Library Magic and Gifts that are Tragic

We welcome library and senior center manager Sandra Rosas to share how the library builds holiday joy for every age, look back at the year’s best moments, and preview a dinosaur-packed summer. We also read your best and worst gift stories with Mo and spotlight ways to help families in need.

• expanding Christmas at the Library with crafts, cocoa, Santa photos for kids, teens, and adults
• why community events replaced standard story time to boost engagement
• homeschool crafts launch to support a large local homeschool population
• favorite and infamous holiday movies and why they resonate
• 2025 highlights including record pumpkin contest entries and staff creativity
• 2026 plans for summer shows themed around dinosaurs and archaeology
• gift stories from listeners that reveal kindness, misfires, and nostalgia
• where to give during the holidays and how small gifts make a big difference
• December events rundown across the city and key facility closures

Learn more about everything discussed by visiting wstx.us

For more information on upcoming events please visit www.wstx.us or facebook.com/cityofwhitesettlement

Transcript

Holiday Kickoff & Host’s Christmas Love

Aaron Hall 0:01

You're listening to What's Happening White Settlement, the place to be for the inside scoop on everything happening in and around the city. We'll showcase our services, talk about events, highlight the work we're doing, and share your story. Grab a seat because the show starts now. What's happening, White Settlement? It's December. The holidays are upon us. You may love it or you may hate it, but one thing that you can't do is escape it. As for me, you're gonna learn in this episode. You probably learned in the last episode, but I love it. I'm a big Christmas guy. You've got twinkling lights up on houses, festive sweaters. I mean, Santa, you know, what else do you need? What's not to love there? There are some really fun holiday events happening this month, so stay tuned to the end of the episode. We're gonna learn all about those. But first, I'm very excited about my conversation with our featured guest this month, Sandra Rosas, the library manager. She's also the senior center manager. Not everybody knows that, but she's a very busy person up here, looking after two very important community services departments. Sandra has been with the city for 14 years, and seven of those have been spent as the library manager. She's someone with a deep love of Christmas, much like myself. So you better believe we're gonna talk some Christmas and Christmas movies here, but also all about running the library, some of their big wins from 2025, and plans for 2026 to make it another great year over there. I hope you enjoy the conversation. I'm here with Sandra from the library. So, first of all, Sandra, I just want to say thank you so much for being here and joining.

Sandra Rosas 1:45

Oh, well, thank you for having me.

Holiday Events For All Ages At Library

Aaron Hall 1:46

I want to talk about Christmas at the library because one of the things that y'all do really, really well at the library is celebrate holidays. So you just make it really special. The storybook pumpkin contest this year was fantastic. And so I wanted to give you a chance to talk a little bit about what's going on at the library this year for Christmas and the holiday season and anything over there that that you'd like to share about.

Sandra Rosas 2:07

Definitely. So for um December, we're having our we always have our community event um once a month. We've done it a little bit differently this year because we wanted to uh cater it not just for kids, but for adults as well. Oh, that's cool. Yeah, so and we've gotten more participation. So we have like activities not just for kids, but for adults. Nice and craft for kids and for adults. So in December, we're having our um the Christmas at the library, which is Thursday, December 18th at 4 30. So we're gonna have craft, we're gonna have activities, and we have some refreshments, you know, treats, hot cocoa. Nice. Um and we're also having, of course, Santa, who's gonna do pictures for everybody, you know. So bring your kids, it's gonna be fun. I've just liked that we've changed it, you know, a bit, and we've had we've had more people participate for that. Um also we also have something for teens. They're doing their own sweater, ugly sweater decorating. And we have that for our adult craft club as well. Awesome. Yeah.

Aaron Hall 3:18

One of the cool things that you're able to do over there is adjust year to year. Like you get to see the trends and kind of what who's participating, who isn't, what do they seem to enjoy? And I've noticed that too in recent years. It does seem like it's not just little kids, like the parents are a little more involved in stuff. So having stuff to cater to them at these events, I think is really great. I think that's fun.

Sandra Rosas 3:38

Thank you. Yeah, we la as I said, we came together and we started thinking about why why don't instead of just doing a story time every month, like let's forget the story time, although story time is important. But we have that as well. But let's just do a little bit something more casual and just like an event for like Thanksgiving, we did Booksgiving and we're doing that again, or we did that again. But that brought people in. Right.

