Fun, Family and Feasts: Sharing Our Favorite Traditions During Thanksgiving and The Holidays | S4 E12

Intro to Szn 4 E12

SPEAKER_04 0:09

Hi, this is Stephanie Alessi Mouina, and you are listening to the Family Business Podcast with the Alesssies. You're going to love this episode that we have prepared for you guys because it consists of my family and I sitting around and sharing our favorite memories of Thanksgiving and also what we're thankful for. We released this last week to our church during Thanksgiving to sort of compete with the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. And we thought this is just such a good conversation.

SPEAKER_08 0:53

All right, now we're talking about Thanksgiving. And if we're going to talk about Thanksgiving, we're going to talk about turkey. Yep. We're going to talk about ham. We're going to talk about, I don't know, gravy. We have been preparing all month long for this right now. Oh my gosh. And taking a break, you know, not eating all the ice cream every day up to the whole month of November. But now we're going to kill it. Because it is Thanksgiving. And if that's the case, then even as a family guys, you know, we've got so much to be grateful for and thankful for. The Lord's been really good to us. But uh specifically, and as we share with our audience today, what are some of the things that we really are thankful for? As we look back over our lives in this 20 year of 2022, we've overcome so many things as a country, as a church over the last couple of years, and we're sitting in such a healthy place. So thinking about that, Chris and Michelle, what are you guys thankful for?

SPEAKER_05 2:03

I would say this year we are thankful for our home because we've actually taken the time to really get it to the place that we want it to be. So we've done DIY projects, we really worked on our backyard since that became became our hobby.

SPEAKER_00 2:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 2:19

And we've done some fun things out there too. And we have funny stories about that too.

SPEAKER_07 2:23

Yeah, well, she doesn't tell anybody, but she painted these three big pictures for the living room. She's we we really did work, and working together created some fun moments of conflict where I spent four to five hours outside in the garden working as much as I could. I came back in, I had left maybe two small pots out of place, and she's like, close the close everything. I can't see it. I can't see those pots. It's a mess out there. But she texted us and told us how bad it was. But it we we were able to, it was just a fun moment at the house. One of those marriage moments we'll never forget. That's so sweet.

SPEAKER_08 2:57

How about the moinas? You guys have a lot to be grateful for to see. Yeah, we do.

SPEAKER_01 3:02

And I'll say two things. Number one, Gianna, and figuring out how to be parents and that whole new thing.

SPEAKER_00 3:07

Little G.

SPEAKER_01 3:08

Mornings are the best with Gianna. And we leave her in in our bed and we go down and have coffee and read and kind of have our time. And about 30 minutes later, we'll hear her start waking up. And the first person to race upstairs and see her first, she's like, you're like her favorite person that day. That's right. Because you're the first person to see her. So we like race upstairs to to to meet her every morning, and it's real sweet. And number two would be hunting season. Oh that would be the kickoff.

SPEAKER_06 3:36

Hopefully, by this time that this is airing, you already got something. Like from hunting.

SPEAKER_08 3:41

Yeah. He took something.

SPEAKER_06 3:43

He took something. Maybe that's it.

SPEAKER_08 3:44

That would be very fun. All right, Lokomo, what about you?

SPEAKER_06 3:47

I would have to say something I'm grateful for is the things that ground us and that root us, that root us. Um and that would have to be definitely Gianna. She's a new addition to the family, but also it would have to be people like grandmommy in our lives and like grandma faith in our lives. Because they're really the people that remind us, okay, yeah, you're busy all the time, but let's spend time with each other. Let's go to eat, let's slow down, let's cook a meal at home, and let's let's watch a movie and let's hang out and let's talk. Because we have gotten so crazy busy and like on even though we work together, we can all live separate lives and not see each other. And they are just the reminders of no, let's let's get together, let's spend quality time together. I'm very, very grateful for that. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_08 4:33

How about you, Gabby?

