Ep. 147: It's Iris, Not Ivy

[00:00:16] Welcome to Ink Drinkers, a literary tea party podcast where we discuss books and drink tea.

[00:00:31] Okay, let's start this episode with a trivia fact that I just informed Marissa of. Did you know,

[00:00:38] we happen to be drinking, spoiler alert, we're drinking an Earl Grey today. Did you know that

[00:00:43] bergamot, which is a key ingredient in making a black tea in Earl Grey, is technically citrus?

[00:00:51] Did not, the more you know. Yeah, I learned that. Again, I would not have guessed that.

[00:00:57] Right, because you don't like sip Earl Grey and go, oh, the citrus in here is really strong.

[00:01:02] And when I read the back of the tea, I, in my mind, was thinking, huh, that's interesting

[00:01:07] that they would put, that had lemon as an ingredient with a, but. Right? I'm wrong.

[00:01:17] Oh, I see the, yeah, interesting. Yeah. Interesting. I mean, we'll get to that in a little bit.

[00:01:22] Yeah, I haven't tried it yet. All right. But yeah, I, it does not seem like it would be,

[00:01:26] but I always found that fascinating. Yep. So when this episode comes out, Lucia's birthday,

[00:01:33] which was on the 9th of December. Oh, I was like, wait, did I miss it? No. But we're not,

[00:01:39] we're recording before the 9th. So we are actually going this weekend to, um, she's,

[00:01:46] we're going to do cake and then we're going to go to the movies. We can rent it out like a small

[00:01:50] movie theater room. We're going to watch Moana 2. Which is surprisingly affordable.

[00:01:55] Oh my gosh, is it? Well, so we did the 20, there was like different levels, I guess. Okay. And

[00:02:02] depending on how many people, so the lowest level, and because we did it last minute, like we were just

[00:02:07] decided we were going to do this because we were going to bring her to see that movie for her first

[00:02:10] movie theater movie anyway. Right. And she hasn't been in the movies yet? Interesting. I mean,

[00:02:15] she's, she's about to be three. She can't really sit through much. Okay. Okay. You know? Fair enough.

[00:02:19] Fair enough. So hopefully she'll be able to sit through this. Um, but if they have problems sitting

[00:02:25] through it, at least we'll all be together and we'll be disrupting other people. Yeah. So we rented like a

[00:02:29] small room. I didn't even know they had small rooms like that, but at, there's a movie theater by my

[00:02:34] aunt's house that we used to go to as kids. Um, and they redid it in the last couple of years.

[00:02:39] And so it's a little bit nicer. So they have like different tiered rooms and this room is the smallest

[00:02:44] room and it's 22 seats. And yeah, it's like, I mean, I don't know. It's like 350. Right. And you get

[00:02:53] the room plus concessions. So everybody gets a popcorn, a drink, and a candy.

[00:02:59] Wow. Yeah. I, so we rented out, I mean, years ago, I think you came when we rented out the

[00:03:06] theater in new Orleans for our documentary. Yes. Yeah. And well, no, I didn't do the one in

[00:03:11] new Orleans. I did the one at the festival in Baton Rouge. Oh, okay. Okay. I think, did I go to

[00:03:15] the one in New Orleans? No, I only watched it once. The inside the ring, the boxing documentary.

[00:03:20] I watched it at the, okay. At the Baton Rouge film festival or whatever it was. Okay. Yeah. So we

[00:03:26] initially rented out a theater in new Orleans because it was based on people who live in

[00:03:31] new Orleans. And so we wanted to give them an opportunity to see the movie. Um, and I was

[00:03:38] shocked at how inexpensive it is to rent out a whole theater. Like, I don't know how they

[00:03:44] make money on that, to be honest with you. And this is, so we were going to do it earlier

[00:03:49] and they didn't have a time. They didn't have availability earlier in the day. So it's more

[00:03:53] expensive in the evening. So if we had done it earlier at like 10, it was $2.50. Yeah.

[00:03:59] Honestly, when you said $3.50, I was kind of like, oh, that's more than I was expecting.

[00:04:02] No. But. Well, it's because we added the concessions. Yeah. So I think it's like two,

[00:04:08] it's $2.50 for after four o'clock. Right. And then the concessions are an additional

[00:04:13] whatever. And then the, um, yeah, but it was going to be like a hundred dollars less in

[00:04:18] the morning. Yeah. Which is crazy. And anyway, if you are affordable or looking for a place

[00:04:23] to have a party. I'll let you know how it goes. But anyway, so yeah, so her third birthday

[00:04:27] and then we're doing some Christmas stuff coming up. Um, we're going to go see Frozen Jr.