Aaron Hall 4:01

Well, even the Halloween event that y'all did, that was kind of nuts. Like there was a ton of people over there.

Sandra Rosas 4:07

Yeah, and we changed that event too.

Aaron Hall 4:09

Yeah, it had little carnival games and like a lot of stuff.

Sandra Rosas 4:12

Yeah, yeah. So we're trying, we're we every year we sit down and we're like, okay, what did we do? What what can we do better? Or how can we change it to just try to attract more people?

Favorite Christmas Movies

Aaron Hall 4:23

So we're talking about Christmas, and and as you know, you're sitting in my office right now, and I it's for for purposes of people to realize how much of a freak I am. It's November 12th while we're recording this, and I am in full Christmas mode in this place. I've got Santas everywhere, it smells like Christmas trees. I got this pine thing burning over here. So I just wanted to talk to you a little bit. Uh obviously, I'm in the Christmas spirit already. Do you have any favorite Christmas? Maybe movies or books or just anything you enjoy for the Christmas season?

Sandra Rosas 4:53

Oh my gosh, yes. We're gonna be here for a very long time. I love Christmas like you. I I love decorating as soon, you know. Uh it's Thanksgiving. Let's go get a Christmas tree. There you go. That that's write that in there. Let's go. Um, but I do have a lot of Christmas movies that I love to watch. I start watching it, but because I feel like I don't have enough time. Yeah, yeah, I need to start early. Like let's start and let's just watch until Christmas. Even sometimes after Christmas. There you go. But yeah, some of my favorite ones, I mean, you know, some of them are classics, like a Christmas story. You know, that's a classic. But to me, that's so nostalgic. Yeah. And what I love about it is I don't know, but as little kids, do you remember just going to the small? That was a thing. And we're gonna get a big thing, yes. Like we're gonna get in line, we're gonna see Santa. And I love the window shopping.

Aaron Hall 5:46

Yep.

Sandra Rosas 5:47

Which now, you know, you don't really see that.

Aaron Hall 5:49

Yeah, you just you window shop on Amazon.com, you know.

Sandra Rosas 5:52

Yeah, so that Christmas story, of course, is I that's what I love about that one. It's just it reminds me as a little kid of just being a little kid and the feel of it.

Aaron Hall 6:03

Yeah, that's great. That's a good choice.

Sandra Rosas 6:05

Also, everybody has uh their favorite version of of a Christmas carol.

Aaron Hall 6:10

Sure, yeah.

Sandra Rosas 6:10

So I'm gonna tell you my version. I'm a Christmas carol. I mean, a Muppet Christmas Carol to me. It's funny, yeah, it's geared towards kids, but it also has like the humor is for adults.

Aaron Hall 6:22

Yeah, yeah, it really is.

Sandra Rosas 6:24

Alright, so that's another one that I enjoy as well. And if everybody knows me, they know I'm a peanuts fan. Yeah, yeah. So a Charlie Brown Christmas is always is gonna be one of my favorite. Nice. One of my favorite ones.

Worst Christmas Movies Ever

Aaron Hall 6:39

Yeah, that that is definitely that's one of the ones that you have to watch yearly. Oh, yeah. I feel like. Because they're short too. Like the Charlie Brown ones, they don't demand a ton of, you know, time, but but they're always rewarding to me. Yes. I have pulled up over here on my laptop a list of the worst Christmas movies of all time. I'm curious if you've seen any of these. Have you ever braved the Home Alone franchise beyond Home Alone 2? That's the question. No. Okay, good for you. Don't don't ever do it. Those are uh universally hated. Apparently, according to Rotten Tomatoes, Santa Claus Conquers the Martians from 1964 is terrible. Although that just makes me want to watch it, that sounds amazing to me. Fred Claus, you ever see that one with Vince Vaughn?

Sandra Rosas 7:25

I did. I did. I kind of liked it.

Aaron Hall 7:27

I don't know why it's on this list. But see, it's about brothers, and anything about brothers gets me. Okay. My my big brother Philip, he's like the greatest person ever, and we've got a we've we have a strong brotherhood. So you show me any movie, any story, and starts talking about brothers and a brother's love, uh I'm gonna tear up immediately. So that that one got me. Let's see if there's anything else good on this list. The Santa Claus three. Oh, the one with Martin Short Short, yes.

Sandra Rosas 7:55

Yes, like what is he? Like the ice. Oh yeah, like Mr. Frost or something.

