Sisters Unwind

In this episode, we’re talking about how to run your home so it doesn’t run you. We dive into how clutter can impact your mental load and contribute to everyday stress, and why having simple systems in place can make all the difference. We also share what’s working in our own homes to keep things running smoothly—so we can spend less time managing the mess and more time enjoying our families. Because your home should support your life, not overwhelm it.

In this episode, we share what it looks like to pivot our finances in this season—navigating stay-at-home mom life, part-time work, and launching a cottage bakery while learning to be wise and intentional with what God has given us. We also talk about modeling contentment for our kids in a world that always wants more, and we end with 5 practical ways to stay grounded in Christ and truly live like we have enough.

Mom rage — the overwhelm, the snapping, the guilt that follows. In this episode, we’re having an honest conversation about what triggers it, how it impacts our kids, and why ignoring it keeps us stuck. We talk about how a mom is often the emotional therMOMeter of the home — setting the tone whether we mean to or not. When we’re reactive, everyone feels it. When we’re grounded in the Lord, it changes the atmosphere. This isn’t about perfection. It’s about awareness, surrender, and learning to respond in a way that reflects the mom we truly want to be.

In this episode, we explore why strong female friendships are not only good for your mental and emotional health, but biologically necessary. We share personal stories from our own friendships, what’s worked (and what hasn’t), and offer encouragement and tips for cultivating deep, life-giving connections with other women.

In this episode, we look at New Year’s resolutions through a biblical perspective. Instead of focusing on perfection, we talk about faith-filled goals and intentional growth in faith, family, finances, and fitness, and how inviting God into each area can shape the year ahead.

The holiday season can be full of joy—but it can also come with pressure, busyness, and financial stress. In this episode, we talk about how to shift our focus back to what truly matters: celebrating the birth of Jesus. We share practical, budget-friendly ways to approach Christmas with intention, reduce overspending, and create meaningful traditions that don’t revolve around gifts or money. If you’re longing for a simpler, more peaceful season rooted in faith, this conversation is for you. (00:00) Intro (01:55) Parents Overspending, why you don't have to! (07:43) Budget Friendly Decorating (12:53) The Real Focus of Christmas- the Gospel of Jesus (18:37) Christmas Traditions (23:07) Gift Giving (37:30) Tradition Ideas (43:41) BREATHE  (45:36) Giftcard Give away! (47:55) Simple Swaps --- Transcript:     Welcome to Sisters Unwind, the podcast where real life meets real. Talk with a sisterly twist. We're your hosts, Rebecca and Ruth, two sisters, on a mission to explore life's greatest Fs from faith to family and fitness, and yes, even finances. We're diving into the moments that make us laugh, cry, grow, and everything in between. No filters. No facades. Just two sisters. Keeping it real and keeping it fun. So grab your favorite drink, get comfy, take off your bra and come unwind with us.  Welcome back to Sisters Unwin, i'm Rebecca, and I'm Ruth. And today's episode is focused around the most wonderful time of the year, Christmas, . We're talking all about how we can be intentional with our time and money around the holidays, what the Christmas season is all about, and how you can make lasting memories with your families without breaking the bank. We know that this season can be full of fun, magical memories, but it can also be overwhelming and stressful. How many gifts need to be bought for who and where exactly is the cutoff or who you need to buy a gift for? Where is the cutoff? I don't even know where it is. When does gift giving become an obligation rather than a joyful sign of love? We're talking about all of that and more on today's episode. Wherever you are in that spectrum of emotion, we hope you leave this episode feeling inspired, refreshed, and excited for the celebration of our savior Jesus Christ, coming to earth in human form. And BONUS ALERT! Bonus alert. We have another, I said another gift card giveaway for the holidays, so stick around until the end to hear how you can win. So let's jump in.   So gifts around the holidays and spending money for your kids in particular can be overwhelming, right? Mm-hmm. I think a lot of parents struggle with wanting to give their children a very nice Christmas, maybe a better Christmas than they had. And I think at the end of the day, most parents are just doing the best that they can. And you wanna do something right by your kids. You wanna have, your kids have this awesome, amazing experience. You wake up on Christmas morning, it's this magical time. And so I think families can struggle with how much to spend on kids. Mm-hmm. And I think a lot of families. I don't wanna say do it wrong, and we'll get to it later about what the actual meaning of Christmas is, but I think a lot of parents overdo it on Christmas. Yeah. And back in 2024, there was a news article in which, 2,500 parents were surveyed on their spending around their children at Christmas time, and the survey found that parents expected to spend $461 per child. And this is on average for Christmas. Yeah. And on the high end, 9% of those parents said that they were gonna spend $1,000 or more per child. That's insane. And on the low end, it says 4% said that they'll keep it around or under a $100. Nearly half. So around 49% of parents said they expected to go into debt to pay for Christmas this year by way of credit cards of buy now, pay later services. Dang. And in Illinois, the average that parents were expecting to spend was about $641. The fact that half of parents said that they were willing to go into some form of debt to pay for Christmas. Yeah. I don't know. I think that seems like stupid. Yeah. Yeah. I, I just wanna be like, but why? Right. Why? And mean, I'm sure there's many reasons, I said it before I think a lot of parents might try to do better by their children, then maybe they grew up with nothing. Right. Right. Maybe, you know, our parents came from, well our mom, she came from like a family where she didn't have a lot. Mm-hmm. She literally didn't have a lot, so she always wanted to give us the best of everything. Yeah. , And I don't think she ever went into debt for it and would finance our Christmas experience for it. Yeah. But definitely wanted to give us a better experience with things than she had because she had very little. Yeah. So maybe that's it. I just can't imagine like the average middle class family going into debt. Over my kids' Christmas. Ever. Not now. Not later. I, yeah. I told my husband like, I don't think I'm buying the baby anything for Christmas. Yeah. What does he need? He doesn't need anything and he's never gonna remember it. Never gonna remember, to be honest with you. My 