Comedy Through The Chaos: Holiday Check For Caregivers

Hello, hello, hello. Cadre sphere. Happy holidays. Merry Christmas. I hope that the closest that you get to a Grinch is my holiday earrings that I have. Good to see Everybody. I am Ms. Shannon. I hope that the day is treating you well. If not shame on it, not shame on you. Welcome to our Christmas check in. Everybody just ring up to speed. I am Ms. Shannon Paul. I'm a comedian, corporate speaker, voice actor, event MC and benefit auctioneer here hubbing out of the great state of Minnesota. So as you can see, I'm a variety of word related things.

I am also the proud parent of an adorable. Hello Luke. Happy holidays. Merry Christmas to you and your family. I was just saying I'm also the proud parent of an adorable 17 year old kiddo who happens to be high supports on the autism spectrum. Merry Christmas to you too, Luke. Merry Christmas, Jewels. Good to see you Speak wonder. Merry Christmas to you and your beautiful mother. Happy holidays. Good to see you here in chat. We are doing some holidays here, so maybe we'll take a walk in a second.

Hello, hello. Hello. I was saying that I hope that the closest you get to the Grinch are my fabulous holiday earrings. So. Hello. So today will be a conversation of onions. Right now I'm very fortunate to be blessed with my family over. So my two sisters, my niece and my son are hanging out out there. We just started the. It's 2 o' clock central here but we're just getting our act together. So we've been opening a few presents over the last hour and I'm making tacos, making chicken tacos. That's what we do over the holidays is some festivities like that.

And this has been a really good year to see how. Hey, you want to come say hi? Come here, come here. Ms. Layla, you want to say hi? You guys can meet my niece. You want to say hi to my friends? No. Okay. That's right. She said no. Oh, to Dominic. Dominic's over there. Yeah, you can go give him a present here, you want to give him this? Look, I have the bags of stuff. Oh, that's his present. Oh, okay. Go give that to. Good idea. She is. That's the five year old. So she is orchestrating, handing out presents.

Hello, Andi Mack. Merry Christmas and happy holidays to you. I know this can be a really stressful time for us and one of the things that I was reflecting on as we moved into this holiday system is how different it was from even if we say five years ago, like there's been a lot of changes in our family dynamics and the way things are set up and the way that the days go. And so that has been a big transition. And I know that happens to a lot of us as our families adapt to change and morph. But the thing that I thought I wanted to talk about today, that is a little more on the Yippee, Skippy.

Hello, Merry Christmas, and thank you for the tree. The thing that I wanted to share today is I did put a little video post in here about this last night and about the process of me getting prepared for today. And I wanted to talk to all of us, especially from the position of caregivers, about how we have to sometimes figure out what our motivation is and why we do the things that we do for the people that we care for. Because it can't always be just because of situations, be because we are waiting for some sort of gratitude from them or some sort of immediate, like, response or anything.

Sometimes we do it because we care for them, we love them, we want to make sure that they're well, and that has to be enough. And that is especially coming into play on days like today here in my household, because a few years ago, I remember wrapping a bunch of presents for my kiddo and he got bored opening presents real fast, where I'm like, don't you want to open more? And he didn't want anything to do with it. So I figured the next year I could save myself a bunch of trouble. And what I would do is that I would just put all of his presents in, like, two big boxes, just make it very efficient.

And I didn't do that just with him. I did that with my sisters and my mom and other stuff. I just like, everybody got a box and they may have had multiple things in the box, but they just put it in one big box. It's like, here, open this. All your stuff. Because for some reason I thought that efficiency would win out that particular time. So that's what I did that year. And you know what? Even though it saved me a lot of work, he didn't like it. And I'm like, but last year. But last year. But last year.

And it's like, you know what I did learn from that is that one year and one experience is not a valid data point to what people are going to think as they move forward. And so the next year, he really wanted to open presence. He wanted to be involved in the process. He wanted to do a lot more of that stuff. So the fact that I put everything in one box, even though he did have something in there, that he really wanted was not the point. So I learned my lesson. So instead of that, what I pivoted to this year is that I put.

I bought a bunch of stuff. So I got him a couple of things I really want, but then I bought. And what normally would be stocking stuffers. I wrapped all that. And that way he can have that experience of opening more things throughout the day. He doesn't have to do it all in one big blitz. He can do it as he feels like it through the day, as we're having our lunch, as we're having conversation, as my sisters and I are hanging out, so that he has more ways that he can interact with us. And so far, so good.

