Welcome to the Advent of Love! We are coping with our nostalgia for the holidays by eating Santa's face and recounting thinly veiled Christmas "miracles". We go nuclear as we open one of these live, on the air and are sucked back into Edwardian times. Watch out Bunnicula!
The Jacquie Lawson 2023 Edwardian Advent Calendar
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:00
Hi. I'm Matthew.
Molly 0:05
And I'm Molly and
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:05
this is Spilled Milk the show where we cook something delicious. Eat it all, and you can't have any today
Molly 0:09
we are talking about advent calendars because
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:13
tis the season.
Molly 0:14
Well, it's the day after Valentine's Day. As everyone knows, advent calendars. lead you up to Valentine's Day.
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:24
That's right. And then it's to it's to celebrate the advent of love the advent of love. Wow, the advent of love. What a lyrical phrase. Yeah,
Molly 0:34
that sounds like a terrible romance novel, though. Like what would happen it sounds scent of love.
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:39
I mean, it sounds like an alternative name for Love Actually a terrible romance movie.
Molly 0:44
Oh, it's like a it's like unfortunate and overly formal translation Yes, yes.
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:49
It's what they call it's what they called Love Actually like in Switzerland
Molly 0:54
Okay, so this episode, which again is advent calendar was suggested by listener array Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:00
you listener array to me like doing this episode in February like brings back fond memories of when I used to do a Christmas I have fond memories of Christmas, which was a few weeks ago and also of doing a podcast I used to do with friend of the show Becky's selling guide called look inside this book club. I miss this podcast. Yeah, it was a romance novel podcast. And we I would often pick romances. romances to talk about that were Christmas romances in like March. Perfect. So this is the same kind of deal. Oh, yeah.
Molly 1:31
So Memory Lane, you know, it's interesting, because it's not interesting.
Speaker 1 1:37
So pretty much my only mad wincalendar on memory lane is the old like grocery store, cheap chocolate kind and I don't even think that it was like something we always had when I was a kid. No, I don't. wasn't wasn't our thing. That's my memory lane. Also, it's the one that had like, you know, colorful Christmas decoration he fraud and it was like had little cardboard doors and like a plastic lining that had different shapes of very cheap milk chocolate and you would be really excited for maybe like the first four days right and then start forgetting.
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:11
I don't know, like, I think when I when I had them, like I was pretty excited because it was chocolate every day. I was not picky about chocolate as a kid. Like I got snobby later, okay, and then like it would culminate on the 24th or 20 I think usually the 24th but when I but when I looked into it, it was like sometimes they go all the way to the 25th I think of them going all the way to the 25th Yeah, anyway, there would be a Santa face and that would be the biggest chocolate. Oh, wow. That's exciting. So like kids like if you want to eat Santas face. You now you can
Molly 2:40
you have to wait until Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve or
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:43
Christmas day. Yeah, but but if you go to the mall, you can sit on Santa's lap and it says what do you want for Christmas? Like sad? Like a few days from now I want to eat your face. Yeah. I think that's what happens in
Molly 2:56
I feel like that is harassment. No, no, I
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:01
You think I was suggesting that children actually do? No
Molly 3:06
I was I was and I just wanted to say listen if your kids do this, and you guys get arrested don't blame us.
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:13
We're the thing that was about to come out of my mouth was I think that's what happens in that Chucky movie. A I don't think that's a Christmas movie although I'm not sure. And it's not a child. It's a doll. But if there
Molly 3:26
was that but it's a child doll Yeah, okay. It's not like Barbie which is an adult doll
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:32
that's true. Yeah, like but you could imagine Chucky biting Santas face right
Molly 3:36
oh my god big time yeah are Kyla Bunnicula would go for the jugular would
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:40
absolutely like Bunnicula has taken down multiple Santos
Molly 3:45
Santos like yes, they're like a Christmas themed Bunnicula book there should be I
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:49
think there is boy we sure right all of those books and and like the how we in Delilah spin off series a number of times recently so yesterday, or like in the past couple of days there have been a couple of Christmas miracles. Okay,
Molly 4:03
wait, are we still talking about okay, we're Yeah, we're gonna be talking about Christmas this whole episode right
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:09
so this is totally on topic and this and and to be clear, like it's January as we're recording this so,
Molly 4:14
Matthew, I can't believe you, you you pulled up the veil, pulled up
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:19
the veil or
Molly 4:21
pulled aside the curtain pulled aside the veil,
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:23
the veil there was yes, this this whole episode is going to be thinly veiled. Okay, Christmas miracle number one and I don't know if I'm going to remember both of them. Let's get started. Okay, Chris Jericho number one, we have a running joke around my house like a classic dad joke type of joke that you say anytime of year like on Halloween such and such becomes such and such, which is almost the same thing but like with a scary word involved. So like, okay, like, on Halloween advent calendar becomes an advent calendar. So like, oh, that's about the caliber of joke. We're talking. Okay, great. And I remembered how This started like I had not thought about it for well over a decade. And and I remembered the first version of this joke that we ever told, which was that when December was like three years old we used to walk to preschool every day which was 10 blocks so it took like 55 minutes and I would tell made up stories the whole way which was exhausting.
