Holiday Gift Extravaganza! Hacks, Ideas, and More!

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Speaker 1: Hi. This is Laura Vandercamp. I'm a mother of five, an author, journalist, and speaker. And this is Sarah Hart Hunger. I'm a mother of three, a practicing physician and blogger. On the side, we are two working parents who love our careers and our families. Welcome to best of both worlds. Here we talk about how real women manage work, family, and time for fun. From figuring out childcare to mapping out long term career goals. We want you to get the most out of life. Welcome to best of both worlds. This is Laura. This is episode one hundred and seventy five, which is airing in early December of twenty twenty to Today's episode is going to be a gift guide. We're going to be talking about some of our favorite Christmas and Hanakah presents for people who are celebrating these holidays this winter, or who give gifts in general. Maybe you all have December birthdays like I do and are looking for gift options. So Sarah, what is your favorite gift you have gotten? Well as a child, My most memorable and favorite gift was the most like late eighties item ever. It was a dual cassette boombox, and the best part about it, I think it was Panasonic. It was white with like pink and aqua accents like on each side. It was like, I wish I still had it. I think my dad actually kept it for quite a long time because he said the radio was very good. Anyway, that was my favorite kid gift, although a contender was also the original Nintendo entertainment system that I received in approximately maybe nineteen eighty seven or eighty eight, So that was kind of the highlight. As an adult, it was harder to think of things, but I feel like that the items that the test of time have all been jewelry, which is funny because I do not consider myself a jewelry person at all. And also none of the jewelry that I'm talking about is like, you know, archival thousands of dollars piece. But like Josh gave me a very cute little like Tiffany, you know, that like kind of stereotypical infinity necklace like back in the early aughts that I loved and then I lost. And I've had a few other artistic pieces that do still exist and they're just special to me and I still use them. And have them. So there you go, there you go. Yeah. So I I got a dollhouse kit. I think it was the year I was in eighth grade, and I put it together myself, like I built it myself with the wood and shingles and painted it and it was a lot of fun. And of course I, you know, now, have bought another kit. Like I was like, oh, I should do this with my daughter, and then we haven't done it. It's still sitting in my office. That's over there, just time. She's not in eighth grade yet, so you're allowed that time I got that, Well, maybe we'll put it together by then, or she could do it by herself like I did. So I'm as serious. I had the saw, I had the glue, I had you know. Anyway, I actually I actually turned it in terms of like adult gifts. I actually turned down some jewelry this year. My husband had shown me what he was thinking of getting me, and what was lovely. I was sort of like, well, you know what, I'm not going anywhere like there's nowhere I would have to wear this. I it just I appreciate the idea, but I probably would rather put the money to something else right now. So I don't want to wear it to podcast recordings, so I could where where am I? We could maybe let's do a jewelry episode where we're just wearing our stuff for each other. It was like, I'm somewhere to wear it. Yeah, So anyway, I think, well, one of my favorite gifts that he gave me was a treadmill one year, partly because it wasn't so much like the spending the money on the channel, though that's a very nice gift. It was that he researched, like what would be a good one that's in the home market. He went and tried them out and then got it delivered and assembled. So it was the treadmill that appeared with zero work on my part. It was more that the work of getting it was the emotional labor. As as some of our past podcasts might have put it. It It was done for me and now the treadmill is there, so there, there we go. That was a great one in the past. I think when your partner puts like emotional significant effort into that shopping, you can tell and so I agree with you, that's that's lovely. Ah, how sweet? All right, Well we're gonna start with some kind of general thoughts on gifting. I know there have been a lot of podcasts and blogs kind of giving list of items. I mean, will talk about some of our favorite perennial items on this podcast later, but we wanted to talk in some generalizations first. So Laura, you had some ideas about like what makes a good gift recipient. Yeah, this is something that I've been thinking about lately, that it's not just about being a good gift giver. There's a real gift if you will to your loved ones and being a good gift recipient. We can all say like, oh, well, we don't really need to exchange gifts, this is inefficient, nobody needs anything, which is totally true, but the human impulse to exchange gifts is just so strong. I've been learning that from all my