MEYERS FAMILY Holiday Special

Summary

Family Trips with the Meyers Brothers: MEYERS FAMILY Holiday Special

Release Date: December 19, 2024

In this heartwarming and humorous holiday special episode of Family Trips with the Meyers Brothers, Seth Meyers and Josh Meyers invite their immediate family—parents Larry and Hillary, sister Pashi, and brother Harry—to relive cherished childhood memories, unforgettable family trips, and a few memorable disasters. Filmed live in Pittsburgh during a Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Baltimore Ravens game, this episode offers a candid glimpse into the Meyers family dynamics, their unique traditions, and the playful banter that keeps their relationships vibrant.

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1. Setting the Scene: Pittsburgh Steelers Game

The episode kicks off with the family gathered in their Airbnb rental in Pittsburgh, blending nostalgia with the excitement of attending a major NFL game.

• Seth [00:13]: "We are in the future. You know how it went. What matters most is that we were together. But it will be a lot better if the Steelers had won."

Despite last year's disappointing results, the family remains optimistic about this year's game, infusing the episode with anticipation and lighthearted competitiveness.

• Harry [00:37]: "Yeah, oh, boy. Yes. For sure. It's so exciting."

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2. Home Comforts and Family Roles

Settling into their Airbnb, the family humorously discusses the furniture and Larry's particular seating habits, highlighting generational differences and the humorous challenges they face when staying together.

• Pashi [01:00]: "I'm on a very comfortable couch in our Airbnb. Pashi's on the couch. Mom and dad are at nice chairs."

• Harry [04:14]: "Hurry is the best at that. This is a hurry thing."

Larry Meyers, affectionately referred to as "Daddy Boy," shares his meticulous nature, especially concerning household chores, which often leads to playful teasing from Seth and Josh.

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3. Memorable Family Trips and Mishaps

The conversation delves into various past trips, each accompanied by its own set of stories and lessons.

Thailand Adventure

Josh recounts his solo trip to Thailand post-breakup, describing it as a mix of excitement and unfortunate events.

• Josh [37:06]: "Thailand had I not gone, I wouldn't have had that experience. I got ripped off, sunburnt, and sick."

Despite the challenges, Josh expresses gratitude for the experience, emphasizing personal growth through adversity.

Las Vegas and Hawaii Experiences

Pashi shares her less-than-favorable experiences in Las Vegas and Hawaii, highlighting the overwhelming crowds and unexpected inconveniences.

• Pashi [38:05]: "Las Vegas gives me the shakes. Everything is mobbed, and it was giving me a headache."

• Harry [39:04]: "Hawaii took forever to get there, and it was fine, but the Caribbean is so much closer."

These anecdotes showcase the family's diverse travel preferences and the humorous trials of family vacations.

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4. Weddings and Rebuttals: A Family Affair

A significant portion of the episode focuses on recapping and humorously critiquing past weddings within the family, particularly Josh's wedding.

• Harry [09:17]: "I thought she was talking about your wedding."

• Pashi [09:28]: "Yeah, it was a magical day."

The family reminisces about the preparation for Josh's mother-son dance, choosing "Land of a Thousand Dances" by Wilson Pickett, and the collaborative effort that made the moment memorable despite minor hiccups.

• Pashi [11:00]: "We did Land of a Thousand Dances."

• Harry [11:19]: "It was the longest minute of the weekend."

The discussion then shifts to rebuttals, where Larry and Hillary playfully critique the podcast's portrayal of their parenting and household, leading to a series of humorous exchanges.

• Harry [20:14]: "You talked about our living room as old and lumpy, making it sound like a horror movie set."

• Seth [21:27]: "We have a beautiful house."

This segment underscores the family's ability to engage in light-hearted teasing while maintaining mutual respect and affection.

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5. Board Games and Family Fun

Shifting gears, the family discusses their favorite board games, revealing their competitive yet cooperative spirits.

• Harry [42:49]: "Codenames is our favorite. It's good for a group."

• Josh [43:35]: "The Crew is one of the best, most clever games ever."

They highlight games like Codenames, The Crew, Azul, and Alhambra, emphasizing their preference for cooperative gameplay and the satisfaction derived from strategic thinking.

• Seth [45:02]: "We're a little impatient with people who play badly. We're very frustrated when people cheat."

Despite their competitive streak, the family emphasizes fairness and enjoyment, ensuring that game nights remain fun and engaging for everyone involved.

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6. Listener Questions and Family Insights

Interactive segments featuring listener-submitted questions offer deeper insights into the Meyers family's traditions and quirks.

Favorite Christmas Memories

Reflecting on holiday traditions, the family shares fond memories of Christmas mornings filled with French toast, open stockings, and the timeless chaos of gift unwrapping.

• Pashi [47:12]: "We'd have something to eat first, then open one gift at a time."

A standout memory includes Seth's infamous glass bowl gift, which became a source of laughter and a treasured family anecdote.

• Seth [48:42]: "It had been in timeout New York. It was a giant glass jar with a brown yarn fish. Mom couldn't process it, and dad was crying, laughing."

Prom Memories

The Meyers brothers reminisce about their school dances, sharing humorous reflections on their choices of dates and gifts.

• Pashi [55:12]: "You took Alison Howard one year and gave her a sunflower. That was really lame."

• Josh [56:14]: "Danny. Yeah. And you gave her a sunflower. I think it's a miss."

These stories highlight the brothers' awkward yet endearing attempts at romance during their school years.

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7. Parenting Lessons: What We've Taken and Left Behind

Addressing broader family dynamics, Seth and Josh discuss parenting styles they've inherited and elements they've chosen to adopt or discard.

• Seth [56:26]: "I took how important it is to read to them at bedtime. It has been really wonderful."

Conversely, they candidly acknowledge aspects of their parents' approach they chose not to follow, such as excessive chores, balancing discipline with empathy.

• Seth [56:30]: "What I didn't take is, you know, we used to make us do a lot of sweatshop work. I felt it taught grit, but not just the hours."

This reflection underscores the evolving nature of parenting within the family, blending tradition with personal growth.

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8. Closing Thoughts: Preparing for the Game

As the episode nears its end, the family transitions back to the present, readying themselves for the Steelers game. They share light-hearted banter about the upcoming match and tease future podcast episodes centered around family dynamics.

• Harry [60:38]: "Thank you."

• Josh [60:42]: "All right, let's go, Steelers."

The episode concludes with gratitude towards their sponsor, Airbnb, and a final nod to the family's enduring bond and shared love for family trips.

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Notable Quotes:

• Seth [03:12]: "I'm on a very comfortable couch in our Airbnb."

• Harry [04:14]: "This is a hurry thing."

• Josh [37:06]: "Thailand had I not gone, I wouldn't have had that experience."

• Seth [48:42]: "It had been in timeout New York. It was a giant glass jar with a brown yarn fish."

• Pashi [56:07]: "We'd have something to eat first, then open one gift at a time."

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Conclusion

The MEYERS FAMILY Holiday Special episode offers an intimate look into the Meyers family's traditions, humorous challenges, and the love that binds them together. From discussing the trials of family vacations to sharing heartfelt memories of weddings and holidays, Seth and Josh Meyers, along with their parents and siblings, create a relatable and entertaining narrative that resonates with listeners. This episode not only celebrates the joys of family gatherings but also embraces the imperfections that make these moments truly special.

Transcript

[Seth]

This custom episode of Family Trips is made possible by Airbnb. Hi, Pashi.

[Josh]

Hi, Sufi.

[Seth]

Hi, Yeri.

[Harry]

Hey, Sufi.

[Seth]

Hi, Harry.

[Pashi]

Hi, Sufi. Hi, Pashi.

[Harry]

Hi, Pashi.

[Josh]

Hi, Daddy boy. Hi, Harry.

[Seth]

Yep. Everybody, if you can guess by the well rehearsed intros, it is the Myers family episode. We are in Pittsburgh. We will be attending a Pittsburgh Steelers Baltimore Ravens game. So again, you are in the future. You know how it went. What matters most is that we were together. But it will be a lot better if the Steelers had won. Oh, boy.

[Pashi]

Yeah, oh, boy. Yes. For sure. It's so exciting.

[Seth]

Last year was a disaster.

[Pashi]

Yeah.

[Seth]

And this year we're very hopeful. I also want to say real quick, because we are. I mean, it's very nice. It feels very homey. It feels a lot like our youth. Right now, I am lying in repose. Would you. Would you describe my position as repose?