Molly 5:24
Oh my God telling made up stories to children is the worst thing you can do. And
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:30
and so a lot of them involved how we and Delilah, which were dogs from the particular books, at the time, December would often wear these this brand of kids shoes called Sookie Hershey's. Okay, in one of these stories, it was Halloween and one of these dogs was wearing to Quixote's, and they turned into spooky house. That was the original version of that joke. I know, you've all been wanting to know why Christmas miracle number two, a lot of setup. Okay. Yeah. One is one's going to do but it's gonna have much less payoff. But you're gonna love this. Earlier this year? No. Last year now, wife this year, Lori and I took our first trip to Japan. Since before the pandemic, we were getting ready to pack and I was like, Okay, let me get my black rolling suitcase out of the storage space. And it was not there. And we were like, how do you lose a suitcase? Like we knew we had had two of these and had given away one of them? Well, that's how you lost one. That's how we lost one. But now we had none. Oh, okay. So Laurie is like Did I did I donate it? I don't remember donating a suitcase. And it just became one of these unsolved family mysteries. Until this week, when we were having Chris How long ago was this? This was like 10 months ago. Okay. Okay. Until this week, when we were having having family Christmas belatedly, because some people in my family got COVID. And I didn't know that. Oh, yeah. So my parents and my brother. Oh, okay. Okay. So we got together for family Christmas. And as we're leaving, my brother Jake says, Hey, do you want me to give you back that suitcase you loaned to me a couple of years ago, and we had loaned the suitcase to Jake in 2020. To take a to go on a trip that ended up being canceled because of COVID. And it's been sitting in his garage ever since. Oh, my God. So Christmas miracles abound. It's really like you know, as they said in diehard, you know, it's the season of miracles. Yes. Relax the I've never seen Die Hard. Oh, my God. This wait. And we talked we talked about this when we when we probably on the on the fast 10 episode. I think you would genuinely enjoy this movie. It's extremely good movie.
Molly 7:39
I know. I've heard I've been wanting to see it. Sort of. Yeah. Okay, so. All right. So in order to talk about advent calendars, I think you're gonna have to like tell me what Advent is. And I used to know, yeah, me too. But I I don't remember. Okay. So
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:56
I did some research about what Advent is including talking to my wife who grew up Catholic. You and I are as two secular Jews are definitely the two people we are just qualified to teach you about people to talk about
Molly 8:09
Advent. Okay.
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:10
So, Advent is the is the religious lead up to Christmas. And so I'm going to read a little Wikipedia here, quote, the season of Advent in the Christian calendar anticipates the coming of Christ from three different perspectives, the physical Nativity in Bethlehem, the reception of Christ in the heart of the believer and the eschatological second coming. Are you impressed that I pronounced
Molly 8:30
that to logical? Yes, it's good to lodge really, I
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:34
looked at what eschatology is at I forgot. Oh, it's like something. It's something to do with like, religious texts and stuff.
Molly 8:46
Okay. Okay. All right. Say more. So,
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:50
there are a variety of traditions associated with advent, including the lighting of an Advent wreath, when shot which December used to do with silence W Sr. and love the show, Wendy, when they were little. Okay. So then I was like an Advent wreath. It's like, it's like a wreath that you put candles on and light, like, you know, every every day or night during Advent, I'm like, is this derived from a menorah? did a little research? Probably yes. Okay. Okay. And so other traditions lighting a Christingle, which is, which is a candle stuck into an orange? This, I think is a European thing, saying a daily prayer. And in most but far from all Christian denominations. Advent begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas. But commercial advent calendars pretty much always begin on December 1, okay, just so they don't have to, like make a whole new design every year, I think.