early human life and Neanderthal reading, that you can't get away with not doing it, Like there are people who will not be able to help themselves even if you are saying like I don't need anything, I don't need anything. So it is not actually helpful to say I don't need anything, even if it is one hundred percent true, or say oh I like whatever, even alfos if that is one hundred percent true. It becomes stressful for the gift giver, and you can give them the gift of reducing stress by being incredibly easy to shop for. So two ways you can go about to this. One is have a nice to have list, which is things that you like but you don't need. So maybe it's a cute little evening bag for that one party a year you go to in the non COVID times, but every time you get to that party, you're like, I don't have an evening bag because it's like, okay, well that's something I could have, right, Or I don't know, rain boots, like you don't actually need them, but you could have them, or a nice umbrella, or you get what I'm saying, right, These sorts of things that you don't desperately need but would be nice to have. And so when people are like, well what would you like, you'd just hand them the list, right, the stuff that they could then get you and know that you want. Or if somebody gives you a gift card, you can then pull something off that list and say very specifically like oh, I needed a really nice umbrella, thank you for giving me the gift card that I then got this umbrella with. You can also be known for liking something, and this could be a collection of sorts, Like everyone knows that you like anything with images of Cello's or Old Girl Scout paraphernalia, or you connect you collect corkscrews, or you are a connoisseur of flavored vodkas or hot sauces or anything along those lines. That people know that there's a category that you will always be happy about, but it's specific, but it's broadly available, so they will always be able to get you something from that category for any gift giving occasion. I like dark chocolate. I have to interject because I think my husband his family was like so into doing this that he ended up adding like bugs bunny themed gifts for like until he was like stop. So I would say, guests, now, I would say, if there is a category and you feel saturated, you might want to let your loved ones know that, hey, you've moved on to perhaps a slightly broader category or something else. Yes, Laura did mention that her category is dark chocolate, So if any listeners you know want to send something, I'm totally kidding. And my other thought is, what did the Neanderthals give sure, like animal skins, shaped stones. I don't know. Well, I thought maybe you had come up with something because you had mentioned it. The fossil record is so thin, wearing a ring like I mean, so it's a question of when the symbolic stuff came in, right, Like would you have there start to be things that look like their beads, like pierced shells, like will those be were those worn in a symbolic fashion? Could have exchanged shelves, But it's hard to know exactly when that appeared. Anyway, long, long story, we won't go off on that tangent again as we did in a previous episode. Moving on from that our current debate. As my kids are asking for things for Christmas, I like that some of the things they are asking for are experiences. You know, everyone has more than enough toys, where if a particular child doesn't have enough toys, their siblings have enough toys that they can pull from, Like we don't need more blocks or little people or toy cars or anything along those lines. So some of them have been asking for experiences. But the question is those are expensive in terms of time, and so where do we draw the line and what is the precedent, Like, it's okay if one kid asked for experience but the others don't, Well that's okay, that's that's doable. But what if like all four of the big children asked for an experience? And then where is there a dollar limit? Is there a time limit? It? Does it have to be could it be a one on one trip? Or if you know that your siblings would like to do it and I'm bothering to make this trip for instance, can I force siblings to be allowed to go to I don't know, what do you think, Sarah? No, this is tough. I mean, And I think that last part is funny because I totally get it. Like I could totally see one of my kids saying, oh, I want to go X and it's a place that we could totally go as a family. But like, no, the whole point is they want to go like just with me, not with they're sibling. And then yeah, do you have to make that same trip twice? Because in my house, if one person wants something specific that sounds good, then the other one wants the same exact thing. I want something like equivalent, So then oh, okay, I'm taking two trips to Lego. I mean again, I don't know, so that's that's interesting. We do have a thing in our house, so our kids have not for like hahna, god, they haven't really asked for experiences. I have told my kids that at age ten, they get to select our family trip anywhere in the I think I said continental, United States and Canada or something like that. I don't