This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 2537.
Cozy up with these holiday phrasal verbs.
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One of the best ways to connect in English is asking about holiday plans and traditions.
Today, you'll learn five phrasal verbs to connect about the holidays.
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Michelle, Merry Christmas.
Merry Christmas, Aubrey.
It is Christmas Day.
Yes, it's December 25th.
So Aubrey, I want to know, do you deck out your house with holiday decorations?
Not at all.
My husband is quite anti-decorations.
I thought you were going to say your house was totally decked out.
Oh, no.
You know, we deck it out a little more for Halloween.
We have a lot of Halloween decorations and all these giant skeletons we put up.
But for Christmas, we just have the Christmas tree.
And we have these little pre-lit little trees that are like white lights on our front yard.
But that's it.
Oh, and I guess there's like the stock.
We like hang stockings on the.
We have a little fireplace, but other than that not a lot of Christmas decorations.
We have holiday decorations up in our house.
Like I just, I don't know, just, we have just down our staircase, just, you know, some lights.
And then we just started putting up lights like in front of our windows.
So I guess I do a wreath on the front door as well.
So that's something.
Yeah.
But a lot of people really deck out their houses.
So many lights blow up those.
I really hate those in the United States guys out there listening.
Maybe you have them where you live as well.
But there are these blow up decorations that are like pushing air into them.
And there'll be giant snowmen and reindeer and Santa, whatever.
I really don't like them.
I'm like the Grinch when it comes to those blow up decorations.
You're like walking around like popping them with a knife.
No, not that far.
But I don't love them.
My kids like them.
I should embrace them more.
But I just think they're really tacky.
You just gave me an episode idea.
Embrace.
Because you could have said I should embrace them more.
Literally, I should hug them more.
Oh, that's true.
We also say embrace for hug.
That's going to be a good episode wherever you guys are.
Hit follow if you're not.
That will be a fun episode.
Yes.
And guys, also, don't worry.
Lindsay will be back soon.
She is on vacation.
And Aubrey and I are getting to record together this week.
But Lindsay will be back.
So today we're talking about the holiday season, more so actually the cold weather.
And we're going to be talking about phrasal verbs today, because there are a lot of really good ones dealing with the cold weather or the holiday season.
So that's what we're going to be getting into today.
Yes, this is really fun.
This first one we're diving into is cozy up.
I love this.
Meaning like to get comfy, maybe sit by the fire with a cup of hot cocoa or a glass of red wine.
I love to sit in front of a fire with a glass of red wine.
Yeah, I feel very adult.
It does.
Yes, it does.
And a nice throw blanket.
It's finally getting cold enough here in Arizona where, because we have like a I guess it's just a gas
It's like a natural gas fire, which isn't as fun.
We'll do like a fire pit outside with real wood, but in our home, it's just a natural gas fire.
But I love to sit in front of it with a blanket, cozying up.
Yeah.
So you could say, let's cozy up by the fire and have a movie night tonight.
So that's what my son has been all about recently is just a movie night.
He's because he's going through all the holiday movies.
He just finished all the Santa Claus movies.
Oh, I love those.
Those are fun with Tim Allen.
Yes, they are fun, yes.
And then last night he watched Home Alone and I think he's just.
I think because it is so cold here.
You know, normally I was telling Lindsay, normally he's out, you know on his bike and everything, but it's kind of nice to be like oh let's, let's have a movie night.
So Yeah, it's cold out.
Let's cozy up by the fire.
Let's cozy up in a blanket and watch a movie.
I love it.
Or you might say, on Christmas, I just like to cozy up with my family and relax at home.
And this depending on the weather, like this is very.
If it's cold out snowy, there's nothing better than cozying up inside.
Yes, exactly.
So when you want to cozy up, Aubrey, what do you do?
Yeah, if it's cold out, I do.
I definitely need the blanket.
We have some of those really soft, thick blankets that I love.
And we have a pretty comfy couch.
For the longest time, we were buying couches for their looks, like they looked good.
And then we finally got a lovesack couch because it's so comfortable.
You did?
Yes, I love it.
Oh, those are nice.
That's the best couch to cozy up on.
They're really comfy.
It's like you're on a cloud.
So it lives up to the hype?
It really does.
They are super comfortable.
We sat on it and we're like, this is the one.
That's awesome.
Oh, how cool.
I definitely shopped around and sat on some of those when I was looking for a couch.
Mine ended up being from Macy's and I also love it.
So yeah, love to cozy up on the couch.
So all right, the next one is bundle up.
Super important.
So this means to put on layers of clothes to stay warm.
So this is one thing I miss about Christmas or the holidays in New York.
We had to bundle up.
I remember I had leg warmers and sweaters, lots of layers, a heavy wool coat.
I don't need any of that in Arizona.
I'm lucky if I need a sweater, maybe a jacket.
It just doesn't get that cold.
And I miss that.
I really like to bundle up.
That's funny.
I don't like to bundle.
You don't.
It's a lot of work when you're bundling up kids.
That's true.
But I think that I do like the cozying up inside and that feeling, but I don't necessarily want to bundle up to be cold.
I know what you mean.
My grandma always said.
My mom told me that my grandma would say oh, I would rather be too hot than too cold, because either way you're going to be miserable.
And when you're too cold, you just have to get all dressed up to be miserable.
That's funny.
I know.
The worst thing about bundling up is when you put all of these layers and then someone's running behind.
And so you're like sweating.
You're so warm inside because you're bundled up to be out in the cold.
You're like, hurry up.
Yes, that's true.