Molly 9:42
Okay, I note here that you say Advent is followed by the 12 days of Christmas. Yeah. Okay. Did you so why are there 12 Days of Christmas?
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:50
I mean, I think like honestly, I think the reason is because like in Christianity, the birth of Jesus is a very big deal and get celebrated over quite a long period of time. Okay. If you had if I'd asked you, or if you'd asked me like when do when are the 12 days of Christmas? And do they start or end on December 25? Would you have known?
Molly 10:08
I only know this year because Brandon and his partner Natalie had a 12th night. Oh, right party. And I attended. And I thought to myself, this must be I referenced the 12 days of Christmas, but I didn't learn anything else about it. I'd be you're correct. And the party was at the end of the first week of January. Yeah, I
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:29
think the 12th night is like when epiphany begins. I know so little. I
Molly 10:35
remember learning what epiphany was in high school, in chapel. And I remember for some reason, it was one of the like, you know, explanations of these kinds of things that actually stuck with me. Okay, but only for a certain amount. But that's not up to the President. I mean, I'm 45 years old. I think I learned this while I learned this sometime between 15 and 18. Yeah, I think it's stuck with me for probably 10 years. Yeah, I'm
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:04
48 years old. I don't like as soon as we finish taping this podcast, I'm gonna forget everything we talked about.
Molly 11:09
Literally, yes. Okay. So let's talk about advent calendar. All
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:13
right. So so that's what Advent is. So it's the it's the lead up to Christmas that celebrated in a variety of different ways. And one of those ways is with an advent calendar. That's right.
Molly 11:22
And where did the Advent Calendar tradition begin?
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:26
So anything you think of as like a Christmas tradition probably either came from Washington Irving, or from Germany. Wait, what's wash is Washington Irving, a place you get everything is a guy, like American writer, who, who like sort of codified a lot of American Christmas traditions, to the extent that like, you know, many things we think of as like, this is what we do in Christmas in America, or like things from Washington Irving stories. Wait, can you give me an example like Christmas trees, like like decorating a Christmas tree, but
Molly 11:56
the US only dates back to the late 1700s,
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:00
right? But I just have the idea of like, you are going to like buy a tree and put it in your home and that's going to be your Christmas tree. Okay, like everyone and everyone who celebrates Christmas is going to do that. That's that's like a new thing. Okay,
Molly 12:13
but so so maybe before there were like other things like where maybe there'd be a tree and like a town square or something. Yeah.
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:21
But wow, you get in your own Christmas tree. I think stockings, like, all these things have had, like, you know, sort of
Molly 12:27
like it's the beginning of like, the the the nuclearization of the American family or the the Yeah, right. I
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:35
think that's what it's like, it's not definitely related. Okay, interesting. It's when Yeah, that's when like, family started to go new, new killer. Killer. So fun to say new killer.
Molly 12:45
Good, wouldn't it? Nice job. Nice job. George W. Bush. So yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:50
so among so among German Lutherans in the 19th century is when we first started seeing advent calendars.
Molly 12:55
And it just that, like Germans were like, really good at cozy winter traditions. That
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:01
was going to be my guest to I don't know the answer. I mean, they didn't do Heuga.
Molly 13:05
But yeah, but they were close to the
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:08
land, but there's probably probably a German word for Heuga. Probably.
Molly 13:14
It Go on. So German Lutherans.
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:17
Yes. And then we're, of course talking about the commercial American versions of Advent Calendar switch, which usually start on December 1, they have like some randomly arranged doors numbered from one to 24 or 25.
Molly 13:28
understood why the doors are arranged randomly, like
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:32
it's like so so you can get your kids out of your hair for like four more seconds a day. Clay Hey, kids find a door. Okay. Fine. When When, when God opens the door, he throws you out a window
Molly 13:50
that's right. Yes. So okay, did the Amster family go in for advent calendars in any sort of notable way?