[Pashi]

Hurry. Supine.

[Seth]

Supine.

[Pashi]

Supine position.

[Seth]

I'm on a very comfortable couch in our Airbnb. Pashi's on the couch. Mom and dad are at. Nice chairs.

[Josh]

Yeah. This couch is similar to the couch I used to have. And mom and dad getting out of this couch because it's so low is. It's kind of fun to watch, but it's also like.

[Seth]

Yeah, we have had to build about an extra 10 minutes into our departure time. If they're on the couch.

[Pashi]

It's like a beanbag chair. They're not friendly to older people.

[Josh]

Yeah, but we're very comfortable.

[Seth]

We're very comfortable.

[Harry]

As long as you're comfortable, we're happy.

[Seth]

Thank you.

[Harry]

Thank you, dad. We did have to buy you a new couch. However.

[Josh]

You did.

[Harry]

When we came to visit you, we couldn't enjoy Los Angeles because we had to spend so much time getting up and down out of the couch.

[Josh]

Yeah. And it is, it's almost. The holidays are almost upon us as this is airing and you guys are gonna be coming to my house for Christmas this year, and it'll be your first time seeing the new couch.

[Pashi]

Oh, that's right.

[Josh]

An dancing the new couch.

[Pashi]

I'm excited.

[Josh]

Yeah.

[Seth]

We'll probably do a special episode just on the reveal of them seeing the couch. If you right now are hearing this and you're, you're, you're very sad that you won't be there for it. Don't worry, we'll get it on tape. I also want to say, because we're about to spend time with our listeners favorite guests, which are our parents, we use the Airbnb guest favorites feature to find this place, and it truly is wonderful. That means basically, it's one of the places in the area that people have reviewed the best.

[Josh]

Yeah. And it's. Yeah. We've got three stories, five bedrooms. Mom, you almost went to your own bedroom.

[Pashi]

I did. Cause when Daddy has to stay up later than me, he keeps on his iPad, and I can't sleep with that bright light, so I thought maybe I'll just go in another bedroom. They're available.

[Josh]

Yeah, they are.

[Harry]

But the best thing is the shower is gigantic. And you could actually take a shower with an elephant at the same time. And it's a torrent of water. Niagara Falls has nothing on this shower.

[Josh]

There's like, there's two actual sides to the shower in there.

[Harry]

And.

[Josh]

Mom, you went to the side that wasn't.

[Pashi]

It's not so confusing. Daddy turns a million dials to get a shower.

[Josh]

But you said you turned on one dial and then you turned on the other one, and it just shot straight out at the wall at you.

[Pashi]

Those kind of things that you pull and spray yourself. What do they call those?

[Harry]

I think they're called handheld, because you hold.

[Seth]

I will say when. When I know you're about to go take a shower in a bathroom you've never been in before. I am not brimming with confidence.

[Pashi]

No, no.

[Seth]

I would say you're a one dial lady. If there's a second dial.

[Pashi]

Oh, it's bad. It is bad.

[Seth]

I'll admit you're one of those people. You know, sometimes we. In a movie, there's only one person to land the plane, and they have to talk with someone at air traffic control. Just, I mean, I think talk them down. They have to talk them down. I think if within a few seconds of talking to hurry, they would say, like, well, maybe with your. God, I love it.

[Pashi]

Yeah. I'll admit I'm not good at that.

[Seth]

And let me just say, I think what's great as well is there is a sink here that has been an incredible receptacle for all of your coffee mugs and bowls. I just want to thank you all for not making the extra step and putting them in the dishwasher.

[Harry]

Hurry is the best at that.

[Seth]

This is a hurry thing.

[Harry]

We. I, you know, I get up in the morning first and. And I make sure every night that the kitchen is completely spotless because I hate to get up, have anything in the kitchen. And then I eat my breakfast and I put everything away. And then Hillary's usually upstairs doing a puzzle or something that she comes down and she'll bring her coffee cup, and she'll put it on the counter, literally right on top of the dishwasher. She will never open the dishwasher and put it in. It drives me crazy.

[Pashi]

He has so little to do. I want to give him another thing.

[Seth]

Oh, this is. I gotta see.

[Pashi]

This is.

[Seth]

You're incentivizing him.

[Harry]

I didn't. I'm sorry. Thank you.

[Seth]

Now, I don't want to bust on you, but I do want to. I feel like I want to get feedback from our listeners about this, which is, I came yesterday. I told you guys exactly what time I would get here, right? You all said, great. None of you said, we won't be there. Which I thought was an interesting choice you all made, because I got here and nobody was here.

[Josh]

Well, you go. Go ahead, finish.

[Seth]

Okay. Well, then I got here, and you guys gave me the code, and I came in. It was all lovely. And then you came in. Hurry. And again, I was pretty hungry because, you know, I got in around two, so, you know, lunch. I hadn't had lunch, and. And you came in with a. A brown bag, and you said, oh, I got you the most yummy lunch. And, you know, we're in the burg. And I was thinking, what could it be? Is it a nice, you know, an Italian sandwich? I was so excited. And pashi, what was it? Or do you want to say her?

[Pashi]

It was linguine and clams.

[Seth]

It was half.

[Josh]

Half of her order.

[Seth]

And I was taken aback because it's such a bold thing to think someone's in the mood for. Now, again, I love it as a dish when I order it, but I think I've never in my life wanted someone else's clams or takeaway clams. Takeaway clams. You know, sometimes on ebay, you know, one of the things that says is previously owned. That's how I feel about clams.

[Harry]

Even the guy that said, do you want me to wrap this up? When she said, yes, he rolled his eyes.

[Seth]

Yeah.

[Josh]

Well, I did say, because, mom, when she ordered it at the restaurant, did you also get linguini?

[Harry]

Yeah, it was great.

[Pashi]

By the way, I wanted to share or get a half order, right?

[Harry]

Which.

[Josh]

The first thing she asked was, can I do a half order? Which at a lunch place, it's like. It's already like. It's like $25.

[Seth]

She asked a waiter, can I get a half order? Yes.

[Josh]

And so he said, no, that's insane. But is it more insane to ask the waiter or is it more insane to ask dad if he'll want to split a Linguinian clan.

[Seth]

They're both equally insane.

[Josh]

Yeah, well, they were both asked.

[Seth]

I feel like mom should kick in the door of a restaurant and just break into a song called I Eat Small Portions. It is so performative how much you want people to know how little you eat.

[Pashi]

You can tell just by looking at my plate.

[Harry]

It's so irritating.

[Seth]

It's so irritating.

[Pashi]

Oh, come on. You're irritated too.

[Seth]

I don't care for the fact that every time a plate of food gets put down at you at a restaurant, you go, oh, this is so much because I'm about to clean my plate.

[Harry]

And the place that we, we eat the most at home, she always asks for a half portion. And I always get it, and she always gets it.

[Pashi]

But the half portion is too much.

[Josh]

No, here's the thing. Go ahead.

[Harry]

They charge three quarters. They charge three quarters just, just for the aggravation. Yeah, they, they, they would have charged you half, but they throw in another 25% for pure aggro.

[Seth]

By the way, I would be fine if they charge double. We'll give you a half portion.

[Josh]

But.

[Seth]

We'Re also going to the other half. We're going to. We're gonna chuck half a thing of liguidian clams at your car as you drive away. So anyway, we are doing a cool giveaway, which is the first one of you to write the family trips account. I'll take the clams. We're gonna send it to you. Cause I haven't touched it yet.

[Harry]

We're gonna freeze it.

[Seth]

We're gonna freeze it. And you can actually. And then you can thaw out these delicious clams.

[Harry]

We'll pack it in ice.

[Josh]

I bear some responsibility because mom seems so put off by the notion that she couldn't get this half order. And I said, well, just bring the other half home and Seth'll eat it. So she say that she was pretty convinced that I was right on the money there, but I just sort of wanted to get through the debate.

[Seth]

Yeah. Oh, it was, it was really.

[Josh]

The.

[Pashi]

Look on your face when I said linguistics.

[Seth]

It was like, if you go like, I got, it's lamb curry. Such a big swing. It was so weird. All right, well, this. Oh, I want to say real quick, because I know one of the things we're going to get to here is Dad's rebuttals. We've talked a big game about how dad has been listening to the intros to these family trips and has some things he would like to rebut before that, I feel like we should very quickly talk about Josh's wedding. Now, Josh, you were upstairs in the shower, so you didn't hear this. Mom said it was bad and she wishes it hadn't happened.

