Brothers in the Blind: How We're Building Strong Connections with New In-Laws

Chris Alessi:
And so we get these great moments. And even the relationships I feel like I have with you is because of a certain honor that me and my sisters have, one to another, that even when we fight, we walk away from that. And in one minute you're thinking the worst about this sibling, but then you go, and you go, no, I'm going to think the best of them. And that allows for honorable relationships here. Well, apparently my original introduction was not good enough, so we're doing it again. Welcome to another episode of the Family Business with the Alessi's. Because family is everybody's business. We want to thank you for watching as we're rolling over 200 episodes now and closing in on a million views here on YouTube.

Chris Alessi:
So make sure you, like, subscribe, follow whatever the platform is asking you to do so you can be a part of the family. And speaking of being a part of the family, today we're going to be introducing the newest member of our family, Christian Kud Gal, Gabby's husband. Christian, how you doing?

Christian:
Good. Feeling good. I'm glad to be here. It's my first time being not in this booth because I usually, you know, host on Sunday mornings, but it's my first time being on the podcast.

Christian:
So I'm.

Christian:
I'm excited and ready to get into a little bit of what we do here.

Chris Alessi:
Good to have you, man. And of course, we've got Moenya, who we were actually talking about it before we hopped on. Moenya was represented by like a funny deer head that my dad had in his office until you were finally able to be in the office and on an episode. So that was cool. Christian didn't have anything like that. We just. I guess he was here.

Christian:
It's a cold open here.

Chris Alessi:
Yeah, it's cold open. Good to have you. You want to say hi?

Christopher Muiña:
Yeah, it's good to be back. I'm not here super often, so I'm usually with Steph doing stuff about marriage and house hunting and all that stuff. So it's good to be here with the two brother in laws.

Chris Alessi:
Yeah. Well, I'm very glad you brought up the word hunting because we thought, you know, just to be very quick about it, what we're really talking about here today is an interesting dynamic between, I guess you call them in laws, brother in laws, bringing another one into the family. You and I got married within three months of each other, and so we were kind of together in discovering what the dynamic of a sibling being married in our family now was like. We kind of created it together. And then four And a half, five years later, in comes this guy, taller and thinner than us both. And not really too much thinner, but a little bit.

Christopher Muiña:
But, you know, taller.

Chris Alessi:
Definitely taller. But we want to hear even your perspective on being added into the family. And he may get a call in the middle of it. He's. He's making deals happen. So if he walks out, that's why. And we'll just keep talking and we'll tell you the unadulterated truth when he's not here. But no, it's just cool.

Chris Alessi:
And a lot of our dynamic, you know, we're very open and we talk about it, but a lot of our conversations have been happening in hunting booths.

Christian:
Yeah.

Chris Alessi:
In hunting stands. And so we all got our bucks this year. I think the group becomes less and less excited about their book as they move from that side to this side. He's probably the most excited. He's a close second, and I'm a distant third. But we had a good Thanksgiving. Good hunting trip.

Christian:
We did. No, Thanksgiving was great. I mean, it was great to be there. Married, obviously, for the first time with the entire family. And I really do cherish. And for anybody watching, I don't know how, you know, knowledgeable you are of hunting and different things like that, but it's a very. I guess intimate is the word without being weird. Intimate is the word where you are in a blind, which is, you know, the size of.

Chris Alessi:
There's not enough. This chair.

Christian:
Yeah. It's not this much room. And you're in the chairs, sitting next to each other. In the morning, it's in pitch black darkness. Right. And you're basically whispering to each other for all intents and purposes, for like six hours. Yeah, for like five hours.

Chris Alessi:
When you guys go, it's more like 10 to 12.

Christian:
Yeah, yeah.

Chris Alessi:
For me, it's fine.

Christian:
For you, you call it at five, so. But no, I love Thanksgiving. And being able to go out there and be in the hunting stand, it's pretty unique. You wake up early, you come back, you know, to breakfast that the girls cook, you eat, you take a little nap, you do a little work. You go back hunting, you go back out.

Chris Alessi:
You forgot the whole point about, you know, being sprayed with something that's supposed to help you get rid of the smells that were on you originally. You forgot that part.

Christian:
But it just smells like water.

Chris Alessi:
It just smells water.

Christian:
I'm convinced whatever company is doing, somebody is marketed water, it's just water. And they're spraying it on you, and they're telling you you don't smell. So I don't think that's the case. But the hunting blinds were definitely a good time. And like you said, you know, great bonding.

Chris Alessi:
Great bonding. And it gives us a lot of time through whispering to be very intentional about some. Some podcast worthy conversations that are fun. But you know, even, even that is interesting because I've never had a brother, so I only had sisters. But then Moenie comes on the scene and we kind of both were in the exact same story. We were a little bit older, probably got married later than expected, brought our wives in. I was going through what it was like to bring a woman into the family. He was doing the same thing on his end while also being a part of our family for the first time.

Chris Alessi:
So our family was like introduced to marriage all at once with two couples. So we were really able to figure our dynamic out. Not to mention it was in the middle of COVID so the world was shut down and we just, we had a slower pace to like getting to know each other and we really developed a certain family dynamic. Then kids came on the scene and that whole dynamic, you know, shifted and changed, but in a good way. And then all of a sudden we're in like, we're. We're told that Gabby and Christian are like, serious. Well, now we start knowing that Christian is most likely joining the ranks as one of the brothers. And that was kind of easy because I had known Christian for a really long time, but even you guys had rubbed shoulders before that he was here.

Chris Alessi:
For us, it was like we had just gotten to know each other. But now he's here, he's in it, and he adds so much. But we also feel the personal responsibility to also kind of teach him. But some of the things that will come up as a result of marrying into this family while still staying true and unique to him and his family and all that. So what was it like for you to I guess a go through our own dynamic and then bring him into it?