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:58
I think we sometimes had the cheap chocolate version. Okay, that's that's all I remember. I don't I don't think they ever got like more more involved than that. Did you? Did you have the cheap chocolate version in your
Molly 14:08
house? They existed but they were not something that I really cared about. I don't think they were really a part of my childhood Christmases. But now, we always have some sort of Advent Calendar. We've tried many different kinds, and I'm looking forward to talking about these. Okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:26
so would you like to open an advent calendar door right now? Because here's what happened. Cylons W, apparently is into all sorts of Advent things. Okay. Gave us as a gift this year. And she also got for herself. The 24 days of T Van Van Kathu to take a dig this day. Well, 24 days of tea to enjoy by Palais de tais. Okay, Eris. And it, there was some delay with the shipping and so we got it on like the seventh or something and so we still have it open like one through seven. Okay, so Wow that one and if and if it sounds good we can brew it.
Molly 15:03
Oh God, even this one is out of order. Like why? behind door number one?
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:08
Okay, what? What tea do you have?
Molly 15:11
Let's say many fique the name of the tea ver pa venue, Armand green tea with with Sarah Palin I'm Manila in love with pear vanilla and I don't think I want that. Okay.
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:27
Yeah. Many many of them are like like fruity flavored teas and a lot of them were pretty good and
Molly 15:34
oh, what's that
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:35
one grand eunan Imperial, delicious, mellow and honeyed black tea. I don't know about honey, but look how nice these tea bags are. They're like little cloth. Oh, that's
Molly 15:45
a rake. Wow, that's a good looking bag.
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:48
So I'm plundering this pot. Okay,
Molly 15:50
I'm on December 3. This is the jyada out of call says the French garden is pear and blackberry leaves. Why don't like fresh fruit teas?
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:02
Oh, wow. Like eight eight hasn't even been opened me. We started like the ninth. Okay. Number eight grand Jasmine Chun Feng green tea with jasmine flowers. I would drink that.
Molly 16:14
Okay, let's move on to number five. Okay, I hope the listener was
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:18
loving this.
Molly 16:22
This is perfect for Valentine's Day. Tea. These are mom so that's lovers tea. It's a black tea with Apple and spices I don't want
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:31
is your like, like guaranteed to like, guarantees
Molly 16:34
all that it's number four. Going with four. It's good. My job. Okay, I like that. Yay. TV. Eight Li Li I really don't. I'm amazed I remember how to pronounce anything but everything.
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:49
This one is from Sri Lanka. It's the St. James. Oh P strong full bodied black tea. Okay.
Molly 16:55
Wow. Okay, well, that
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:56
was pretty fun. Yeah, even though I was a little perforated doors. Let's admit it.
Molly 17:01
Oh, and I just noticed that there are T quotation. Oh, hit me on each door. So this one's from Confucius. The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones. Okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:14
and probably never never makes much of a dent on the whole mountain. Let's be honest. It's true. It's true. Mountain is big.
Molly 17:21
Let's see if I can find another another one.
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:24
Another another great quote. Yeah, I'm
Molly 17:26
trying to find a really good one.
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:28
I bet they're all really good. Okay,
Molly 17:31
I think this one this one's really light. This is from the Dalai Lama. The question is not to know what is the meaning of life but what meaning I can give to my life.
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:41
Thank you. Thank you. I'm gonna I'm gonna like my meaning is gonna be like I'm going to try the mountain moving thing I'm going to carry some stones.
Molly 17:47
Okay
well, so this year you had you received that T advent calendar, but you also had another one? Yes. Okay, so
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:03
we also had this one where you we punched out little kind of like thick like paperboard animals. And they were little like they had little slots since they would slot them into the branches of a paper Christmas tree. A cardboard Christmas tree did not work very well. Like the designs were cute, but the little slots were did not have much like integrity. Okay, so So animals kept falling off the tree and
Molly 18:29
how did you select this? Usually, usually,
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:32
Watson will will choose the advent calendar. Okay. And she is not big on food. Advent calendars. So especially not chocolate. Probably bad memories of the crappy chocolate for the ones of her youth. So wants it to be something more artistic. You know, fun, playful like we've had. We had one with penguins in the past. That was really fun. That was related to some penguin picture book. We had the owl babies.
Molly 18:58
Oh my god. Like the book. Yeah, but
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:01
in the book, there's three owl babies. But in the calendar, there's like 25 Owl babies. Wow.
Molly 19:09
Okay, well, so ash picked out our advent calendar this year. They found it online probably like through some Instagram ad. But anyway, it was a visually it was not very attractive. That part I would say it was a bit disappointing. It was basically like these brown paper pouches that were all held together like with black perforations, too to like long strips of brown paper pouches that we like hung, like taped to a bookshelf in the kitchen.