[Harry]

Oh, I thought she was talking about your wedding.

[Seth]

Oh, right, right, right.

[Harry]

That's so long ago.

[Josh]

No, we had some good weddings.

[Pashi]

Yeah, it was a magical, magical day, I will say.

[Seth]

And this is true of both you dad and you mom. You were beaming.

[Pashi]

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

[Seth]

And I feel like perhaps you were also beaming at my wedding, and I was too distracted to see, but the level of beam on your faces for the absolute full three days was a joy to watch.

[Pashi]

Oh, that's good. I thought I was. But that's good to hear. Thank you. Thank you. I like to beam. I beam a lot.

[Seth]

There were a lot of beaming.

[Harry]

Yeah, there was a lot of pre beaming actually, too, because when Josh came from California, he stopped in New Hampshire and then rented a van and went down and picked up Mackenzie. And he had a lot of things that he had sent to the house. Boxes and boxes of stuff, mostly for the lawn games that we played on Saturday afternoon. But part of the reason he came was so that he and mom could practice their mother son dance. And it's interesting because right after the wedding, we went to New York and we saw the Broadway show mj, which is all about them preparing for Michael Jackson's final tour.

[Josh]

Yep.

[Harry]

There was so much more preparation for mom and you dancing. So much effort and discussion. What do you think? I mean, you were. You went back and forth for weeks about what you were doing.

[Pashi]

I looked on YouTube for how to do the different dances. The pony, the mashed potato.

[Josh]

Real quick. Just so our listeners know, we did Land of a thousand Dances by Wilson Pickett.

[Pashi]

Right.

[Josh]

And he calls out the dances.

[Pashi]

He does.

[Josh]

I felt like that was gonna really help us.

[Seth]

Land of a thousand dances. I mean, my only complain. Pretty cliche choice for first mom son dance. Who among us has it been at two seven weddings where someone's done it?

[Pashi]

This one says because he's. Larry, your father's a pretty good dancer. And I will acknowledge.

[Harry]

Pretty good. Pretty good. That doesn't do it justice.

[Seth]

I can't believe you got the compliment for Brian.

[Pashi]

And then he's the rarest of things.

[Seth]

Just happened and it wasn't enough for you.

[Pashi]

No, nothing's enough for him. So anyhow, I said to him, it's.

[Seth]

Like a guy in the desert who hasn't had a glass of water for a week. And they Bring it over. And you're, like, salty.

[Harry]

It's warm.

[Josh]

It's warm.

[Pashi]

He says to me. I said, do you think you could help me with the mashed potato or whatever? I think it's like this. And he said, you're unteachable.

[Seth]

Well, that's not helpful.

[Pashi]

Yeah, that's not helpful.

[Seth]

Certainly on the eve of your son's wedding.

[Pashi]

Then Joshi came, and Joshi could teach me.

[Seth]

And you guys were very good.

[Pashi]

I thought we were, too. And the good thing was it was only a minute. It was a little over a minute. That was my goal, to not go over a minute.

[Harry]

It was the longest minute of the weekend. And the other thing, though, that worked out. It actually did work out great. And the other thing, that worked out really good. I don't know what you thought, Hill, but I generally don't like children at weddings. And Seth's kids were there, and a couple of Mackenzie's nieces and nephews were there, and they were great.

[Pashi]

They were great. Yeah. They got tired at the appropriate time and didn't stay for the whole party. Which gets. The part that gets me is I've been to weddings where the kids will dominate the dance floor, like, the whole night, and people keep saying, oh, he's so cute. He's so. And I feel like saying, just take that child home.

[Seth]

Right? Yeah.

[Pashi]

Yeah. But these were our children. These were our parents.

[Harry]

Yeah.

[Seth]

No, I think that's. I mean, this is one of the reasons why I was loath to even have kids the way you do talk about them.

[Harry]

Yeah. The two younger ones went to bed, But Ash, who's 8 years old, he made it through the whole thing. And he came out and he's kind of shy normally. And he came out and he was dancing with us, and he was having the best time. He didn't do it for too long.

[Josh]

I think it was just one dance.

[Harry]

He was great. And compared to the Land of a Thousand Dances, he was so much better.

[Josh]

We crushed our Land of a Thousand Dances.

[Pashi]

We crushed it. People loved it.

[Harry]

I thought my grandson was better.

[Seth]

I, I, we. I've told everybody on this podcast this, but we went to Ash's parent teacher conference, and his teacher said to us, he seems a lot more relaxed after the wedding. And we were taken aback and said, what are you talking about? And she said, I think he had a lot of anxiety about the tasks he had at the wedding. And I think he really appreciated because he knew there weren't a lot of kids there.

[Pashi]

Right.

[Seth]

That we were sort of asking them to Be their best, most mature selves. And they really all were so very wonderful.

[Josh]

Yeah. Also, his task was to bring a ring box. Sounds good. Very good.

[Harry]

Yeah. But, you know, just to segue from the wedding to the fact that this was supposed to be a rebuttal episode. You guys talked about the speeches at the wedding on some of the podcasts, and they were really, really good. Mom did a reading.

[Josh]

Yeah, yeah.

[Harry]

Beautiful. Actual ceremony. That was lovely. And Mackenzie's dad was. Was very good. Her mom was extremely good. And her friend Julia spoke. And the other two speakers were Seth and I. Yeah. And I went to a lot of trouble because when Seth got married, I gave a speech at your wedding that when I finished, was, I would say, by the group universally lauded as the best wedding speech anybody had ever heard. That included the staff who was there, had been to hundreds of weddings and said they'd never seen better. And then you got up, Josh, and you gave a speech, and nobody could remember who I was. So what I thought is, Seth's gonna speak after me. And so I really have to put in an effort. Now, I will say in one of the pods, you said you appreciated the effort because I. My speech was to talk about your Hollywood romance, but I interspersed musical cues throughout. I worked with the DJ in advance. We had snippets of different musical cues, so I went to a lot of effort to do it.

[Pashi]

Hours. Hours.

[Josh]

Oh, I believe it.

[Seth]

Yeah.

[Harry]

And while you said you appreciate it, I have to say I thought that. And Seth did a good job, but I didn't think there was enough enthusiasm for my speech.

[Josh]

From me or just from the people at large?

[Harry]

No, from you two. I mean, I think he said really nice things on the part about Mackenzie's mom, Linda. Yeah, he said good things about Seth, and it wasn't that you didn't say nice things. There was just no enthusiasm. I thought the enthusiasm should have been much greater, and it was to the point that I just wish I had another child so we could do it again.

[Seth]

Right. Well, let's. You know what? We would never do this, but we'd love another run at it. And then we'll just cut this into a previous episode. Episode. So for anybody who goes back and then. Oh, my God, Daddy boy. What a speech.

[Josh]

Oh, I mean, just crushed it.

[Seth]

Worked with the DJ for hours.

[Josh]

Had music cues.

[Seth]

Incredible.

[Josh]

Yeah.

[Seth]

Just, you know, it was about a Hollywood romance, and it was just. What a. It just threaded your whole life.

[Josh]

It was. Yeah. I mean, you could tell the care and the thought he put into it. And it was. Yeah, I mean, mackenzie's still talking about it.

[Seth]

And you know what? I thought by the time he was done, I was like, everybody else stinks.

[Harry]

Well, that's so much better. That's so much better. But, you know, the enthusiasm issue was not limited to that. Again, on some of the podcast stuff.

[Seth]

Are we into the rebuttals now? Are you rebutting us?

[Harry]

Yeah, that's. That. Yeah, that was a segue into and this wedding bullshit. That's fine.

[Seth]

We're done talking about the wedding.

[Pashi]

May I just say that Mackenzie was the most beautiful bride, the most beautiful wedding gown, the little dress she afterwards for dancing. She was so adorable.

[Seth]

I would love to hear all about that. But we have transitioned into the rebuttal.

[Pashi]

Yeah, of course. Okay, let him rebut.

[Josh]

Yeah, let him rebut. Also, for the listeners, I should point out that my father has pages in front of him that he's laid out, and I feel like his foot has been tapping faster and faster since we started.

[Seth]

So he's like a guy who knew today was the day he was taking the stand in his own defense at a murder trial. Very small font.

[Harry]

Another time. Seth, you talked about us visiting you, and you always say, oh, Josh, mom and dad were down. And it doesn't seem too enthusiastic when.