2-year-old probably won't remember Christmas, yeah. Maybe I won't buy her anything either. No, I'm kidding. Oh my gosh. It makes me think of this, uh, have you heard Nate Parkett? Yes. Yes. He's a media, and he was talking about families that take their kids to Disney World and they're like, can you believe that? They're taking a two or three year olds Disney World, they're not gonna remember it. Why? And he was like, yeah, you should just lock 'em in the closet. They're not gonna remember it. You should lack your, because that's actually the traumatizing Yeah. They'll, they'll remember it later lasting in Oh my gosh, on their subconscious. Yeah. For years. Yeah. But I think in our culture of consumerism, it's. It's the keeping up with the Jones' mentality. And I think it used to be like before social media and all that, it used to be you saw the neighbor down the street, had all the cool toys, or you went over to your friend's house I remember growing up, it was the, Wii remember like your band had the Wii. Oh yeah, yeah. And I was like, well, I want a Wii. But now you see these influencers online and they probably make millions of dollars. Well, guess what? The average person's not making millions. And so you see all the things that they have and they're like, well, I wanna buy that from my kid. And it's like, your kid doesn't, they don't need it. No. Absolutely does not. They don't. No. So any of our listeners, if you're planning on going into debt over. Yeah. Over Christmas, please don't do it for the love of God. Don't. Yeah. Your kids will love you or dislike you, whether you buy them stuff or you don't. And it's all about making memories. And later in our episode we're gonna talk about, budget friendly or even free things that you can be doing with your kids that are better than a gift because when they look back on Christmases growing up, honestly, I can tell you maybe a handful of gifts that I remember getting growing up. Yeah, that's true. I more so remember like Christmas breakfast or just the traditions we had. And so don't stress about, oh, I need to get my kid the perfect gift. Yeah. Because first off, they're gonna like it for two seconds and then they're gonna be like, okay, I want something different anyways. Yeah. But they're gonna cherish the memories that you have with them. Baking cookies or going to see lights, spoilers alert, those are some of the ideas. But they're gonna remember those things versus, the physical items that you give them. And maybe if you have kids that are old enough to remember different things that they may have gotten, maybe this is your opportunity to survey them when you have a moment. Like, Hey, what's your favorite Christmas gift you've ever gotten? Mm-hmm. Just to see if they actually remember things they have gotten in the past. And if they are having trouble coming up with one or two things, then know that what you're buying for them. Maybe, you're spending a lot of money for them to forget that's a good idea. You know, they even got it. Or their favorite gift is like, something that was inexpensive, but really meaningful. Yes. That's good. Like, oh good, I'm glad. Like, grandma admitted me this sweater. Yeah. Like, grandma, I'm sure it was really ugly, but No, but yeah, but I mean, even sitting here, I'm like trying to think of, a Christmas gift that I've gotten that I've really cherished or was so excited about. I could name a few, but it would take me like a second to remember what my favorite one was. Yeah. Gift giving is probably a central aspect of Christmas, whether you're getting gifts or your giving gifts. But there's other things around the holiday season that are exciting and fun. So, Bekah, what are like some different things that you like to do to get ready for the holidays? Well, I feel like this is the first year that I'm like, okay, I'm gonna start liking, decorating and doing the things for the holidays b ecause my oldest is now at the age that she's able to remember things and have fun. And so I think doing things like putting up the Christmas tree, putting decorations on our walls, I didn't do it, PJ did, but he hung Christmas lights on the house. Reading Advent books, I'm actually very proud of myself because I already started wrapping gifs. I have like, oh dang, 10 gifs wrapped. Wow. Are they under your tree? They are. Oh, that's so cute. My oldest hasn't even discovered them yet. And so they're still wrapped. Hopefully she doesn't find them and unwrapped them. But even just putting some more time into actually nicely wrapping presents instead of Christmas Eve being like, oh, shoot, I forgot all of these. Do we have any wrapping paper anywhere? Do we have any gift bags? Or, I think one year my stuff was wrapped in like pink sparkly butterflies or trees or something. Yeah, totally fine. Fine. Ruth, what do you like doing for the holidays to get ready? Yeah, so putting up my tree is probably one of my favorite things so we actually got our tree, a very nice, fake tree. Nice. That was given to us by, a family member and Cesco was like, we don't want that. And I'm like, yeah, it's a really nice tree. We don't have to pay for it. It's beautiful. Mm-hmm. And he was like, we don't have any place to store that. And it's in our garage. It doesn't take up that much room. Anyway, all that to say, he like, poo-pooed my tree. And I've been putting it up every year and once it's up I'm like, doesn't it look so beautiful? Yeah. And so nice. So I finally put it up yesterday and I put the lights on and of course, like the last strand, half the lights went out. So, I'm waiting for, good old Amazon, my replacement bulbs. Mm-hmm. But I decorated it with my four and two year olds this afternoon. Oh, that's fun. Which was, yeah, it was fun. I stressful, you know, like they just like to grab, grab, grab at things real quick. And some of the ornaments are a little more fragile. Yeah. And can break. Especially my 4-year-old, he's like, can I do this? Can I do this? Gimme this, gimme this. And I'm like, okay buddy. Yeah. I'm gonna need you to take a beat before mommy loses her. Cool. But it was sweet, like they had a really good time. My 2-year-old was in it for a little bit and then lost interest. But my 4-year-old really had a ton of fun. And then I took a step back at our tree when it was done and realized that all the ornaments were just like clumped in one area, you know, where they could reach the ornaments. So I just, casually tried to place them all in different places so he wouldn't see that I was rearranging the ornaments that he had so nicely placed. And we have ornaments now with their names on it and their pictures on it that grandparents have given us and the kids love seeing the ornaments with their names on it. Bekah, I think you gave one to, my daughter a couple years ago, with her face on it and she, lit up like loves her ornaments. So they had a lot of fun putting on their own ornaments this year. So , we're talking about being budget friendly and stuff. Last year, I finally decided I wanted to buy Christmas decorations for my house, I really wanted to decorate. And did you know that