Christmas at Kim's

*This transcript was auto-generated*

Kim Gravel: I could care less about the presence. I'm going to eat.

Hey y'all, and welcome to LOL with Kim Gravel holiday edition. This is a comedy podcast for women where we laugh about all the messiness of life and we turn that mess into a message of confidence and hope. My mission is to encourage and lift you up, and that's what we're gonna do. We're gonna lift you up today, and this show is about how we can embrace our real, true, authentic selves and laugh about the stuff that comes our way.

So if you're ready for this holiday edition of LOL with Kim Gravel it's gonna start right now.

Oh, that music. Zac, I feel like I, I feel like I wanna go Ho, ho, ho. .

Zac Miller: The best thing about like Christmas is for me, it's the Christmas music. 100%.

Kim Gravel: Right? And movies.

Zac Miller: And movies, yep. And food. Kim, right off the bat, what's your favorite Christmas movie?

Kim Gravel: Oh, I can I give you three. Because there's like . It's what?

You're already bahumbugging me.

Zac Miller: That's, you know, it's hard to be a Jew on Christmas, Kim.

Kim Gravel: No, you get the best of both worlds because you do the tree and the gift exchange and the Santa Claus and the whole nine yards. And then you get Hanukkah too. I mean, that's the best of both worlds.

Zac Miller: I know.

And they overlap completely too. So hanukkah's happening at the same time. Fantastic. My favorite kids movie to watch with my kids, every year we do his tradition is Elf.

Yes. Okay. I love that movie.

Kim Gravel: That's a good one.

Zac Miller: There's a really funny continuity error in that movie where like someone from the crew just walks out of a door at one point and then just stares at the camera and walks right back in.

It's really funny,

Kim Gravel: uh, that probably just made it. Now I'm gonna be watching it tonight to find out where that part is in the movie. White Christmas for traditional. It's so good. And the whole tap dancing and Bing Crosby and all of that. And then my, third favorite is home alone. Home alone, home alone.

We just watched it the other night with the kids. Ah,

Zac Miller: like the original one? The one Cause they made so many of them. Okay.

Kim Gravel: The one with, what's his name? McCauley MacMulkin?

Zac Miller: You like some good physical comedy? ?

Kim Gravel: I wouldn't call myself a comedian, but I do get physical . Another one is holiday. The holiday.

Zac Miller: I haven't seen that one with

Kim Gravel: God, what's her name? Oh Lord. Cameron Diaz. Oh, Cameron Diaz. Okay. The holiday. Watch it. It's, it's a chick flick.

Zac Miller: Also die hard, die hard's. Good. Okay,

Kim Gravel: now you're getting, you're taking a, a bridge too far. . It's a step too far. . Like what? Okay. Every year, this is so true, Zac. Every year I'm like, I'm gonna take the holidays off \.

It's not work. I, I am working like a dog through the holidays. I, I, I never have. The boys have basketball. I have, I'm shopping and carrying on. Uh, the work is overload. Everybody's trying to get everything crammed in for the end of the year. I'm just trying to finish the book up cuz it's coming out next year.

 I mean, are you feeling the same way? This help the pressure

Zac Miller: I'm the same way because it's always like, get everything, get everything done. You have, get everything done because I wanna take time off and then finally by the time I'm ready to like have Christmas, then I like get sick or something.

Kim Gravel: Right.

Zac Miller: But I love the holiday season. I don't know. I'm, I'm definitely like, I do think like growing up Jewish, like Christmas didn't feel that special, and now having kids. and celebrating Christmas now with my family and my wife and everything is just so magical.

Kim Gravel: That is, it's good memories to be made.

You know? It doesn't matter how you celebrate the holidays, you know, it, it's just the fact that I, I, I just would say to everybody, just take a pause. Mm-hmm. , if you can, to reflect on the good things in your life. It's, it's hard sometimes to. and especially for, you know, all of us women out there and, and men too.

But, you know, pre predominantly our, our, our audience is women and, and we're, we're getting it all done and we're running around with the kids and we're running around trying to, you know, create these moments. And, and we very rarely take that time for some time for ourselves. But I just wanna encourage every, everybody listening, just pa press pause for a minute, just to be grateful and thankful, and recognize, you know, what we do have and what we, what we have been blessed with.