SPEAKER_06 4:34

Okay, a new uh love of mine that I am thankful for is football. I am very thankful for football. Only because it has brought me closer to my brother and my dad and the family. And it's been very fun. Every, let's list it, Thursday night. Sometimes Fridays. Friday night you'll get a college football game, maybe, or is that later on? Maybe see as you can see, I'm only a year into knowing. Uh Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays have now been devoted to football. And so we will sit on the couch together and we'll be texting all the time and fantasy football, hoping I could win and hoping our teams win. Oh, and I'm grateful for Tua and that he's okay.

SPEAKER_08 5:11

He's okay.

SPEAKER_06 5:12

Yes. Wow.

SPEAKER_08 5:13

How about you, Mom? What are you thankful for?

SPEAKER_06 5:16

Well, I am so thankful for Gianna, our granddaughter, our very first, she made his grandparents.

SPEAKER_03 5:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 5:22

So that's just right there. I mean, take that in for a second. It has been such an amazing year. Watching her grow and watching these two become parents has been really great. They've been plant parents, and they are the baby parents. But listen, they're keeping those plants alive, so they're good.

SPEAKER_07 5:40

Ours is messier.

SPEAKER_06 5:42

It's just been really fun, though, to watch this whole process. And even today, we were getting ready to film for this, and and uh Stephanie had the baby sitting here for just a moment while we were dressing it, and just took her hand off for a second, and she just went pop and hit her head. And I thought Stephanie was just gonna lose it. She just could not believe. And I I was reflecting back on all those times as moms, you know, as a young mom and all those little things that happened. And honestly, I I just sat back and I thought it's so good for for me to have that moment and just look at Stephanie having such a meltdown and go, it's all gonna be okay. She's gonna be all right. So I'm I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful for 35 years of marriage to this guy right here. Yeah, life's good.

SPEAKER_08 6:26

35 years in October. Yep, and 25 years of ministry. What a beautiful uh celebration we had this year. Uh, Steph, she's gonna be fine. You're fine. I dropped you off the counter, kitchen counter, boom, when you were just a few months old. So Gianna's gonna survive as well. Now, I I am kind of amazed that the son-in-law did not say anything about being thankful for his new job. He's working with us. And well, we did a swap. Weena came from Westminster to Metro, and Lauren went from Metro to Westminster as a counselor.

SPEAKER_06 7:02

So we all say she was thankful for her new job either. No one's grateful for work. Oh grateful for that.

SPEAKER_08 7:10

It's an adventure, baby.

SPEAKER_04 7:11

Yeah. Hey guys, hope you're enjoying the Thanksgiving special so far. After you listen to this episode, make sure you pop into our YouTube and our Spotify and Amazon Music and Apple Music to listen to our new Christmas album, Christmas at Church. You'll hear my entire family and our church people and our Metro Life worship team singing eight songs off our album. So go check it out. Christmas at Church. It's out now, and we hope you love it.

SPEAKER_06 7:40

All right, family. This is a topic I love to talk about. And we're all preparing for it right now as we speak. There's probably people watching that are not even, they're just listening because they are preparing for the Thanksgiving food. What Thanksgiving, let's be real, is actually what it's all about. So I'm gonna give this to the chef of the family. Lolo, what are we doing? Oh, I'm so sorry, Mom. Okay, the next generation.

SPEAKER_08 8:07

Notice the only one not involved in this conversation.

SPEAKER_04 8:10

Oh my god. Oh, okay. Okay, and you'll never be over for my Italian year. Uninvited.

SPEAKER_02 8:19

Come on. Oh, it feels just like Thanksgiving, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_06 8:23

I feel a little confused because mom does most of the work on Thanksgiving. That is true. She does most of the work. But okay, yes, family.

SPEAKER_08 8:30

But I do most of the eating.