hobby lobby, every other week they rotate what, things are on 50% off. There's always like categories of 50% off items. So you just go and buy all your Christmas stuff on a week where they're 50% off. That's a good idea. It's honestly phenomenal. Hmm. So you don't have to spend that much money, but you can get a lot of stuff and the quality matches the price that you pay. Yeah. But it's, nice stuff. Mm-hmm. And you don't have to break the bank feeling like you wanna decorate a little bit. I know that was very long-winded, but, I love putting out my tree. I love putting up some decorations. I'm actually wearing right now. They saw snowman hat that . I actually didn't win in a grab bag. It was like a $5 hat from Walmart at, we played a white elephant one year. I did not win it and I was so upset I didn't win it. I went to Walmart promptly and I like bought it like the next day. Oh my gosh. Because I really wanted that hat. It was so cute. So every winner, I get it out of my box and I put it on. Even Checo said today, he came in and was like, I love that hat. I'm like, I know you do. So I just wear it all the time and it's great. You were talking about decorations and budget friendly. I have packaged up some nicer ish things, but just things that we don't use and don't go with our decor and I gave 'em to Goodwill. Yeah. And , or no. Salvation Army. Oh, okay. I mean, either one Salvation Army is just closer to us. Yeah. But even if you check out those stores, like if you want to spruce up or change up your decorations, you could buy something and then, add it to your decor or repaint it or repurpose it somehow. Yeah. Or Facebook marketplace, I'm sure that has stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Seriously. So you don't have to break the bank if you wanna spruce up your house. Yeah. Like I'm talking like, you can easily spend 50 bucks if you want to. Yeah. And get some nice little things to put around your house which I know $50 is a lot for some people. Yeah, I understand that. Yeah. And even if you're like in it for the long game, like you don't have to buy all of your Christmas decorations at once. Yeah. Like you can buy maybe one nice thing a year, and then you add to your collection, over the years. Yeah. So we talk about all of these decorations and things to do, but we wanna get to the heart of what Christmas is really about. It's more than just the hustle and bustle of getting our tree up and getting our decorations out and, making sure that our Christmas gift lifts are all checked off. Mm. It's really about Jesus. And remembering that God came to earth in human form. And it's, all about the gospel. And I think it's really easy to lose sight of that in this time when it really should be all about Jesus. But then I feel like our culture and consumerism throws all these other things at us. And I know we've already articulated the gospel on our first podcast, but I think just, could we even just , recap the gospel and how that fits into the, to the narrative of Christmas? Yeah. So, first we have creation in Genesis, right? So Genesis one, one says, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And then from there in Genesis two, one through six and verse 23, we have fall of man, which, was the introduction of sin led to the fall of man. So, Genesis says now, the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden? The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden and you must not touch it or you will die.'" "You will not certainly die," the serpent said to the woman, "for God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God knowing good and evil." When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they realized they were naked, so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. And then jumping forward to Genesis 2 23. So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. So then we get into a lot of the prophecy about the coming Messiah. So there's sin and then that leads to separation from God. So in the Old Testament, if you're not familiar with it, they had to do all of these sacrifices and things to cleanse themselves from their sin. And there was a bunch of prophecy about the coming Messiah. And so this is from Isaiah 7: 14, and it says, "Behold a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call his name Immanuel." So that was Old Testament, there's tons of other prophecies that talk about the coming Messiah, but then in the New Testament, God comes to earth in human form, just like it was prophesied about. So comes Jesus. And so this is Luke 1:30-34 says, "But the angel said to her, 'Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son and you are to call him Jesus. He'll be great and will be called the son of the most high. The Lord will give him the throne of his Father, David, and he will reign over Jacob's descendants forever. His kingdom will never end.'" "How will this be?" Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin. So again, that is, bringing to fruition the prophecy that was spoken about in Isaiah. Luke 2:6-7 states that, "While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born." And they is Joseph and Mary. "And she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in clothes and placed him in a manger because there was no guest room available for them." Jesus was there at the beginning of creation. John 1 says, "In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him, all things were made. Without him, nothing was made that has been made. In him was life and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it." And I love that verse because it just speaks to the fact that Jesus was not the backup plan. God knew from the beginning that His creation was going to sin and have this separation and he needed to bridge that gap between the sinful humans and himself. And so he was gonna come to Earth, live among us, be sinless, pay the penalty for our sin, die, and rise again. And again, that all was the plan from the very beginning. And so, Jesus coming to earth is the gospel. It's God fulfilling his plan of redemption for creation, which is just so beautiful. So December 25th, we celebrate as Jesus' birthday. And, for people who are interested in history and stuff like that, December 25th is probably not the actual date of Jesus' birth. There's many reasons why. If you look at biblical passages and the shepherds being out in the fields and the timing of everything, December probably was not the month he was born in. But early Christians decided to adopt this date due to things that were going on in their culture at that time. So the date is really irrelevant as far as. When was he actually born? We don't know. We don't know the actual date of his birth, but we used December 25th as the day to celebrate his birth. And it just makes you take a step back and realize that all this stuff that we do to prepare for the holidays is great, but really at the end of the day, we're really preparing for the birth of our savior that happened some 2,000 years ago. A book that I was reading, "The Memory Making Mom", talked about Christmas traditions and how it is so important to have Christmas traditions, but one of them was to clean your house and get it ready. Because we are getting ready for Jesus and that can symbolize cleaning our hearts.  