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Good morning moms.  Happy Monday. Today is December 8th,  2025,  and it is the start of your mom work week. Before we get to the bullet points on our agenda today, I need to have some water cooler chat with my mom coworkers in the break room because we have a lot to catch up on. First of all, has this been the craziest few weeks for everybody else too? Besides all the hustle and bustle of Thanksgiving and Christmas gift shopping, wrapping, packing, and shipping,

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We personally have also had strap  one rash that I thought was strap, but the pediatrician gently pointed out that it was actually just rug burn  power outages, snow storms. It was  six degrees when I woke up this morning, which is kind of unheard of for this early in the season.  Multiple birthday parties, school spirit days. feel like our calendar is totally overloaded with stuff right now and it's  not even Christmas break yet.

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of looking forward to Christmas break as like  maybe things will slow down a little  because we won't be like shuttling back and forth to school multiple times a day but yikes  come on it's like the universe is making us  earn the end of the year because we are finishing strong right now but on a better note let's jump in to the current events happenings

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These are the things that you may have missed out while you were planning, cooking, carrying out and entertaining your entire extended family for the Thanksgiving holiday. America's favorite future married couple, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey are reportedly moving forward with wedding planning and securing their dream venue, Ocean House in Westerly, Rhode Island, which is actually not far from the singer's beach home. While it was earlier reported,

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that Taylor Swift actually bought a June 13th wedding date from another bride who had previously held the date.  Ocean House has confirmed to TMZ that that is actually not true and they would never allow the sale of a wedding date between brides. Now being from the area, I happen to know that Ocean House is a beautiful venue. Personally, I would have chosen Castle Hill Inn over that, but I think because she has such a  cast list and obviously a never ending budget, she can...

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kind of choose wherever she wants to go to hold her and her thousands of famous friends.  I would think that she would probably want to be hosting it at her own Rhode Island home,  but maybe it can't accommodate her guest list and she's looking for an offsite venue like Ocean House, which  again, beautiful, gorgeous choice. If you've never seen Ocean House, just make a little mental note amongst  the thousands of mental notes that you have.

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to check it out on Instagram. Just give it a quick little search.  It's a gorgeous place. And if you are looking for an invite to the Swift Kelsey nuptials,  make sure that you are on Raya. A profile for Swift's brother Austin has been spotted on the ultra exclusive invite only celebrity dating app.

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Listen, I've been out of the game for so long. didn't even, I'd never even heard of Raya and I didn't even know. It never even occurred to me that celebrities would need to have their  own dating app.  And like, is it, is it like Tinder? Do do you swipe on Raya or do you have to like present a PowerPoint?  How do normal people get on to Raya? Not that I'm not saying that Austin Swift isn't like famous adjacent because

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Obviously he's the most famous adjacent, like,  do regular people get to be on Raya? I know that it's invite only, but like, can you invite a normie? Anyways, Austin Swift's listed interests  on Raya include steak,  racket sports,  quote, sitting and laying, and emo music. And first of all,  much respect to Austin Swift for listing sitting and laying as an interest because

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Who amongst us isn't interested in more sitting and laying?  If you're not interested in more sitting and laying, you are lying.  I have three kids. I am interested in the most sitting and laying that I can get in between  running around doing a thousand things and laundry and picking up and cooking dinner.  I'd like more sitting and laying, Austin. How do we make this happen? Anyways, if you yourself are single or you have a single mom friend,

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try to get her on Raya so she can link up with Austin Swift. And maybe you can be like a plus ones plus one to the wedding at Ocean House. That would be pretty cool. And in case you missed it, and what is probably the biggest headline that we're covering today, season 34 of Dancing with the Stars ended with Australian wildlife conservationist Robert Irwin and his pro partner, Whitney Carson.