SPEAKER_06 8:34

Starting with you, Mom, since you got so left out of that statement, I apologize. What is your favorite dish, maybe to cook or maybe to eat on Thanksgiving? Okay, so my favorite dish to cook, I know this sounds crazy because I only make it once a year is the green bean casserole. Yes. It's so easy, it's so delicious. It has every component to make Thanksgiving. If it's not there on the Thanksgiving plate, it's like really, really missing. Yeah. And it's such an easy dish to make, but I have to have it. The second one I'll tell you really quick is my mom's homemade stuffing. That's deal. Okay, go. Yes. I will say that. Sorry. I will say that what amazes me every year is that the green bean and the broccoli casserole are so similar. But you have to get both. You cannot walk away without both. And don't eat them together. Don't let them touch on the plate. No. You have to have them separate. Yeah. They have to be three o'clock and nine o'clock. Yes, yes. Alright, who's next? Winias, what about you? What's your favorite dish to eat or cook?

SPEAKER_04 9:34

I have to back it up. That stuffing is my favorite. And I think my it's just the perfect saltiness. It's such an interesting texture. You can just keep eating like three spoonfuls of it, and it doesn't really make you full. And like you said, the positioning of everything on the plate has to be very specific.

SPEAKER_02 9:51

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 9:51

The green beans need to be next to the turkey. Oh, yes. Then the stuffing needs to be next to the turkey. And then the sweet potato casserole. Oh my gosh, the sweet potato casserole. With the marshmallows. With the marshmallows. Have to be next to the green beans in the turkey. I'm not a cranberry sauce girl. You need to get off the scene. And that's separate on another plate. No. And the one thing that I'll never understand is why can't we make the stuff in other parts of the year? Why do we have to save it for Thanksgiving Day? It's a holy day.

SPEAKER_06 10:19

But yeah. Because we can only wear those stretchy pants. One because they're turkey pants.

SPEAKER_04 10:25

They're one scene away from being completely throwing on the moon. But yeah, the the sweet potato hat uh casserole and the stuffing. Stuffing my favorites. Well, Stephanie just took about a majority of the dishes.

SPEAKER_06 10:36

I know. Thanks for the show.

SPEAKER_07 10:38

There's 80% of Thanksgiving.

SPEAKER_06 10:41

But moving on to the junior Alyssies. What is your um favorite dish either to cook or eat on Thanksgiving?

SPEAKER_05 10:49

Okay, so I just started cooking Thanksgiving dinner last year with you guys. Yes, you did. And I made the cornbread. It was just okay, but it'll be better this year. But I think my favorite things to eat is the cranberry sauce. Because thank you. It compliments so well with the turkey. Yes. So if you have okay turkey, but you have really good cranberry sauce, it's gonna be good. Oh my god, this year. And then I would say the cornbread. I love cornbread and also the leftovers. If you make a sandwich the next day with like the turkey and cheese and cranberry sauce. Oh my god. Yeah. And everything on it in the sandwich. This is I don't know.

SPEAKER_06 11:31

Take her breath away. None of us said dessert. Nobody said gravy. Well, we still have several other people. Yeah, we still have people to answer. Oh, yeah. Who's gonna answer? Oh, Laura. Oh, is it my turn? Okay. I will say a quick tip when you're making sandwiches, spread the cranberry sauce on your bread. Okay, that is good. Yes, that's delicious. But I'm gonna have to go with a classic mashed potatoes. Oh yeah. Classic. Classic is my favorite. Yes. You can't go wrong. Please say gravy for your brother. Mashed potatoes and gravy. Gravy. Okay. Gravy. Not a huge gravy person, but for you, I will throw out gravy. There you go. Um and I think we're just missing. Gabby? Did you want to answer, Dad?

SPEAKER_08 12:12

Um you have to answer this. All I could say is I'm not really, I don't have an issue with my food touching. It's not about location. Yes, it is. It's about quantities. Yeah. Yeah, over that situation. How about you, Moina?

SPEAKER_01 12:28

Um, I would have to agree with Lauren because she does the cheese mashed potatoes. Yes, at least from last year, for when I remember it.

SPEAKER_06 12:34

Oh my gosh, yeah, she did those French ones.

SPEAKER_01 12:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 12:36

I don't know if you're supposed to put mozzarella in mashed potatoes, but I do. Come on. It was.