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:39
Okay, were they in order or did you stop?
Molly 19:41
They were in order. Okay, what they contain each day contained. This part was really great. A felted ornaments,
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:49
okay, I like that.
Molly 19:50
Oh my god. Some of them were like unbearably cute. There was a little head of broccoli. And there was a little rainbow with a clouded either end. Oh, Ah, there was a house with a chimney with like a little puff of smoke coming out of it. I mean, we're gonna have these ornaments for a very long time. Okay, did
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:08
you get to go hang it on the actual tree? Yes. Unfortunately,
Molly 20:11
it came with these like kind of like the the little loop to hang it was a white elastic. And we found that quite ugly. So we just cut it off and just kind of snagged the felted wool with a Christmas tree hook. Okay, hung it that way. But anyway, that was pretty awesome. And I think that we will have many, if not all of these ornaments for years to come. I love that. So that was pretty sweet. Let's see other things we've done. One year we did a we found a June was really into fidgets that year. Sure. And we did a fidget advent calendar. Not as cool as it seemed. But like with like a different fidget toy every day. Yeah, there were a couple of repeats. And I gotta tell you, either it would have been really expensive or the quality would have to be suspicious. The quality was very suspicious. Although I do think that I came upon one of the fidgets the other day, and it was a little finger trap thing. Yeah. Which I hadn't seen in a long time.
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:09
Yeah, I you know, every year my mother puts a water weenie in my stocking. Really? Yes. Oh, what do you do with them? Oh, today I just I just like, accidentally left it at their house. Today or yesterday? Oh, oh, this year?
Molly 21:27
Okay, great. Okay, hold on. Wait. We've also done if you've ever done the Lego advent calendars.
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:32
I don't think we have I discovered one when I was when I was researching. I think we're gonna get for this year, which is going to be a National Geographic, like, it's polished stones, minerals calendar.
Molly 21:45
Oh my God, that sounds awesome. You got to send me a link for that. Because yeah, everybody in my family would love that. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:52
tell tell me about this one. Okay.
Molly 21:53
So the lego one we got? I think they have different themes. Of course, we went with Harry Potter. I think we did this at least one if not two years. And it was fine. I mean, basically, each day when you open the little door, you've got a little glassine packet. That's got one little thing for you to build. So the hell is glassy? Oh, it's like that. Like, you know, crinkly
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:15
plastic. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And that was called that, you know,
Molly 22:18
it was pretty satisfying.
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:20
I have to say it did each one add to like, a scene. Okay. Yeah.
Molly 22:25
And the scene as I this was a few years ago, the scene I think, maybe it was like you converted part of the box into the scene or something. And like, everything that that you made, then went like, onto the box. Okay, I can't remember I'm messing this up. But we have also done the chocolate ones. And I have to say that none of us so we always have candy and dessert in the house anyway. And so it's not a big thing.
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:51
Yeah. Needs to be like something else special because yeah, I've got I've so many malt balls in the house right now. Really? Yeah. It's great.
Molly 23:00
That's awesome. Yeah. So for me, I think that the lore of the chocolate is just never going to work in my household because we actually have good dessert
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:11
around. Yeah, like I've gotten like one one year I got like a like a Trader Joe's like, like tasting chocolate. Like, can you figure out what the flavor is? I don't think it was actually an advent calendar. But it was. Yeah, it was kind of just like we have enough chocolate. Well, we don't need to play your games.
Molly 23:27
Now. What about the little bond memo? Little jam?
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:32
Oh, yeah. Jam calendars. Yes. So we've had that one twice. Okay. The thing I like about it is that it's fun to open a little jam and try it every day. It's also it's funny that on the on the box it it says very clearly these are spreads and honeys not jams because they do not fit like the FDA definition of a jam. But they are tasty. You do end up with a large amount of little tiny jars that you have no no use for
Molly 23:57
sure. Yeah, I know. I think you in the past have maybe given me a couple of those jams or something. You were over. And the jars are always fun, but only like one or two at a time.
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:09
Yes. I don't think we're going to do that one again. I did enjoy it in the past. Yeah.