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bringing home the Mirror Ball trophy. This happened about 10 years after Robert's sister, Bindi Irwin, won the Mirror Ball herself. And that's kind of cool to have it stay in their family. Over 72 million votes were cast during the show's finale, the most ever for a single episode. The entire season surpassed half of a billion votes. Yes, that's billion with a B. So needless to say,

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I am probably the only person  who did not watch season 34 of Dancing with the Stars.  You probably do not need this quick recap, but I did.  Robert's fellow finalists included Jordan Childs, Elaine Hendricks, Dylan Efron, and Alex Earl.  Now, Dylan Efron garnered some extra attention in week 10 when his brother, Zac Efron, was in the ballroom on Prince Night.

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but notably missing from the competition was Braxton Barrios, Alex Earle's boyfriend, affectionately known to her many,  followers as NFL Man. Now, Alex took to TikTok with a six minute video responding to rumors that their relationship had met its demise.  And I feel like people  have forgotten that his moniker of NFL Man does actually imply that the man has a job.

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Braxton is a wide receiver for the Houston Texans.  And while Travis Kelsey was able to jet set around the globe to keep up with T. Swizzy on the Arrows Tour,  that is not an option for everyone. And although Braxton Barrios does not qualify as a normie  on the spectrum of Braxton Barrios to Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey, he's going to be on the normie side, the normie side of the spectrum. And isn't the saying like,

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The best sign of a healthy relationship is no sign of it on social media.  So maybe it's not a bad thing  that followers and viewers are seeing less of Alex and Braxton together. They both independently have interests and professions that they  are clearly good at. And speaking of being good at your profession,  Vincent Hickerson,  who calls himself

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Big Vinny, the overall entertainer on his Instagram account, has gone viral for telling his wife that he wanted a quote, hot nanny for their kids. In his now viral post, Big Vinny continued to say, be careful what you ask for, because as it turns out that quote, hot nanny is a shirtless, conventionally attractive singer songwriter, man nanny named AJ Gadio.

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In an interview with People Magazine, Big Vinny was quoted as saying,  we had a couple of female nannies, they either ghosted us or had other opportunities comes up. So I jokingly said to my good friend AJ, hey, you should come be the nanny. At least I can count on you and my wife would get to have a hot nanny. Which begs the question, why must a hot nanny?

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be a good-looking female. Men are great nannies. mean, look at the men we chose to be the father of our children. They are fantastic with our kids. Why wouldn't a manny be just as good if that's what they chose to do as a profession? I don't think that AJ's appearance should count against him  on his list of achievements on his job application to be a manny.  And speaking of family togetherness,

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A University of Michigan study published in the Journal of Family Psychology observed 184 families with teenage children ranging in age from 13 to 17. The families who had a recurring ritual like a dinner, a walk, or a movie on Fridays showed 40 % fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression. Scientists explained that a stable rhythm gives the brain environmental predictability, which lowers overall baseline stress.

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118 knows that in their house, Friday means together. Their nervous system stops living in a constant alert mode and can settle. Now, this is fantastic news for me personally, because if you follow me on Instagram at carolyn underscore detman, you know that in my house, Fridays are known as Family Fun Friday,  and I make pizza for my family for dinner and then we watch a movie. But finally, I have the scientific evidence to back up my own personal claims  that Family Fun Friday is an

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important part of every family's work week. So before you clock out from your mom job on Friday afternoon,  do something as a family and create that new family tradition that your kids can look forward to. Not only will it reduce their overall stress and anxiety,  I suspect it will do the same for you as well.  And with that, let's segue into the mom hall of fame this week.  And with it being

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almost mid-December, I would consider this early mid-December,  let's draft a fantasy team of our  favorite holiday movies for families. I feel like holiday movies are one of my favorite genre of movies,  especially the kind that are like family movies that I've seen a bunch.  I really like the predictability.  If you haven't caught on by now, I love routine, I love predictability, I love

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repetition.  I have the most  ADHD and all of those things really just speak to my soul. So without further ado, my number one draft pick would obviously have to be Elf with Will Ferrell,  which you can find streaming on HBO Max right now.  In my family, we decorate for Christmas on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, and at the end of a full day of decorating and Christmas songs, we

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watch Elf together as a family, as our family fun Friday. And even before that, Elf was a shared favorite movie between my father and I. like  it's a generational favorite at this point. And if I didn't take it in the first round,  I would probably be disowned by multiple generations of my own family. My second round draft pick would have to be  The Santa Clause with Tim Allen.  This you can find streaming currently on Hulu.