[00:04:31] at LSU. Oh yeah. Cute. Um, Playmakers, the, um, children's, um, acting troupe, I guess

[00:04:38] is what you call it. Uh, they're putting on Frozen Jr. at the Riley Theater at LSU.

[00:04:43] We are going to the, um, Polar Express thing in New Orleans. Tell me how that is. We did it with

[00:04:50] Foster when he was about Margo's age and I have pictures of him just looking up in awe and it's

[00:04:57] so cute and so fun. I'd like to do it, but I want to wait until Finn can remember it. Yeah. Yeah. Um,

[00:05:04] so yeah, I love that. I'm excited that we're doing it again. And then we have our family Christmas party,

[00:05:09] which we do this every year and it rotates. There's like three families that it rotates

[00:05:14] between. Okay. And so our like family, how do I say this? Immediate. Not my immediate family though.

[00:05:22] So it's like my great grandfather and grandmother had, well, four kids, but one of them moved to

[00:05:30] Dallas. It's not just your immediate, it's the extended immediate. The extended immediate,

[00:05:34] if you, if you want to call it that. So, so like it, when, when it's our family's turn,

[00:05:39] we rotate it between my mom and her siblings. Got it. So yeah. Anyway, so it's our family's turn

[00:05:46] this year. My mom's sister, it's her turn within our family. And, um, she wants to do like a,

[00:05:55] we kind of compete. We've, we've started in recent years, like competing with each other,

[00:05:59] like who can come up with the best theme and the coolest things for the kids to do and whatever.

[00:06:02] And she wanted to bring it like back to the basics, back to what it used to be years ago. And like the,

[00:06:08] the sixties, um, you know, when they were kids and we're attending this party. And so like my uncle

[00:06:15] found some old like, um, film that he had converted and it's just some old photos. And so we're really

[00:06:23] so lovely. It's yeah, it's really cool. And, um, so one of the things that I was tasked with

[00:06:29] was creating a family tree. So my aunt wrote out all the names for me and I just had to like

[00:06:36] put it into a format that made sense. And I spent, I've spent weeks on it. Um,

[00:06:42] I'd love to see it. Yeah. I'll show it to you after this. I I'm actually really proud of how it

[00:06:46] came out. I think it looks cool and I'm going to get it printed really big on vinyl so we can like

[00:06:50] hanging on the wall. But, um, it's been, it's been an interesting challenge and task, but, um,

[00:06:58] I'm just excited for everybody to like finally get to see and experience all of the work that

[00:07:03] our family has been putting into this. I love that tradition. Yeah. Yeah. So are you,

[00:07:08] do y'all do Christmas Eve or is it Christmas day? We have so many different. Okay. I didn't,

[00:07:14] so with my mom's family, it's always Christmas Eve and that's a big Sicilian American. Yeah.

[00:07:21] Christmas Eve is generally more like when people celebrate rather than Christmas day for a lot of

[00:07:27] Italian American families. I don't know how it is in actually in Italy itself, but, um,

[00:07:32] not something I asked while I was there, but, um, yeah, so we're going to do that. And then

[00:07:38] Michael and his family used to celebrate on Christmas Eve also because they would always go

[00:07:43] to his grandparents' house when they were living and do the, um, lighting of Papa Noel on the levee

[00:07:50] in Gramercy and Letcher area. And so that was their tradition, which they're no longer,

[00:07:55] no longer living. So I was able to go one year. Yeah. One year, but, um, yeah, we've,

[00:08:00] you know, we used to go to like my dad's parents' house for the Christmas parade and all that,

[00:08:06] but now that our grandparents have passed, it's like, we just try to like compare schedules and

[00:08:11] see when everybody can get together. Yeah. I know there's just so much going on and there's so little

[00:08:14] time. Yeah. But I am curious if other people want to like comment when we post about this episode,

[00:08:20] I'm curious what other people's Christmas traditions are. I would love to know. Yeah. I would love to

[00:08:24] know. We, and we've done so many different things at mom's side specifically over the years. So

[00:08:28] there's nothing like we did mostly fueled by uncle Frank, which is really nice because he always

[00:08:33] tried to make it special. Um, but he wanted, we did different stuff when we were little. Like I

[00:08:38] remember one year, which I can't even imagine doing that now. Um, we went caroling and none of us can

[00:08:45] sing, um, except like a few people, but we, we went through the neighborhood and like knocked on doors