Christopher Muiña:
Well, I think like you said when we first got married or married at the same time, pretty much three months apart, four months apart, and we were both figuring it out together. And so now we look at you, Christian, we're like, all right, there's some things that we kind of went through that we want to help you navigate through because we know exactly what you're going through. We know what spending a week or I know what spending a week like with your in laws in Georgia could be like, could have an effect on you and Gabby or. Or what sitting in a In a blind with your father in law, with your brother in law for six plus hours. Yeah. Could there could be an awkward moment, like, but you know, so we just, at least me and you too, we want to help you navigate that and also hear the funny stories because we want to hear just like what we experienced. At least the hunting side of it. It brought me closer to Pastor Steve and it brought me closer to you.

Christopher Muiña:
So that's been a huge blessing.

Christian:
Very true. Yeah.

Christopher Muiña:
So, yeah, that's. I'm curious to hear some stories.

Chris Alessi:
Well, here's the funny thing. I've never really had an issue talking to people. I've never ever been in the car and felt like I don't know what to say. This conversation's not going anywhere until like two and a half years into our relationship as married into the same family. Because then it's just like we're family, but we also don't have the decades long experience that we have with our actual family. So you are working out a new relationship and like learning with a whole lot more pressure than like a normal friend is. But we mentioned some stories because we thought, you know what, if we have a long form podcast today, we should talk about some of the things that we just went through. And one of those is Mr.

Chris Alessi:
Kolatti, you'd got his very first buck.

Christian:
My very first buck. My very first kill.

Chris Alessi:
Period.

Christopher Muiña:
Period.

Chris Alessi:
And it was a monster. Yeah, it was a beauty. And he got to do it with his wife.

Christian:
With my wife. With Gabby.

Chris Alessi:
Have you killed a buck with Stephanie?

Christopher Muiña:
No.

Chris Alessi:
No, I haven't.

Christopher Muiña:
Whenever she comes and sit with, sits with me, we see nothing.

Chris Alessi:
Yeah, she talks too much. Probably too loud now.

Christopher Muiña:
She doesn't, she doesn't sit like, I'm not going to mess up.

Christian:
Relegated.

Chris Alessi:
So you were with him when he got his monster last year?

Christian:
No, no, I was with him when we were bow hunting last year and a big buck came out and kind of trotted down the hill. But with bow hunting, it was a little difficult, so we missed him. And then he got his monster. I think it was the morning after Thanksgiving, which I was sick as a dog at last year, so I. I didn't wake up to go hunting. But you got it alone. If I remember correctly, we had to go get him.

Chris Alessi:
Yeah. Oh, my gosh. So. So when you were cutting that thing up, because while the rest of us are very comfortable letting a processor cut everything out.

Christian:
Process.

Chris Alessi:
Yeah, process. Mr. Mooney likes and has done it two years in a row now. You do a portion of it on Your own?

Christopher Muiña:
I do. I like to field dress the animal there on the spot. It just helps me feel like this is part of the hunt as well. And it's just part of it.

Chris Alessi:
So it's not part of it for me. Watching you has been part of it for me. That's been fun. So then he was with me when I got mine this year. I was. That was fun.

Christian:
That was cool.

Chris Alessi:
So the weird thing about this hunting season was we all sat quite a few times and saw nothing. Yeah, I mean, nothing. And then, you know, they're supposed to say that the rut was maybe like a week before Thanksgiving, but they were running last week. They were running. In fact, mine was running. Now, I like the way I tell stories, but if there's somebody I enjoy hearing tell stories, it is Christian. So why don't you tell the story real quick of my buck and then we'll go into the story of.

Christopher Muiña:
This guy's perfect.

Christian:
So, yeah, I got the opportunity to sit with you when you got your buck this year. We went out to kind of one of the first stands in the property that we have out there. And that first stand is the visibility is very small. So you're basically just a little clearance, a little field in front of you, and then it's just tree line all the way around. So we sat there and right as day.

Chris Alessi:
Not to mention, the actual, like blind is blocked too.

Christian:
Yeah, yeah. Like you have branches in front of you to disguise you a little bit, but it's very, very hard to see. So, you know, as day broke, we had just a little buck. I think it might have been a six pointer. Just kind of. It was almost like he didn't get there. He just spawned there. Like he was always there.

Christian:
I don't remember how he got there, but as soon as the sun came up, he was just there and he ran across. So that was some nice action that we got early and then.

Chris Alessi:
Which up to that point was the most action I had seen all season.

Christian:
All season. All season. So we saw another little doe came and went. And you know, for context, I was looking for a doe, right? A big size doe. And you were looking for a buck at that point. And all of a sudden we hear probably around what, like 8:30 maybe?

Chris Alessi:
Yeah, this little. Little doe dark books it. I've never seen. I've never seen them run that fast.

Christian:
Darts. So we look at each other, Chris and I, and it was, you know, we're probably perched up 12, 16ft and it darts right to our right into the plot. In front of us, and we look at each other, we're like, man, something must be chasing that thing.

Chris Alessi:
Like, no, it doesn't run like that.

Christian:
No, it doesn't run like that. And all of a sudden. And if you don't know what the rut is, it's basically where the males want to mate with the females, and the females don't really want to mate with the males.

Chris Alessi:
So they are always running all excited.

Christian:
They're always running, and the males are always chasing. And all of a sudden, we heard something that. I mean, it was like a dog. It was like a dog. Like, it sounded like a. I'm glad.

Chris Alessi:
You did it, because I didn't want to try to do it.

Christian:
It was something like that. It sounded more akin to a pig and a dog than a. Than a buck. And all of a sudden, we see this broad shoulders guy come out. And it all happened very fast, which is good context for my story that I had with Gabby later. But, you know, it was as soon as he came out, Chris said, okay, he's a shooter. I'm taking him immediately. Immediately.

Christian:
And he, you know, kind of trotted up there, followed the doe. Chris, you know, let out a. He was facing the backside. You kind of want him to get the side view or you want to get the side view of him. And Chris goes, I did turn.