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There are, I believe, three Santa Claus movies, and I don't think I've ever seen the last one.  The Jack Frost character kind of creeps me out, but  Santa Claus one is going to be my second round draft pick because it's a Christmas classic. Tim Allen is in his heyday, his glory days here. It's a lighthearted Christmas story. It's not like  knee-slapping, laugh out loud funny, but there are...

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a ton of witty moments, especially ones that appeal to the parents who are watching with the kids. And nobody does a Christmas sweater better than Judge Reinhold.  I hope that those sweaters are from his own personal collection, because that's what I've always kind of been imagining all these years watching the movie,  because they are just  90s perfection.  And in the third round,  I would pick Home Alone, which is also streaming on Hulu right now. Now, Home Alone

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first came out in 1990 and there are again  multiple iterations of this franchise as well. However, I think the original is still my favorite with Lost in New York being a close second. Now I grew up doing Thanksgiving in New York City with my family. So there is like the added nostalgia to Lost in New York for that for me because a lot of the scenes,  know, snowy Central Park.

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Rockefeller Center, a lot of those are from my own memory as well. However,  you just cannot beat the OG Home Alone. And did you know that John Candy's iconic cameo as polka king  Gus Polinsky in Home Alone  was significantly ad-libbed at the time of filming? Next time you're watching,  pay close attention to the scenes with John Candy, keeping that in mind, and it makes it infinitely more funny  knowing that he's just coming up with those lines off the cuff.

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But parents, as an aside, if you are watching Home Alone with your families, all of the homes on Kevin McAllister's Family Street start with 6-7. So if your kids will also go wild around 27 minutes and 40 seconds into the movie when Harry and Marv are driving down the road reading aloud the house numbers, 6-7-1, 6-7-2, just be advised.

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Also,  if your memory does not serve you as well as mine does when it comes to this, the Wet Bandits can be a little bit on the creepier side if your kids have that kind of a fear of strangers. In the fourth round, I would be drafting the Grinch, but not just any Grinch. I would go for specifically the 2018  animation version, which is available on Peacock right now. I definitely would not advocate for the one with Jim Carrey. I personally find that a little bit scary.

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and I'm in my late  30s.  And the original animation is a little  bit  slow for the younger generation. 2018's is perfect. It's  fast moving. It has memorable voices. It's comical. It's an hour and 26 minutes and it's worth every moment of it with your family. And now honorable mentions include Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas, which is streaming on Disney Plus.

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This is about an hour long and it's just like collection of different Disney stories featuring Mickey that are about Christmas. My kids  love it. uh It's just not terribly interesting for me myself, but like I said, my kids love it. Honorable mention number one. Honorable mention number two, Christmas with the Cranks. I love this as an adult. If you have older kids who would also appreciate the storyline,

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Definitely family-friendly that's available also on HBO Max. It's rated PG  But it does deal with some more adult storylines and themes like bringing a new boyfriend home for the holidays that would just  Soar right over my children's heads for  probably another five years honorable mention number three the star which is on Netflix This is a little bit more of a religious take  on  a holiday movie  follows

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a donkey and other animals who were present at the birth of Jesus and tells the nativity story.  It is definitely a cute watch if you and your family are believers.  I want to hear about your favorite family holiday movie.  At the top of the show notes for today's episodes, there will be a link that says, send me a text.  If you tap it, it will open in your messaging app and you can send me directly from your phone to mine,  your thoughts, questions, favorite holiday movies.