[Seth]

You talk about, wait, is this a rebuttal on facts or just a lack of enthusiasm?

[Harry]

This is a lack of enthusiasm. I think that when you're going to talk about what mom and Dad. I mean, I just think you should be more enthusiastic about the fact that we showed up or that you came to the house or whatever.

[Josh]

You're thirsty for enthusiasm.

[Seth]

Okay, that's understanding.

[Harry]

And then, like, you even complained one time you said that, oh, you know, mom and dad comes out and then they ask so many questions about, what are we going to do next? What are we doing next? They just had one question after another. And the reason for that is when we go to Josh's house, he has on note cards laid out on a table, all the possible things we can do and all the orders that we can do it and when we can do it and stuff like that. Seth just doesn't put in the effort.

[Seth]

Are you. Do your three kids knock the notecards off the table? They do.

[Josh]

They like a schedule. Mom and dad like a schedule.

[Seth]

Mom and dad like a schedule. Mom and dad.

[Josh]

Dad in particular.

[Seth]

And dad was very good. I think I've. And I do wanna make sure I tell this story with requisite enthusiasm now that I know that's Been a lacking piece. But I always remember that dad was very good. When we would go on vacation, he would make a big. He would draw big pictures of things we could do. I remember famously once there was a four quadrant drawing and he had drawn the bones of a Tyrannosaurus rex. And he said we could go to a museum and see this. I think we were in Washington D.C. okay. There was maybe a drawing of the Washington Monument. And then he drew a drawing of Darth Vader. And he said, there's also a new Star wars movie. We're like, oh, I want to definitely do that. Oh, by the way, enthusiasm. I have talked to the boys and you will not be with us, Josh, for Thanksgiving. But I think that weekend it's time to watch Star wars with the boys.

[Harry]

Oh, that's great.

[Seth]

And I've asked. They've wanted to do it, and I want to wait for you guys to watch with it.

[Josh]

We don't have the rights to that.

[Seth]

We don't have the rights to that. But I was. When she said, I have a question for dad, Josh. When she said, da, da, did you think she would actually get it right?

[Josh]

I was worried about it.

[Seth]

I was worried too. And she got right.

[Josh]

I was definitely worried about it.

[Seth]

I was like, oh, I'm excited to see what this is gonna be. And it was right. Okay. Dad likes a plan. I will make sure.

[Pashi]

I don't care about a plan. Yeah, I'm easy when somebody else is.

[Seth]

Or not. You're gonna ask questions?

[Pashi]

Well, I have questions.

[Harry]

Oh, you have questions? Yeah.

[Josh]

All right. Well, you have more to rebut. I think based on that was a very small rebuttal.

[Pashi]

Have you got something with any kind of gut?

[Seth]

And just before you even think of it, we're not gonna do like a rebuttal episode about how mom rebutted your rebuttals? Yeah, it ends here.

[Harry]

Well, I'll give you another one a couple different times.

[Seth]

Okay.

[Harry]

At least two occasions. Three occasions, actually. You kind of diss our house.

[Seth]

Uh huh.

[Harry]

Yeah. You dis our house. I mean, you talked about our living room. You described the furniture as old and lumpy. And then on another episode, you said that it's a room full of animal dander. That was the other thing you said. And actually you made it sound like the house in Gray Gardens. You know, that there would be like a mannequin with a head half broken off and an eye hanging out and like, you know, like from a horror movie set.

[Seth]

It would be insane to have a mannequin. Cause that would scare people when they came in. All you guys have is a giant cardboard cut out of Josh.

[Harry]

Yes.

[Josh]

I love.

[Seth]

You guys are talking like, we're not psychos. We're lunatics. Wait, wait, wait. He's not done. I'm sorry. I cut him off. Okay, keep going.

[Harry]

No, no, I'm just. I'm just saying you dissed that. And another time. This is just. You, Seth, is that. You came home for a night. Now, you're never in New Hampshire, actually, because, you know, you've got all the other responsibilities with your kids and so forth. But you were in. And you complained about the pillows in your room.

[Seth]

Yeah.

[Harry]

And your bed. Now we have other bedrooms. They're full of pillows. There's pillows all over the place. But you complained about them. Because we put the worst pillows in your room. Because you're never there. Okay, but you could have gotten another pillow. And even Josh pointed out that you could have gotten another pillow. So you didn't like your bedroom. You talked about the living room, and I think you're dissing a house. I just want the listening public to understand that we don't live in a. An old mansion from a horror movie.

[Pashi]

We live in a beautiful house.

[Seth]

It is a beautiful house.

[Pashi]

And our living room has furniture. Antique furniture from my mother. It looks like an English drawing room.

[Seth]

It looks like an English drawing room. I think that is very accurate. But I will also say the living room, save for Christmas Day, we almost never spent a second in.

[Harry]

That's true. But I notice I didn't mention that.

[Seth]

Yeah.

[Pashi]

Albert Vi spends a lot of time on the couch.

[Seth]

Right? Yeah.

[Harry]

Looking out the front window.

[Josh]

So we said the living room couch was old and lumpy.

[Pashi]

Yes.

[Harry]

Yeah.

[Josh]

Yeah. I don't even know, because it's. We haven't been.

[Pashi]

You don't sit on.

[Seth]

I would just say, based on the antiqueness of it, I think it's safe to assume there's some lumpiness to those couches. I don't feel like that's necessarily, you know.

[Pashi]

Oh, that's a diss. If you were gonna say it's not an insult. Lumpy associated with a couch is not a positive.

[Josh]

I would say. Just in my defense, I'm guessing Sufi called it lumpy. And I'm guessing Sufi said animal dander. I don't think those are words that would come out of my mouth.

[Harry]

No, no, they were. This was. This is. We're dissing him.

[Josh]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Harry]

For sure, for sure. You're the. You're the good son.

[Seth]

Again, not breaking News to our listeners.

[Harry]

And just talking about the good son, you know, while we're talking, while we're dissing you, is. This isn't something that's come up in the podcast, but Josh is a very, very thoughtful gift giver. Yes, very. I mean, you. You like or at Josh's and you walk by a. A window in a store and you see something, you know, that's. That's a really bizarre little thing. And then eight months later you get it in a box, you know, and the. I remember. You're less so. I think so.

[Seth]

I don't think I am at all.

[Harry]

That's less so in the extreme. Yeah.

[Josh]

You were being nice about it.

[Seth]

You were being nice.

[Harry]

I was being nice about it. I was gonna throw this in that we were at with you and your family. Christmas a few years ago, and for a Christmas gift, you gave mom a official U.S. olympic running suit that was clearly swag from NBC that you got for nothing.

[Seth]

100%.

[Harry]

Which would be something that mom would not wear in a million years. And I think you gave it away.

[Pashi]

Yeah.

[Harry]

To a homeless guy. Was it a homeless guy that we saw?

[Josh]

He might have ebayed it.

[Harry]

Yeah. But so anyway, Josh is a very thoughtful gift giver.

[Seth]

Josh is a very thoughtful gift giver. An example is every year we go to the Steelers game and you have to. They have a rule about your purses, right.

[Josh]

You have to have a clear bag if you want to bring anything in you. If you have like an opaque, which every purse pretty much is opaque, then they got. You have to dump everything into a clear bag, including your purse, but you have to dump everything out.

[Seth]

And so this year, Josh got you a brand new see through purse. Steelers colors.

[Pashi]

Yeah.

[Seth]

No less.

[Josh]

Yeah, I actually got it for her last year and she remembered to bring it this year, which I was amazing. Yeah.

[Seth]

So it's great. Look at us.

[Pashi]

Yeah, it is great. We're ready to go.

[Harry]

And India, just because we are in Pittsburgh and you know, talking about the Steelers, there was another situation where I'm not sure if one or both of you were talking about. I think it was you, Seth, because you were saying, because you and I are particularly crazy about the Steelers and you know, we talked about it a little bit at dinner last night that how it ruins our week if they lose. And Josh, you're showing people pictures from last year where we got crushed by the Cardinals when we were here. That with me with a hood pulled completely over my head and so that I couldn't see anything. But you seem to say, well, I'm not sure that I want my kids to become as crazy as we are about the Steelers. As if it was a bad thing. It's not a bad thing. Being passionate about a sports team. It's completely pointless. And it's the best. Absolutely.

[Seth]

I mean, again, I have no regrets about it.

[Harry]

Yeah.

[Josh]

I think so long as you don't make people around you uncomfortable, it can be a great thing. But if you can't shake it off and then like, yeah, be pleasant to be around. I don't know.