[00:08:50] after we ate and, and thinking about it now kind of makes my skin curl. We went caroling one year,

[00:08:57] but now when we get together for our big family Christmas party, we have like one of the families

[00:09:04] made these books. And so we, y'all have songs and y'all sing together. That's really nice. Yeah. And

[00:09:10] so uncle Frank, if it's at his house, which it was the times that like he really planned it, you know,

[00:09:15] cause we rotate also, um, he plays piano and so he has like a baby grand. And so he would always do,

[00:09:21] even if it, even if we didn't carol, which I think we only did once or twice,

[00:09:24] um, he always plays music and it's always so much fun. And then one year he, he tried to like make

[00:09:31] traditions, but nothing ever like super stuck. So one year we did, he bought all the stuff so that

[00:09:35] all the kids could make gingerbread houses. Yeah. We used to do that too. There's just a bunch of

[00:09:39] stuff that we used to do, but it wasn't anything specific that like stuck that we did every year,

[00:09:43] you know, but it just makes, um, like the magic of the Christmas season extra when adults kind of

[00:09:50] go above and beyond for kids, because that's my, you know, those are my memories of it.

[00:09:54] Um, anyways, I know we've kind of gone off. Yeah. I mean, we can just talk about Christmas,

[00:09:59] this whole episode if you want. Christmas is my favorite holiday. I love Christmas time.

[00:10:03] I do. I love Christmas time, but it's also just, it's kind of stressful.

[00:10:09] It's super stressful. Well, as an adult, it's very stressful. Yeah. Um, but yeah,

[00:10:13] but I think I'm, I think I'm first. Oh, are we going to talk about books? Let's do it. Okay.

[00:10:17] All right. Sure. I love this book. Okay. It was on my list of my 10 before the end. Um,

[00:10:24] it is a rom-com and I guess, yeah, it's a rom-com more than anything. Um, is she really

[00:10:30] going out with him by Sophie cousins? Is this your book? That was, I'm not doing it today,

[00:10:34] but that was the book that I, I was back and forth between doing a Christmas book and a rom-com

[00:10:40] and that was the rom-com. Well, great. So yeah, let's talk about it. I read it and I loved it.

[00:10:44] Okay. Loved it. Yeah. It was really good. Okay. So, um, honestly I'm in my car laughing,

[00:10:51] like out loud laughing at times. So Anna Appleby, which again, great name. Yeah. Um,

[00:10:56] so good is a columnist and she works for this, you know, magazine and bath. Um, there it's British,

[00:11:03] obviously it's, I want to visit baths. Yeah. Let's do it. Um,

[00:11:09] Um, I mean bath, I mean to visit bath, excuse me. She's been at this same,

[00:11:14] at her same job for, I don't know, quite a long time, years. Um, she's recently divorced. She's 37.

[00:11:21] She has two children, uh, a young son who's probably, I don't know, 10, something like that. And then a

[00:11:27] teenage daughter. Yeah. Um, she has a cat. She loves to watch TV. Catness. Um, throughout the novel,

[00:11:37] when it's like her by herself in the evenings or wherever she is, she'll like Google things and

[00:11:42] it's like her Google history. And it's so funny. That was my favorite part of the book. Hands down.

[00:11:48] So funny. Her Google search history. It would be like, um, George Clooney's wife age, um, does,

[00:11:54] and then it was like, um, a Mal Clooney, uh, shampoo. And then it's like putting in my cart now buying,

[00:12:02] you know, like it's stuff like that. And she would just go through, or I, the funniest one was,

[00:12:05] um, where she was Googling this, uh, actor and she was like, Ryan such and such. And then she's

[00:12:12] like wife. And then she'd do another one. And then she'd be like naked. And she's like, delete history.

[00:12:16] How to delete my search history. It was so funny. Um, anyway, she's a bit of a mess,

[00:12:24] but really funny and sweet. A very lovable mess. Totally lovable. So, um, recently, um,

[00:12:30] Will, I don't remember his last name, but, um, I have no idea. Yeah. Will Havers. Oh yeah. Havers.

[00:12:38] So Will Havers, um, has joined in at her, um, at her job and he's a little bit younger than her. I

[00:12:44] think he's like 30. He's a real go-getter. Um, she, you know, when you've been at a job for a while and

[00:12:50] you're doing your job and then someone sparkly comes in and they're all excited and they're

[00:12:55] trying to like do new stuff. And to a degree, you're like, that's what they should be doing.

[00:12:59] But in your mind, you're like, he's going to make more work for me. He's trying to take my job.