 That's what I like to do through the holidays, especially when it comes to family. And I know, like for Amy, she says sometimes the holidays are not her favorites. You know, Amy is, you know, all her family, they live in different places and her mom and dad have passed and, and they were big into the holiday season.

And of course, Amy spends the time with us. But anybody out there that's struggling with, with, you know, the holiday season might make you a little melan. I just wanna encourage you that we love. Yeah, I mean, I do too. I get down too, you know. But you know, I love this time of year because it's also a time of renewal and hope because that new year, when that clock strikes, you know, and that new year is on the horizon, new possibilities and beginnings are just right around the corner.

I don't care what circumstances you are in life, Zac, I'm serious. I, my daddy always says this, you know, I, if you ain't dead, you ain't done. I've said it on the show before, but there's still so much good life to be lived. Mm. And there's more for you next year. So pause and reflect. Be grateful for what we have this year.

Some of us have been through some hard times, honey hard times,

Zac Miller: but we're. We're here. We're here, but we're looking into the next year too.

Kim Gravel: We're doing it, and next year's gonna be amazing. Even better.

Zac Miller: We've been getting all of these responses from our listener survey and I know, I know you're gonna read all of them.

I know that's really important to you, but, I, I know you haven't seen all of them yet, right? Because I wanna share some of my favorites with you. Now this is something to be grateful for. By the way, you can go to lolkim.com/listenersurvey and you will be able to fill us out yourself, so please do it.

We want to hear what you want to, what you like about the show. First, I'll, I'll share my absolute favorite with you. Which was, what's your favorite part of the show and ? This person wrote, Zac and Kim's talk and banter. Zac is such a fine young man.

Kim Gravel: I'm not laughing cuz you're, but of course that would be your favorite. Now you gonna ask for a raise?

Now you gonna ask a for a raise? 2023. Mercy.

Zac Miller: Just the listener spoken. I'm a fine young man.

Kim Gravel: You are a fine young man.

Zac Miller: It's actually funny.

Kim Gravel: Is that it? Is that all she said?

Zac Miller: No, she said she wrote, a long thing.

She said that, I wrote her back. Everyone who emails the show, we write you back. So, we might not write you back quickly, but we'll write you back. But we'll write. I'll get you back. She said that, the response was so filled with kindness and consideration and, God bless. So that's really nice.

Kim Gravel: There you go. Okay. Well, Zac, yep. There goes Zac's won't go on a 20, 30% raise. Here we go. Yep. Yep. We new. Here we go.

Zac Miller: Oh, 30% I want like 60, 70%.

Kim Gravel: Christmas. Christmas bonus, holiday bonus. Okay. .

Zac Miller: All right, so someone else wrote, For the same question. Uh, Kim being spontaneous, funny and real. Okay. So, okay.

All done, Kim. I mean, most of these are literally just Kim. This was like Kim, Kim, Kim . It's pretty funny.

Kim Gravel: Oh, please. Well, they need to expand their horizons.

Zac Miller: Someone just wrote the guest. Which I think is kind of a dig. Like I'm taking that personal . No, I don't take that personal.

Kim Gravel: I agree. The guests are great.

So they probably won't be tuning into this episode cuz there's no guests, but hey. Oh my gosh.

Zac Miller: So that's fine. We're okay with that? Yeah, we're good with that. Someone wrote, sounds like my family did in past years. ,

Kim Gravel: you know, people all, you know, sometimes like people don't know me well enough in my family to understand, like, so my nephew is dating someone new and they came to the house, and Oh

Zac Miller: How did that go? How did Thanksgiving go?

Kim Gravel: Okay. It was great. It was fantastic, but it's like you got to get in where you fit in with us. And so I think it's, they're a little bit like gun shy cuz they're, they think we're crazy and we are.

Zac Miller: No, they know, they, they are crazy. They don't think you're crazy, Kim. They know you're crazy .