[Seth]

We did shake it off last year, I should say. That was our best shake.

[Josh]

Oh, my gosh. Yeah, we had a fantastic dinner afterwards.

[Pashi]

And it just went away. But you're right. And this nonsense of I can't read the paper all week. And you know, for me, though, it.

[Seth]

Is like, because I do think I'm in concert with Daddy Boy in this. I love listening to every piece of football detritus I can get my hands on. If the Steelers win.

[Harry]

Yeah, exactly.

[Seth]

So when the Steelers lose, I'm actually. It's almost also a small win because I'm not listening to every podcast out there. You know, it's not like he doesn't read the paper. He just doesn't read the sports page and that's okay, too.

[Josh]

Yeah.

[Harry]

And both you made a comment about how if I'm anywhere in the world and I see a guy in a Steeler hat, I stop what I'm doing and I go and talk to him. And that is a little bizarre, I have to admit. But I. And I do. And I remember one time we were literally in Hawaii in an airport in Hawaii, and I saw this dude in shorts, high knee socks, he was older, in a Steeler hat, a Steeler shirt, you know, And I walked over and talked to him, you know, where are you from? What are you doing? You know, what do you think the Steelers will do this year?

[Josh]

It.

[Harry]

I always think it's so much fun to do.

[Josh]

I. Yeah, I mean, I love the Steelers too, but I think if you're wearing a Steeler hat and a Steeler jersey in Hawaii, you're such a jack off. You are such a jack off, man. What are you doing?

[Harry]

No doubt. No, no, no doubt. But that's my point of.

[Seth]

I like to think that that guy and his wife had a fight and she's like, why are you wearing both of those? And he was like, this way people will know. Maybe someone will come up to me at the airport.

[Josh]

I met Larry Myers.

[Seth]

How about Larry Myers?

[Harry]

I mean, I think now I got.

[Seth]

Tickets to his son's show. He also gave me a Olympic running suit.

[Harry]

I thought you knew he was a Jaguar when he had shorts and knee socks on. That was trying to make that point. Yeah. This guy was who.

[Seth]

He's already right. It was like the rest of his fashion wasn't going to save it.

[Harry]

Yeah. The other thing. Sometimes you talk about mom and I as if we're the Bickersons.

[Josh]

Okay. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.

[Seth]

Can I sign an affidavit confirming that?

[Harry]

One of the examples you gave. One of the examples you gave was the fact that we. Since we were talking about your terrible gift, Seth. How we always hated one another's Christmas gifts.

[Seth]

Yes.

[Harry]

And whatever we would get, we would open it and we would. And talk about lack of enthusiasm, that we never liked it. So what we decided to do, because Harry's very clever, your mom's clever, we decided we would buy each our own gifts, and then we would open them and we would like them, and you guys would be impressed.

[Josh]

Yeah.

[Seth]

But we were. If memory serves, we were onto it immediately.

[Pashi]

Yes.

[Harry]

Yeah. You were smarter than the first year. We were smarter than we gave you credit for immediately.

[Seth]

The fact that both of you liked your gifts.

[Pashi]

Yeah.

[Josh]

But it was also like you were auditioning for people who opened a gift and liked it. It was like, open this box and be very happy about it, because you would play it off like it was given by the other one, and you'd, like, hold up a sweater and you'd go, oh. Oh, look at this.

[Seth]

Oh, Yuri. Well, isn't this a change of plan?

[Pashi]

Remember the year he gave me a pink cowboy hat?

[Seth]

I do.

[Pashi]

Yeah.

[Harry]

They talked about that on the pod.

[Josh]

That one is. Yeah. Burned into our memory.

[Pashi]

And where exactly, Larry, am I gonna wear this?

[Josh]

Yeah. I don't know. It was. Maybe it was back in, like, when. The Garth Brooks days and the Brooks and Dunn days.

[Harry]

I think it was before all that. I was thinking maybe rodeo. No, you know what it was? It was that Mickey Gilly, that. That movie where people were align dancing. Yeah.

[Seth]

Oh, yeah. Urban cowboy.

[Pashi]

Urban Cowboy.

[Harry]

Urban cowboy. Yeah.

[Pashi]

We had the record album.

[Harry]

It was in that era.

[Pashi]

We used to play it and I'd put the hat on.

[Harry]

It was in that era. So it wasn't a total loss.

[Seth]

It wasn't a total loss.

[Harry]

Yeah. But speaking about the Bickersons, Josh, we were. According to Josh, we were actually here in Pittsburgh at a Steeler game before we had this great option to stay at Airbnbs, which is so much Better. I mean, we should have stayed a very nice hotel, but this is the last. This is the second year we've done this. And it's so much better having a house. But we were evidently, to Josh's mind, bickering about something, and he got up from the table and he actually threw his napkin down.

[Josh]

Yep.

[Harry]

And left as if it was a flag. Like an NFL game.

[Josh]

Yeah.

[Harry]

Which I think is okay, except then you have to make a call.

[Pashi]

Well, there's never any doubt what the call is.

[Harry]

You have to make a call, you know, like. And roll your hands, like, illegal procedure, you know, 10 yards. And mom or dad, it could be offensive, interfere, you know, getting into the neutral zone, something like that. You should. If you're gonna throw the flag, you gotta make a call.

[Josh]

Well, if you were just yelling in a breakfast restaurant and your son stands up and throws a flag, maybe you think it's on you. Maybe you figure it out.

[Harry]

How would you know who was on.

[Seth]

You know, what's funny is, you know, there's sometimes those plays where, you know, it's like the latest hit you've ever seen.

[Josh]

Huh?

[Seth]

You know, and they throw. Everybody throws flags. And the guy who did the hit looks up and puts his hands up, like me. Yeah, that's what.

[Harry]

That's. Yeah, well, it's always the second guy. Yeah, well, it's like, you know.

[Seth]

Oh, so you're the second guy.

[Harry]

I'm the second guy. You know, but nobody paid attention to what started it.

[Josh]

I'd say when you're. When you get hot and fired up, as your son, it's very difficult for me to say, hey, dad, take it down a notch, because there's a lot of. I'm still your little boy. And so my solution there was to spike my napkin and go up to.

[Pashi]

My room, which I thought was very effective.

[Josh]

Yeah, well, see.

[Pashi]

Yeah.

[Harry]

Well, I mean, they mentioned it, so.

[Josh]

Well, if you're still thinking about it, to me, that succeeded.

[Harry]

Yeah.

[Seth]

Well, I remember the waiter ran over afterwards. He's like, hey, man, these napkins are fragile.

[Josh]

Yeah. That's the kind of thing that people don't do at Airbnbs. Hoity toity.

[Harry]

Yeah.

[Seth]

We've been throwing napkins all over this place.

[Harry]

Now, there's things like that that you say that you don't feel comfortable saying, but here's the thing that you do feel comfortable saying. That we think you're right. Oh, that we think you're right. And that is. And I would say this as a note to your guests on the pod.

[Josh]

Oh, yeah.

[Harry]

That you try to keep people talking about family trips and sometimes your brother gives you a little bit of criticism for that. But you're right, you're right.

[Josh]

Oh, I agree. I agree.

[Harry]

And nobody but Seth ever complains that you're trying to keep people back on family trips. So I'm saying, you know, again, I.

[Seth]

Mean, given this is nobody. Who else are you talking to about the podcast?

[Josh]

Comments. Comments support me.

[Seth]

Do they really?

[Josh]

Yeah.

[Seth]

Huh. Okay.

[Harry]

Yeah, yeah. But I, you know, given the fact that this is a rebuttal episode, pass this on to your future guests if they ever listen to this. Yeah, stay on the trips, dude.

[Josh]

Yeah, I try to stay on the trips. And then I feel like very early on in episodes sometimes you'll be like, and so where do you go with your kids now? And it's like, no, no, no, keep em when they're little.

[Pashi]

And the trips are so entertaining. So entertaining.

[Harry]

But I would take trips when they were young or if they have children today, talking about that. I think that's fair.

[Josh]

I think sometimes we turn. Sufi will turn the page to get to. Now that you're an adult and you've got kids, where do you guys go? And I feel like there's more.

[Seth]

I turn the page too fast. Okay.

[Harry]

Yeah. And one of the things, though, just again from the episodes, the listener episodes are great because they're all trips, you know, they're all about trips. And now that's just so the listeners know we still expect those to be good stories.