SPEAKER_08 12:44

I know. I do wonder though. Well, Rochelle, was it was it when the the cornbread was stacked in the corner all by itself, nobody ate any of it. Is that when it gave it away that it wasn't that good last year?

SPEAKER_05 12:57

Probably, yes. But then I also tasted it, and I was okay, this, this, and that, that good.

SPEAKER_06 13:02

Hey, can I tell you one year I tried to make yeast rolls that that was not a good idea? I was like, guys, I took hours to make them and they were awful. But I will say my favorite dish is I I you know what, since everybody's taken basically all the dishes, I will say the leftovers. But I'm gonna give you my leftover sandwich recipe that is the best ever. You do the yeast rolls because that's just the best. You do the yeast roll bread, you do turkey, you do a sliver of stuffing, you do cranberry sauce, you do mayonnaise. You stick that together. And it's a Thanksgiving sandwich.

SPEAKER_04 13:35

Our own toasted.

SPEAKER_06 13:36

It doesn't have to be, but it can be.

SPEAKER_04 13:39

Hope you're enjoying the Thanksgiving special. Make sure that after this, you check out our other holiday episodes where we talk about keeping the holidays happy because we all know that could be a little difficult sometimes. But we've made it easy. We've talked about it, and we want you guys to enjoy our other podcast all about the Christmas season so that you can keep your holidays happy. Enjoy.

SPEAKER_07 14:02

You know, it's really hard to sit around all day on Thanksgiving and not spend some time reminiscing on your favorite memories. So let's spend some time right now. Let's talk about our favorite memories. Chris, what's your favorite Thanksgiving memory?

SPEAKER_01 14:14

That is hard to narrow it down. I could talk about that deer we tracked down a couple years ago.

SPEAKER_08 14:19

That was great. That was great.

SPEAKER_01 14:20

I'm gonna talk about when I was around 10 or 12. We used to do this thing as uh with my family, how we would dress up like Indians and pilgrims, because that's like the origin of Thanksgiving. And when I was a kid around that age, I was like obsessed with Indians and Native Americans and like all the leather they would wear. And I had moccasins that I would like do everything in. And so I dressed up as an Indian with moccasins and the war paint and everything. And I there's just a vivid memory of all my cousins dressed up either as pilgrims or Indians. That's my memory.

SPEAKER_08 14:54

It was a turkey.

SPEAKER_00 14:57

That's awesome. Okay, that is so nice. He's going forward, man. He's like, we bring it back this year. Let him wear his crocs. It's a good one.

SPEAKER_06 15:12

I would say, okay, this was years, years, years. I think this was like four years ago. And Lola wasn't in town for this Thanksgiving because it was back when she was out of town, she was going to school in Hawaii, and she stayed over in LA for Thanksgiving, so she couldn't come and fly into town. But we were all in Georgia, and it was the first time that we were like, you know, we had some friends in Georgia, and their one of their sons played football at the time. And so you connected with them, some pastors' friends, and you were like, hey, can we get tickets to this football game? Oh, that was funny. And it was the first time we were ever at a Friday night lights. Oh my gosh. And I we had never experienced it before. I mean, in Miami, you don't have that. People, we have obviously football games, whatever. But to be there, small town in Georgia, and it was super cold, and the team won, and they were going into like the championship or whatever, and we were fireworks. First of all, we don't even know the kid that's playing really, and we were like overwhelmed, and fireworks went off, and we were all so excited. We ran on the field, we were running across. There's a video of me running around the track. That was like the best memory from Thanksgiving because it was like this overwhelming. I'm in the show Friday Night Lives.

SPEAKER_07 16:18

So that's two things that we're not used to at a football game. You know, it's cold, and we won. We're not used to it. Mom and Dad, what's your favorite memory?

SPEAKER_08 16:27

Well, do y'all remember when I don't know who in the family was into this whole skateboard thing?

SPEAKER_02 16:33

Oh, but right?