Like preparing our hearts for, the celebration of Jesus's birth day. Not that we know it, but just, , preparing our hearts that we're cleaning out all of the things that are going on or, I know that this is a time of year that if you're having conflict with family members I think people's hearts are a little bit more soft to reconciling or forgiving or coming around because you look back and maybe think on those traditions. It is a time that you want to be with family and friends and celebrate and have good times . What was your favorite tradition growing up? I look back at this because I think in the Christian realm, like everyone can talk about Santa know Santa . Every year, right? Yeah. Like some people, some Christians are like, no, that's paganism and mm-hmm. I don't know. Some people are very strong about it. Personally, I, I don't remember our parents like promoting Santa like a ton. But I do remember that we used to put out like reindeer dust. They stopped doing that when I came along. Yeah. Because I don't remember that. They're like, we're done with this kid. It's like, none of this, but, and I think we left Santa cookies, but I just distinctly remember putting reindeer dust out one year and then we were so excited when it was all gone and it probably just melted in the snow or something. I don't know. But we were like, the reindeer came and it was just like, I feel like when you're little magic is just so much fun. Yeah. And there's such a short window of time Yeah. Where your kids actually can believe in magic. So I'm okay. We don't like promote Santa and we're not like, Ooh, like here's the elf on the shelf. You need to be good or Santa won't give you gifts. Not that if you do that, I, I'm saying it's wrong. Mm-hmm. But we're just like, you shouldn't be good to get gifts from Santa, we don't like that, so we don't really promote Santa in that way, but we go see Santa at the mall every year. Mm-hmm. Leo's super excited and then, we take a picture and then he just wants to tell Santa his whole life story. So we're like, okay, you gotta keep going other kids are, waiting to take picture of Santa. So, yeah. So it's just fun so as a kid, I just remember having a distinct memory of that. Mm-hmm. How about you, Becca? . I feel like, because I was much younger than all of you, by the time it got to me, they didn't really do Santa, but I remember mom and dad trying, I don't wanna say trying to do Santa, but I think I was five. But I do distinctly remember putting out cookies one year and being like, I know this is a hoax but I'm gonna do it anyways. Were they eaten when you woke up? I don't probably, I don't really totally recall. I just remember putting the cookies out and being like, yeah, I know this Santa's not real, but let's put the cookies out anyways. And if you, . Spoiler. I hope we're not ruining Santa for any of the moms who are Oh, God. Listening with their kids. Oh man. You've got bigger issues if you don't believe in Santa. Well, if you're like traveling in the car with your 4-year-old listening to our podcast, of course Santa is real. Yes, he totally. He'll come see you this year if you're good. No, I'm kidding. Yeah, definitely kidding. Okay. So my, I think one of my favorite memories is, so every year when we would unwrap gifts, we would always go youngest. To oldest in the family. So I always got to go first. And then we would go myself. And then it was Ruth, then it was Paul, and then it was Steven, and then it was mom, and then it was dad. Right. Yeah. So we eat. So we took turns. We didn't just dive into the presents. Yeah. We were very, you know, it was very methodical. Yes. It was very, and well, I feel like for so many years you were like the little elf passer present thing. Yeah. And then I was like, I wanna be it. And then one year you're like, I don't wanna do it. And I was like, well then I don't wanna do it, whatever. Anyways, so every year we would go in order and I feel like, I just remember year after year, I, you know, everyone would be done with gifts and it'd be like, oh, another one for Rebekah. Oh, another one for Rebekah. And you guys would get so annoyed. But it was fun for me. Yeah. Was it, was it fun to be spoiled? It was, honestly, I think it was mostly because we would. Get like one bigger gift. Yeah. Or two, like two gifts. Yeah. And I probably got like a bunch of little things. Yeah. Or just they spoiled you. Yeah. Maybe could be that too. It's fine. Don't hold it against me. Yeah. So what is the purpose of gift giving? Like, why do we do it? Where does it come from? So when you're thinking should I even be buying gifts for my kids or other people? Is it wrong? Yeah. Matthew 7:9-11 says, "which of you if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? That'd be pretty terrible. Or if he asks for, a fish will give him a snake. Ugh. If you then though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him? So giving gifts, one, as parents, we have a desire, we have a good desire, I think, to want to get our kids good gifts. We love to see their faces as they unwrap gifts, and it brings them joy. And honestly, it brings us a lot of joy to see them get something that's like really great. And, we talked about earlier of just you don't wanna overdo it, I think there is wisdom in not getting your kids every single thing that they want, because then they're gonna feel like they just always get what they want. I feel like it takes out the joy. If you just get them whatever they want, then where, where do they get joy? Yeah. It's not like when you get them stuff, I don't think that they have joy in the gift. Yeah. Like it's like, oh good, I got what I wanted. And then how quickly do they tire of it I feel like even as adults, I feel like we're gravitating towards that a little bit more. I know me personally, but even this year for PJ and I we're like, we're just not gonna get each other gifts. And I did get 'em a little something today, but it was small. But I think even for myself throughout the year, I just feel like, oh, well if I want something, I'm just gonna buy it for myself anyways. Versus I feel maybe years ago for like our parents, maybe that wasn't as common because they didn't have Amazon or they didn't have social media being like, oh, I need this, I need this, I need this. But again, how many times have I bought something for myself and then tired of it, and then I just give it to someone else, or I just donate it and I probably buy more things than I need, instead of maybe waiting for something like my birthday or Christmas, to really wait for, an opportunity for someone to buy me something that really means, and then getting excited for it. I don't know. Yeah. I feel like maybe I've even lost sight of that. So the first and the most important reason that we give gifts, it's a kind of a reflection of the most important gift that was given to us, which was Jesus, coming to earth in human