[Seth]

Okay.

[Harry]

Okay. You don't get a pass. You know, don't call it. Send in, you know, speak pipe some bad trip. But some of the trips that they have had are so good and so unique. They're delightful, they're great. They're just great.

[Josh]

And it's also, I think it's hard for guests sometimes to come up with, like, to fill an episode of five great trip stories. That's where the listeners have sort of an ace in the hole to.

[Harry]

Yeah, well, I'm sure it's not. I mean, all of these people that you have on the show have busy lives and there's other demands on their time and, you know, so I guess if they want to come on, I think it would be better to say, do you have any trips? If not, do something else. But yeah, I'm sure it's not that easy to get their attention and their time, but there's been a couple pods. I won't mention who the guests were. You say, well, tell me about your family trips. They say, and the first thing they said is we never went on any. Yeah, that's going to be a rough hour.

[Josh]

Yeah. Sometimes though, we've found our way through.

[Seth]

I like trying to get there. It's fun to unlock that.

[Josh]

Hurry. Do you have any rebuttal things you want to talk about here?

[Pashi]

No.

[Josh]

Yeah, I didn't think so. I do want to get some more mic time for hurry. But how are you doing on your rebuttals over here?

[Harry]

I'm pretty, you know, there's over 100 pods. Is that right or close to 100?

[Seth]

No, I don't think we're there yet.

[Josh]

We're getting there though.

[Seth]

We're getting there.

[Harry]

Yeah. I only went back and re listened to double speed from last year when we were here to now. You get a pass on the first year because you're just rookies.

[Seth]

Great.

[Harry]

And so no, I'm pretty much rebutted out.

[Seth]

All right, well, thank you for your rebuttals. Thank you for the work you put into this. This is really fantastic.

[Harry]

A little more enthusiasm. More enthusiasm.

[Seth]

Hey, whoa. I wasn't looking forward to that, but it was real good.

[Harry]

Yeah, yeah. I said get back to the wedding spiritual.

[Josh]

I'm sure the listeners love I am shitty gifts.

[Seth]

So, Pashi, do you guys want me to fire off the questions or do you want to fire off?

[Josh]

Well, I had one that we've got some questions from listeners, but also I just thought of one that's a trip based thing. Have you ever taken a trip? It could have been with us or not with us. A trip that you took that you wish you didn't take.

[Pashi]

Oh, goodness.

[Seth]

I have one for you. Posh. Yeah, I think that I took. Yeah, go ahead. Thailand.

[Josh]

Yeah, I was. I mean, if it would be one, it would be Thailand. But there's also something about how sort of how wrong it went that had I not gone, I wouldn't have had that experience. And part of me is happy that I had the experience, even though it was terrible. Like, yeah, just awful because I got like, I got ripped off and I got sunburnt and I got sick and.

[Seth]

The reports back of that trip did not move. Thailand the top of my list.

[Josh]

No, no, no, no, no. And I'm sure Thailand is great if you do it well. I did it alone. Post a breakup, young, no planning. And when I went to the airport, I was so excited. When I was flying to Thailand, I was so excited. And it couldn't have gone more off the rails.

[Seth]

What about you guys?

[Pashi]

I can't really think. I guess I probably Las Vegas was the most recent one because I like Vegas. I hate Vegas. And when I heard we were going to go there with. With you know, Larry's friends and there was an option, there was a Northwestern alumni trip that I'd been looking forward to so much. A trip to Italy on one of those little riverboats and areas I hadn't been to before. And it was the same weekend as Vegas.

[Josh]

Yeah.

[Pashi]

And we get to Vegas and I just. Everything about it gives me the shakes. It's just mobbed with people everywhere you go and it was giving me a headache. And then I said, I stopped at the little convenience place. I said I'm gonna grab some beers to take up to the room. I need to calm myself down, knock.

[Josh]

Six of these back.

[Pashi]

So I get into the room and there's no canoe, there's no bottle opener. So I'm back down to the.

[Harry]

They were afraid you might hurt yourself.

[Pashi]

I go back down to the convenience store and they said oh we sell those here, you need to buy one. And I thought well this just takes the flippin cake. Really.

[Seth]

The cake was taken. The flippin cake was taken.

[Josh]

And you guys have mentioned on this trip a couple times that you went to go see Cirque du Soleil. O on that trip and everyone you were with fell asleep.

[Pashi]

Fell asleep. Yeah, we were up too late. You know, we're not late people.

[Josh]

Yeah, they can't pump enough oxygen into those places to keep you guys awake.

[Harry]

I don't see what you think Hill, but I have another one that'll be a surprising destination. Hawaii.

[Pashi]

Oh, I didn't like Hawaii either.

[Harry]

We went to Hawaii and we went to Maui and we went. We weren't far from Lahaina and Kauai. Lanai. Was it Lanai or Kauai? I don't know, one of the others. One of those eyes and took forever and it was just. It took forever to get there and it was fine, you know, but.

[Pashi]

But the Caribbean is so much closer.

[Harry]

To go to the Caribbean it's just as pretty and the beaches are just as good and yeah, so Hawaii was. And I'm sure that we didn't see it all so. So there's much more of it than. Than we saw but. But it was not much less than I thought.

[Seth]

When Alexi and I first started dating. I think it was the January we met that summer and for New Year's and again we have been to Ireland. We had the best time. This is not an anti Irish screed but we went to Ireland for couples for New Year's. And it was just the grayest, wettest. There was no joy in Mudville when we went. And we also stayed at a castle, which I was really excited about. And you realize the reason people no longer live in castles is a one bedroom apartment is nicer. It was the dankest. Everything about it. It was. I think I shouldn't even say the name, but the name of the castle. My wife and I still talk about the curse of it because we couldn't sleep when we were there. And so if we ever have a bad night's sleep, we go. I think it's the ghost of the Irish Castle.

[Josh]

I remember you saying that everything was gray like the castle. The weather and the food was all the same hue, gray, hue.

[Seth]

We were also driving around in an eight person passenger van and the people in the back were always screaming to the people in the front that they couldn't hear the conversation because it was just the loudest van.

[Josh]

Oh, it was.

[Seth]

A lot of. It was a. It was, There was nothing about. And then it was also. We were the newest couple of the four, and we were the only one that ended up getting married.

[Josh]

All right, well, we got some questions from the listeners. I don't know if these are from last year, from this year, but it doesn't matter. But from Rich, who asks Larry and Hillary, why are the counters always wet?

[Harry]

First of all, Rich, that's bullshit. That's absolute bullshit. The counters are not always wet. And that was. I think this comes from the fact that Josh has one of those Senseo, or some kind of coffee maker machine. They used to have one. And it, and it.

[Pashi]

Oh, I'd always pour the water in the wrong way.

[Harry]

And. Yeah, and it was, it was.

[Josh]

Well, that's, that's one reason.

[Harry]

It was, it was a function of that machine. It was.

[Pashi]

It was not a sodastream that sometimes splashes water all over you. Yeah, there's things that can happen on.

[Seth]

That's what they say. That's not. User error. Even the SodaStream says sometimes this is.

[Josh]

Just gonna splash everywhere.

[Pashi]

So, Rich, they ought to have a cautionary tale thing. Really.

[Harry]

I just want to invite Rich to come to our house in New Hampshire anytime, day or night, and look at our counters. Dry as a bone, Rich.

[Josh]

Dry.

[Harry]

Always dry.

[Josh]

Very good. Courtney asks, what are your family's favorite board games and who is a sore loser?

[Seth]

Ooh, ooh.

[Pashi]

Board games.

[Josh]

We just played for the first time. We just played Quix Q U I X X.

[Pashi]

That's a dice game. That's not really a board game. Yeah, there's a box game.

[Harry]

Codenames.

[Pashi]

Oh, codenames.

[Josh]

We like code names. Code names. Good for a group.

[Pashi]

It is good for a group.

[Josh]

Quick and easy to learn.

[Seth]

Also amazing that mom was like, that's not a board game. And then immediately said one that is also not a board game.

[Harry]

And what's Camel Cup? Yes, the Camel cup, for sure. But we've been playing about going to space and you have.

[Josh]

Oh, yeah. The Crew.

[Pashi]

The crew.

[Josh]

The Crew is a card game.

[Seth]

Card game.

[Harry]

One of the. The best games ever. Most clever games ever.

[Seth]

What was the tile game that was a big hit?

[Pashi]

Oh, we liked it.

[Josh]

Azul.