[00:13:04] And so she, um, being recently divorced, um, she needs this job to take care of her kids. And so

[00:13:10] she's feeling like she's getting kind of pushed to the side, um, by him or that he's trying to

[00:13:18] overstep. Right. That's how she feels. Cause he like gives her comments on her articles all the

[00:13:24] time. And it's like, you misspelled four words and there are seven grammatical errors. She's like,

[00:13:28] I don't need this. Yeah. She's like, it's not the final draft. Um, so she has her own column

[00:13:35] and the public or the, the magazine is being bought. And when they're told this, the, I don't know,

[00:13:44] her boss basically says, um, the editors like, uh, the new people coming in, the new company doesn't

[00:13:51] really like your column. Um, and they, and she was like, what do you mean? I get really good

[00:13:55] feedback. And they're like, right. But we're looking for more, you know, the 25 to 30 crowd

[00:13:59] years, your column gets like the 65 plus crowd. And, and so we'll base that he's like, we're

[00:14:07] going to give it to will. And she's like, what are you talking about? No, you know, this is,

[00:14:10] this is what, and she feels like anxiety from this, you know, this is what she does. Um,

[00:14:18] so he decides that he's going to do like a dating column. And so she basically says, well,

[00:14:23] I can date, I can do that. And so from there, the premise of her new assignment is that her

[00:14:32] kids will select the men that she goes on dates with. And it's supposed to be like 10 dates or

[00:14:37] something like that. And then Will jumps in and is basically like, well, why don't we do like a co

[00:14:43] writing? And she's like, son of a gun, like this guy. So he's, they're going to do similar dates and

[00:14:49] then, um, kind of write together and produce the column together. Um, obviously sparks fly. Um,

[00:14:57] and it's just so laugh out loud, funny. Like, I feel like you can hear the glee in my voice. Like,

[00:15:02] I just loved it. And, um, I love both of them so much. Yes. Um, I love like just the dates that

[00:15:11] come about because her children picked them is just absolute hilarious. It's hilarious. And,

[00:15:17] um, at first you're, you're kind of on the same mind, you know, like what she's thinking about him

[00:15:24] and then it's not really who he is, you know? Yeah. Um, but they're enemies to lovers. It's just so

[00:15:30] fun and juicy. It's a good one. Yeah. It's a really good one. I mean, again, probably shouldn't

[00:15:35] date your coworker, but you know, whatever. Love is love. Okay. Wherever you can find it. Exactly.

[00:15:44] Uh, yeah. I, I very much enjoyed this book. I finished it last night actually.

[00:15:51] Um, okay. I'm doing a Christmas book and honestly it is so, um, just original and clever and like

[00:16:03] nothing I've ever read before that it just really, really excited me. Okay. So it is called

[00:16:09] the nightmare before Christmas by Sarah. I don't know how to say her last name. Okay. So

[00:16:18] it says red, white and Royal blue meets the nightmare before Christmas and a sexy quirky rom-com.

[00:16:25] So here we go. This is going to be interesting to explain. Okay. Each of the holidays, Christmas,

[00:16:32] Halloween, Easter, um, new years, they all have their own like kingdoms basically. Okay. And

[00:16:45] so there is like father Christmas is like the king of Christmas and there is, uh, the point

[00:16:52] of view that the book is written from is the prince of Christmas and his, he goes by Cole.

[00:17:00] Cole, his name's Nicholas, but he doesn't want to be known as Nicholas. So he goes by Cole.

[00:17:05] Okay. Um, which, you know, is just, there's so many clever things throughout this book that

[00:17:11] I just, I was, I was really impressed by it. So at the beginning of the book, Cole is in

[00:17:17] college by the way, like the main characters are, are in college. They're getting ready to

[00:17:22] take over their kingdoms and their whatever. Okay. Um, at the beginning of the book, Cole

[00:17:29] is really just fed up with his dad and with Christmas in general. And he decides to go

[00:17:34] to people's like letters where they're right to Santa and they, you know, say what their

[00:17:39] wishes are. And he's like, he takes this small country, which is made up. I don't remember

[00:17:44] the name of it. And he's like, I'm just going to grant all of their wishes. And he like,

[00:17:48] ends up sending the entire country into like economic, I don't know, just, he just completely

[00:17:53] ruins her economy. And it's like, like, like millions of packages all show up on one day.

[00:17:59] I mean, it's just absolute chaos. So that just gives you a little insight into his character.