Molly 24:14
I don't know if there's anything that I really want 12 days of other than maybe like a craft project. What if Okay, I got a couple of I mean, not 12 days, 2025 days? Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:27
we're gonna talk about some 12 Day calendars in a minute. But yeah, it's usually 24 days. So what about like, four days of different sex positions? Okay, so like an adult advent calendar, okay. Which which I know we've talked about this before, like, now they say that is way too many. I couldn't keep up with it for sure. What about 24 days of Kinder Egg toys, and like you don't have to deal with the terrible Kinder Egg chocolate. It's just little toys to assemble every day.
Molly 24:53
You know what I would go for? Okay, here's what I would like. 25 days of gotcha Pong toys. Yeah. That's what I oh yeah, because those toys are actually good as opposed to I mean indirect toys which I don't think are
Matthew Amster-Burton 25:06
there they are often good there's such an incredibly wide range that they really range from amazing to and well I
Molly 25:13
guess the nice thing with the Yeah, I guess the reason why I'm thinking gachapon is so good is that yeah, when you go to a gachapon machine right, you can see what type of joy is inside it. That what might not be the case for the Advent
Matthew Amster-Burton 25:24
count. Yeah, but it's a really good idea. And would it somehow dispense? No, no, okay. You just you just hope I think
Molly 25:31
that what I would like is for the calendar itself to be you know, like you know, made out of whatever that cardboard is and to be shaped it to be round. Yeah, like a gotcha upon such a good idea. And then you just open doors and behind it are the little toys you assemble. Yeah, okay. Wait a minute. I did I did think of okay, this year I learned about an advent calendar that honestly is the best I've ever seen. This was a gift to June from Brandon's partner Natalie it is an I don't love the idea of an like an electron or like online advent calendar. But but this is so beautiful is the brand name is Jackie Lawson Jacq UAE Okay. Jackie Lawson and it is I don't know if it I don't know if it's always Edwardian but this year, it was the Edwardian Christmas advent calendar.
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:28
And is it just like scenes? What is it?
Molly 26:30
Oh my God. It is basically like, if you download it onto your tablet or your computer or whatever, it's best on a tablet if you know or a touchscreen device. This reminds me of something. Yeah, it's basically an app and you open it up, it gives you a little tutorial. But basically there is a scene. It's like have some like Edwardian like manor house. And there are all sorts of activities that you can do there. But also there is like a little Christmas bobble in each window and it's got the numbers, and you click on it for each day. Wow. And it reveals some sort of activity or gift. Like it might give you a game you can play like, there was a version of Tetris, but that Edwardian Tetris with like a like a wooden box that had little like concave dimples and marbles that fit in it. Okay, and so the marbles would like come down and it was like Tetris, but with a wooden box and marbles. It one day it painted a portrait for me of the two dogs who live at the manor house. And then I got to hang it in my Edwardian drawing room. That is delightful. One day, it gave me a video of the staff who are comprised of teddy bears, cleaning the drawing room, and that was thrilling. Yeah, through the whole thing. It's playing like Edwardian era Christmas, you
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:53
get to like help them unionize. You do?
Molly 27:56
The illustrations are absolutely beautiful. You can change the decor of your drawing room. And they're like puppies and kittens like sleeping in the room. And if you touch them, they like wake up and meow or look at you.
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:10
I didn't know I was gonna awaken this. Almost
Molly 28:13
like there could be nothing more perfect for my child, frankly. Yeah, Nora, for me, I mean, Joon would just sit and spend hours. There's also you there are these like binoculars and you can go outside the manor house and look for different animals. There's a different animal each day. And then you have a journal that you're writing in about the animals but really all you're doing is like water coloring the drawing that you supposedly have made of them. It is the most beautiful, it's beautiful. I just can't even say enough about it.
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:47
We already determined that the whole point of an advent calendar is to is to distract your kids for a few minutes to sounds like the best one. This is the best one yeah, now they're imagining like a kid designing their own advent calendar and it's just like a new pet every day. Oh
Molly 29:03
my gosh, and these are like very affordable
Matthew Amster-Burton 29:06
Okay, so they have like different different versions.
Molly 29:09
So there's a new one every year so you can get like the Edwardian Victorian well I'm not sure Regis here's the here's the Jackie Lawson 2023 Edwardian advent calendar. Okay, I don't know if it's different any other years okay, maybe it's always Edwardian
Matthew Amster-Burton 29:27
I bet I bet Jackie mixes it up a little bit with the contents how much is
Molly 29:31
so it is if you buy one it's 799 Good deal. Okay. Right. And you you download it was like I've had a lot of teddy bears. Oh, last year was the Sussex advent calendar. Okay. Yep. So anyway, yeah, so again, it's Jackie Lawson can find it out there. Yeah, she done like a Harry and Megan. Not yet. I cannot even tell you how much I enjoyed this. It truly. Hold on Matthew. I gotta wake you Watch this video.