Chris Alessi:
I've never done it before.

Christian:
And plop. He went down fast. But. But he was.

Chris Alessi:
He died where I shot him immediately. I know this might be hard for some people to hear, but, you know, it probably means the best thing as far as the suffering for the animal. It was over real fast right there with enough time to drag him off and then see if something else came out.

Christian:
Yeah, see if something else came out. So. And he had some broken, you know, antlers and stuff, which was cool. And you said it.

Christopher Muiña:
And he was fighting.

Christian:
He was a fighter.

Chris Alessi:
He had a broken jaw before.

Christian:
Broken jaw. And it wasn't from us.

Chris Alessi:
His ears were breaking.

Christian:
His jaw.

Christopher Muiña:
Your ears were all, like, shredded.

Christian:
His ears were all cut up. So it was a really, really cool buck, and it was a cool experience. The first time I've seen someone, like, get a buck in front of me.

Chris Alessi:
I thought you had seen his the year before.

Christian:
No, we had shot one. Right. But it just. We missed it and he ran off. Yeah, it was with a bow and. But that was a really, really cool experience.

Chris Alessi:
Talk about intimate, you guys sitting on a tree stand is way more intimate.

Christopher Muiña:
We were within 20 yards of that.

Christian:
Buck, probably 15, 20 yards. And we were seeing dough the whole. The whole time. And that one is different because, I mean, a blind is a massive kind of like, shed closed. It's enclosed. You can move. You can do different things on a tree stand 20 yards away. Even if you move, even if you move, the doe will see you in, like, in that tree.

Chris Alessi:
Yeah. For. So for people that don't know, a tree stand in this sense is like somebody attached, a platform for you to sit on on top of an open ladder. So there's no enclosing. There's nothing.

Christian:
You're out there.

Chris Alessi:
That's like your hunting of choice.

Christopher Muiña:
That's what I like. I like to be up close.

Christian:
It's cool. You get to see the, like, almost the personality of the. Of the different deers. So that was really, really cool. And obviously your book, that was a. That was a great story too. And he was. He was a little fighter, which was cool.

Chris Alessi:
But, you know, you talked about it, like, the time in between daybreak and when he came out, it was probably a good hour and a half. Who. Who else do you sit quietly for an hour and a half with? Like, you just don't ever do that.

Christopher Muiña:
Come on.

Chris Alessi:
And it wasn't until you just mentioned it. But, like, for me, it's dad and Pastor Fine. But for you guys, you're sitting with people that play a role spiritually in your life while also, like, sitting quietly. Your knees are touching and, you know, it's a. It's a whole different thing. I remember when we went out to Oklahoma to that pastor's retreat, like a hunting retreat, the pastor putting on the whole thing. My dad knew of him. He was apparently really big back in the day.

Chris Alessi:
I really never knew anything of him. We get to the trip, there's like 50 people there, 50 pastors, and they're like, alessi, you're with him. And they put me with the pastor of the whole thing. And I had to take. I had to sit quietly with that guy, make conversation whenever he did, and then try to shoot at a buck with him standing there, which is a lot of pressure because if you miss, you feel quite dumb. But, like, it is an intimate moment. And luckily, one of the things our family does is we. We seem to really engage that intimacy.

Chris Alessi:
And I have to applaud you guys on that too. Like, you. You engage it from your perspective. Like, you guys go and get advice from my dad. We talk through things you guys don't. And I know I'm quick on the draw on this, but, like, I do like to Talk about our dynamic and our family and our future. And you guys never really guilt me for it being like, hey, we're just driving. Come on, you don't have to go deep.

Chris Alessi:
You guys are very open about it. And so I appreciate that because that's one of the things I personally think makes us a healthy family. We just talk through things. And so when someone's coming on, we talk through things. When. Whenever you feel like there's something that's hard for you to process, we talk through things. And so that's always been one of the ways that we have our family dynamic and how it stays healthy. But, Moenia, what.

Chris Alessi:
What about your buck? You want to tell last year's and this year's or just this year's?

Christopher Muiña:
Well, I want to tell a story of what happened the morning. I think it was the morning you shot yours.

Christian:
No, it was the morning after I shot mine.

Christopher Muiña:
So just to give some context, when we hunt in the mornings, we're up at 4:30 and we're out the door by 5:15.

Christian:
Right.

Christopher Muiña:
And Pastor Steve, he is very routine, and he's. He is like.

Chris Alessi:
He's regiment.

Christopher Muiña:
He's regiment. Yeah. So when he says a time, it's. That's the time. And so we're up early, drinking coffee. It's 30 degrees outside. We usually like to leave all of our stuff ready the night before because there's just not that much time in the morning. And who can process, like, operate at 4:30 in the morning? Clearly.

Christopher Muiña:
So we had already hunted. This is like the third morning that we go hunting. So we were already kind of tired of waking up early consecutively.

Christian:
And it's cold and it's freezing. Literally freezing.

Christopher Muiña:
Yeah.

Chris Alessi:
So.

Christopher Muiña:
So you had forgotten a blanket that you were looking for in the house. We were all in the truck, or we were about to get in the truck, and you hear, you were like, let me run in and grab a blanket.

Chris Alessi:
Yeah.

Christopher Muiña:
So we're like, all right, whatever. We're already a little late, but it's not a big deal. Well, when you get in the. In the truck again, Pastor Steve starts. He's like. Starts telling us, hey, guys, this is why it's important to always plan ahead the night before. Make sure you have your checklist and everything in order and in your bag and ready.

Christian:
So we're. Which I didn't hear any of that. And I'll explain why now.

Christopher Muiña:
Well, as Pastor Steve is communicating this to us in the truck, as he's driving out the driveway, Kristen stops him, just interrupts him, he's like, wait, wait, wait. I forgot my phone. You could just see it on pastor's face. Like, oh, boy, reverse.

Chris Alessi:
You ran in the house, grabbed your phone.

