If there’s one thing the holidays guarantee, it’s this: Something will go off the rails. A dish won’t turn out. A kid will melt down. A relative will offer an opinion no one asked for.
And in my case?
Someone will bring up the infamous Corvette story from my childhood—a reminder that holiday expectations often collide with reality in hilarious ways.
This year on the Positively Altered Podcast, I brought back two of my favorite humans: Joey Coleman and Dr. Jay Greenstein.
The three of us spent an hour laughing our way through family rituals, food debates, and the kind of holiday chaos that makes you question why you ever thought your family was the weird one.
Here are hilarious episode highlights:
- There’s a soft versus hard matzo balls debate (I’m pretty sure this could divide small nations).
- There’s the legendary Coleman Pirate Day, proving some families run entirely on imagination and sugar.
- There are stories of gifts that landed—and the ones that absolutely did not.
And woven through all that laughter is something deeper: The truth that the holidays amplify everything we’re already carrying: Joy, gratitude, old grief, new hope, and the quiet longing for things to be easier or more perfect than they ever really are.
What I love most about this episode is how human it feels. None of us pretended we have flawless, magazine-ready holidays.
We have real ones—beautiful, loud, imperfect, full of quirks and connection. And when we talked about New Year’s rituals, the words we want to claim, and the visions we’re building for 2026, I realized something:
The magic of this season isn’t in the performance. It’s in the presence.
So, whether you celebrate with latkes, turkey, tamales, tacos, or takeout . . . whether you’re riding a wave of joy or navigating a tender kind of holiday . . . consider this your reminder:
You don’t need perfection to make meaning. You just need people you love, moments you notice, and the willingness to show up as yourself.
Here’s to a season that’s messy, warm, funny, and gloriously unhinged in all the right ways. And here’s to the connection that carries us into a brighter year ahead.
Be positively altered,
Dr. Cindy M. Howard
P.S. As you head into the holidays, give yourself permission to be fully human. Laugh at the chaos, honor the tender moments, notice the rituals that ground you, and let connection win over perfection every time. That’s the real gift of this season—and it’s yours for the taking.