remember. So that means, you know, each kid will only get to do that once at ten, So that's that kind of limits it. It's not going to be an every year kind of thing. And then I think I said something about, like you get to pick an international destination at fifteen, so that'll be a little bit more indulgent and fun. And there we go, like that's three big family trips and three domestic family trips, and that way, I think they kind of know that they're not going to be able to ask for a weekend away with every holiday and birthday, but tho's like special ones. And I don't remember where I came up with that, but I just always thought that would be fun. So I don't know, maybe maybe Laurie needs to be like, if you're going to ask for a trip. Then it's like a forty eight hour max. And that way they can't ask for like I'm going to go back to the Grand Canyon, because like that's going to take a long time and you'd be away from all the other kids. And yeah, hard to know. We've done trips, like you know, I took Jasper to New York a couple of years ago for a two night trip and that was a lot of fun. Michael took him to the Georgia Aquarium a couple of years ago when he requested that, and then I took him to San Diego for a long weekend when he requested that. So he's really the kid who asked for The other kids still ask for stuff, but I suspect that will start to change as they get older too, or not. Maybe he's the only kid who wants to hang out with me. In case, I guess I should enjoy it. New York is so doable for you guys. There's so much there that I feel like, if they want to go to a concert in New York or you see something that that seems fairly realistic, yeah, that's a doable trip. So that I could have a sort of no limit on that one if you want to go see something in New York, but probably not doing that anytime soon. But anyway, Yeah, do your kids shop for each other? So this year, the two big kids have expressed a lot of interest in buying stuff for Genevieve, but I haven't heard a lot of talk about buying things for each other. Their school did have like a holiday bizarre last year, which was so cute and it was like really cheap items, but it just gave them the feel of being able to select things for everyone. But this year is online and I'm like, that's not fun. Yeah, No, not fun at all. Yeah, because the cool thing was that they could go through it independently pick out their physical bag of stuff. We gave them each money and then like they came home with all this stuff. So I don't know. I do know that they have many they keep. They're having fun with this, like we're buying something for Genevieve together things, so I'm encouraging it. It's okay, that's cool. Yeah, Mike, my kids have all decided that they want to shop for each other, which now this I mean, it's so the four older children will each be choosing four presents a piece. So this is a sixteen present extravaganza than I think. No way, I'm doing the Okay, So if well, with the number of kids, You're right, this is like a it's like a cubic expansion. I yes, because all seven are buying that's forty nine gifts in your house. Oh my goodness about it. I mean, and I've also started like, okay, Michael and I don't have to give the kids as much if they are all going to get three sibling presents or four in the case of Henry, I mean, and that could probably be sufficient in terms of you know, Henry will just chew on the wrapping paper in any case, although I would like to make a point, we are going to celebrate his first birthday right after Christmas and declaring it a family policy that his birthday is not Christmas. It is a separate event and needs to be celebrated as well, because otherwise they feel like, you know, you get the short end of the stick as the kid with the birthday that is immediately after Christmas. Well, we have the exact same problem this year because Genevieve's birthday is the second night of Hanukkah. So we are going to make a big deal that is a separate celebration that you know, how are you going to do that though, because it is in fact the same, Probably that will be a night that the kids will get kind of like not the most exciting Hanka gift, so we can focus the energy on her birthday cake and her birthday gift, which will be separate and kind of bigger. Like let's say they all get like socks or you know whatever, then she gets her big, her big resent. Okay, do you normally do I mean, is there an order on which night you do the big presence? I mean is there a tradition with that? Is it like the last night or is it different families do it differently. I think when I grew was growing up, we usually just went big to small because we were so excited to like get no anticipation built up, and like my dad was traveling because he traveled a lot, like we would save nights where he was home for our big stuff. So that was big. No, there's different ways, And I mean, I wrote a blog post this morning, I'm like, I really we're not religious, so like the idea that we and actually Hanukah is not like it's no, it's not. And I don't think the eight presents like I don't think super religious Jewish people even do that, Like I think