Aaron Hall 8:01

I can't uh what is Jack Frost? Jack Frost. That's right. Yeah. Oh no. That one. It's so bad that it's kind of enjoyable. It is. Oh, I forgot about that one. That's a that's terrible. I don't know if anybody is as crazy as I am because I also last year watched the Netflix film Hot Frosty. Are you do you have any awareness of what this movie was? Sort of. So this lady, and it's rated PG 13. I'm throwing that out there right away before I give you the synopsis. They make a snowman competition, and somebody makes a real like ripped, jacked looking snowman, and then a magical scarf gets put on him and he comes to life, and she ends up falling in love with the living snowman guy.

Sandra Rosas 8:47

Okay, I have seen it, but it it was under a different name.

Aaron Hall 8:51

Really?

Sandra Rosas 8:52

Yes.

Aaron Hall 8:52

Okay, unless if it's if there are two movies based on this same plot, that's insane.

Sandra Rosas 8:58

But yes, I have seen it, and yes, he does come to life.

Aaron Hall 9:01

Oh, so bad. And yes. I I'm I'm anxiously awaiting whatever bad Christmas movie Netflix puts out this year because they also a few years ago did I think it's called The Night Before Christmas, but it's spelled with a K. It's like a medieval night. Did you see that one? Oh, it's so bad. He's he gets so a medieval night, some ancient like witch curses him and he may shoots him into the future, and some chick on Christmas Eve like hits him with her car or something, and of course they fall in love. And and in the end, I'm pretty sure I'm spoiling this for everyone out here, but I think that she goes back in time with him. Oh my god, he doesn't stay in modern times. I'm I might be misremembering it, but I think that they go back in time and she like lives in his castle with them forever. Oh, it's terrible.

Sandra Rosas 9:50

Um, okay, so can I ask um as far as now that we're talking about Christmas movies, and you know, the question is die hard considered Christmas?

Aaron Hall 10:00

For me again, I go, I mentioned my brother, it's a hundred percent because as I love my parents, I have the best parents in the world. Throwing that out there for all the listeners, and if my dad listens to these, dad, I love you, you're the best. But me and my brother, we watched Die Hard like 40 nights in a row on VHS. I know why that movie has more curse words than I think any movie in existence. So, yes, I am hardwired to say that Die Hard is a Christmas movie.

Sandra Rosas 10:28

Well, we just watched Gremlins. I rewatched it after I remember as a little kid watching it and it scared me. Yeah, it's horrifying. And so the other day, my sister is in town and she's like, Hey, I really want to watch Gremlins. I'm like, Oh my gosh, okay, but I just I I said it's I just remember as a little kid that it was so terrifying. Yeah. So we watched it and she goes, So would you consider this a Christmas movie? Like, well, you know what?

Reflecting on 2025 at the Library

Aaron Hall 10:56

Yeah. I guess. I I think it is. Yeah. I mean, it's it's hard to deny it, you know. It it doesn't uh necessarily capture the the uh classic Christmas spirit. But you know doesn't the mom throw a gremlin into a blender? Yes. That's terrible. Another thing that I find great about the end of the year is it it's very it's a good time for reflection. And we're coming off of Thanksgiving and you know, a time to reflect and and be thankful. I was curious, do you have anything from this year kind of 2025, the year that's almost wrapping up? Uh so some of your favorite maybe memories or highlights at the library, things that that have gone on this year that you really enjoyed?

Sandra Rosas 11:37

Well, one of the things that again, it's probably the programming, and like I said, we switched it up, but we've also added a new program, which is home homeschool crafts. So it's for the homeschoolers and they come in and they do crafts. And I really enjoy that. I've seen other libraries do that, and I've wanted to do that. We've done it three times so far. We've had a good participation in it. Yeah. So I've really I've really enjoyed that. I I love coming up with programs and if it's doable and just you know, trying to think of things too.

Aaron Hall 12:10

Right, and we have a he a really large homeschool population here. A lot of people participate in that. So that it's really neat for them to have that new outlet of something to go do. That's that's awesome. I love that.

Sandra Rosas 12:21

Yeah, so that's probably one of my favorite highlights, of course, is seeing the programs, seeing how they've done. Like we we just finished the Halloween pumpkin contest, and I love that. Every year I just love it. And this year we had the most pumpkins that we've had before, you know. So the other thing is just even getting the staff to participate and seeing them enjoying it.

