you get on there and you watch-

I don't go there

... and you, like, listen to Billy Lucci and-

I, I do see. I follow this guy on Twitter who posts screenshots.

And so do you listen to, like, the podcast too?

Of course.

Do you, like, really get in depth about-

Like, the Orange Bloods podcasts? No.

Okay, let's, uh, let, let's go on the record real quick.

Okay.

If your kid applies to A&M and gets in-

Uh-huh

... will you allow it?

Yeah, he will be old enough to make that decision. What I will not do is pay for it.

All right, so to be fair, it's the same reaction I had to my kids. Right. You will apply to A&M. If you get into A&M, I will pay for it. I'm not paying for anything else, so.

Oh, no, I've told them I will... We're gonna... Like, we're prepping to pay for anywhere except OU, A&M.

My friend's in College Station, Brian. When my kids go to college, I'm coming. I'm watching Aggie baseball. I'm taking my laptop. I'm working in front of an Aggie baseball game every day, middle of the afternoon. I cannot wait. That's gonna be my retirement gig.

You're gonna be calling people, talking about, like, all kinds of city issues.

Sales tax, analytics, and, you know, all those-

Meanwhile, like, "Hang on one second. Joe Bob just hit a home run."

I'm so sorry that you couldn't, you couldn't get your paychecks, uh-

Hold on. A, a sheep just came onto the field

... squared away this month. Hold on. A sheep came onto the field. Come on. Ah. You know what's funny about A&M? So we're paying Jimbo, like, $76 million as a fired coach.

Mm-hmm.

You know, he's gonna be, like, he's gonna be on TexAgs next year talking about A&M football, right? Like, we fire people in College Station, and then we bring them back.

No, the, uh, the-

Like, R.C. Slocum is still, like, on stuff.

Yeah, Arkansas is br-bringing back Bobby Petrino.

Uh, is that official?

I think so. Yes.

Okay. Yeah. I, I mean, I knew we were probably getting rid of Petrino just 'cause the offense was so not great this year.

Yeah.

But-

I've also heard that, uh, Jimbo may be going to Vanderbilt.

Interesting. I mean, I wonder, does he get paid in his contract whether he gets another contract or not?

Yes, there is no, like-

Oh

... offset clause.

Man, we really did a number on that one. So anyways, well, I'm sure that everybody's tired of our college football conversation. Um, it is getting the wintertime. It's getting a little chilly. I need it to get back to 70 degrees.

Mm-hmm.

I'm done with the cold weather already. We've had, like, three nights in a row of freezing, 29 degrees.

So right now, it's, it's not bad. It's, like, probably mid-60s-

It's 60 out right now

... but the sun's out.

Yeah. Yeah. And we're actually having a, uh... In North Texas right now, we're having a, like, an actual autumn. Like, the trees are, like-

Mm-hmm

... truly changing. It's not... We're not going from green to brown. Like, we're having yellows and oranges, and the trees are... It's, it's really nice. When you drive into Parker County and you look at, like, all the treetops-

Mm-hmm

... it's, it's kinda pretty. So yeah, it's, it's kind of a good time right now. It's the holidays. Get into spirit. Have you had a peppermint mocha?

I don't drink that.

What?

No. I drink-

What is your Starbucks drink?

... black coffee.

Okay.

Sometimes when I go to Starbucks-

I'm, I'm, I'm talking to our listeners here for a minute

... sometimes when I go to Starbucks, I will get oat milk just to, like, a splash, just to cool it down a little bit.

You pay $2 for a splash of oat milk?

No, I will get coffee with a splash of oat milk.

Okay.

But it's a temperature thing, not a, not a flavor thing.

Interesting. Just to cool it off?

Yes.

Okay.

Like, if we go to Target-

I'm talking to our listeners

... say we go to Target and we're gonna get coffee, I don't want... I wanna drink it while I'm at the, the store. I don't wanna hold onto it while we're shopping and then drink it in the car 'cause it's, like, 150 degrees.

Okay.

So you-

I'm gonna mute Chad for a minute. I'm gonna talk to our listeners directly. Does this surprise anybody that Chad does not drink any frou-frou coffee? Like, the only thing he does is drink a black coffee. This is the guy who sits in a dark room all day and codes on a computer.

I have a light on right now.

Drinks black coffee. You do. Yeah, you have a light on. And he ha- and he actually has some light coming in your window there.

Gotta fix that.

So you kinda have a tan. Were you outside this weekend?

Uh, yeah. Well, we had some soccer games and-

Okay

... uh, just doing stuff.

Are you not applying your, you know, sunscreen levels that you normally apply?

Not really.

'Cause y-you are the guy. You are, like, the 1980s style dude who, like, comes out with, like, sunscreen on your face.

Like, a white blob on my nose.

Like, you just have white sunscreen everywhere.

Yeah.

Blanc on the nose.

I had melanoma 20 years ago, so

Oh, cancer survivor. I forgot.

Yeah. So I gotta-

God, no

... just gotta be careful about that.

I worked really hard to get there. I, like, led up to it. You said it. It was awesome. It was like my dad was a developer. So great.

PSA, everyone, get checked.

Get checked. Make sure your skin is checked yearly by a dermatologist. So anywho, all right. Well, we're gonna have an-- hopefully we'll have another podcast and one posted before Christmas. Um, but happy holidays, merry Christmas. Super excited to get here, um, and really enjoy the holiday season. I hope that everybody is enjoying their holiday season, also known as post-budget season, which is a good time to have, and enjoy everything through the new year. 'Cause once we get past the new year, budget season starts back up, baby. It's gonna get going. Yes. So anyways-

That's some really forced enthusiasm.

That was, uh, that was my, uh, my elf impression, right? Or my, uh, my Will Ferrell impression?

Buddy?

Buddy.

Yeah.

Buddy the Elf.

Yeah.

Absolutely. So, all right. Merry Christmas, everybody. It's great to chat with you. Chad, you done? Are we wrapped?

We're good.

All right, see y'all later.