SPEAKER_08 16:35

Y'all had like two or three skateboards around, and uh, we were up at the farm, and we were we were laying on our stomach, and then Papa says, Let me do it. On a skateboard. On the skateboard. So we have the video of him laying on the skateboard with his legs up his arms, and he's going around and around, and we're all dying laughing. That was a great memory. He wanted to get in there. Plus, he was already 80. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:03

So they're on his skateboard.

SPEAKER_06 17:05

And grandmommy's in the back laughing at it.

SPEAKER_07 17:07

Oh, it was one of the best. That was the best. What about you, Lord?

SPEAKER_06 17:12

So, my my favorite Thanksgiving memory is we decided after we ate, let's play football. Let's go outside, let's play football. Well, of course, we have some extremely competitive family members, and we had the way that we paired it up was that like we were killing it. And I think it was me, Steph, and dad on a team, and we just were playing amazing. It was rigged.

SPEAKER_07 17:32

Gabby, no, you were on dad's team.

SPEAKER_06 17:34

I was on your team and mom's. She was on your team. And it was just bad. You guys were like, could not score anything for some reason. And then Gabby all of a sudden is like yelling, she's getting upset. Finally, Gabby's going for it, and this is gonna be a beautiful catch. So completely dope. She's got a little in it. She's got her eye on the ball. And then all of a sudden, I don't I forget how it happens if she catches the ball, if she doesn't. She just tripped on her foot. She just tripped on her foot. I was running backwards to receive the ball, and the floor was uneven, so I didn't trip over my feet, and I fell into a mini hole, and I fell right back and banged my head on the ground. And she was and I got I walked up now. It was good cussed. She felt really bad in the back of her head, and I we were trying to be there for we ran over and we helped her. But at this point, she had been so mean to us because she was so competitive that we couldn't have to laugh because we're like, you just quit. What did you say?

SPEAKER_04 18:32

I was like, hey, if you're gonna if you're really in pain, just cry, just cry. So she's looking up at me in the phone and she goes and starts crying. You remember that little mom from that big mom? I was like, oh my gosh, she's crying right now. She just went from competitive to tears in a football game.

SPEAKER_06 18:50

That's how it works, ladies and gentlemen. How you do it.

SPEAKER_07 18:54

Well, I think I think my favorite uh memory would probably be last Thanksgiving. We went to another football game and all, but it it seemed to be a Thanksgiving tradition for the six of us before we were married to always talk about it. It was like a moment where we could see this is not going to this might be the last Thanksgiving we have where it's just the six of us. We'd always project our families growing on Thanksgiving. And we talked about it all the time. And it sometimes it was what we used to really build our faith because you guys would say, guys, this could be our last Thanksgiving. Next year it could happen.

SPEAKER_03 19:27

And before we knew it, it was real. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_07 19:30

And last Thanksgiving was the first one with our spouses. We were both married, and and we're still waiting for the two more, and that's gonna make this a very hard round table.

SPEAKER_02 19:40

Oh my gosh, yes.

SPEAKER_07 19:40

But it was just the coolest thing. It was really the culmination of a lot of answered prayers. And so why don't you take a couple of minutes as a family right now and think about your favorite moment.

SPEAKER_04 19:52

Okay, so at this part of the podcast, you probably can't see the memes that we're showing in our Thanksgiving special. But you can on our YouTube page. So if you're listening to this in the car, don't do it now. Maybe pull over, park the car, then pull up our YouTube page and watch it on there. But if you're sitting around doing nothing, which a lot of us do a lot of the time, pull out your phone, pull up a YouTube, and check out this page so that you can actually see the memes that we're all laughing about. And I promise you, you're going to love it. Especially Gabby's meme. That's my favorite one.

SPEAKER_01 20:26

Alright, so for our last segment, we're gonna talk about one last thing. What is one last thing? It's pretty much a lighthearted meme, video, photo, just something that is just fun. So I'll turn it to Steph. What's your one last thing?