[00:18:04] So he and his brother, um, Chris go home to North Pole city for the holidays and his, their

[00:18:17] friend, um, Ivy, who is a princess of Easter. Um, and her sister's name is like Lily or something

[00:18:25] like they're both flowers. Um, they're good friends. And so she's there too. And find out

[00:18:33] that their fathers, the King of Christmas and the King of Easter have conspired to combine

[00:18:40] their holidays by marrying Cole and Ivy. And this is just really going to monopolize

[00:18:50] the, the amount of joy that Christmas and Easter have. And it's not fair to the other holidays.

[00:19:00] Cole and Ivy, even though they're really good friends, like they don't want to get married.

[00:19:03] They're friends. They're not in love with each other. Meanwhile, a small competition ensues

[00:19:10] where Halloween comes in and says, this is not fair to us. So we're sending in our prince

[00:19:17] whose name is Hex. And he is also going to vie for Ivy's hand.

[00:19:26] So Hex, who is just this like dark, like character, he comes in and he's like, yeah, yeah, I'm gonna,

[00:19:37] I'm, you know, I also want to marry Ivy. But what ends up happening is that Cole and Hex

[00:19:45] have a thing for each other. Okay.

[00:19:51] So the Prince of Halloween and the Prince of Christmas.

[00:19:54] I love it. I love it. I'm all in.

[00:19:56] It is just, I can't wait to read it.

[00:19:58] It is so entertaining.

[00:20:00] I love it. I'm in. I'm great. I'm ready. I'm ready to, I want to know. I want to know what happens.

[00:20:05] It sounds so fun.

[00:20:07] It's so clever.

[00:20:09] I never, I never in a million years would have thought of something like this. And she just does

[00:20:14] such a good job with it. And it's really, really enjoyable read.

[00:20:17] That's awesome.

[00:20:18] Yep.

[00:20:19] Two five stars.

[00:20:20] So, yeah. So the Nightmare Before Kissmas is obviously combining.

[00:20:24] I love it.

[00:20:24] Halloween and Christmas.

[00:20:26] That's great.

[00:20:26] Plus rom-com. It's wonderful.

[00:20:29] You know what else is wonderful?

[00:20:30] RT.

[00:20:31] Oh my God. I love it. Why do I love it so much?

[00:20:34] Because it's so good.

[00:20:36] Oh my gosh, it's good.

[00:20:38] Anna's got a good cover.

[00:20:41] So it's from Republic of Tea and it's part of their Bridgerton Tees line. And this one

[00:20:47] specifically is the Bridgerton Brothers Triple Earl Grey. And on the front, it has a photo

[00:20:53] of the three Bridgerton Brothers. Hello.

[00:20:58] Chef's guest. It's beautiful. Oh, it's so good.

[00:21:01] Um, yes. So this twist on, okay, sorry. I was making sure I was reading the right part.

[00:21:10] This twist on traditional, I can't talk.

[00:21:18] You want me to read it?

[00:21:20] No, I got it. Maybe.

[00:21:21] Maybe. This twist on traditional Earl Grey is anything but boring. Rakes, artists, and

[00:21:29] lovers can all depend on this black tea with bergamot, orange, and lemon to get them through

[00:21:34] their day whenever their endless charms and good looks fail to impress. And it is delicious.

[00:21:41] Delicious.

[00:21:42] It has black tea, apple bits, organic lemongrass, organic lemon peel, natural sweet orange,

[00:21:50] and lemon flavors with other natural flavors and natural bergamot oil.

[00:21:54] It's delicious. So good.

[00:21:57] Oh my. I think I'm just gonna...

[00:22:00] Yeah, I'm gonna have to take a picture of that because I'm gonna have to get them.

[00:22:03] Oh, because you want to get your own, not because you just want a picture of the three

[00:22:07] Bridgerton brothers to look at?

[00:22:09] No, I'm not like that enamored by them, but I do want to drink this tea again.

[00:22:13] It's very good.

[00:22:15] Well, I'm just gonna sit here and fawn over the three Bridgerton brothers. And there's

[00:22:22] a little bee buzzing by Anthony's head.

[00:22:27] Cute.

[00:22:27] All right. Well, on that note...

[00:22:29] Cheers.

[00:22:30] Cheers.

[00:22:31] Cheers.

[00:22:32] Thanks for listening. Be sure to check out the show notes for the full list of books

[00:22:35] we discussed today. You can find that in your podcast app or on our website, inkdrinkerspodcast.com.

[00:22:42] And please support us by subscribing anywhere you listen to podcasts and leaving a review.

[00:22:47] You can find us on Instagram and on Twitter at inkdrinkerspod.

[00:22:52] Cheers.