form. And yeah. When we give gifts to our kids, we are bringing in that same spirit of, Jesus was the ultimate gift and we're just giving gifts as a way to remember that. Yeah. And I guess just to take that even a step, step further. So I think gift giving is a gift Yeah. That people are gifted with, if you will, if you followed all of that, I don't think that everyone has the gift of gift giving. Yeah. So I personally love giving gifts. Mm-hmm. It also is a little stressful, but I actually like to think about the person.. And I like to get them something that I know they'll either use and it'll be like super useful. Yeah. But ultimately I like to get them something I know that they will really enjoy and like, . So it's fun for me to sit there and just really think about the person I'm buying a gift for and based on what I know of them, like what would they actually like and it makes me happy. We talked about like the joy that our kids get if they open a cool gift. It's the same joy if I get like you a gift or like an adult, a gift. It's so much fun seeing that, that joy on their faces when they open it. Yeah. So I would just encourage our listeners, when you're thinking about. Buying gifts this season. Don't just buy gifts for the sake of buying gifts. . Like, I just need to buy this candle so I can check off a box and give this teacher a gift. . Because that's what culture tells me I need to do. Yeah. But actually take a moment and I would just challenge you to like, check your heart to see like, why am I actually giving this gift? Mm-hmm. I wanna give someone a meaningful gift, um, and just put a little more time into it. And I know it can be a little exhausting. Like, for me it's, it honestly, like, I, it's a lot, it's a lot to think of that, but it's also very rewarding. And I think it, it, I feel like when you just buy a gift to buy a gift, it, it cheapens. . It cheapens the gift almost. Yeah. And just kind of to take it another step, oh. Um, you were talking about how you're giving your kids a good gift, they unwrap it and you see the joy in their face, right? When we give someone a gift. They have two options. What are those options, Ruth? They can either take it Yeah. Or they could leave it. Yeah. And that was unscripted, but, and that reflects the gospel too, like Jesus came to earth in human form and the gospel is a gift. . Like when, when someone gives you a gift, they're not like, here's this gift, now you owe me a hundred dollars. Or here's this gift. It costs me $15 now. Please pay up. Yeah. This is such a perfect tie in Like Christ came in human form. He was the ultimate gift. He was the gift that you don't have to pay one thing for. Yeah. He paid the price for your sin. . He paid, you know, he paid the price on the cross. You don't have to do anything to receive that gift. Yeah. You just have to take it. Yeah. That's all you have to do. You don't, there's not no part of that equation that you had to pay for, that you had to do anything for. It is a free gift of salvation he is the main reason of why this season is so special. All you have to do is accept that free gift of salvation. Mm-hmm. Just like someone is accepting your gift and it comes with no strings attached. Right. Right. I think Becca mentioned this, but like no strings are attached to the gift. Yeah. Like Jesus gives you the gift of salvation. Mm-hmm. He expects well, you in return, he wants you. Yeah. And he wants you to become like a follower of him. So that is the expectation in return. Yeah. But it's not like I gave you, like you said, like I gave you this gift, now you have to do X, y, and z. Yeah. So, Ruth, you mentioned giving meaningful gifts and I think that you could go around home goods like I did today, honestly, but I didn't just buy things to buy things. I genuinely saw things and I was like, oh my gosh, I can't wait to give this person this thing 'cause I know that they're gonna love it. Yeah. And I think you can do that too, but, how do we give meaningful gifts, that don't break the bank, right? Because the whole episode, we wanna tie in being budget friendly. We wanna be mindful about , not spending a ton, a ton of money. But what are some things that maybe people do to give meaningful gifts without breaking the bank? I will answer the question in just a moment, but I think for us, we have just scaled back a lot mm-hmm. On gift buying this year. So we are not planning on buying gifts for each other. We just decided like, Hey, we've got a lot going on. Cesco and I were like, I'm good. Don't get me anything. Mm-hmm. And he's like, well, I might get you something. And I'm like, no. Like, seriously, please don't get me anything. I'm not buying you anything. We can get our kids gifts. And then just limiting who else we're buying gifts for. Yeah. So I think when you limit the amount of people you're actually buying gifts for Yeah. You can actually focus more on buying, I don't even wanna say quality gifts, but then the financial burden can lessen say you're buying, your gift list is for 20 people. Mm-hmm. Well, can you get that down to like 10? Yeah. Can you cut half the, like, who do you actually need to buy gifts for? And again, this is for people who are like, I struggled during the holiday season of overspending. I don't have the finances to be able to do this. Mm-hmm. If you have unlimited Yeah. Budget. To buy Christmas gifts. Go crazy. Knock your socks off. Or don't buy me a gift. I mean, you can buy me a gift. That's fine. I'll take a gift from you. Send us a gift card at [email protected]. Oh my gosh. Kidding. Seriously? I love Starbucks. Okay. I'm just gonna throw that out there. Okay. No, but seriously,. This is more so talking to the people who are like stressed about Christmas, who are trying to pick up extra shifts so they can afford buying all the gifts. Yeah. Or stuff like that. Limit the people who you're buying for mm-hmm. And as far as like budget friendly gifts, you could do like a very nice homemade gift. Yeah. And honestly, I think most people love food. Mm-hmm. So a very budget friendly thing I think you could do is if you have, I don't know if it's for your parents or something like offer to come over and cook them dinner one night mm-hmm. Or offer to, , I don't know if it's for like a friend, like offer babysitting. Mm-hmm. So we have friends of ours who have no family in the area. They're they, or if their family live in another country, um, they would love to swap babysitting. Mm-hmm. So. Right. 