What does A Very Special Carey Christmas look like? What does The Gormley Family Christmas Celebration entail? You'll find out in the opening 10 minutes. Then we dive into our very different New Years' Eve activities for another 20 minutes. We are very wordy, but it all flows into our annual YEARLY THEMES SHOOOOOOOOW!

YEARLY THEMES FOR 2020 REVIEWED

Luke evaluates Gomer's 2020 theme of Habit and Gomer evaluates Luke's 2020 theme of Committment. Then they both do some self-examination and get a bit more critical of themselves. AKA, This is where Gomer sucks. We also realize how ADHD impacts us and how to adjust accordingly. For instance, Luke prays the Rosary when he gets to a certain part of the highway and Gomer lays out his stuff

YEARLY THEMES FOR 2021

The Year of Humility. Gomer realized through abandoning social media that he has been justifying his own self-righteousness and gossipping about others if he perceives an injustice by that person to him. Alasdaire MacIntyre talks about the virtues of Justice, Humility, and Patience are all required to acquire a new craft. Justice means giving to experts and mentors their due. Humility (and humiliations) means repeated failures in public in order to get the flywheel spinning on learning a new talent. Patience means being patient with myself as a stumble forward. This applies to Gomer's workouts and scheduling appointments with doctors and dentists. He is getting anxiety just typing this!

The Year of Falling In Love with the Process. Luke realized with the Graduate School and the baby, he's going to be drinking from a firehose. This means limiting intentionally all of the other distractions that hit him. Setting minimums allow him to reduce the friction around good actions and habits, but with being open to going longer on the good stuff, like praying for 15 minutes. He should pray for 30, but sometimes that creates a daunting effect on his ADHD mind, so he will only commit to 15 and if it goes longer, great! The goal is to fall in love with the process.

TOP FIVES OF 2020

Luke's Top Fives: Watched the movie Silence, building the Catching Foxes Team, discovering Chess this year, the run that Catholic Stuff You Should Know is currently on, and Everyly being born and all of the things that went into that!
Gomer's Top Fives: The Carnivore diet, my new leadership position in the parish, writing a chapter in a book that will come out in a couple of months, My New York City trip with Shannon, and Cecilia's First Confession and Holy Communion.

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Luke is drinking a Ten Fidy, Barrel-aged, very good | Gomer is drinking Vista Bay

FOLLOW UP

• The Mandalorian ended strongly and on a good note. Erin is not about Disney+ and Luke canceled it without finishing the show. Pregnancy is powerful, which leads us to…

• Women, you have it hard, but don’t we dads have it hard, too? Erin is exhausted and now Luke has to do all of the cleaning, podcasting, cooking, and Disney+ watching. “I am so tired. How am I so tired?”

• New York was a sexy, sexy trip!

• Babymoon in San Antonio! Spending money on the last trip before the first baby.

THEMES 2020

_Themes are not New Years’ Resolutions. _

Resolutions are stupid because you inevitably over promise but under deliver. Themes are guiding stars or background processes that color all that you do and just hang out, reminding you of something that you need guidance on, not something that you should feel guilty about.

Gomer: Habits
Gomer wants habits that are good, strong, and healthy, so his is by defining failure as whatever new habit he’s committed to, he has to do it every day or every other day, but never miss two days in a row. It builds habits while leaving room for travel, illness, life, etc.

Luke: Commitment
Commitment to his job means not letting things slip.

TOP FIVES FROM 2019

Luke:
5- Buying a House,
4- The Ringer Podcast Network and rekindling Luke’s love for the podcast medium and our podcast together,
3- Uncut Gem, Joker, Avengers: Endgame,
2- Alaska Trip,
1- Carey Babies!

Gomer:
5- GoFundMe for Small Groups,
4- St Louis Trip with Family and Luke,
3- Steubenville East with Sr. Miriam,
2- Alaska Trip, Joe Rutz’s car, Theresa’s house, etc.,
1- SEEK 2019

Sponsored By:

• Daily Catholic Wisdom: Go to CatholicWisdom.org/CatchingFoxes and subscribe for short daily reflections from big, holy Catholic brains. Read it in less than a minute while you drink your morning coffee. Reflect on it throughout the day.
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Christmas Stuff
-left all my stuff at home that I would normally use, but everyone cleared out of the room
-shoe-horning this episode FOR THE FANS!
-Christmas presents: Luke got scarves, Gomer got the Word on Fire classics

Aquaman (critical, but not really spoilers)
-GI Joe, but underwater, and not good
-recognized Ocean Master only when he put his silly Bible Man mask on
-senseless action sequences that went on for far too long
-Hero’s journey story that is weaker than weak
-No chemistry between the leads
-made aqua man cool, but cannot save the DC universe like Wonder Woman almost did
-Some visuals were really awesome, CGI is this movie, like the prequels

Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse
-great visuals, but we sat too close that at times it actually hurt to watch
-great characters that, even in the silliness, made sense within the movie
-Miles Morales is not a copycat spider-man, but has his own powers that stand him out
-Puberty is difficult

New Years’ Themes
Gomer: Year of New Things
Luke: Year of Maturity

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Links:

• SEEK 2019 — You know you want to listen live as we podcast on Friday!!!
• G.I. Joe, the Rise of Cobra - Trailer on YouTube — The opening scene could be straight out of the Aquaman movie.
• Half in the Bag (Expletives a' plenty!) Review of Aquaman — Totally agree with their review.

1. For myself
2. For my co-host
3. For the Church
4. For Some Public Person
5. For the Podcast

To be a Servant of All, where there is no lower place left to fall.
DONE. I need to not just start shit, but end it. New things are too tempting.

Bilocation. Put all your effort into things.
Retreat. Carve out more time for your spiritual walk to rejuvenate

The Rhythm Method. Grace and Nature in a marriage to be in rhythm together.
Let’s Get Physical. Discipleship cannot be institutional. It must be personal.

Mr.-Carey’s-Call-You-Out-on-Your-BS-but-do-so-with-charity-and-love
Taylor Swift on a Dating Fast. She needs a detox.

Vulnerability and Humility over Popularity.
Expansion! CF gets big...ger.

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Links:

• Donald J. Trump on Twitter: "North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the “Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times.” Will someone from his depleted and food s… https://t.co/EvTgZxiji0" — North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the “Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times.” Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!
• The Dating Detox — my affiliate link to Lisa Cotter's Dating Detox book for Taylor Swift.