[Seth]

Azul. And then there was. What was the wall game? Alhambra. Am I making. Those are great games as well. Azul and Alhambra.

[Harry]

I would put the crew. There's two versions of it, and we've.

[Pashi]

Played that the most.

[Harry]

Well, the thing about the crew is there's things that are called. It's a card game where. It's a game where you.

[Josh]

Cooperative.

[Harry]

Cooperative. You play together. You're not trying to beat one another. You're trying to play together to accomplish a particular thing.

[Pashi]

I think the word cooperative, wouldn't it. Yeah, that kind of. That said it all right there.

[Harry]

He said collaborative.

[Seth]

Oh, right.

[Harry]

And. But anyway, it's a game where each of these. Trying to accomplish each of these tasks is called a mission. And if the four of us were playing together, we would be a crew. And then if we would play with some other people, that would be a different crew. But for each individual crew, like the four of us say, we would play until we could accomplish 50 missions. And we started that game actually in Ireland, Josh, you and I. And we started. And it took us. Because we're not together that often, so it took us a year to finish.

[Pashi]

But our mission is. We have completed the mission.

[Harry]

We completed all 50 missions. And so it was really fun.

[Pashi]

That certainly. I don't want anybody to bring me up in that department.

[Josh]

I don't think anyone here is a sore loser when it comes to board games.

[Seth]

No, I think that there, though, from. I think what outsiders would observe.

[Pashi]

Yes.

[Seth]

Is we're a little impatient with people who are maybe playing wrong or don't grasp it right away. This is maybe a note that I've heard.

[Josh]

Yeah.

[Seth]

That make like. So we're not. The reason that we're. Maybe we don't look like the best bunch to play with is not that we're poor losers.

[Pashi]

Right.

[Seth]

Because I would think, in fact, what we are. Is incredibly fair to the point of being, you know, less joyous to game it up with. But we're very frustrated when people play badly.

[Josh]

Yeah. If you play badly, and if you. If you cheat, then you could leave.

[Harry]

But I don't think anybody in this group.

[Seth]

No, that's what I'm saying. But somebody else will come, and then maybe they'll say, oh, I thought you could say a word. You know, if it's like code words, code names, whatever.

[Harry]

But I would say within this four of us, you know, the point you're making about sometimes we're a little bit terse or something with people that are not sort of grasping things. I would hearken back to the shower story earlier in this episode about who could figure out how to turn on the shower.

[Seth]

Right.

[Harry]

So you could guess who we might be a little bit short with.

[Seth]

Well, there is crew. You know, it's a strategy game. So I think somebody, maybe if they were watching us play crew, they would see a lot of, like, what were you thinking? But what did you think was gonna happen? But that is sort of our love.

[Harry]

Language going back to old school. So, you know, we started when you were children and playing hearts, and Josh and I were always partners. You and mom were always partners. And there was a lot of that. What were you thinking for that? And there still is.

[Seth]

There still is. Is.

[Pashi]

There still is.

[Seth]

You know, what a game I remember that I actually don't think is a good game, but I do want to talk about real quick is Goats Rule.

[Josh]

Oh, yeah.

[Seth]

Which was Tego.

[Harry]

Yeah.

[Seth]

And it was there. You were either the goats or the tigers. And it was a very fun game. And I remember they were like sort of heavy metal pieces, which is fun. But I remember dad used to say goats Rule because he always felt whoever were the goats were the advantage.

[Josh]

Yeah. Because there were a lot of goats and there were two tigers. Yeah.

[Seth]

And he always would say, yeah, yeah. That was what he called it. Should we play Goat's Rule?

[Josh]

And also. Yeah. Great, satisfying pieces in that game for Larry and Hillary. Meredith asks, what is your favorite Christmas morning memory from when the boys were little?

[Pashi]

Oh, gosh.

[Harry]

We sort of had a routine. I mean, that was always the same.

[Pashi]

Well, all of them. I mean, there was a script that played out. We'd have something to eat first, and then you'd start with your stockings, and then we'd go into the living room and open one at a time. Time. And, you know, thank you for this. Thank you, Bibi. Thank you, Grandma. Thank you, Addie. It was. Yeah, it was. And it wound up taking.

[Harry]

Yeah, we'd be in the taking a long time. Yeah, it was. It was. You'd always make French toast.

[Pashi]

Yep.

[Harry]

And the kids would come down earlier, and they would. There were stockings, and then they would. Both. The stocking stuff was really nonsense.

[Seth]

Yeah.

[Josh]

It was like erasers.

[Harry]

And then they would go.

[Pashi]

And everybody got Huey trash.

[Harry]

And then you would open. You would have, like, a. And you'd open the. Rip them apart as fast as you could. And everything else.

[Pashi]

Things like stamps. I remember one year I gave you stamps. Great, great gift.

[Harry]

Lottery tickets.

[Pashi]

Lottery tickets.

[Josh]

Scratch off tickets.

[Harry]

Scratch off lottery tickets. But I do remember one incident, but it was great because we would go in the living room, like you pointed out. We would have the Christmas tree in there. We'd have a fire, and we would really take our time. It would take a long time to open all the gifts one at a time. But there was one year. We talked about the pink cowboy hat as probably being a miss, but Seth gave Hillary a thing that looked like a glass dome.

[Pashi]

It was like a goldfish bowl.

[Seth]

It was a giant glass jar.

[Pashi]

Oh, that's right. Yes.

[Harry]

Like a glass jar around it on top. And it had a fish.

[Seth]

Yarn. Fish.

[Harry]

A yarn fish hanging in it. And the yarnfish was brown.

[Seth]

It had been in timeout New York is one of the best 20 gifts to get in New York City. And again, I'm bad at gifts, but I like the idea of getting a good gift. So I would often.

[Josh]

A unique gift.

[Seth]

Yeah. And so I'd often read a list, and I went to that store, and the picture in timeout New York, when I had read it was a beautiful blue fish, but when I went, the last one they had was brown. And I remember thinking, that's still good. And I was wrong.

[Harry]

Yeah. It looked like literally a piece of shit hanging in it.

[Seth]

You laughed so hard, Dad. I couldn't stop laughing because, again, the. You know, historically, mom will pretend to like anything that comes from her boys, but even this was. It was a bridge too far for her. Oh, yeah. Her face was just contorted. I would imagine it was the same face I made when you said, who wants leftover clams? Where I just couldn't, like, process it. And you couldn't process it. And dad was laughing so hard. He was crying. Yeah, he was crying, laughing.

[Harry]

Yeah. So that was a Christmas morning to.

[Seth]

That was a Christmas miracle. A Christmas miracle for dad not to give the worst gift to Mom.

[Harry]

Yeah.

[Josh]

And you guys, mom and dad, are you're coming to stay with me this Christmas. And Mackenzie, my wife's mother, Linda, is coming as well. And Mackenzie loves Christmas and she's so excited about Christmas morning. And then I had to tell her that the Steelers are playing this Christmas morning at 10am and she's like, are you fucking kidding me? And I texted that to you guys and dad, you wrote back it's Santa's best present ever. So we'll be watching the Steelers.

[Seth]

We'll be in New Mexico. So it's an 11am start for us. And again, the kids wake up when we go there at like five in the morning just cause of the time difference. So there'll be plenty of time to get Christmas done. But of course, the Ash family is not a turn on the TV for three hours family. But I feel as though it's a must. And I have told the boys this is their one chance. I'm like, this is your chance to see if you can have the attention span to watch a full game.

[Josh]

Well, it's also, it's nice to just have football on on Christmas and you don't have to be fully focused on it. You can do other things. You can have conversations.

[Seth]

Well, the issue though, and I do take that this, for some families, there's the strike against it is the Ash family is a family of music and they like to have music on.

[Josh]

Yeah.

[Seth]

And, you know, and I appreciate for different strokes, for different folks. And so if your thing is like. No, no, no, it's not. You don't want to listen to Christmas carols. You want to listen to football where, you know, sort of every five minutes there's really loud commercials, you know, so without the investment of caring about it, it's not as nice as I think we might find it.

[Harry]

And Mackenzie is lover of Christmas and we've been out there for a couple years now and really have a great experience. But I sent her a video from the stadium of the fans going crazy for Renegade.

[Josh]

Oh, yeah. Which they said between the third and.

[Harry]

Fourth quarter at every Steeler home, this will be your new Christmas carol.

[Seth]

Yeah.

[Harry]

So just start listening to this because this will be it on Christmas. Yeah.