'cause babysitting can be expensive. So if you have friends that you know, like, Hey, you wanna swap, like for Christmas, like, or gift, you can be, you go out on a date night, we'll watch your kids'. That's, yeah. Or it could be for like sisters, brothers, like, you can just be creative mm-hmm. In the things that you're doing. You don't have to even spend money. Yeah. Honestly, to give a gift. Yeah. If you have a spouse, you can create a little booklet for a little tear in, yeah. Cash in coupon book like for a massage or, get creative. Yeah. Like it could be something like that, so. You don't have to spend any money at all. Yeah. Yeah. And I think it's important too, when you are thinking about who you're buying gifts for, to understand that every family you've talked about it, like budgets are different, every family is gonna do Christmas differently. And so don't compare how you're doing Christmas to someone else. I think so many times I think we can just look and compare. So try not to do that. But honestly be prayerful in how you're gonna be spending money at Christmas. Are you spending money, like you said, Ruth, just because you feel obligated to buy something for someone. Are you buying your kid a toy? Because really crafty marketers are telling you that, oh, this is the latest and greatest toy that you need to give, your kid. Are you going into debt over Christmas? That's probably not wise. , Yeah, so don't just buy something to buy something. For me, you've talked about like gifts that are free or that you can make, a really simple one that you could literally do, you can steal my idea. They're delicious. It's like a crock pot turtle recipe. Mm. So like, you know, like caramel turtles? Yeah. That you buy from like Fannie Mae. So you buy like a bag of rolos, you buy like almond bark and chocolate chips and pecans and you like melt it in a crockpot, not the rollos, and then you like spoon them out, whatever. And you can even package them up really cute. Yeah. And it's a kind of a cheaper way, but just a homemade, thoughtful, they taste amazing. Yeah. Try not to eat them yourself, but just like a way to show someone , Hey, I'm thinking about you, you're important to me. Again, not that you have to buy them anything, but I think sometimes , who doesn't like getting a gift or being said, Hey, I was thinking about you. But if that's overwhelming and that's stressing you out, like no one's gonna be like, oh, I can't believe they didn't get me anything. No one's thinking that. And if they are, well, they shouldn't. No. So if you think that about people relax, maybe people are stressed out. I just even think with my husband's side with all the cousins, we do like a white elephant. , But we usually buy something. Mm-hmm. And there's like a theme every year. So last year I think it was like games. So every cousin brought like a fun game and then we did a white elephant for it. And someone sent out a text this year, like, okay, what do we wanna do? What theme do we wanna do this year? And my husband like, almost immediately replied like, yeah, I'm good if we don't do this year. And immediately, two more people were like, yeah, I'm good if we don't do it either, So I like joke and I call, I called him a scrooge. But in the end, I think a lot of people feel pressure to do stuff because it's like what you've always done, but in reality I think a lot of people probably are just as stressed about this holiday season as you are. Yeah. So I think speaking up to be like if you're still doing a sibling gift exchange and you're an adult and you're like, this is too much. I have a feeling that there are other siblings in your group that probably also feel that way. So never feel bad about speaking up and voicing your, I wouldn't say even concerns, just voicing your opinion. Like, Hey, I think this is a lot can we maybe not do this? Especially if it's like financially overwhelming or just overwhelming in general because you still have to get a gift, wrap a gift, it's one other thing to add to your plate, so never feel bad about voicing that. Yeah. You know, voicing that to your family. Yeah, and there's like other fun things that you can do to have traditions. 'cause I think especially like when you have kids and stuff to just still do fun things. I know even planning Christmas, we're hosting and like in years past, we've done like the saran wrap ball game. Mm-hmm. Which is super fun and the kids love it, but I'm like, no one needs more tchotchke, like proud, like little things. And I actually, I do try to be in like mindful about like, putting things in that are actually fun. Like Chapstick or hair scrunchies. Yeah. Because really it's all about like, I got something like, they don't even care what it is half the time, but like minute to win it games. Oh yeah, I'm gonna do those for Christmas this year. That's fun. And those aren't like, like, it's like a red solo cup and a ping pong bowl. Not that we're at a frat party, but we're gonna do like fun things. Pinterest it, but you know that you don't have to break the bank on that either. , But that can make really fun memories for the kids, instead of spending a whole bunch of money. . You want what I'm saying? Yeah. If we repeat stuff, it's fine. I can just edit it. Okay, so we wanna be really practical and share with you just some ideas that we have for, if you're on a budget, what you could be doing this Christmas Eve season to be intentional with your gift buying. Something that I am stealing from a book, from memory making mom, her idea was limiting each kid to four gifts. So her thing was getting them something they want, something they need, something they wear and something they read. Mm-hmm. So just being more intentional about those four categories and then not going above and beyond and having, a bunch of different things under the tree. Yeah. And you can even set like a budget. Mm-hmm. Like you have a max of X amount, whatever you wanna end up spending. Right. And three out of the four things are very practical things. Yeah. It's not just more junk for your house. Right. Which is also good. And so some other ideas even for your kids, again, we talked about memories. They're always gonna remember the things that you did with them. Maybe they'll remember the things you bought them, but I think experiences are so important and you can have experiences that don't break the bank. So some ideas, could be like, we have a Zoo membership and so on Friday it was very impromptuly, but I called PJ and I was like. Hey, when I get home, do you wanna load up the car? And we'll take the girls to the zoo to go see the zoo lights. And he was like, yeah, that's fun. And so we did. We like, just like last minute. That's awesome. We went, it was fun. We had hot chocolate and it was perfect night 'cause there was like no one there. That's nice. And we didn't spend, I mean we spent some money on drinks but yeah, we didn't spend any money 'cause we already had the Zoom membership. Yeah. Some other ideas, if you don't even have a Zoom membership, there are, neighborhoods, if you just even Google it that have like incredible light displays. You could drive around with your family. Everyone gets, a cup of hot cocoa in the car or something and you go look at Christmas lights. Yeah. That's a very like Yes. Money. Right? Actually one of my girlfriends does that every year on Christmas Eve with their kids. They get McDonald's and they go in the car and there is a map out in the suburbs. And if you go online there's sometimes maps that they like rate like the 10 best houses or whatever, love that for lights. And so they go and they drive around the suburb. And it's literally free. Love that. Yeah. And that's a tradition. Yeah. That like when they're adults, they're