Speaker 2 30:03
It's time to settle into your shiny new moon and admire the view as your chauffeur takes you up the winding drawing to your magnificent duty home. Because this year for our 14th annual advent calendar, we're taking you back to spend Christmas in the glamorous Edwardian era. From the first of December through to the 25th you'll open up this beautiful country how seem to find a numbered ornament concealing a surprise
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:25
I'm getting this for December this year. Activities
Speaker 2 30:28
such as decorating a Christmas tree or designing your own tapestry and with more games than ever before, as well as creative activities.
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:36
Oh yes, prizes. Yeah, they used to love playing Candy Crush and Edwardian times.
Molly 30:42
Anyway. It's gonna change your life. Okay, yeah. Okay, sold.
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:46
Okay, I'm just remembering as you mentioned this an online the first online advent calendar that I ever encountered, which was I'm gonna say early 2000s I believe it was a Perl programming language advent calendar that I enjoyed very much that like had a little like programming tip every day. Oh, that's free.
Molly 31:06
That had to be pretty satisfied. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Wow, this episode is really long already. Let's just hit some high points and get out of here.
Matthew Amster-Burton 31:12
Okay, so I found some other food related advent calendars online, many of which are 12 Day calendars because 24 days would get excessive I'm assuming is the reason Sure. So I found all Shah's it was a Chinese instant noodle company. 12 days of noodles. That's it. That sounded really good. Yeah, Walker's shortbread. Okay. Like that. Vine box. 12 nights of wine with like, little like quarter bottles of wine. Okay. Harry and David did a 24 day advent calendar for $200. And eater eater did a roundup that will link to that mentioned a calendar from BlackBerry farm featuring quote, goodies like pickled ramps, sorghum shortbread and handpoured candles for $400.
Molly 32:00
No comment. Yeah, no comment.
Matthew Amster-Burton 32:02
Okay, one more thing about advent calendars. And this is going to be a thing I'm going to tell you about that I don't understand. And hopefully someone will write in with more information because there's a big question hanging over this more than one probably. So I learned on Wikipedia about something called the Nordic christmas calendar tradition, which was something that started in the 1950s. Apparently, in Nordic countries, TV stations and in the past radio stations have advent calendar programs. So it's like a cereal that that airs like on the 24 days leading up to Christmas with like a little installment of the story each day. So according to Wikipedia, quote, each series consists of 24 episodes, which aired daily beginning on the first of December and ending on Christmas Eve, the first christmas calendar was we Swedish to lecture the firt not a funny word. nothing funny about tipologia the first such series aired in aired in Denmark was Historie a fraud Hello Verdun in 1962. And then this is still quoting from Wikipedia. Quote, most Christmas calendars are produced for children while some cater to both children and adults, and even some are directed at adults alone.
Molly 33:12
Do you think that would be the 20th?
Matthew Amster-Burton 33:17
Like, what are they going to do next? Yeah. And Christmas color calendars often feature tamatar or Neisser. And occasionally a Santa Claus figure and I looked at a Tumblr and Newser are different names for like little little kind of fairy garden gnome type guys with with like pointy hats.
Molly 33:34
I noticed on some when I've seen periodically on windows in Ballard like something like find Tom Tim or whatever, like a little like Nordic GNOME, dude.
Matthew Amster-Burton 33:46
Yep, there you go. So if any, if anyone if we I know we have listeners in Nordic countries, I'd love to learn more about this because everything that I found in English was pretty vague. And I would especially like to know if eight adults only christmas calendar program is a real thing. Do
Molly 34:00
you think that it would be I mean, either it could be sort of like poor money? I don't think it is. Or it could be like very Law and Order SVU.
Matthew Amster-Burton 34:09
Who's gonna get killed? Right, who killed Santa in a horrific way? Yeah. I mean, obviously, it was the kid who ate Santa his face.
Molly 34:16
Obviously done, but spoiler alert. Do close that case quickly. Okay. Okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 34:23
what are we going to do for the for the remaining 23 days? Well, luckily,
Molly 34:27
we have some spilled mail. Okay.
