Welcome to the Tweed Trends Podcast. Hey, Evette, what's trending today? Hey, I mean that's the hey girl, and you are tuned in to Tweed Trends. It's the quickest way to find out what's trending today.
Welcome back to Tweed Trends, friends. I hope you had an awesome Christmas, and today happens to be National Thank You Note Day as well as the first day of the Kwanzaa celebration. So rather than drag this thing out, let's get started. If you have a thankful bone in your body, then it should be no wonder as to why today would be National Thank You Note Day.
Because think about it. Yesterday was Christmas. You got a bunch of gifts from a bunch of people. People invited you over to their houses to eat, break bread, fellowship, all that with them and their families.
And it only makes sense. It's the only polite thing to do to go and actually give somebody a thank you note to say thank you for being so kind, thank you for being so generous, and welcoming me and my family into your home. And honestly, that was my thought process that I had since yesterday that we're actually out of town visiting family. And there was really no rhyme or reason as to how Christmas was supposed to play out.
Nobody actually came out and said, hey, prior to us leaving home, that you're going to come and spend Christmas day with us. It was kind of like a crapshoot. We sat around and then finally somebody said, hey, come by our house tomorrow morning for breakfast. Hey, come by our house tomorrow evening for Christmas dinner.
And that was how it all boiled down. And because these people finally came out of the woodworks to say, hey, come with us. Because it was five of us. So to add five people's names to the pot, to me, that's a considerable amount.
That's nothing to sneeze at to be like, oh yeah. But of course, in most cases around the holiday time, people do make enough for way more than what they've invited because you anticipate that your people are going to want seconds and stuff like that. So you make sure you have a lot. Well, so in this case, while we were finishing up eating and everything, my first thought went to I need to go buy the store and get something, you know, to thank them or, you know, because we even received some gifts at some of the places that we went to.
And I'm like, well, I hadn't anticipated that. And you know, although it's not about one for one, like I get to get from you, you get to get from me. It's the season. It's that whole season of giving and people give because they want to give, not because they want to get something back in return.
But I say all that to say too, that it still feels good to give somebody something back when they have given to you. So all of that to say today, take a moment, find somebody that has done something that you are grateful for and jot down on a rather sticky note or something that doesn't have to be a formal card. But just let them know how much you appreciate what they did, how much you care about them, hand write it, don't send it in a text, don't send it in an email, write it with your own hands. And I know some of us probably are handwriting as atrocious because we don't write as much as what we used to because of text messaging and social media and all of that.
But on my soapbox, I'm going to say, get out there, get some paper, get a pen or a pencil, and write a thank you note to somebody today. It doesn't have to get sent today. But just write it today. Take a moment to be thankful.
The other special day that today is it's the first day of the Kwanza celebration. And if you don't know much about Kwanza, it's an actual celebration that was started back in the 1960s, 1966 to be exact by a professor. And his desire for the whole Kwanza celebration was for African Americans to learn more about their culture and their heritage and to celebrate it in such a way. And so it's a seven day celebration.
Each day is marked by a specific character trait or I can't think of the word I'm looking for, but a positive trait about community and people on a whole and dealing with each other. And the sad thing about it is that Kwanza hasn't really caught on like we would have probably hoped that it would have. Because when you think about it, African Americans, we're a group of people that for the most part, I can't say every single African American in the United States, they're grand sisters were slaves from Africa. But the vast majority of us came from as descendants of slaves.
And there were a lot of slave masters and the people on these ships, they didn't give a rip about us. And therefore there's no history, there's no book to look in to find out where we actually came from. We've done one of those saliva tests to kind of get a better idea of where both my paternal and maternal signs are from. And the results have been interesting, but it's still just a guess.
It matches our DNA, two peoples, DNA and other parts of Africa to see who we closely resemble DNA wise. And you know, but for Kwanza, back to Kwanza. So it's a seven day festival. And unfortunately, only about 4% of Americans celebrate Kwanza.
And it would be nice if more of us did. But I think the way that Kwanza was designed and laid out to be celebrated was more of like a lesson type situation, like a schooling type thing. And unfortunately school is not in during the time period that Kwanza runs. If school was, then you could see possibly connecting the two and teaching more people about Kwanza.