But even as I was doing that last evening and going through this tedious process of wrapping all of these things, I had to make sure to remind myself that it wasn't about whether he actually decided that he was going to do and follow through on this plan. I have no guarantee it's going to work. I don't know. But what I could do is go, I'll do the best with what I can, and go. My motivation was trying to figure out a way to make him happy and what I thought would make. Make sense, not about what his particular response was to the thing.

And so I was at peace with the entire thing. And so far, things are well, which is what we want, right? We want things to be well. We want to figure out a way to be content, to have a way that we're like, you know, what the outcome is, the outcome that was going to happen. It's not any sort of reflection on whether we planned appropriately, whether we cared enough, whether we moved into the situation from a position of we get everything right and perfection was what the outcome was. The outcome was we do the best with the information that we have, and then we'll do that going forward as well.

We'll take all those data points that we have when we're dealing with the people that we interact with, and we'll figure out a plan to go, you know what? I feel like this is the right idea for today, and then we'll do what we can. So I'm going to go help him have some more presents. I'm going to try and continue to make tacos without setting off the smoke detector. Again, very serious. A very. A very sensitive smoke detector. So we have some windows open, which is all good. And I'm going to go be in community with my sisters.

We got a little bottle of Prosecco that we're going to go through. So I do also want to remind you that, you know, community is a important, important aspect of what we do here in Cadre. Your community, your family, you are all important to us. And I am so honored that you guys took part of the day to check in with me. So go ahead. If you want to put in the chat. Are you having a thumbs up or a thumbs down? And then I don't think that there's a this. So if it's a this, if it's just a, it's okay.

That's all right. Maybe put a thumbs up and a thumbs down. So I know that I just need to split the difference because I understand that today is complex for so many of us, ourselves included, and it's very difficult sometimes to. To go, oh, today's one of those days. I'm supposed to be okay, Today's one of those days. I'm supposed to feel a certain way, and I'm just gonna power through and make sure. I feel that if you're not totally understandable, I get that. You know, So I. I have, I think, done a very good job.

All right, Andy, Mac, got one. Thumbs up. Glad for. Glad to hear that for you. And, you know, I have had to spend some times where there were some years where it was thumbs down on Christmas, and then there's some days kind of gotta split the difference. Glad that today so far is this. You could tell this a good day because I had time to put on all the stuff. I was like, I'm put my holiday makeup on for my Cadre friends today. Oh, look at that. Come back. High five. Okay, I'm gonna show you. Look, she's got a new robe.

You look fantastic. Does it feel nice? Does it feel nice? It's very cute. Got you. All right, Jules, good to see you as well. Love it, Love it. So, yeah, that's Ms. Leila. So Leila looks good. Split the difference. Understandable. Speak, Wonder. I can totally get that. I can totally get that. And so I thought I was coming in today feeling kind of like that, honestly. Speak, Wonder and Kathy, I. I see you. I see you. And virtual hugs to you, my friend, because I totally understand how you can feel that it has improved kind of thing.

And. And hopefully it is very big on you. But you know what? Little people grow fast, so I think you will catch up. So it'll help keep you warm. She says, look at how big it is on me. So, yeah, I remember those days when clothes were big on me. Now you like it? Yes, big wonder. Yes. So I'm going to go and hang out with my family. Y' all look so good. Thank you. It is a good time. I'll I take a couple of little family pictures, see if my kid this year will be part of the family photo. Last year he decided when it was time to take the photo, he didn't want to be in the photo.

And so I got my friend, I took a picture with him later in the same spot and my friend was able to photoshop him in. But hopefully this year you will not have to do any magic. So I might try and go do that really quick before he loses interest in hanging out with us. But I will never lose interest in hanging out with you. I do have every intention of being back here with you on Saturday at 10am Central for an additional version of comedy. Through the chaos, we'll do some sharing. And Luke, just so you know, if it rains enough, I might have some pictures of what the wood chips look like in the winter.

Just to share. I appreciate all of you. As I said, I hope that the day continues to treat you well. If it does not, shame on it. Not shame on you. Do your best to be well, everybody and I'll check in with you very soon. Merry Christmas. Happy holidays. You're loved. What's that?