2026 Library Plans

Aaron Hall 12:42

For sure. You you really did have a great buy-in with the staff on that. And the the amount of entries was crazy. Yeah, I I was I had the privilege of being one of the judges. It was just horrible in the funnest way. Don't get me wrong because I loved it, but those were those like impossible choices. Like the people in the different age groups, you want to feel put to shame with your artistic skills. Come look at these, and I was like, Oh, okay, I I guess I'll just give up, you know. Is there anything as you look forward to 2026? Is there anything coming up or the anything that y'all have planned for next year that you're excited about, or anything that you are thinking about trying, or or anything like that?

Sandra Rosas 13:22

Well, we're already getting ready, believe it or not, for our summer shows. It's our it's one of our biggest things. This year, the theme is about dinosaurs, archaeology, anything to do with that. So we're already getting ready for that. That's always fun, uh, but it's also a little bit overwhelming because it's a big undertaking. Yes. Yeah, so we're looking forward to that. Um, as I said, we're preparing the shows and preparing um already our prizes, what we're gonna give out and how we can make it better. And we have more community events this year. We've done it a little bit different. Um, instead of just one of the staff members doing it all the time, I've asked the staff members, hey, do you want to participate and take a community event and kind of you do it how you want to do it.

Aaron Hall 14:08

Okay, cool, yeah.

Sandra Rosas 14:09

So each of them, they've taken a community event and they're doing it. And so we have some new ones coming up and just different things, see how they like it and what they do for it.

Aaron Hall 14:20

Yeah, I like that. And and you're able to you're gonna get a little bit of a different spin and some new new ideas coming out of that, which is really cool. Right. Before I let you go, you mentioned summer shows. I have to say, this last summer show where they brought out the sloth. Okay, everybody's like cheering and like, yay, the sloth. That was if if you write down the definition of a monster, that's what I would imagine. That thing horrified me. I was I I I went home and I told everybody I know, I was like, I saw the most horrifying creature in the world. I don't know why people think those are cute, but I'm just throwing that out there just so you know. I was terrified. And all the kids are like, yay! I was like, Okay, kids, like you're braver than I am. They're like, I want to pet him. And I'm like, I don't even want to be in the same gymnasium as him.

Sandra Rosas 15:08

Yeah, when especially when you saw him enclosed in the container and he was just having these slow movements. Like, yeah, that's a little bit scary.

Aaron Hall 15:17

I I did some research on him afterwards because I was like, maybe if I understand it better, I'll be less afraid. And it said that they're like super fast swimmers. Really? Isn't that weird? So if you're ever like trying to get escape from one, don't dive in the water, don't dive in the water because now you're in its territory, you know. So uh, anyways, with that very important topic finished, uh, I just want to say thank you for taking time to to come on the podcast.

Sandra Rosas 15:43

Oh no, thank you for having me. I enjoyed it. And whenever you want me back for more Christmas recommendations.

Aaron Hall 15:48

And also just thanks for all the work that you and your staff do over there. I think the library is in the best of ways, it's almost like a space that's frozen in time. Like it it feels like a classic space, and it's just it's one of one in our society now as a place to go and you can exist and be and and there's free stuff there. You know what I mean? I mean, it's it's just such a cool way, and I love the ways that y'all have kept that alive while also offering new things and and expanding and trying new things that keep it fresh and relevant. But yeah, I just appreciate that about you and your staff very much.

Sandra Rosas 16:23

Thank you.

Aaron Hall 16:24

And if anybody hasn't been in a while, come on out, you know, renew your library card. Definitely and uh participate in some of these great events.

Sandra Rosas 16:32

Yeah, just go on to our website. We always have something, there's always something going on for every age group.

Aaron Hall 16:38

There you go.

Sandra Rosas 16:39

So just come. And if you want more recommendations for movies, we have a list on our website also that tells you about our Christmas movie list.

Best and Worst Christmas Gifts Ever Received

Aaron Hall 16:46

Beautiful. See, there you go. She was there even a step ahead of me prepared. So there you go. All right, well, thank you so much, Sandra.

Sandra Rosas 16:52

Thank you.