Christian:
Exactly.

Chris Alessi:
And then that's it. It was quiet the whole drive. So as he's giving you the speech.

Christian:
On preparation, which I didn't hear any of it because the one thing that probably trumps all shocks is the shock of I don't feel my phone on my body. Right. Like, the one thing that trumps everything is the. You start patting down and you're like, oh, I do not feel the silhouette of my phone on me. So I didn't hear a word he said. And I was like, hold up. Hey, I left my phone waiting. I left my phone.

Christian:
We need my phone. And if you like, the one thing about hunting and, you know, being out with people when you're not in the same blind, because we went out, four of us, so it was me and someone else, and then you and pastor. And the one thing is we'll always text each other like, hey, a little bit of action here, a little bit of action there's. Hey, we got something.

Chris Alessi:
Hey, Buck down. Was that you?

Christian:
Exactly. Was that you? So I knew it was pivotal to have the phone. And I, like, it was a split second decision of, like, do I go this trip without my phone and talk about having to speak to the guy next to me? That would have been tough, but. But no, that was. That was why, like, I. I didn't. That's funny. That's the first time I heard what he was saying in that moment.

Christian:
I didn't remember what he was saying because I was so fixated on, like, oh, my gosh, like, where is my phone? And you're wearing, like, 19 layers of clothing. So I checked my. I had three pants underneath that had pockets. I checked those pockets. I'm checking everything. I'm checking every. I have 19 pockets to check.

Chris Alessi:
I was actually gonna mention that. I'm like, I'm shocked. You can even feel the silhouette of anything. Cause we go so layered up.

Christian:
Exactly.

Chris Alessi:
But, you know, that's actually a great story to bring up because every, I guess father in law and for me, father has their way of operating. And one of the things I love about the two of you as his. As his son, I love that you guys embrace, you know, his style and his way of doing things. It makes life so much even easier for me because, yes, he's our pastor, so, like, it makes. It makes so much sense on the surface. But you guys could choose to make it difficult and you guys don't. And there are difficulties in being a part of this family. You know, there are things that are like, okay, if I'm going to be that.

Chris Alessi:
If, if, if I'm going to be able to lift a weight like that, eventually I've got to lift the one in front of me. So there are things that you have to walk through to get the benefits on the other side. And I've always appreciated that. And what I try to do is be like, I want to be actively a part of that interaction. But I'm also grateful that you guys have a desire, you know, to be. To have your own relationship with him, your own relationship with each other, our own relationship. It's just a really cool thing. How men know the only way men will have a relationship is if there's mutual respect.

Chris Alessi:
And we know that that does not operate in the if you respect me, I'll respect you. It literally means I will respect you and have faith you respect me back. And I think because of that, our dynamic works. So that's really cool. Now, your backstory, because I don't think people realize there's a huge difference between Chris Molina and Chris Alessi when it comes to hunting. You see, I have no problem not being able to look all the way around me and having a limited view of sight, because I don't mind. I'll just look right here and see if a buck comes out. But Moinho almost wants to sit outside because he likes to spend the entire time looking.

Chris Alessi:
We call it glassing, looking through binoculars. 360. I mean, just looking. And both of the bucks you've gotten in the last two years were not on the plot in front of you. They were off plot.

Christopher Muiña:
Yeah.

Chris Alessi:
Yeah.

Christopher Muiña:
I mean, I like to look around. Just. I'm always constantly looking around, turning around, looking out the windows, looking behind me. Primarily this year, we barely saw any deer on the plot, any bucks on the plot. So my thought is, if they're not there, then you gotta be somewhere. So I'm sitting by myself and what we call go ahead.

Chris Alessi:
I think if they're not in front of me, they're not anywhere.

Christopher Muiña:
They're gone in what we call the back plot. And it's a nice sit because you're up high and you have pretty much360views all around you for a good, you know, 500 yards in some areas, even more that you could see from far away. So it's nice. And it was just getting dark. It was like 5, 45 legal shooting hours ended in like 5 or 10 minutes. It was almost dark and I'm already about to call the hunt. I'm like, I can't see anything. If a big buck were to come out, I wouldn't be able to decipher if it was a shooter buck, what we call it, like big enough to.

Chris Alessi:
Be able to shoot because put on the wall.

Christopher Muiña:
Yeah, because when you see a buck, you have to now make decisions of is that big enough for my standards? You know, and everybody's standard is a little different. But I want something that is large, mature age, you know, 10 points at least. If it's an 8 point, it has.

Chris Alessi:
To be a big monster.

Christopher Muiña:
Big monster. So I want a good buck. So it's late, it's dark, 5, 45. I'm like, I'm calling this, this is already dark. I'm gonna start packing up. And out of the corner of my eye I behind me I see movement. So I look and it's this, it's a big buck. It's like a ten pointer, I think, just kind of cruising like you were saying, just walking, trotting along.

Christopher Muiña:
It wasn't like just grazing there, it was moving on the move. And instantly I knew, I was like, that's a shooter buck. And I could tell it was like mature body. You can all the characteristics that it needed it had. But it was cruising quick and it was dark. So I looked at it through my binos first just to confirm and then I tried to situate the gun looking out the window. But it was so dark that my scope was having a hard time finding it because it was blending in with everything.

Chris Alessi:
I'm getting stressed out here.

Christian:
So.

Christopher Muiña:
It'S walking and it finally slows down, but it's behind like a bush so I couldn't shoot it. And it clears the bush and then it turns to look at me. And when you hunt, you know, like you were saying, you want a broad sided view. So a shot from this like on the side so you can hit it in its vital organs, like right behind the arm effectively. Yeah, that's the cleanest shot. Well, this thing was staring right at me and you don't normally want to take a shot like that because now you limit your spot to be like just the chest.

Chris Alessi:
Yeah, the animal can suffer. You could actually continue living and you didn't get it right.