that's a very secular thing. But I did grow up with it. My kids kind of expect it. We live in an area with a lot of other Jewish people, and they all talk about their eight presents. So whatever, they're going to get eight. But I am filling in some of those gaps with like family gifts, more practical gifts. So it's not going to be like eight giant plastic box of toys, eight packages of little squishies, right, it's exactly which is twenty four or twenty two more of them? All right, Well, let's take a quick ad break and we will be back in a few minutes, so, you know, switching to a few holiday hacks. Here a couple that we have come up with over the past few years. If you are, for instance, if you're celebrating Christmas, and everyone does most of their presence on Christmas morning, we use different color wrapping paper for each individual family member, and that way I can see very quickly if the piles look roughly equivalent. Other people can see that too and not throw fits about it or also no like which ones are there, so they don't you know, paw through everything looking for their names. On the presence, I haven't over the past few years. I don't put an under the tree until really like the day before, because you know, we had young kids and they don't have the self control necessarily to not open stuff, and that would just be a total disaster. Hopefully in a couple of years when Henry's older, we can put stuff under the tree earlier. But yeah, different color wrapping paper, it's pretty easy to get, Like if you go to Costco, they have the two sided wrapping papers. If you've got you know, if you have four children even you know, if you have two roles, that's a different side for each and so then you're good. Like you don't have to actually go out and buy too many different kinds of paper. The adults can make do because you're looking at the piles. If you have an experienced gift that you're giving, do you've picked something to wrap, like tickets and a brochure, So I would wrap a brochure or like if it was to a place, I might buy one of those like photos guides to it or whatever. You know, it's like a ten dollars book. But then you have something to wrap so they get to open it. And I've also made little envelopes if it's something that's you can't get now, Like last year, Jasper actually asked for a queen, which he is getting at the new house, but we are not there, so I put in a little invote, say you're going to get it. And it's just that's been an IOU that's been out there for a long time, but that is that is in the works. What are there to say, Oh, we save gift tags year to year. We save gift bags definitely, because gift bags can be reused holiday ones. For the holidays. I save kids birthday present bags. If their friends give them a bag present, you know, then I save the bag because I can usually reuse it for wrapping other people's stuff for the kid themselves. But we save the tags. So we bought these nice tags at Costco. It's like fifty cute little tags. And so there is going to be a present like to Sam from mom and dad every year. I mean there's several So like why make new tags? I mean I just keep the ones from last year, and so I have five six of each. You know that I can just stick on the new presence in the in the new year. And that's cute because then they come kind of like a like an archive, all like a tradition. So that's fun. I like that. Yeah, one other hack I had, just in case anyone else has a bad Amazon ordering habit. We have lost all kinds of household goods that we have ordered from Amazon, because when we start buying Christmas presents, some of which come from Amazon, I just sort of stack up the boxes in one place until I'm ready to wrap the presence. But there is no way really to distinguish that this is the box with the Christmas present versus this is the box with the six pack of soft soap. So I have had to one thing pondered doing is send it to a different member of the household. So if it is a household good, it is shipped. It could be shipped to Michael, whereas if it's a Christmas president, it's shipped to Laura. And so therefore you can distinguish that there is which I you know, finally figured out my you know, my mother in law sent me a present. It was a year or two ago, so that they're just like did you not get it? Like what happened? It's like it was in the Amazon boxes. I found it on Christmas morning. I'm like, wait, that's that's interesting. We're like unwrapping what you thought was paper towels and it's like, what's this, what's this? What's this? So, yes, it's just a little hack there. Address it to a different family member in your ordering. If that is something that you do. Yeah, And I want to mention that in this day and age, I think something that's great is that we still love we still shop at Amazon. My husband probably wishes we didn't because he has some feelings about that, but I have to say, like, we've gotten to a place where even small businesses have really robust ordering platforms so that you can order from brick and mortar stores but never have to set foot in them, and make it really really convenient. So if you have some boutique that