Kim Gravel: But the thing is, we don't care. Like, I mean we're all like to a place. My dad and mom are really past the point of caring about what anybody else, they've never cared anyway. One, the symptoms of being crazy that they just don't care.

And so like my dad is so loud and so like, , I mean just, and he's fantastic. You know, I love my dad and in my book I write all about, but my parents are just to the point, like, and there's nothing better than being like the, that, that hub. I'm the hub of the family. And then, so my parents are loud and don't care.

And if you don't like it, don't let the door hit you on the crack on the way out. And then you've got my sister who is, you know, holding a red solo cup swinging from the chandelier and then it has to crash and take an app. And then you've got a five year old, six year old. Then my kids is so loud and so everything, and I.

After when we get home, after having Christmas date with my family, I collapse and binge watch Bridgeton. .

Zac Miller: Is that your Christmas binge? Is that what you're gonna do, like,

Kim Gravel: yeah, with my leftovers. With my leftovers.

Zac Miller: Oh. What do you eat? What is, what's served for christmas in your house?

Kim Gravel: Well, we do ham. We do ham, and we do roasted chicken dressing.

Ruda beggars, green bean casserole, banana pudding. My mom's already made the menu. Banana pudding. Hash brown. Oh, honey, my listen, our banana pudding. You just wanna stick your face in and go,

Zac Miller: I'm not a banana pudding guy, but I'm gonna try it.

Kim Gravel: I need to give some of my family recipes right here on LOL with Kim Gravel. I really do. That would be fun. But butter beans. Butter beans. They come from South Carolina. Their little teeny silver butter beans is so good.

Zac Miller: Oh, is that the kind of bean? It's not just beans in butter. I just assumed that's what it was.

Kim Gravel: Bless it. No, honey. They're butter beans. They're actual bean. They're type of bean .

Zac Miller: I'm just outta my element here.

Kim Gravel: That's awful that you have never tasted. Butter beans, fried cornbread. We fry our cornbread really thin. Fried fried bread.

Fried cornbread.

Zac Miller: Okay, like in the air fryer.

Kim Gravel: No baby. In a pot of grease, . Crisco. Preferably wait, so you take cornbread, you bake the cornbread, and then you fly. We don't bake it, babe. You don't bake the cornbread. You don't, you mix your cornbread up and then you, you, you just pour it to your grease and it just fries it real hot and it's real thin.

Zac Miller: How? Oh, it's real thin. Okay. That was my question.

That sounds amazing.

Kim Gravel: It's like, but you have to do it like we have to, my mom, we all get there and then she fries the cornbread. It's gotta be hot off the,

Zac Miller: My wife makes spin cheese, which is like, it's like the Italian version of like fried dough.

So it's like you make little chicken.

Kim Gravel: Oh, that sounds yummy.

Zac Miller: Really good. So that's something we eat every Christmas morning. We eat spin cheese for, it's really fun. Yeah, it's great.

Kim Gravel: Tell her to send me a recipe. Okay. And then we do, uh, chicken and dumplings on, on top of all those other things.

Zac Miller: Like all at once Or is that like potato salad?

Kim Gravel: No, we just have a big Yeah, but we don't, we've never had chicken in. I've never had a traditional chicken in.

Oh God. It's pulled chicken with like little drop biscuits in it. It's so good.

Zac Miller: Well, I'm coming over . .

Kim Gravel: So I could care less about the presents, I'm going to eat.

Zac Miller: So, so wait, I have more, I have so much more from this survey than I wanna share with you. So, okay, so we asked the question, who are your favorite celebrities or influencers? Right? And we. You know, like Dolly Parton, Hillary duh. Yes, yes. You know Isaac Mizrahi. And then someone just wrote Jo, Kim's mom.

Kim Gravel: Did they really?

Zac Miller: Yes.

Kim Gravel: Oh my God. Well, she told me the other day, she said, I'm gonna tell you something. I am mad with Zac. I said, are you? And I said, so you're gonna be thrown on the bus cuz you're coming up here next for you. Because she said that you have not had her back on. And we were supposed to have our group, podcast, the Sexy Six.

And you have not even had it. It's all your fault.

Zac Miller: I am not even the one that made that decision.