Christopher Muiña:
So it's a whole thing. I shot it straight on, good, hit it, solid shot. And it kind of like did a backflip and landed on its back. And I see it kick in. The dust was coming up. I'm like, good, I got it. I reloaded just in case and this thing pops up and I'm like, oh, no, it wasn't a kill shot. And it starts just bolting away from me into the tree line.

Christopher Muiña:
So now I'm like falling with the scope and I take another shot and I hit it in the shoulder and it just drops right there. I'm like, oh, thank God. So I couldn't wait. I didn't wait anything because I was like, it's dark already and I want to make sure this thing is down, not that it's gonna get up again.

Christian:
Yeah.

Christopher Muiña:
So I went and I saw it and it was sure enough, it was. It was a nice buck. And yeah, it was down.

Chris Alessi:
And then we had to find you because you had taken your truck like down into the valley and it was pitch black.

Christopher Muiña:
Yeah. Cuz it was dark. So I needed the headlights for my truck to be able to see it and start field dressing it and all that.

Chris Alessi:
So should we show everyone the videos of him field dressing it? Because I have them. If they could survive the story and not get, you know, too sad, YouTube might ban it. No, it was really cool though. It was really co cool. And by the way, before we tell the next story, we have to say to all of our wives and my mom and your mother in law, thank you because we wouldn't be allowed to go hunting if you guys didn't stay back and watch the kids and take care of feeding us when we get back and all that. So the ladies in our life, they allow for these moments. So we say thank you so much now. It's been, it's been really fun watching Christian come into it because I would have never thought that you would be so into hunting back when I guess just the day before you started getting into it.

Chris Alessi:
But you're like, you're a hunter now. Yeah, I like it.

Christian:
I like it. You know, it started a little bit earlier. I tore my ACL last year in April, and I was literally my ACL and my meniscus. So I was bedridden for like all the month of May and there wasn't much on during the day. I'm literally in bed, there's nothing I can do. I had time from work off. So the entire month I was just out. And obviously that's, you know, NBA playoffs, NHL playoffs.

Christian:
So at night I was covered. I had stuff to watch. But during the day I would just watch Meat Eater on Netflix and that's all I Would watch. And I, I literally watched, I think on Netflix they have like seasons like six through nine or something like that. They only have the back half. And I watched every single one of them and then found where I can watch the early seasons as well. So it was before I even went hun. Where I kind of was enjoying this.

Christian:
And funny enough, it was later that year that we went up and we had that entire bow experience and different things. Some of my best stories of hunting are with. With. Yeah, because we.

Christopher Muiña:
That was a good year. Exciting year.

Christian:
That was an exciting year. And even this year, you know, we had this one, this one opportunity where, you know, the entire season this year I was going to take a doe. That was always the plan. I wanted to take a large doe first kill, you know, have a little bit of the food and the meat and take it home. And like you said, he glasses.

Chris Alessi:
That's all he does.

Christian:
Like he sits there, glasses. He sees things that I can't even see with binoculars. He's seeing it with his naked eye. So he spotted a really big doe that looked, it was right next to a pretty like an eight point buck. And they were like the same size. So it was like, oh, that's a big doe. And we probably 400 yards away, 350 yards away. And we knew it wasn't going to be, you know, something we can shoot at.

Christian:
So we were like, all right, let's. You know, the wind is good. You always want to be downwind from it because the wind takes it, takes it away, I guess. Upwind.

Chris Alessi:
Yeah.

Christopher Muiña:
You don't want your scent to be blown into the deer.

Christian:
Exactly. Yeah. So we, we were like, all right, we're going to try to stalk this thing. We're going to get out of the blind.

Chris Alessi:
So funny.

Christian:
And we're going to try to stalk this thing. And I think on a very short.

Chris Alessi:
List of things you'll never hear me say. Yeah.

Christian:
So we which in my like all the meat eater episodes, he spot and stock hunting. He's rarely sitting in a blind. He's always like spotting something, checking the wind. And it's like a, you know, six hour ordeal throughout the entire day where you're stalking a deer. So I really enjoyed that. I liked that. As soon as he said it, I was like, I'm on board with it. I want my first kill to be like that.

Christian:
And probably as soon as we got off the blind, it spotted us. But the unfortunate part is I wish we would have known that right when we got off the blind, it took all 400 yards of crouch walking in which my back still hurts. I don't know if there's still tight.

Christopher Muiña:
We're not Steve Rinelli.

Christian:
No, we're not Steve Rinelli, but we're walk over and probably 400 yards of crouch walking. And then, you know, we're making loud noises with leaves crunching on our feet. We can't see anything. We're not at an elevated point. And then we're finally like, all right, let's just walk back. And as we're walking back, or while we were walking over, a young buck that was in our wind direction, so should have smelled this. Just trots along right behind us, probably 100 yards away.

Chris Alessi:
That's so funny. I think I know why you enjoy your. Your hunting. Sits with him better than me. Because I want to have deep life conversations and talk about things and ask questions and who cares if a bug walks behind me? I didn't notice it wasn't there. I never saw it. It wasn't there. This guy's just gonna focus and glass and spend the whole time doing it.

Chris Alessi:
If you ask him a question, you'll get an answer sometimes. Yeah, he's not gonna.

Christian:
He's locked in. I love it. I love it. He's locked in. And we can. We. We take. We take some risks.

Christian:
And obviously the bow hunts were great too.

Christopher Muiña:
Say my dad loves it.

Chris Alessi:
My dad loves. And that's actually been something really cool to see because, you know, not every father and son share 100% of the same love. You know, like, there's a lot of things I love my, like my dad couldn't care for. But it is cool to see certain parts of my dad's heart get to be fully appreciated by somebody that is a son to him. So that's really cool. I've always appreciated that. Now, real quick, before you tell your story, just in case someone has no idea, in 30 seconds, tell them the story of you and Gabby and how you got here.

Christian:
Yeah. So I think that's, that's. I might take a little bit longer than 30 seconds, but, like, not if.

