Hello, welcome to Christie's couch. I'm Kristi Lukazyak and you're hanging out with me this Thursday on my couch time to get comfy. Well, happy holiday season. I know last week's episode. We talked all about holiday ideas is a little bit better. I just turned up my volume. I feel like that's better. We talked all about different ideas of ways that you can make the holiday season. We talked about different ideas of ways that you can make the holiday season.

Special and different and just some great things, but it got me to thinking, you know, not everyone is into making holidays. These great, grand fun things and sometimes holidays create a lot of stress for lots of different reasons. So I thought it would be a really great idea today. If I went completely in a different direction and I talked about some different ways that we can survive the holidays.

You know, if your whole thing isn't I'm going to make everything Mary and bright and wonderful and spectacular and you're like, listen, I just got to get through it. Today's your day. But look, even if you're not just trying to muscle through it, we all need to take care of ourselves during the holidays, especially if you are the magical health that makes things happen. Sometimes we get burnt out the most. And another thing is we really need to prep ourselves for a new year.

I just read something really interesting speaking of a new year that someone treats every Monday, like it's January 1st, like getting excited, you know, getting rid of all the baggage from the week before.

And really just having that mindset that this week is going to be fantastic. And I thought, you know, that's actually really interesting and a great mindset to have because we put so much emphasis on this big change on January 1st.

And oftentimes not a lot changes. So I've been doing a lot of soul searching and a lot of research because I am a researcher. I like to dig in and get answers to things.

And I'm going to share a little bit about what I have found out for you in just a little bit. But before we get into all of that, I just wanted to kind of give you a quick update on what to expect this month from me.

I do feel like we're all great friends here. So I need to let you guys know what's happening.

I will be back next week with the podcast episode, which does come out, I believe, on the, the 23rd. So getting into, you know, that big holiday weekend.

So you will have that to look forward to. I hope you're looking forward to it. I'm just saying, however, I will not have an episode the following week between Christmas and New Year.

I am actually taking that time off. We are going to be out of the country, as long as everything doesn't show down, which I keep saying.

But more than that, I could have recorded an episode in between like pre-recorded it. But honestly, I'm tired, you guys.

I feel like I've been really just putting the pedal to the metal at the end of this year trying to grind out some things.

And I normally would hold myself accountable, like, look, you have to do this and to be very honest with you.

I need a break. I'm going to take that time off. And instead of recording before I leave, I'm going to take that hour or two.

And simply just put that time towards taking care of myself or quite honestly, probably prepping something for someone somewhere that needs done.

So I try to balance my attention across multiple things, but I'm taking that time off. And I know you guys understand, because look, everybody's super supportive here. And I appreciate that.

But speaking of super supportive, I have to say, I do read a lot of the reviews on this podcast. I just haven't read the most recent ones in the last probably month, month and a half or so.

I felt like I was kind of stalking my own account. I was always like, is there a review? Is there a review? So I made a conscientious decision not to seek out these reviews, but I went online a couple of days ago, and I was reading them.

And I am blown away by the reviews. Love to hear from you guys. I got lots of suggestions for true crime. Obviously you guys love true crime. It's a passion of mine.

And while this is not a true crime podcast, I do appreciate the fact that you like to hear my opinions on true crime, which PS Scott Peterson just got recent to life in prison without the possibility parole.

I need to dig a little deeper because I thought he was going to have a new trial. Still you can go back and listen to my Scott Peterson episode. I don't think he's guilty.

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