you love, you just order all your gifts from that place and just ship them directly, no middleman, et cetera. Yeah, again, we still use the Big Box as well, but I do like it. In twenty twenty, it's actually pretty easy to shop small without leaving your yeah, a lot of places have really built that up. I mean like Warm and Fuzzy Yarn for instance, and in North Carolina with our past guest. So yes, you can definitely shop local and small as well, even by if you are shopping online. All right, So what are some of the perennial gift hits in your house? I mean, I don't know if your children listen to the podcast and you need to not talk about it, but they don't. It's so funny they don't listen to the podcast. They don't read my blog, to the point where I was like, eh, I'm just going to put what we're buying this year, like they're not going to see it. It's fine. I wonder if there's going to come a time maybe like I mean, they Annabelle could easily be reading my blog, but she doesn't anyway. So my kids definitely like subscriptions of various kinds. We had Kiwiko and we would be happy to have them sponsored, but they're not currently, so this is not a sponsoring My kids like highlights. We had National Geographic Kids, which they like. They come up with these little cutout cars for some reason they find very exciting and fun. So let's go. I am on the hunt for a kid's cooking magazine. I found one out there, but it's quarterly. Although my mom just sent me at this is not a perennial hit because I've never tried it. But America's Test Kitchen has these like monthly boxes for kids where it has like a recipe and like some fun tool. You have to buy the actual food yourself, but like you, you know, they each have like a theme for a kid friendly food that they can make. So I am thinking about trying that as well. Any Kraft materials. As a kid, I used to get a new box of Crowns like every year for years, and I loved it, like it made me very happy. My kids, you know, more likely some kind of craft kit like this year we're getting Annabels, Moorgami and then this giant thing with just a bunch of like little dud dads to make stuff with their jewelry, making kids gift cards. Honestly, my kids love shopping. They'll talk about what they want to get, They'll spend time online surfing it. They love to look at toy actual catalogs, like we've gotten a couple of like I don't know the learning Company. I don't even know what they're called, but like they will sit there and like rip these things to shreds obsessing over it. So honestly, I think a gift card would be kind of fun for them, to get Anabella planner for your organized child, like doup loads always a hit, magnetiles. I feel like, even for the toddler age, that's what I'm getting for my niece this year. If you don't, if somebody doesn't already have them, they're just such a nice gift because they are fairly pricey, and they last for years of play, and even like a one year old can enjoy them, but then it's something that they're probably going to continue to enjoy when they're two, three, four, five. And Calico Critters is another hit. In our house, we have a giant box of them. I feel like we don't need any more at this point. But if you have a kid who really likes pretend play, they're just super cute, really well done. Again, not super cheap, but like they're in the kind of like a medium price point where it doesn't feel ridiculous but it also feels nice. So yeah, what about in your house, Well, I definitely liked your idea of sports and outdoor equipment. I mean, certainly, as the kids are spending so much time at the house these days, anything that gets them away from their phones and iPads is is nice. We've definitely gotten things like skateboards or if if we have to update the bike situation, I mean, we're at the point where people are starting to we can kind of just cycle people through the previous child's bike. But you know, Jasper probably should get an adult bike at this point. You know, so bike helmets, things like that. Scooters are always good. We've got roller skates. You mentioned tennis, rackets. I think that's a great idea. Or balls, like balls in general are good. People can always throw balls, or you know, if there's a sport that a child plays, kind of upgrading their equipment is a nice touch. We're you know, if they're taking lessons somewhere, you know, something associated with that. If there's again nicer equipment or a T shirt or sweatshirt or you know, I always like athletic gear, so I'm sure you know other people probably do too. I say we have a problem with the gift cards. I'm about to show Sarah we have video here I'm showing Sarah an array of cards that are sitting on my desk that are from one child who's like, oh, I've found these in my drawer. Do they just not want to use I don't. I think we're like they're saving it for a rainy day, like because I was a little bit of a hoarders kind of like if something was good or special, like I put it where I didn't want to use it because I I don't know. I mean, they need to get on it, but I'm not sure that there's So we just need to be much more aggressive about using the gift cards because I