Chris Alessi:
You keep wasting stuff like that.

Christian:
I think, you know, where, where the dynamic of Gabby and I differs a lot is I knew Pastor far before he was ever like a thought of going to be my father in law. Yeah. You know, whereas obviously it's a little different for you where, you know, when you came into the picture, I think in like 20. 20. 20, 2019. You know, my family's been here for, for 25 years. Right. For a Very, very long time at this church.

Christian:
And I was born and raised with Gabby, you know, in the same youth group, same kids ministry, same young adult ministry. And it's been unique to have your pastor become your father in law. But it was one of the things I said at. One of the things I said during. I think it was Father's Day, where it's. So many people love pastor as their pastor, and I feel, in a sense, bad for them that they can't experience him as a father in law as well. Because, I mean, that's the. I've loved him as a pastor, but as a father in law, he's been just another level of gracious, loving, kind, honoring.

Christian:
Right? And you said it. It's not, hey, I honor you, you honor me. It's, you know, it started like that with Gabby and I honoring him, and now he's honored us in just special ways, unique ways, including letting me get a buck, you know, so all that to say, Gabby and I have known each other for a while. We have, you know, been dating or we dated for about two years and then got married last October. October 3rd. And, you know, it's been going great.

Chris Alessi:
So today's two months.

Christian:
Today's two months.

Chris Alessi:
Happy two months.

Christian:
How about that, babe? It's two months.

Chris Alessi:
Oh, she's out there still.

Christian:
She's out there.

Chris Alessi:
Wow. Two months.

Christian:
Two months.

Chris Alessi:
We didn't.

Christian:
We didn't know about that until literally right now, so.

Chris Alessi:
Well, that's really. That is really cool. You know, and that's what. I guess that's what I mean by dynamic. Just like, you know what I'm trying to think about, like a hunting analogy. But, like, you know, what is normal for you? You got to look at him as pastor for a long time, and then now you're sitting in a hunting blind with him as a guy that at one point liked his daughter, was engaged to his daughter, and now has married his daughter and changed her last name. And, you know, I really appreciate all of the different dynamics that we try to make one in a big melting pot. Like, what's normal for us, all we bring together.

Chris Alessi:
Dude, you've. You've treated Gabby so well. You've treated Stephanie so well. And one of the cool things is that. And we're going to put this in the newsletter. We're going to put a few things in our newsletter. Number one, we're going to put a video of you dressing the animal. We should put the picture of Gabby and Christian as kids in the newsletter as well, because they were literally Children with their arms around each other.

Chris Alessi:
But then at some point, things diverted. If you want your kids to get married, they need to follow the Gabby and Christian plan, because they. I don't think Christian never became Gabby, never became Christian's enemy. But for a while, Gabby was like, I will never be with that guy.

Christian:
Yeah, of course.

Chris Alessi:
You're talking, like, high school days.

Christian:
And look at her now.

Chris Alessi:
Look at her now. Now she's your Gabby. Am I right in saying that? Yeah.

Christian:
Yeah, you are.

Chris Alessi:
Okay, great.

Christian:
I can answer that. Yeah.

Chris Alessi:
And now here he is, you know, and it's been really great, but it's been so cool to see you guys go through that. And what I will say. You know, this is funny. Maybe this helps the picture of the whole dynamic the most. But, like, at the farm, there's only so many seating areas around the tv. There are some that are better than others. And so the first night that we were all going to sit down and watch something, Rochelle and I walk up, and it's like, everyone's taken all the good seats. Now there's only bad ones.

Chris Alessi:
And in that moment, I'm thinking, oh, my gosh, this is our life now. We're literally making room for more and more people. And now you add kids to that, and you have to work through. Like, is my kid getting enough attention with the grandparents, or are they getting the same experiences? Like, these are all things that matter and you care about. Are they treating the family well? Like, I love when Marino will go around and hug everybody, and I can't stand when Marino won't go around and hug everybody. But, like, wanting to say that it's okay to have different dynamics, to work this dynamic out, to be together, to talk through things like, that's just been the coolest thing. So one of the cool things was watching Gabby go with you to go hunting because you said you were looking for a doe.

Christopher Muiña:
Yeah.

Chris Alessi:
But if you want to know the power of prayer, you got to talk to this guy. Because right before you went out, what did you say?

Christian:
I said, for the full context, I wanted a. So we were going basically in Pastor's backyard of the farm, and he has two different stands out there, and Gabby and I were going to one of them, and I was going for a doe. But I know that, you know, when it comes to deers, especially bucks and antlers, there's certain gene pools that, for lack of better terms, you would like to eliminate, because their antlers either get mangled or they don't grow correctly.

Chris Alessi:
They could be sick.

Christian:
It's kind of like bald people, you know? I'm kidding.

Christopher Muiña:
You don't want those genetics spread.

Christian:
Exactly. Exactly. You don't want those genetics to spread. No, I'm kidding. But, yeah. Sorry, AP Sorry. Sorry.

Chris Alessi:
It's okay. We'll take it out.

Christian:
We'll take it out.

Chris Alessi:
We'll put it in the newsletter.

Christian:
But no, there's certain genetics that you don't want spreading among the bucks and different things. And I know pastor's very adamant about that. So my prayer and my hope and my dream was also was always, I want to find an irregular monster. Irregular being. One of these bucks you want to take out of the gene pool, but is also huge, like, massive.

Chris Alessi:
So. Which is a very. It's like, that's a thin line, like, already, that needle.

Christian:
Getting a big buck is already like, you know, 1% chance. Then it's not only that, but a big irregular buck is like, you know, half a percent, if you want to call it that. But Gabby and I went out, we saw literally nothing for about two hours. She is, you know, loud in the. In the. In the hunting blind.

Chris Alessi:
Dude, her story was hilarious. She posted like, our first post was like, first time hunting with my husband. And then five minutes later is like, me when I realize I have to sit out here for hours.

