Lesson: Should You Skip Christmas?/ExerciseL1

Listening Exercise

<quiz display=simple> {Watch the video and complete the text according to what you can understand. |type="{}"} Here comes Santa Claus! It's that time of the year again and… There is absolutely no way to escape the fact that the winter { holidays_9 } are happening in America. That's right: you can't { ignore_7 } it, even if you wanted to… Short of hopping on a plane and going to an island where they never { heard_6 } of American culture. And that's why I was having this conversation with Dr. Marie Hartwell Walker. I'm psychologist and family { therapist_10 } and I've been in practice for almost 35 years. And she's { written_8 } on the importance of the holidays for families. Although, she is the first to admit that the { winter_7 } holidays can be really toxic for a lot of people. If I go home for Christmas, will dad get drunk again? Will mom be, hmm, at me again about my { weight_7 } or my grades or my, hmm, lack of having whatever, enough children, too many dogs, I don’t know. So, since I was talking with a professional I { thought_8 } I would ask: “Is it dangerous to just, I don’t know, { skip_5 } the holidays … take a break?” I don’t think it's { dangerous_10 } to skip the holidays, but I think it is a missed { opportunity_12 }. Our lives can be so unstable. Life { changes_8 } day after day after day and traditions provide some predictability in an { otherwise_10 } unpredictable world. So, just think of yourself as a { small_6 } child and how many new things might happen within the course of a day. And some of those { experiences_12 } may be confusing or bewildering or even frightening. And some of those new experiences are wonderful but can also be overwhelming. So, the nighttime ritual usually is something like { dinner_7 }, bath, hmm, story time, drink. And the stories are two or three favorites right? Yeah It gives them { something_10 } solid that they can hold onto in an otherwise very unpredictable world. And, that's { important_10 } stuff! It's { helping_8 } the child pull together all of that { random_7 } new stuff and make some sense of it. So if we're { talking_8 } about Christmas, we're really talking about one huge { tradition_10 }. We do the tree, we get { presents_9 }, we sing these carols, we go to this event. And these traditions give us some predictability that help us pause and make sense of our { lives_6 }. You go home, mom makes the same { cookies_8 } she has always made. You have the same turkey or roast beef you always had. Right, but what if you don’t have good { childhood_10 } memories? Those winter holidays can be an opportunity to set something new in { motion_7 }, and I really encourage the people who are distressed about the holidays to think about what they would like to have happen. What piece of that wish that you always had as a kid: Can you, in fact, uh, do now that you're the { grown_6 } up? Because we can.