don't have any desire to, like, you know, give Jeff Bezos more money that's just sitting in that account, like you know, it's like leaving with me. Maybe I'll like, you know, take them in order the paper towels. So we need to get these gift cards used. So I'm going to be better. I'm making my resolution right now that children are going to use them and order stuff. Maybe if you put them somewhere where you see them all the time, because that way, when a kid says, oh, I really want the dollhouse, you can just hey, look like raise the gift card go use it. Yes, yes, exactly. We are big fans of Lego. We are also doing a lot of Legos this year, which with the caveat that we have to keep them up in the air because we have a little person who will eat them. So but Sam and Ruth and I actually already did the Lego Christmas. It's a toy workshop, so that we I kind of snoozed on the job and did not get the twenty twenty set ordered before it's sold out. This is the year that everyone was buying the Lego set to do with their family. We had done the Gingerbread House last year, finished it up in January because you know, late December got busy, but we I couldn't find the twenty twenty one anywhere, so I went back on eBay and you could buy past years like with a bit of a markup, I will admit, but like the official twenty eighteen one is I think the toy workshop. So we bought that and have already put it together, so I guess that's that's done. Took a little bit less time than I thought it might. The kids are getting to be very very good at Lego, Like I wonder if you could find a discounted twenty twenty in January and then you know that's, yes, that is a good idea. I should do that, definitely. I think buying Christmas stuff in general in January is a good idea because then you just if you have the space to keep it, like wrapping paper bows, I mean, you will use it. It will eventually be Christmas again, so you know, good to have, good to have? What do you give adults? Yeah, So my go to is definitely consumables that could be cosmetic consumable, like I'm all about the fancy bath jel. I choose something that I really love and then hope that it's kind of got universal appeal. I have certain products from Sephora that I kind of know, like this totally hand cream, Like who doesn't like that? It's like perfectly light and I don't know, like no one's complaining yet, So there you go. Wine is always good. Beer is always good. I've gotten Josh many beer subscriptions in the past, and my sister actually got me Jenny's ice cream which came in this like I don't know, like with dry ice and stuff, which was like such a fun consumable gift to receive. So I'm thinking about maybe giving that to someone this year. We'll see I think upgraded launewear, like especially in twenty twenty. Who doesn't need like a you know, great pair of sweatpants or a fancy like pajama set or something like that. So we've definitely done that. My husband and I don't actually exchange holiday gifts. I guess I don't know. We try not to. We do get each other birthday gifts. We don't even do anniversary We try to do like an experience together, but we do do birthday gifts. And again, as I mentioned, my husband's birthday is around that same time as Jenevieve's, so gets pulled into the mix. Yeah, I'm figuring out what my husband is getting a in our new house, we have something that's a bit of a man cave, and so he's getting some wal art for the man cave, which may or may not be a Texas A and m led like I thought you were gonna say it was gonna have like something with horns. That's the wrong college school. Okay, good, good, because that would be kind of a lot. Yeah, no, so that's that's happening. But when I'm a big fan of giving sort of like family units. Like if you exchange with extended family, like you get something for the family unit. You can actually give everybody the same thing slightly varied. So last year, for instance, I gave everybody Pendleton blankets, which is a very nice blanket company. You got one nice blanket for each family unit, you know. I gave all the adults like these ug slippers one year, so that was that was kind of fun. You could do stuff like vests or fleeces or nice scarves. I've done the like Harry and David Fruit of the Month kind of club thing for people in the past. That's that's gonna be a good household gift that then keeps coming. A public service announcement. If people work for you, you can give them money. Yeah, money is money is the right gift in case you were wondering. Yeah, And the guideline is usually one to two times the weekly pay, you know, depending on your intimacy level with that that person. I've heard some people go even higher than that. But yes, money, money money. You g alys give a little small token with the money so that you feel like they're like if it's a caregiver like a you know, a framed photo with a lot of cash. Yes, but the money is the key element here. I mean it's the same thing like if you were at work and somebody like gave you. I mean I just think about like the old passive, like we give people a turkey for Christmas. Like there's these old companies that would do that. It's like, come