gonna be like, that was one of my favorite traditions was Christmas Eve, McDonald's and Christmas nights. Yeah. So you don't have to even break the bank. If you're looking to do something as a family and you wanna do more of an experience as a family instead of buying, things that maybe your kids just don't need another thing, but you do wanna do something special, and you live around the suburbs, like going to Medieval times could be super fun. Hmm. Again, you could go to the Zoo Lights, or the Morton Arboretum going to a concert. I remember one year around Christmas time. Yeah. Our family went and we went to Indianapolis. We shared hotel rooms and we went and saw straight no chaser as a family. Yeah. And for those of you who don't know Straight No Chaser, they're a, men's acapella group from Indiana University. And they are phenomenal. They're incredible, phenomenal. So, and again, memory, I, again, I can not really tell you many gifts I got, but I remember going to that concert and we went again. We went with our brother and my husband. Remember, oh my gosh, you forgot about that. Yeah. We went in this, we saw them in Chicago and that was like before Oh my. Were, oh gosh, we forgot. So, yeah. Fun. Oh my gosh, I totally forgot about that. Yeah, see, and we had a ton of fun, and then we went to a Christmas party after in the city. So yeah, it was super fun. Yeah. Even going to a special restaurant, maybe if your kids are older and they're into like, food, I don't know who isn't into food. I mean everyone is, but like, I'm not taking my 2-year-old too, fog Wood hr. No, we're just not doing that. No, that's where we just went on Friday. That's why she mentioned it. Yes. It was phenomenal, by the way. And I'm hungry. Even just thinking practical, again do your kids need clothes? Thinking about things that they actually need instead of just wanting, I talked about earlier about like thrift shops. There is nothing wrong with even spending time because time is money. Yep. Spending some time kind of sifting through secondhand shops, to get something like, I probably wouldn't get stuffed animals, but that's just personally. Yeah. But they have some things are like brand new that they, resell. And you can even buy something and recreate it, repaint it or, use it to, spruce up a gift or something that is, significantly less than what you would buy for it being new. You can also think about serving together with your family. Mm-hmm. I think it's a good time. We just finished Thanksgiving about what we're thankful for. I think that's a good opportunity for people just to serve and just remember that if you have a lot of things, it's nice to be able to pay it forward. Mm-hmm. And, just share your generosity with other people. But you can do things like, there's Feed My Starving Children. There's Specific Garden Mission, which is a homeless shelter in the city, Ronald McDonald House. Just a way for you to come together as a family and just again, just bless other people if you have been blessed. Yeah. And just a few more quick ideas. If you, are scared of all the sugar that's in sugar cookies, I mean you can bake sugar cookies and decorate them. I think that's always a hit. There are salt. Salt ornaments that you can make that it's essentially the same concept of making sugar cookies. You like make the dough, it's flour, salt, and water. You roll it out, you cut the cookies, and then you bake 'em in the oven for two hours on 200 degrees and then you can paint them. So instead of making sugar cookies and then they're like ornaments that you can make for your tree and they cost like nothing to make. Yeah. So that's a fun idea if you have little kids. Another idea is like watching Christmas movies together. I have distinct memories growing up at Thanksgiving that at our aunt's house we would like always watch Home alone. Yeah. Every single year. This just came up in a conversation I had with someone. Yeah. I was like, I think that's why Home Alone is literally my favorite Christmas movie. Yeah. Is 'cause we'd go for Thanksgiving. The adults would continue talking or watching football, and the kids would go upstairs and watch home alone. Yeah. Every single Thanksgiving. Yeah. Traditions. And even taking that idea, to the next level. If you have older ish kids or even toddlers, doing like a fun sleepover in the front room, like with the Christmas tree on, and , you guys can all grab sleeping bags or blankets and like sleep together as a family on Christmas Eve , or a day in December, just as like a fun memory. Yeah. That's, that would be fun. I think my kids would actually love that. Yeah. Just something fun. And then if you were a neighborhood, I remember like our neighborhood used to go caroling to different houses. And then in the last five years, a couple ladies at our church, organized that our small groups go caroling to like the older people in our church. Oh, that's sweet. And they love it. Yeah. And you talk about blessing other people. Like I have this distinct memory of a few years ago we Carol at this one man's house and he was in a wheelchair and he had passed away a couple of weeks after Christmas. And so I like literally had this distinct memory. We were at his house, the front door's open, we're all singing and it's like he had Christmas lights on and that was like the last memory I had of him. That's cool. But we were like curling at his house, so That's awesome. Yeah, just another way to bless other people.    Okay, so now that hopefully your blood pressure is going down, yes. And if it's going up, we have a solution for you. With all these Christmas things, I think the important thing is to just breathe and we came up with an acronym for this for you to just take a step back, breathe. Everything's gonna be okay. So each letter gets a little loving, loving. So B is for breathe. I wasn't very creative with that one, but take a breath. Literally breathe right now. Inhale. Exhale. If you feel overwhelmed, just take a breath. It's gonna be okay. Perfect. R is for read, prioritize praying and reading your Bible with your family during the season. Deuteronomy six, six through seven. God says these words that I'm giving you today are to be in your heart. Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. E is for eyes off others, so stop comparing to other people. You're never gonna keep up with the Joneses, so just stop trying. A is for anticipate, so this is idea for next year, but by all your gifts before December 1st, so you can focus on the memories, preparing your hearts and being present with your family instead of the present. T is for time management, so make a list of the rest of the days of advent and write maybe one thing that you're gonna do each day big or maybe just something small. And try your best to actually do it from making a craft with your kids, to singing some Christmas songs with your kids. Make a list and do it. The memories are worth it. And then h and e throw together, have fun and enjoy. The days are long, but the years are fast. So enjoy them with your family, even when it feels like a lot. And just remember to be grateful for each day.   