SPEAKER_04 20:41

Okay, so mine is a picture and it is of me, and I think this is our German Shepherd dog Enzo. Because last year is I was pregnant last year, so he put his paw, we put his paw on my he went over and just laid his paw right on my belly, on my pregnant belly, and it was super cute. I forgot that. Yeah, I was pregnant last year, which is the best situation. A pregnant girl at Thanksgiving, I highly recommend. Uh, that's probably one of my favorite. That's my my uh favorite. One last thing.

SPEAKER_01 21:13

One last thing. All right, what about you, Gabby?

SPEAKER_06 21:15

Okay, this is I don't even, I'm not even gonna prep it.

SPEAKER_02 21:21

Gather on the tree. With your family.

SPEAKER_06 21:30

Mashed potatoes and graves. This is just very start your Thanksgiving off listening to this song. Don't even worry about it. It must be Thanksgiving. It must be Thanksgiving. It might make you laugh and if you don't know, his mom is filming that of him. That does that make sense. It relieves a lot of stress to start with some funny memes on Thanksgiving. That's all I know.

SPEAKER_08 21:53

Well, I got something that's pretty funny here. Are you sure? Yes, it it may be a little longer than that, but this was this. This was my daughter's one Thanksgiving.

unknown 22:04

Everybody, welcome out here.

SPEAKER_04 22:05

I'm sorry. Oh, this is the point I meant to be. We're here.

SPEAKER_03 22:13

So much can happen out here in the woods. You want to make sure the safety is off. And you just want to get a good grip. You want to get for the brim.

SPEAKER_04 22:27

I'm just going shit for the- We like to make fun of our cousins.

SPEAKER_06 22:36

Oh, my battery's on 10%. That's not a cool. I love this.

SPEAKER_02 22:44

The light is on.

SPEAKER_06 22:47

Okay, that video is like a good two, three minutes.

SPEAKER_08 22:51

And five seconds. And I get to share this.

SPEAKER_06 22:57

Oh, so like the normal way. Yes. You're not like the normal way. Well, we were funny.

SPEAKER_07 23:05

We had videos like that all the time. All the time.

SPEAKER_06 23:10

What was that? Turkey and blood and turkey. Bloody turkey. Blood and turkey. Blood and turkey. Okay, mine's easy and it's quick and it's fast. And for all of you who don't eat meat, it's turkey saying, What are you thankful for? And the other turkey replies, vegetarians. Thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_07 23:30

Is it our turn? It's your turn. We're going around. Ours has absolutely nothing to do with Thanksgiving, but it's just this couple getting home from church.

SPEAKER_02 23:40

Oh, that's good. So good. I love that one.

SPEAKER_06 23:46

That one's gonna be a year. Yeah, that's you, that's everybody after Thanksgiving.

SPEAKER_07 23:53

We are in mid-conversation about what the Lord did in church. And just whenever we have a pillow, it's like the conversation ended.

unknown 24:00

Yes.

SPEAKER_08 24:00

I think we need to ask uh Mulina one more thing for you, huh?

SPEAKER_04 24:04

One lesson.

SPEAKER_08 24:05

I I don't know if I have one.

SPEAKER_01 24:07

I got one right here.

SPEAKER_04 24:09

It's a thing.

SPEAKER_06 24:12

Can we acknowledge the fact that she sat through this whole thing? You did not hear her at all. I know she's very confused. That's how she is. She's happy with no socks and no shoes on. That's how she likes it.

SPEAKER_00 24:22

Oh she pulled it out here. She goes.

SPEAKER_06 24:24

So cute.

SPEAKER_04 24:26

She's ready to party. She's ready for Thanksgiving.

SPEAKER_08 24:28

Oh, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:31

Happy Thanksgiving.

SPEAKER_08 24:32

Yes. Well, here's what I'd like to do as we start to bring this to a close. The Bible says, shout for joy to the Lord all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness. Come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Yes. Here's thanksgiving. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever. His faithfulness continues through all generations. That's what we're seeing right here. Right around these tables and these chairs. We've got three generations. And the goodness of God is evident right here from generation to generation to generation.