As you might have expected, we have some horseshoe reports from Springfield, Illinois,
Matthew Amster-Burton 34:42
Illinois. Yeah, we should we should have a like a recurring segment now called horseshoe reports and we'll get to like clopping
Molly 34:50
can you find those? Yeah, can you come up
this is from listener Libby. Hello both. Hey, I wanted to clarify horse shoes for you the layers go from bottom to top. Wait, what episode was this and this was loaded fries. All right, the layers go from bottom to top toast, full burger or fried chicken Patty fries, cheese gravy. Some people put additional things on top, but those are the essentials for the horseshoe. Some places have a secret cheese sauce. Darcy's is one of the go to places but even a fast casual chain like steak and shake serves them
Matthew Amster-Burton 35:29
I assumed RCS is a restaurant chain run by Darcy from the Smashing Pumpkins probably.
Molly 35:33
I am born and raised in Springfield and they're very popular here for sure you will be hard pressed to find a local generic restaurant without one on the menu. Love you both and best wishes, Libby and
Matthew Amster-Burton 35:45
we also heard a horseshoe report clop clop from listener Jeff.
Molly 35:48
Okay, I'll read this one too. I think I'm qualified to answer the horseshoe question because I grew up in West Central Illinois and horseshoes are ubiquitous. I've never seen anyone tried to turn it into a sandwich that would be rather difficult, particularly with the places that use cheese sauce, it would be very messy. There are a lot of variants including a place near where I live that serves an Italian horseshoe with either hamburger or chicken strips topped with meat sauce and mozzarella. Sounds pretty good. I would eat Yeah.
Matthew Amster-Burton 36:18
All right. Yeah. Thanks, listeners. Yeah. Like I was pleased that like people, we definitely got some some horseshoe details wrong and people corrected us in such a supportive way.
Molly 36:27
I know they even said they love it. Yeah. And they sent good wishes. Let's
Matthew Amster-Burton 36:30
make more mistakes.
Molly 36:31
Okay. Matthew, are you snacking on anything?
Matthew Amster-Burton 36:34
I am snacking. Snacking. You gotta tell me what you snack in. Or I'll release the Kraken. So what you're snacking. I'm snacking a new Trader Joe's product that I feel like it's going to turn out to be a seasonal product that's going to disappear very soon, but it's the Trader Joe's stepping it up spicy snack bar mix comes in a red Ken and it's like a guard dedos or like Chex Mix type of snack. But it is the best one I've ever had. It's got jalapeno pretzel pieces, spicy cheese, corn sticks, spice chili, almonds and crispy chilli, chilli lemon corn nuts. They all work so well together. All the individual pieces are good. It's a great level of SPICY. We have been snarfing the hell out of this stuff. Wow. Okay,
Molly 37:23
I'm very curious to try it because it sounds like it has too many different flavors going on. For me personally. Oh, you're gonna get oh, you're gonna bring out the mix. Step it up. I'm gonna step it up. Let me make sure I get a little bit of everything. Yeah, well mute
Matthew Amster-Burton 37:38
Molly's mic while I do well, I read the outro Our producer is Abby, sir. Catella. Molly has a newsletter called I've got a feeling that you can find it Molly weisenberg.substack.com. I'm a singing guy. And I have songs available early to the airport on Spotify or any other service. You can rate and review us wherever you get your podcasts. You can hang out with other people who listen to the show at everything spilled. milk.reddit.com a very supportive community. What do you think? What do you think of that crispy? Those crispy boys is really good. Yeah. Isn't that great? Yeah, I think my favorite piece is the little like this guy, which I guess is the I don't even know what this is. This doesn't seem to be any of the things I said. Is it a jalapeno pretzel piece? No. Well, so the Oh, it's the spice cheese. Corns check. Oh, that's a cheese stick. No, that's this. Okay, so there's like a mystery piece that the equivalent of the Righto
Molly 38:30
picea chili and sesame chips.
Matthew Amster-Burton 38:33
I left one out. Okay. Okay. Wow. That's good stuff. All right. So until next time, thank you for listening to spilled milk.
Molly 38:41
I'm a crispy chilli lemon corn nugget.
Matthew Amster-Burton 38:44
I'm just just a regular old pretzel piece. Bye bye
Molly 38:56
so stores are a little difficult. Yeah, you got it. Oh, there we go. There's a little corner