on, that is not what they want. Or one of my favorite dilbertsd what was it they gave an employee, like an employee of the month. This was a Dilbert cartoon, a thousand dollars knick knack, like it's a Strasby crystal, Like we'll go up the company, like they think. I just want the money, not the crystal, not the desk clup. So yes, that is our public service stans all right, anything else on gift giving Sarah before we go to our question, No, I think I think that was great. I'm more motivated to shop now. Oh and I will admit that, like I'm not one of those shop months in advance. But I always admire the people who say, oh, I start in March and I have a closet and I collect things all year long, like, that's amazing. I usually gift shop around Black Friday, not at the Black Friday sales necessarily, but it's when I realize, like, oh my god, I have to order everything or it's not going to talk about Sarah's secretly that person who's there with her card at five am running everyone else over. No, I only shop online. So all right, So here's our question. This listener works for a large company with many, many, like thousands of employees, and she says, periodically there will be an opportunity to join what is now a virtual lunch and learn with a member of senior leadership. She says, I don't understand what the purpose of these luncheons are. Is it a good opportunity to have FaceTime? Would you recommend attending these? If so, how do you recommend deciding which ones to attend? She's seen invitations for various people like including you know, the head of her division, the CFO, various you know this chief legal officer, like you know, the whole c suite. Host is expected to host these at her company. She says, if I attend, what would you suggest I do to prepare? So, Sarah, what do you think? Well, the first thing I would say is if these people are hosting these things, they're going to prepare, like they're going to be ready with all kinds of icebreakers and things. It would be kind of silly of them to be like come to a lunch and learn and then just stand there like who has something to say? And these are you know, leaders, so they probably are fairly skilled at getting conversations going, so I wouldn't stress too much about this. I feel like you have nothing to lose by going. You can always get ideas, you might meet people. It is always great for the leaders in your organization to know who you are that can really never do anything bad for your career. It might do nothing, but it's not going to be a negative. And if you do come up with something to ask or maybe even just like something to brag about, not that yourself necessarily, but maybe you just want to say, like, oh, and by the way, like our division had to had our best month ever despite COVID because of you know, you might want to give praise on somebody else, like that might be a nice way to kind of like share the wealth. And also they're going to remember that you complimented somebody else and we're excited about progress in your division. So I say, bring positivity. You don't have to prepare you know, an elevator pitch or anything like that. But I say, go, there's no downside. Yeah, I say, there's basically no reason not to. I mean, especially like if you're planning to take like a lunch break anyway. I mean, this is this is work lunch, Like you're getting to meet people, You're getting your face in front of people. So yeah, go ahead and choose some that look interesting. Make sure you just have a short introduction of yourself that says you know what you do for the company, maybe the thing you're happiest about that's just happened. You come with a question related to your industry. These people might have a perspective on that you would find interesting. But yeah, I doubt you really need to prepare all that much. But if there is a situation where they're going around the room, then you have a question that you could ask and sound intelligent. But yeah, there's never a bad reason for like senior people to know your face and know your name. I totally agree with Sarah. So it is the FaceTime and a lot of people would be I just found the question is sort of funny, like, you know, what is the purpose of these It's like, well, most most people in big companies see an upside and having the people higher up the ladder know who they are, so that is basically what this is. And you know view it as a easy, cost free way to network. And you know, we can check that box. And since there are very probably not as many holiday parties going on where you'd have that casual face time could serve as a nice substitute. All right, Well, this has been best of both worlds. We've been doing our holiday gift guide and thoughts for holiday shopping and holiday hacks and all that good stuff, and we will be back next week with more on making work and life fit together. Thanks for listening. You can find me Sarah at the shoebox dot com or at the Underscore Shoebox on Instagram, and you can find me Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. This has been the best of both worlds podcasts. Please join us next time for more on making work and life work together.