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and I would love to include them on a future episode. Now, today's Mom Hack Monday is going to be  slightly niche, as I mentioned earlier in the episode.  A lot of my Christmas-related wrapping up that has been happening in early December  is that I set a goal for myself this year to have my  Christmas gifts purchased, arrived, wrapped, and shipped to my in-laws in Wisconsin by December 1st.  And  I would be remiss if I did not.

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put in a major plug for PirateShip.com, which sounds  very sketchy and totally not legit, but I will vouch for it. It is very much legit.  And um the fact that it uses all like pirate jargon does not lend any credibility to its name.  Like when you're logging in, it says like,  our log me in.  Not the best marketing decision in my opinion,  but.

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But what Pirate Ship is is it is they bulk buy postage from like USPS, UPS,  and they sell it to you at a bulk discount. So what would have cost me almost $30 to  ship to my in-laws in the Midwest  cost me 80 % less.  And not only does it save you money, but it will save you time as well because you print the label at home.

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you put it on the box and you can either, if you're shipping with USPS, you can leave it at your mailbox and your regular mail carrier will pick it up with your mail.  Or you can through pirate ship, can schedule a pickup with your UPS driver.  Or if you know you're expecting a package, you can arrange for them to pick up your outgoing package when they deliver your incoming packages that  I know you have coming, if you are anything like me and  hit Black Friday, Cyber Monday pretty hard.

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And as a totally unrelated tangent, why are things on Black Friday and Cyber Monday that aren't gift related? Like, I could use a Black Friday for household items, like not gifting items, but maybe not on Black Friday. I don't want to blow my whole Black Friday budget on a really good deal on razor blades, you know, but there's, but they are, they're on really good deal on.

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on Black Friday and I need them.  But how about like February 15th? Can we have like a household good Black Friday just on another day  and just keep the deals  for Cyber Monday and Black Friday on giftable things?  mean, unless  growing up, like my mom would put all kinds of things in my stocking, like.

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I would always get a new toothbrush and toothpaste. like maybe if you're looking, if you're looking to continue that tradition, like those kinds of things would be helpful. But, know, August 17, I could probably use a re-up on my toothpaste at 50 % off, but I don't get to have it because it's not Black Friday. So how do we go about creating the initiative to have a deep discount day on household goods on any day other than

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Black Friday, Cyber Monday. However, don't get me wrong, I am a big fan of the cyber week and getting good deals on things. As I mentioned,  we got a  big snowstorm early in the season  last week and  we've been in like a cold snap since then. So we've still got a couple inches of snow on the ground. I have like a stockpile of snow suits for my kids.  And  when the first snow happens, I see which one fits who for this year.

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And I'm getting to the point now where our smallest ones are getting outgrown  and I'm kind of like in a limbo. I might actually have to buy snow pants for my oldest this year.  And they were half off at Land's End for Cyber Week. So  I did it. I bought a new pair of snow pants. I don't think I've bought anything  snow gear related for my kids  in years. I think just like as the hand-me-down cycle,

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came around and I saw snowsuits and snow pants that my kids would eventually grow into and  they were gender neutral enough to work for  both boys and girls in my family, I would just snap them up.  But I  think I've found a hole.  think,  are you ready? I think size six, seven  in snow gear  is  a missing hole in my collection.

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So yeah, that's probably the least giftable thing I picked up on Cyber Week is a new pair of snow pants for my oldest that will eventually be for all three of my children. And with that, before I get on an even further off tangent,  that will be our show for today. And today, if you are a mom of both, if you have both sons and daughters, it is your turn today to leave a five star rating wherever you are listening,  be it Spotify, Apple,

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whatever app you're listening on, it's your turn to leave a five star rating. Now this helps us grow our mom community and find more mom coworkers to join our cohort. And as always, I am Caroline Detman. We are Modern Moms and I will see you right back here again next week. Bye.