Aaron Hall 16:55

So if you follow us on Facebook at all, you might have seen we asked for your stories about the best Christmas gifts you've ever received and also the worst. We got some hilarious and maybe a few little heartbreaking stories. And I didn't want to just sit here and read these off. So I've asked Maureen Barrett, the community volunteer coordinator. She goes by Mo up here. So I got Mo. Welcome to the podcast, Mo. Thank you.

Maureen Barrett 17:19

Thanks for having me.

Aaron Hall 17:21

And she's gonna help me read some of these off and just give us her opinion. And then she has a couple of amazing gift stories to share as well, and one not so amazing story, but but we'll get to that. So the first one, I just want to shout out this guy. His name is Mark, and I ran into Mark at Albertsons of all places. If you want to be anonymous in this city, don't go to Albertsons because that's where I ran into everyone. Um, Mark somehow knew who I was and uh shared this story with me, so I'm gonna read it for you. Mark said, My father is a difficult man to buy gifts for. Most years my brothers and I don't get him anything. But two years ago, I finally found the perfect gift for him. It was a knife just like the one his father used to have. I knew it was something he'd love. Well, he opened it and gave no reaction, but my mom assured me that he loved it. One year later, I opened my Christmas gift from my father inside the same knife I'd given him.

Maureen Barrett 18:19

So that sounds like something my dad would do.

Aaron Hall 18:21

Yeah, that's definitely a dad thing to do.

Maureen Barrett 18:24

That's fantastic.

Aaron Hall 18:25

I think I've only ever gotten my dad one good Christmas gift.

Maureen Barrett 18:28

A gift card?

Aaron Hall 18:29

No.

Maureen Barrett 18:30

Because that's what I would be doing.

Aaron Hall 18:32

It was a uh like a Dallas Cowboys like Blu-ray set or something. But but then now that I think about it, I don't think he ever actually watched it. So maybe it wasn't a good gift.

Maureen Barrett 18:42

He'll give it to you one year.

Aaron Hall 18:44

Alright, so what do you got, Mo?

Maureen Barrett 18:45

Alright, this one's from Rebecca Q. I have a December birthday. Last year for my birthday, my husband gave me a new vacuum cleaner. Two weeks later for Christmas, he gave me a new vacuum cleaner. He claimed to have forgotten he had just bought one for my birthday. If that man gives me a vacuum cleaner this year, there will be trouble. I think that's that that is every married woman, period. How do you I get like a year later?

Aaron Hall 19:10

Yeah. You may be not remembering that's a real. Two weeks. Yeah, two weeks. Pretty bad. My next one is an actual good one. This comes from Amanda H. And she said, The best Christmas gift I ever received was the birth of my daughter. She was our little Christmas miracle.

Maureen Barrett 19:25

Oh, that's sweet.

Aaron Hall 19:26

Oh yeah. I guess I she didn't specify. I guess that means Christmas baby. A Christmas baby.

Maureen Barrett 19:32

Maybe Christmas born on Christmas Day.

Aaron Hall 19:33

Is that really like is that a blessing? Because to me that's a curse.

Maureen Barrett 19:37

My aunts were born on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and it was a nightmare. Brutal. Yeah, that's kind of hard.

Aaron Hall 19:43

So happy for Amanda, maybe not so happy for her daughter. Yeah. Because now you're like forever gonna have that double. It's half your birthday, but it's also a Christmas gift. So sorry, little girl.

Maureen Barrett 19:53

This one's fantastic. The worst Christmas gift I ever got was an engagement ring from a man I had only been on two dates with.

Sandra Rosas 20:02

No, bro.

Maureen Barrett 20:03

Needless to say, my answer was no. That was from Haley. Yeah, that was a red flag if I ever see one. She said two dates. Two dates.

Aaron Hall 20:12

Did you go in on date number two? Well, two pins.

Maureen Barrett 20:14

I hope that ring was awfully big.

Aaron Hall 20:16

Well, she might have said yes, though.

Maureen Barrett 20:19

Yes. Two dates. Whoo. Yeah, no.

Aaron Hall 20:22

Alright. You gotta get off those apps, kids, you know. Come on. So the next one is from Jose. He said, When I was a kid, we didn't have a lot of money, but my parents still found ways to make Christmas special. The year the first Ninja Turtles movies came out, which I remember that was a great year. That was a great movie. My parents somehow bought my brother and I every single toy from the movie. We played with those toys for years.