Christian:
So I was there. I was watching, you know, eagles, bears, Black Friday football on prime, and she was doing her thing on Instagram, and she kept complaining how cold it was and the wind and different things, but she was there with me. She was thugging it out. And we were there two hours in. We see nothing. Zero. And again, I go out for a doe, but I'm hoping for, you know, and we see a little baby Fawn come out. And I had been there two days before with Pastor, and we had seen a mother, and it's.

Christian:
And it's Fawn, a doe. And it's Fawn. And we see a little baby Fawn come out. And Gabby has these videos, and it was the cutest little thing. Obviously. I'm like, I'm not shooting that right. And then right behind, it comes out the mom. And the mom is a decent sized doe.

Christian:
And, you know, Gabby was like, hey. Like, you know, I think she wanted to get out of there. Cause she was like, hey, just get your gun ready. You know, like, this might be it. This might be the one.

Chris Alessi:
You also get to eat the meat off of that for like six months. It's delicious. It's great.

Christian:
And I was. I was scoped in on it. I was scoped in on it, safety off. And Gabby's recording, and I'm like, middle of, like, me about to hit this, this, this dough and this mom. I'm like, babe, I can't do this. Like. And it was, it was, it was funny. I told my dad the story yesterday, and he was like, why the.

Christian:
You know, the font's gonna have a traumatic moment. And I was like, well, one, yes. But more so, like, the odds of that fawn surviving without its mother are, like, very slim. So it felt kind of wrong to take her life because it was like I was taking two lives simultaneously and not using the other one, you know, like the other one.

Chris Alessi:
You're getting a lot of points in the eyes of the women audience. It's just, I don't know about the.

Christian:
Men on hey, but good things come to those who wait, because we were there. And I said, I'm not taking this dough. And she was like, okay, fine. We wait a little bit longer. Another dough comes out smaller than the one before. We're not taking that one. At this point, it's 5, you know, 27. And Gabby says, talk about power of prayer.

Christian:
And an interceding wife, she says, she says, lord, please let a huge. Something huge come out. Something huge. And all of a sudden, she has the video. And this guy comes out from the right side, the sun is setting on the left, and this guy comes out antlers first, and they're like, golden. Like, antlers first comes out. And at the moment we look at it, and I'm like, that's a 10 point buck. That's huge.

Christian:
And, like, gray hair, like, he's been there.

Chris Alessi:
Yeah.

Christian:
Forget a regular.

Chris Alessi:
It's a monster.

Christian:
It's a monster. And I had told Gabby before in that sit, I go, hey, if you, if we see a monster. If we see a monster. Right. Which. The odds of you seeing a monster on a sit are very low. I go, if we see one, just have your phone ready to text your dad to say, hey, should we take this or not? I know you know I'm going to be taking it, but should we take this or not? Because the odds it comes back are very low, too.

Chris Alessi:
Yeah. So that there's a thin line to thread there. Number one, because the, the, the owner of the hunt has put so much time, effort and money.

Christopher Muiña:
Correct.

Chris Alessi:
Into growing deer, attracting them. So there's a, A sense of if this guy's here, the guy that did the work should, you know, earn it.

Christian:
Exactly.

Chris Alessi:
So that's why he's hesitant, because it's like, is that Pastor Steve's book?

Christian:
Is that Pastor Steve's book?

Chris Alessi:
So that's why you wanted to get permission?

Christian:
That's why I wanted to get permission. And of course, like, I had been doing the sits.

Chris Alessi:
But the other side is he may never come back.

Christian:
Exactly.

Chris Alessi:
You won't get him on the wall.

Christian:
If you don't, someone else will get it. So there's. There's a lot of layers to it. So I told Gabby, hey, be ready. And as soon as that guy comes out, I'm like, gabby, text your dad right now. She texts him a video. Video's not going through. Wonderful.

Christian:
This was a nightmare situation, by the way. This was like. And this was again, back to PC story, full circle here. PCs, when you shot your book, it took all of 30 seconds.

Chris Alessi:
All of 30, probably less, because they don't.

Christopher Muiña:
They don't linger. The big ones don't linger.

Christian:
The big ones, there's a reason why they're big. They don't linger and they get out. And it took all of 30 seconds. Which, if you have ever hunted or if you want to go hunting, it is quite literally you being able to feel. This is the best way I can explain it. Every blood cell in your heart disperse to your limbs. Like, that's the only way I can describe it. In which you, like, you almost feel like they can hear your heartbeat.

Christian:
Yeah. That's how hard your heart is pounding. And for you, it was 15 seconds. For me, Gabby, the video doesn't send this so much. She sends the picture. She probably. She spams your dad with, like, seven messages over the course of four minutes. That book is on the plot for.

Chris Alessi:
Four minutes, which is unheard of.

Christian:
Unheard of. And on top of that, I'm like, my heart, Like, I can't take this much longer. My heart's like, this is brutal. And. And I'm sitting there, and finally I'm like, text. Text Moynya.

Chris Alessi:
Because Munya was in the stand with him.

Christian:
I was like, text Mooney. I know he's on his phone. So she texts Moynya, hey, have. Hey, are you with Pastor? And then sends the photo. And Wina responds, yes, but it was after the photo. So I'm looking on my. Like, I'm on the. The actual rifle.

Christian:
And I'm looking down at the phone, and I'm like, yes. Like, yes. Like, is he responding to the picture? Did Pastor tell him to say yes?

Chris Alessi:
Like, what's going on here?

Christian:
And. And finally Pastor responds. And we were just waiting there for it. And it was like, Go for it. Those are his words, go for it. And I was like, so as I line up, this is an embarrassing part, but also a pretty cool part of it. You forget everything, literally everything. You forget everything.

Christian:
I'm like, is red. Safety is red, not safety. Did I, you know, get this in? Was there bullet? Did I chamber the bullet? Was there bullets? Like, was there ammo in the clip? All these things.

Chris Alessi:
Where do you shoot the buck?