But that's just not where we are with it at this point in time. I went to the library and picked up some books on Kwanza and read them with my daughter. And she seemed really excited, but the downfall, the drawback for us is that we were going to be out of town during the majority of the Kwanza celebration. So we can still talk about the Kwanza topics for each day, the different, I don't know why I can't think of the word I'm looking for, the different character traits, I guess, is the best thing I can come up with right now.
So, but really, I almost, if I was at home, what I would have liked to do is to maybe do something on each day for her and her friends. And in that way, her non-African American friends can be introduced to Kwanza and the different tenants for the days and stuff like that. And possibly start a conversation in their homes as well in regards to Kwanza and what it really means. So, hopefully, you're going to take the opportunity to look it up and, you know, today's the first day of Kwanza.
So we've got six more after today. It actually ends on New Year's Day. And I hope you will join us. Probably another cool thing about today is the fact that people are still often working most cases.
And this is probably one of retail sales most dreaded days because people are now bringing things back to the store that they got for Christmas that maybe they didn't want, doesn't fit, whatever the reason. People are in the stores today making stuff happen. They're making these exchanges. And in most cases, if there's no gift receipt included, then all you're going to do is be able to make an exchange.
But there are some places that you can actually get the money back. And so there are some unscrupulous people out there that will go and get money for something that is actually a nice item, but they just want to be ratchet like that and use the money towards whatever else it is that they had in mind to get, then maybe they didn't. So I must say I did not do anything at the stores today. We went to the aquarium and went to a restaurant for lunch and I am stuffed right now.
But as far as going out and doing some retail shopping, because there are a lot of sales that are going on today as well. I wonder if it's a bad thing for me to consider celebrating Christmas after Christmas, just because it doesn't really matter if I open a gift on Christmas day. Now for my kid, okay, yeah, she probably is going to feel some type of way if Christmas morning comes and goes and there's no sign that Santa has even been in the building. However, for adults, I think that there should be no reason why we can't celebrate after the fact, save a few bucks and maybe purchase better gifts because we had more money to spend toward the actual gift.
What do you think guys? Could this be a movement? Could adult Christmas be actually closer to New Year's as opposed to the 25th of December just to give people a chance? Because come on, it's tough, it's hard out there, money's hard to come by.
Why can't we celebrate Christmas on a different day? Is Jesus going to be upset with us if he finds out that we are celebrating his birthday on a different day? I don't think so. Because the way that many of us celebrate it anyway is kind of on the bad side.
People are more into themselves receiving gifts, getting drunk, doing crazy-ish out there. So I honestly don't see where it's a problem, but you know what? Let me say this. I find that every time I try to come up with one of these smart ideas, people shoot it down like it is a straight disc.
When they'll ski disc, they shoot it in the air and people will follow in the pew pew. I feel like that's what happens to my ideas. I get shot down with the quickness because for birthdays, I really don't want my kid to get presents anymore. I don't want the random presents from her friends.
No, I don't want them because these so-called friends of hers, their parents get her crappy shit and I'm sorry, I said the S word. But they do. They get crappy gifts and then I'm stuck with these little tiny piece things that I'm just like, really? Did you think that was a good idea?
Would you have wanted this gift for your kid? But I digress. We weren't talking about that. We were talking about celebrating Christmas on a different day.
So I'd like to know what are your thoughts? Alright, party people, well that was today's episode of Tweet Trends. So do me a favor before you go take anything else back to the store. Head on over to Twitter and follow me at heveve.
That's at heve. e-v-e-t-e-t-e- or just look for the hashtag, Tweet Trends. Alright, well, we're getting closer and closer to 2020. What are your resolutions?
I want to see it. I want to know. Hit me up on Twitter. Give me an inbox, whatever way you want to do it.
Hey, even go on anchor.fm for my podcast and leave me a message. I would love to advertise for you guys and play your messages on my next episode, which is going to be on Tuesday. So until then guys, have a great one and I look forward to hearing from you. Love you.
Bye. Bye.