Maureen Barrett 20:44

Wow. It's a lot of toys. They had a lot. I remember the van, the Ninja Turtle van. Yeah. Yeah, that was such a good one. Alright, this one's from Richard R. Worst Christmas gift ever. Fell off the ladder, hanging Christmas lights, and broke both my legs. Best Christmas ever when I finally started making enough money to hire someone else to hang my legs.

Aaron Hall 21:04

That's great. If it said Richard T, I would almost wonder if that was our boss, right?

Maureen Barrett 21:11

Yeah, for sure.

Aaron Hall 21:12

Alright, so this next one comes from Adeline. Or that's Adeline, A, whatever. Adeline. If I said it wrong, sorry. My aunt took up sewing and decided she was going to make all of her nieces' sweaters. She finished the sweaters for my three big sisters and then decided she hated sewing. Instead of a handmade sweater, I got a $10 Walmart gift card.

Maureen Barrett 21:36

I bet you love that gift card more than you would that sweater. Probably so. Oh no. Alright, this one's from uh Laurel. The best gift I ever received came from my husband. He spent months uh repairing a nativity scene decoration that I had passed down to me from my grandma. I thought it was ruined, so when I woke up that morning and saw it on the dining room table, I was in tears. Best gift ever. Alright, see there you go. That's really sweet. That's a good one.

Aaron Hall 22:00

So you you go from the the bad husband gifting earlier to vacuum cleaners. Good job, whoever.

Maureen Barrett 22:08

Trust me, I've had several of those bad ones.

Aaron Hall 22:11

So you have a few stories to tell us, Mo. Do you want to start with the good one or the bad one?

Maureen Barrett 22:16

Yeah, I'll start with the good one.

Aaron Hall 22:18

Okay.

Maureen Barrett 22:18

It was about 15 years back, and at the time my uh husband, ex-husband now, uh had surgery, and so we were having a rough year getting Christmas, so I decided to go to the local Walmart and do layaway. And I'd worked two jobs at the time to try to get enough money to get it, it was a big deal because it was the PlayStation 3 or 4. I don't remember. Anyway, so I really wanted to get it for the boys for their Christmas present, and I go there just to make a little $30 payment, and I was told that a good Samaritan had paid it off for me. And I could not leave that Walmart. I kept thinking I was fixing to steal it. But I was in shock and tears, and I just sat there on that bench and that lady was like, It's okay for you to leave with it, I promise you. But I was so scared to leave with it because I was just like, who does that? Who goes and pays for somebody's layaway? Those people who have the means to do that, and trust me, if you think that those people are not happy about it, you really do make their year when you do stuff like that. Yeah, for sure. I mean, it was so amazing. It took such a load off of me that year.

Aaron Hall 23:38

I wonder, are we dating ourselves a little bit with because stores don't even have layaway anymore? I don't think.

Maureen Barrett 23:43

Right. Oh, okay, kids. If you don't know what layway is.

Aaron Hall 23:46

For the youngsters out there who definitely don't listen to it.

Maureen Barrett 23:51

You make a small 10% payment, and they would keep your items until you paid it off, and then you would get it. Which was awesome because then my kids could never find it earlier.

Aaron Hall 24:00

Oh, that's true.

Maureen Barrett 24:00

That is a good thing. And you didn't have to hide it or store it, and you just go pick it up at the last minute. Easy peasy. I miss Leo Wang.

Aaron Hall 24:08

And you're sure that there wasn't some security guy running after you when you left?

Maureen Barrett 24:12

I was double checking. I was looking back, I was like, okay, please, you know. But yeah, I'll you don't have no idea how much I made my Christmas that year.

Aaron Hall 24:20

That's awesome. And so uh give us your uh your opposite story.

Maureen Barrett 24:24

My worst one, we were at a huge family get together. I had just had my baby. I was six weeks postpartum, and I got the Oprah Winfrey weight loss book. Worst Christmas book ever. And let me tell you, nobody wants that as a gift.

Sandra Rosas 24:45

Yeah.

Maureen Barrett 24:45

I don't care who you are, I don't care if you love Oprah. Nobody wants that book as a Christmas present. But yeah, that one was a nightmare.

Aaron Hall 24:55

That's like a if you're gonna do that, that's like a give the gift in private moment. Exactly. You know, like put that one under the tree. Like, oh, was she trying to pick it up?

Maureen Barrett 25:05

She came up to me, gave it to me, and said, Thought you could use this in front of everybody. Yeah, it was it was not pleasant by any means. Yeah, but yeah.