📍  All right folks. Remember, tis the season to share and care. We have another gift card giveaway because this week's giveaway just went too fast. The ballads are in. No, just kidding. But we did pick a winner for our share and care gift card giveaway. Ooh, did I win? No, you didn't win. You couldn't win you knucklehead. Oh, dang it. Our winner is drum world,  📍 please.  Michelle from Wisconsin. Good job Michelle. Thank you for leaving that comment and clicking on that subscribe button. Yep. And just so you know, if you hear my voice, the pickings were slim. And so if you want to win another gift card, well not another one 'cause you didn't win this week. But if you wanna win a gift card, your chances are pretty good. Pretty good. So here's how you win this week's gift card giveaway. Oh, how I win? I can't win this one either, right? No, you can't. Oh, dang it. You're fine. Okay, so again, in the season of sharing and caring mm-hmm. You are going to. Share our podcast with three friends. Okay. Family members, coworkers, neighbors, whatever you want. Three people, okay? And then this is based on the honor system. We're really trusting you people. You're gonna email us? Yeah, email us. That's right. Email. You can do it. Email. Email us at sisters [email protected]. Now guess what? You don't have to send us a gift card, we're gonna send you one. 'cause you're probably gonna win if you do this. Yes. So you're gonna email us and you're gonna say, Hey sisters, I shared your podcast with three friends. I love it. I want a gift card. And then we will select one lucky winner from those people that have emailed us. Yeah. Again, your chances of winning pretty high are pretty high, high. So do it. Still, as you're hearing my voice, this is your opportunity. Not if you're driving though. Mm. Maybe it's a red light. Don't get caught by a cop. So do it now before you forget. 📍        Now it's time for simple swaps. Simple swaps. Simple swaps. All right. Ruth, what are you swapping out? Yeah, so I do stockings with my kids. It was just something we grew up doing. Mm-hmm. So it's just been something I've really enjoyed. So when they're done opening their gifts, they can open their stockings. I think in years past I've put like, just, I don't wanna say crap in there, but like candy probably. Crap. Probably crap, right? Little toky stuff or candy. I think instead I'm going to, pick some items that are more practical this year, like my son. Um, really needs chapstick. Mm-hmm. His lips are constantly red and they love lotion. So I think I'm just gonna put more practical gifts Yeah. In their stockings this year. Um, and not spend just like money on things that they really don't need. Yeah. And will rot their teeth. So just practical things are gonna go in their stockings. How about you, Becca? What are you gonna swap out this year? So, like I said earlier, I did buy PJ something small, but we said that instead of buying each other gifts, because neither of us need anything. Yeah. And we really don't wanna just buy something to buy it. We're gonna go do something together so we don't really know. What we're gonna do yet. So if you have any ideas that are fun for married couples, he already said no to a cooking class, so don't suggest that. Oh. But if you have any ideas, feel free to email us 'cause I would love some ideas, but we're gonna go do something together. Nice. I love it. It might be a fancy dinner night out or something, but yeah, we're gonna swap the buying each other gifts for, I love that for quality time. Awesome. Well, we hope that you enjoyed this episode of, sisters Unwind, that you learned how to be a little more budget friendly this Christmas, that maybe some of the fear and anxiety of over spending this Christmas have just reduced and just helped, you know, calm your. I dunno, we hope that maybe we've given you some practical ways to help reduce your spending this, Christmas season and just take some of the burden off of the gift buying and just really try to focus on the true meaning of the Christmas season and that's Jesus Christ. Yeah, and again, just remember to breathe, take a step back and to remember what is most important and don't stress yourself out and don't compare yourself. But it should be a time that's fun. So thanks for tuning in today with us. We hope you have a very Merry Christmas and New Year , we're gonna be taking a few weeks off for the holidays to be with our family and friends, so we'll be tuning back in with you guys in 2026. Oh, get ready for it. It's coming. Which is weird. Weird to say. I know it's coming. So we hope you have a very Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Bye!              

In this episode, we chat with our guest who turned her passion for wellness into a master’s degree in nutrition. She shares how her own health journey sparked her desire to pursue holistic nutrition and help others heal through food. We talk about foods that fuel, foods that harm, and why what we eat truly matters for our long-term health. 

In today's episode, we talk about what it really means to care for our bodies in motherhood—not from pressure or comparison, but from a place of stewardship, gratitude, and strength. We share honest struggles, practical rhythms, and biblical encouragement to help moms pursue health in a way that honors God and supports long, purposeful living. If you need motivation and grace in your fitness journey, this episode is for you. --- Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (01:28) Defining Health --> 04:24 - Biometric Scale (07:19) Why does health matter?  (14:48) Worldview v. Biblical View of Health (16:15) Past struggles with fitness (24:46) Struggles with fitness as Moms (30:21) Practical tips (37:53) Who is more likely to? FITNESS (40:59) Simple Swaps

In this episode, we’re getting real about marriage — the joys, the lessons, and the heart work it takes to keep God at the center. We share how we met our husbands, what we’ve learned about God’s design for marriage, and how we’re learning to prioritize our spouses in the middle of life’s busyness. Whether you’re newly married or years into it, we hope this conversation reminds you that a strong marriage starts with daily devotion — to God and to each other. Email us @ [email protected] Subscribe to 'Sisters Unwind' on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. New episodes are released every other Monday at 5PM. 

In this episode, we walk down memory lane reflecting on how growing up in the church shaped our faith journeys, what we're learning (and still learning) and how it impacts the way we do family life. Expect honest stories, a few laughs, and some sisterly banter as we talk about what faith looks like in real life — imperfect, always learning, and anchored in grace.

In our very first episode, we’re pulling back the curtain and inviting you to get to know us — sisters, moms, and women of faith — Ruth and Rebekah. We’re sharing our stories, what inspired us to start this podcast, and the heart behind our mission to encourage other women in faith, family, fitness, and finances.