[Josh]

Madeline writes for Larry and Hillary. What careers did you think Seth and Josh would have growing up?

[Pashi]

Joshi, I thought you might have been a veterinarian. You loved animals so much. And I thought that might have been yours. Seth, I thought a writer. Cause you were. Yeah. You would go off by yourself and you were very happy in your own skin. And I was kind of. Yeah. I thought if you hadn't gotten married when you were about 40. If you made it to 50 and still weren't married, I figured you never would because you were very content in your.

[Seth]

And almost made it.

[Harry]

I don't think I ever. I always thought it would be something that had creativity involved in it. But I remember when you guys were really little and we used to go to this really kind of bad miniature golf course in Michigan when we lived in Michigan. And you once said that when I grow up, I want to be an electric. And I said, what's an electric? And you said, you know, an electric is. He's the guy that puts all the wires together and makes the windmills spin around and all the stuff at the miniature golf courses. And you said, so you wanted to be an electrician is I think what you meant to say. And then you said you wanted to design miniature golf courses. You were only about five.

[Josh]

I mean, if I imagine if I had become a miniature golf course designer and was like, known known world worldwide as like, oh, we have to get Josh Meyers in here.

[Harry]

But speaking of that, on a personal note, something that I thought I would always have liked to have done would be a guy that designed. Designed fountains. Yeah. Like, you know that fountain in the Grove?

[Josh]

Oh, yeah.

[Harry]

And I always think about that when I go there with you guys. And I thought, you know, cause it's clever and everything else, and there's other fountains that are clever. And I thought, yeah, that would have been a good thing to be.

[Seth]

So.

[Harry]

God, that designs found. It's not too late.

[Pashi]

It's not too late.

[Seth]

This is why.

[Harry]

Can you use the shower upstairs? I've got a big head start on the water thing.

[Seth]

You won't remember this, and I don't even know if I told you guys this, but your mother, who we only called Grandma.

[Josh]

Yeah, our dad's mother.

[Seth]

I remember once you guys were away and we was in Michigan and she was staying with us and she was watching us. And I remember, I forget what Pasha and I were doing one morning at breakfast, but she said, you know, I think when you two grow up, you're gonna be podcasters. And I remember, we were like, what do those fucking words even mean?

[Josh]

She coined the term. She coined the term.

[Seth]

And she goes. We go, about what? And she goes, I think family trips. And I remember even at the age I go, I don't. I think in other stuff. And Pasha was like, no, no, that. Just that.

[Harry]

And Joshi said, I think it'd be hard to keep people talking about that, especially if Seth would Let them wander off into other directions.

[Josh]

For Alana writes for Larry and Hillary. Tell us about your memories of Seth and Josh going to proms or school dances, et cetera.

[Seth]

Ooh.

[Pashi]

Oh, gosh. Good. I think the odd one. I don't think you ever went with girls that you were interested in. It turned out that you took, like, friends or. I remember the time that you took Aaron Patrick as an eighth grader, maybe.

[Seth]

Yep, that sounds right.

[Pashi]

And the back and forth on the phone with. I would say to Larry, who's he talking to? And Larry said, I don't know. He hasn't said a word. You trying to get this girl to go, but you didn't have any moves, let's put it that way. And then you went. The only one I can think of that actually was romantically involved with you. Cause you took a Detwiler one year, and you weren't romantically involved with her.

[Seth]

It's just. I feel like, you know, let's move on.

[Pashi]

But you took Alison Howard one year. That was the old.

[Seth]

Yeah. When you.

[Pashi]

Danny. Yeah. And you gave her. I thought it was the oddest thing. You gave her a sunflower for a flower to the prom. And I thought, that's really lame, Josh.

[Josh]

Yeah, that's probably. That's a miss.

[Pashi]

Yeah. You can't really pin that on your dress.

[Josh]

No, Those are big.

[Pashi]

Those are really big.

[Josh]

Seth. Jamie asks, what are some things you purposely took or didn't take from your parents Parenting handbook.

[Seth]

What are things that I took and.

[Josh]

Didn'T take from, took or didn't take?

[Seth]

Right. Certainly took is how important it is to read to them at bedtime. And it has been really wonderful. The books that I remember exactly how I felt listening to you reading Roald Dahl's bfg. And then to be listening to myself read it to my kids. That is really cool and special. And then, you know, I. What I didn't take is, you know, I remember you guys used to make us do a lot of, you know, sweatshop work. Sweatshop work. And, you know, and we had to give you the money. And it just. I felt, you know, looking back, I mean, do I. Did I teach me grit? Sure. But I don't think it was just the hours were. So.

[Josh]

Brad wants to know, Larry and Hillary, do you guys like the Grand Canyon?

[Harry]

I've only flown over it. I've never been to it, but I definitely want to go.

[Josh]

Okay.

[Pashi]

But the hike part kind of scares me.

[Harry]

Yeah. I don't want to hike to the bottom.

[Pashi]

And you could hike to the bottom.

[Harry]

Yeah. You can hike. Yeah, I have a bad foot, so that's gonna be okay. Don't worry out there. I'll be fine. But I would definitely like to see it. I think it's one of the wonders of the world.

[Josh]

We were in an elevator last night. It's Mount Washington is the neighborhood. Mount Washington's a neighborhood. Very perched up on a hill overlooking downtown Pittsburgh. And we were in an elevator going up to a restaurant, and mom was not facing out the window that looks out over the city. And Seth told her, hey, hurry, turn around. And she turned around and got so scared. So I don't know how well you would do at the Grand Canyon.

[Pashi]

I don't think it would be good for me.

[Josh]

I think it would be really bad for you.

[Pashi]

Yeah. Yeah. And when if your startle reflex. Cause along with my startle reflex, I jump. And if you're on the edge of the Canyon and do that jump, that's not good.

[Josh]

I'd like to think that your jumping doesn't have a lot of forward locomotion.

[Harry]

Or I would think you might have an expectation that it would be deep. So.

[Josh]

Yeah. Since we're getting to the end, and I'm gonna have to write a song about this. Jill wants to know, for Larry and Hillary, what's your favorite song Pasci has done on the pod?

[Pashi]

Oh, I was just telling you the other day, it was Kristen Bell episode Walking in Memphis to that. To that tune. But there's been so many good ones.

[Harry]

The Judy Greer one, we've just listened to that recently. That was very, very good.

[Pashi]

Yeah.

[Harry]

Oh, and the other one I liked was the Heim.

[Josh]

Oh, the Heim.

[Harry]

The Sisters were heard through the grapevine thing. Because that was.

[Pashi]

Oh, yeah, that was great.

[Josh]

Yeah. And then I. I met them. I had. I met them in person, irl. And they didn't know who I was. And then I introduced myself, and then we. We spent probably a half hour chatting, and they just couldn't have been more lovely. Yeah. Well, we got to wrap this up because we got to go to a Pittsburgh Steeler game, everybody.

[Pashi]

My heart's starting to pound already, and.

[Harry]

I have to take a shower first.

[Josh]

Oh, my goodness. Also, you're wearing a purple sweater right now. And this is. We're playing the Ravens today.

[Harry]

Well, that's just for now.

[Seth]

And one more time, we'd like to thank Airbnb for sponsoring this very special episode. We're very happy to have done it for a second time. And, yes, it is very nice to do an episode of Family Trips with the entire family.

[Josh]

Yeah. And it's. Yeah. As far as Airbnb goes, for us to be able to get home, I've got a board game laid out on the dining room table for us to play later on tonight. The first morning I came down, dad was sitting in the kitchen. He had coffee made. He was doing his puzzles, and it's just like being at home. And there's something about that.

[Seth]

I was the first up, which makes sense because, you know, I have kids, and obviously, you know, I can't sleep in anymore. And it was just so nice this morning to, you know, brew a pot of coffee and, you know, eat my clams.

[Pashi]

Watch out for your tummy today.

[Seth]

Thanks, everybody.

[Harry]

Yeah. Thank you.

[Josh]

All right, let's go, Steelers.

[Harry]

Here we go.

[Seth]

Bye.

[Josh]

Airbnb with the family. Pittsburgh. My.

[Seth]

Yes.

[Josh]

Well, there's nothing subtle about Daddy's rebuttals. Wants less sarcasm, more enthusiasm. Well, he'll become a grouch if you're dissing his couch. Says it's slander to talk about dander, but what I hear is, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Perry says just tune him out. And then he's like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah. Sat.