Aaron Hall 25:16

I think at the very least, you have to try and pass that one off on Santa. Oh. Just be like, oh, I guess Santa meaning sees you when you're sleeping, sees you when you wake.

Maureen Barrett 25:25

Yeah, he sees you need to stop eating those Christmas trees. Yeah, no, that's not good.

Aaron Hall 25:32

So I appreciate you sharing.

Maureen Barrett 25:34

Oh, you're welcome.

Aaron Hall 25:34

And also for helping me read through all of these.

Maureen Barrett 25:37

These are fantastic.

Aaron Hall 25:38

And we are very thankful for everyone that participated and sent them in or uh grabbed me on the cereal aisle at Alversons. So that was good as well.

Maureen Barrett 25:46

That's what you get for being famous.

Aaron Hall 25:48

Yeah, famous. Okay, well. Um, so we are, you know, before we sign this off, I want to. We're sitting here laughing and having a good time, and that's a wonderful thing. But we also want to just mention a few things about the holiday season because it's not always the best season for everyone. We don't want to be insensitive to that. Uh, I think it's okay to have some fun and and joke about bad gifts and also, you know, celebrate good gifts. But there are kids and families out there that aren't gonna get any gifts, and so it's just a good season to think about that kind of thing. There are some amazing organizations out there in the world that help with this. Uh stuff like Toys were Toys for Tots, Salvation Army, um, there are angel trees running all over, and there's so many more. I mean, it's we don't have a you know, I don't have a big list in front of me, but it's something if you have any sort of means to help, even if it's just one toy.

Maureen Barrett 26:43

Yeah, and even if you want to reach out, call me and I'll find a place for a donation to go to.

Aaron Hall 26:48

Mo works with a lot of organizations and nonprofits and things like that. So we do want to make sure we make mention of that, that it is, you know, like the one which who was that who wrote in uh Jose, you know, like he said, they didn't get a lot of toys. So when they did get something that one year, you know, it meant the world to them. And so if you have the ability to help this holiday season, uh, you know, help. Every little bit goes a long way. It really does.

Maureen Barrett 27:14

Absolutely.

Upcoming December Events

Aaron Hall 27:15

Uh again, thanks to everybody for participating, and thanks, Mo, for being here.

Maureen Barrett 27:19

Thanks for having me.

Aaron Hall 27:21

Before we wrap up, I want to give you a quick rundown of some of the events happening this month. If you listen to this podcast early enough, then don't forget to attend the Life Tonight Christmas Parade on Saturday, December 6th at Veterans Park. The parade gets underway at 6 p.m. The citywide Christmas decorating contest is underway until December 18th. You can visit wstx.us to nominate a house that has great decorations, and the judges will be by on December 18th to check out all the nominated houses. Yes, you can nominate your own house. I know some people feel weird about that, but hey, if you invested the time and money and energy into decorating, I say get on there and nominate yourself. You deserve it. Christmas at the library is taking place at 4.30 p.m. on December 18th. You heard my conversation with Sandra earlier. I assure you the library team knows how to make the holidays feel special. So bring the family and take part in this wonderful event. The very next night, December 19th, is the annual Polar Express night at the Rec Center. This starts at 6.30 p.m. This is a free event. We'll watch Polar Express and there will be holiday snacks and refreshments. It's a really fun time every year. Everyone's encouraged to wear your pajamas and just come be cozy and join in the fun. Over the past few months, the restrooms and playgrounds at Central Park have been undergoing improvements, and the ribbon cutting for that project will be on Saturday, December 20th from noon to 2 p.m. Come see the new equipment, let the kids play, and have a good time. You get to check out all these great new improvements. City facilities will be closed on December 24th and 25th, and then again on December 31st and January 1st. So keep that in mind as you plan your city business. And that's what's happening, White Settlement. I appreciate you listening to the podcast. I hope you had a good time. We had a good time. Whatever your traditions are or holidays you celebrate this month, I hope these weeks are full of laughter, family, love, and joy for you and your loved ones. And I'll talk to you again next month. Please note that the views and opinions expressed on this podcast are those of the speakers and may not necessarily reflect the views or positions of the City of White Settlement. Please note that the views and opinions expressed on this podcast are those of the speakers and may not necessarily reflect the views or positions of the City of White Settlement.