Christian:
That was the last thing I go, I go, gabby, where do you shoot it again? Because I didn't know if it was above the shoulder blade or behind the shoulder blade and those pretty distinct things, you know. And as I'm there, you know, sighted in on this massive buck, I'm sighted in first kill ever. I'm not shaking, but my heart is still beating so much that I think the doe, the little fawn here is going to hear it. I look at Gabby's phone and she's like shaking, pulling up a little thing and she finds it's 30 degrees. But she's also like, you know, nervous about the buck. She gets like a diagram and it's like a little picture diagram that if you look it up, like, where do you shoot a buck? It'll show you where to shoot it. And no joke, I saw it, I looked at it, I go, got it. And that's where the cool part gets in because I aimed right on it, buck moved over, shot it, bolts off with a doe.

Christian:
And we had thought, that's when we called you. And you're like, first thing I say.

Chris Alessi:
Is, did you get my dad's permission to shoot this?

Christian:
He's like, how did you just get a ten point book? And I was like, I have no idea, but I just shot it. And he's like, last question. Did you get my dad's permission? And I was like, of course. So we're yelling now on the, on the plot, on the prize. Actually, now we weren't yelling.

Chris Alessi:
We were like still whispering, whispering like this and like screaming, whisper, screaming.

Christian:
So all that to say we finally go and, you know, you come over and we're looking for this buck into the grass and different things. And we thought it bolted. And I was like, I missed it because I saw dirt flash up. And I thought, man, the bullet was low. I just hit straight dirt. This guy bolted off.

Chris Alessi:
Diagram was wrong.

Christian:
It was wrong. I saw this is all just bad. And evidently at the end of the day, we were about to call the dogs to look for it. There was no blood, there was no fur. You came and Saw that. Nothing, nothing. And all of a sudden the guy that was with us goes, hey, there's a buck here. And we found it, we saw it.

Christian:
And he was to tie a little bow on the story. He was not a 10 point buck. He was a 9 point irregular buck.

Chris Alessi:
And it was perfect.

Christian:
And it was perfect.

Chris Alessi:
More than enough to put on the wall.

Christian:
More than enough to put on the wall. Beautiful. Had big, strong antlers. And yeah, it was my first kill, my first buck and shout out Pastor Steve for letting me get it right. But now we can put it up on the wall in Georgia. And I think you said it and it's the coolest part of, of one of the cooler parts of hunting, apart from eating the meat that you're of the animal you got is, is the stories where it's like every single time I'm going to see that buck in Georgia, it's exactly what I just shared. All of those feelings will rush back in, you know, buck fever for five minutes. Not finding it at first, not seeing blood or fur, and then seeing this massive guy where just to say I didn't know where to shoot it, but once I did.

Chris Alessi:
You did. You nailed it.

Christian:
It was perfect. Yeah, Absolutely perfect.

Chris Alessi:
Well, one of the things we talked about in Georgia was how my dad stepping out to do something everyone thought was crazy is what's created these moments for us. When he wanted to step into hunting, we were like, that's insane. The only reason we get to eat the fruit of that is because of that respect that we were talking about and that honor. And it is great. I do think I would love. If anyone's listening, man, if you just approach the family with honor, you'll, you'll get honorable fruit. And so the moments that we're even getting right now is because of the honor that you guys brought to the table, the honor he's brought to the table. And that is our dynamic, our family dynamic is if you're going to be a part of this family, you're going to handle things this way.

Chris Alessi:
We're going to talk through issues, we're going to have mutual honor and respect and, and if we do, we get to celebrate the moments and the wins together. And it was just great.

Christian:
So, but I think, sorry, I just want to add this little thing because I think, you know, we're, we're really blessed that the man that's our father in law and your father is a man that's worthy of honor, you know, And I think, you know, a lot of people either watching or Listening or, you know, they might not have their father in law, their mother in law that is, you know, quote unquote worthy of that honor. They might not be sized up to, you know, who Pastor Steve is and everything that he's done. Right. But it's still a call to even honor in that moment. And I think that in that the Lord sees that. And though our honor right here in respecting Pastor Steve, respecting what he's built, respecting what he's done, comes in the fruit of a buck. Right. I think when you honor, when there really is no return, not even a chance of a return to someone that is in your life that might be, you know, that needs honor.

Christian:
Right. Because the Bible calls for it, but isn't deserving of that honor. I think the Lord kind of heaps on favor and blessings to you through that. And I just wanted to say that because I think a lot of people have that.

Chris Alessi:
I look at it like, okay, in the moment where you're questioning whether or not the recipient deserves honor, then the right question is, am I honorable and am I going to approach this in an honorable way? And if you do, I think whether the fruit comes directly through your in law or through the Lord in another avenue, he'll always honor that.

Christian:
Exactly.

Chris Alessi:
And so we get these great moments and, and you know, even the relationships I feel like I have with you is because of a certain honor that, that me and my sisters have, one to another, that, you know, even when we fight, we walk away from that. And in one minute you're thinking the worst about this sibling, but then you go and you go, now I'm going to think the best of them and that allows for honorable relationships here and it's just great, man. So Christian, welcome to the family. I mean, married for two months. Didn't know it. Got a buck already. Crazy.

Christopher Muiña:
A lot has happened in these past two months. We're not even gonna get into that.

Chris Alessi:
A lot has happened. So I guess we'll have to get back into the podcast booth at some point. Thank you for watching this long form episode of the Family Business with the Alessi's. We hope that you read our newsletter and then maybe go, I don't know, watch some meat eater or something. But it's a good time. Thank you for being here. We know family is everybody's business and we just pray that you would like subscribe and follow and read that newsletter to see the insights that we couldn't show here. God bless.

Christian:
Thanks so much for joining the Family Business today. If you enjoyed this episode make sure to follow or subscribe. Share it with a friend and leave us a review. We appreciate your support and can't wait to have you join us next time, because family is everybody's business.