Kim Gravel: Yes, you are. And I told her you were so Okay. Perfect. Celebrity Miss Jo with her.

Zac Miller: Thank you. All right. Celebrity Miss Jo. once she realizes that she's a celebrity it's just gonna be even harder to work with her.

Kim Gravel: Okay, well that's scary. I'm a little scared now.

So, you know what celebrity I would love to have on who? Dolly Parton for sure. So, and you know what? I love how Dolly Parton is in her seventies and is like in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She is killing it in her career Still. The longevity of that woman is remarkable.

So, Dolly, come on the show. We would love to have you. She's amazing. I would love to interview Denzel Washington. He would be a celebrity. I would, oh, I just love him. He's such a person of faith. He's so successful and every time he speaks, he has this, he talks and you just want to listen. You know?

Zac Miller: He's, I mean, he's got an amazing podcasting voice. Let's just start there.

Kim Gravel: Oh God. I would love to interview him.

Zac Miller: I'm a huge fan of Denzel. I mean, let's get Denzel on the show. That would be great. Denzel call us. Denzel and Dolly. That'd be great. You know, we could have them on together.

I mean, that would be like a lot of star power for one show, but it would be an amazing episode.

Kim Gravel: We could call the episode Double Ds. Lots of meanings in that.

Zac Miller: All right. Lots of meanings in that. Okay, so let me just, Oh my gosh. We, we asked them, we had an optional question at the end, Kim, that just said, tell us one great thing about yourself.

We got so many, like really just like, I mean really uplifting, honestly, things. Someone wrote that they're in Georgia and they're a cancer survivor. We got fantastic, someone fantastic that wrote that. Uh, I'm an encourager. I love to see people. I'm learning yes to. Yes. Right. She's learning to do the same for herself.

Mm. I'm dynamic, strong and loving. Uh, someone just wrote loyal, which I thought was really cool. Mm-hmm. , his person wrote, I'm a fantastically average mom with a major QVC shopping addiction.

Kim Gravel: She's my new best friend, . Now, this is the thing I, I, I think that, well, first of all, you're not an average mom, I can tell you that.

 But, thanks for the humor. , I think it's really hard for people to say one great thing about themselves. And I, I think it's even harder to do it verbally in, in person. So I'm glad we had that question cuz I think people are more apt to write something down, than just say it to another person.

But I wanna tell everybody listening as we are heading into this holiday season. You know, Christmas in a few days, Hanukkah has, you know, I think it's, we're either right now, the next of it, right, happening right now. Whatever you celebrate holiday season, I want you to remember that the true celebration for me in Christmas is, my faith in the birth of Jesus.

And secondly, it's to celebrate what a blessing and a gift we have in this thing called life and. I think that that is the number one thing that everybody really, really searches for is that fulfillment. To know that they are worthy, they are gifted, they are beautiful, and they have a purpose and a call.

And. Let's not waste one more minute of our lives. Not digging into that. I'm telling you, there's true freedom and true confidence in loving who you are. You don't have to like it all the time, like yourself all the time, or even like your circumstances, but you've always gotta love yourself enough to step into what God has for you, cuz he's got something.

And so if you're in this holiday season and you're feeling a little down or confused or you know, or you're too busy to even stop and take notice, just remember this. You are fearfully and wonderfully made for such a time as this to everybody. We wish everybody Merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, happy holidays.

We love you so much. Be blessed and remember to always live out loud. Laugh out loud and love out loud, and thank you for doing it with us. We love you. Thank you for everybody participating in the survey and if you want to communicate and participate in the survey with us, go to lol kim.com and the survey will be right there.

Take it cuz we'd love to hear from you. Means a lot to us.

Zac Miller: Hey, wait, Kim, I just realized I been recording on our cameras, but I wasn't recording on this thing. I'm sorry. Let's start over. Let's start over.

Kim Gravel: Wait, really start over.

LOL is produced an edited by Zac Miller at Uncommon Audio. Our associate producer is Kathleen Grant, at Brunette Exec. Production help from Emily Bredin. Our cover art is designed by Sara Noto. A special thanks to all the team members at QVC plus, and thank you for listening. I love ya.