So yeah, here are some examples.
Bundle up for the tree lighting tonight.
It's freezing.
Yeah, and that would mean put on extra layers, a heavy coat, scarves, right?
Bundle up.
Or I bought her a scarf so she can bundle up on her trip up north.
I miss needing a scarf, Michelle.
I'm jealous that where you live, you need a scarf.
I haven't worn a scarf in years.
Yeah.
It just doesn't get that cold here.
It's funny because my cousin recently came to visit and she was she lives in Tampa.
So she was so confused about what will she wear.
And it was just so funny that how much she was preparing for it.
But it is true.
You know, you get those warmer days and then you're hot.
And I don't know I tend to.
Now that I drive more, I find that my jacket is just kind of in the car and I just get in the car without wearing anything.
You know any sort of jacket really?
And then I just like if I'm just going to quickly walk into a place, I won't even wear a jacket.
And then I'm just freezing on the whole walk.
But that's funny.
You know, when I bundled up the most is when I lived in Quebec.
It is so cold in Montreal, the river, the St.
Lawrence River is right there.
And the humidity, it just goes through your bones.
So I would have to put on so many layers.
And I had a giant down coat It was so, you had to really bundle up.
We could not have gotten away with that trick of throwing a jacket in the car and hoping we'd be fine.
You had to really bundle up.
Yeah.
Oh my gosh.
I bet.
All right.
We're going to teach a few more after the break.
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All right, Aubrey, we are back.
So the next one is warm up.
So this one is to do something to become warm.
So it's kind of like, I mean, it's not necessarily cozy up.
It's not necessarily about being cozy, but it's just about getting the temperature up.
So it could be sitting by the fire, drinking something hot, whatever it is.
Or even just going inside if you're cold and you're like, I got to go inside to warm up.
But yeah, we often will say warm up instead of whatever the other options are to get warmer, to be right.
We'll just say to warm up.
So you must be cold.
Let's warm up with a hot cocoa.
Yes, or I'll be out to play in the snow in 10 minutes.
I just want to warm up a bit first.
Yeah, we went once to my in-laws cabin, which is a couple hours north of us, when there was a ton of snow.
And it took so long to warm up the cabin because it had been empty for quite a while.
They had little space heaters and we lit a fire.
So we'd be out playing in the snow and we'd go inside to warm up.
And it wasn't any warmer inside.
So we're like right by the fire trying to warm up our fingers.
Oh, God.
Oh, gosh, that sounds like there's nowhere to warm up.
Everywhere's cold.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
So these next ones aren't really about temperature or that cozy feeling, but they have to do with the holiday season.
So the first one is to sell out.
And this means that a place had something.
And this is really about gifts or maybe even to food.
And they don't have it anymore.
So they sold out.
Yeah.
So, for example, Trisha said she wants that toy, but so does every kid in the area.
Let's go to the store now before they sell out.
This reminds me of Magic Mixies.
Did you ever hear of Magic Mixies?
This was a couple of years ago.
It's this toy and it was selling out everywhere.
So we went and tried to buy it early and they were kind of expensive.
And then it was no offense to Magic Mixie, we we used it once and it was kind of like you put in the little chemicals and so it would like.
It was kind of like um, a witch's cauldron but pink and princessy, and you it would like have kind of a fog smoke situation and then it would like birth a little stuffed animal.
Oh my gosh.
It's kind of crazy.
That's hilarious thinking about it now and you could like buy refill packs to do it again.
But we never did and it was like eighty dollars, Oh my gosh.
Why did we get, it's almost like we only bought it because it was selling out everywhere.
It was not worth it.
Well, yeah, that's what happens.
And then there's always that's why you hear about those fights, you know fights that parents have trying to get their kids the best gift before they sell out.
Oh my gosh.
Terrible.
Aubrey, what were the popular toys when you were a kid?
I was just talking to my kids about pogs.
Do you remember pogs?
Of course!
They were these flat disks of whatever plastic or whatever, and then the main ones, the The big What the king.
Or, like, metal?
Yeah, they were just, like, a thicker... Uh-huh.
And...
I don't know why they don't make them anymore.
I think my kids would love pogs or maybe they do.
I actually looked up and you can buy them, but they're expensive now because they're not like mass production.
But I think if someone came out with pogs that it would like blow up and all the kids would want them.
Because they were fun.
Yeah, I could see that.
I could see them coming back.
Collecting and playing with them.
Yeah.
I'm thinking of like the Tamagotchi.
Oh, yeah.
That was a huge one.
And then also remember Furbies.
I think those are still out, right?
They probably are.
They're so creepy.
I don't understand the drama for me.
They make these weird little noises.
They make these weird little noises.
Yeah, that was like a big, oh, you got to get them before they sell out.
Beanie babies, of course.
My daughter has my beanie babies now.
And she always wants to take the tags off.
You know, you're supposed to keep the tags on.
And I'm like, no, that's the name tag.
Don't do it.
Oh, that's so funny.
She's like, I don't want this tag on here.
Yeah, like every other tag you would rush to take off.
But a beanie baby, I'm like, no, I don't know.
It's just I can't do it.
Really funny.
I never had beanie babies, but i remember the craze oh oh, my god, and i feel like there was this idea that you would be able to resell them and make a fortune.
That never happened.
You can no no no no um, all right, so the last one is deck out, which we talked about in the beginning.
Right we, i asked you if you deck out your house um, so this is generally about making a place very nice decorations.
Think of deck the halls, right?
To deck.
So it's about decorating.
Put up a lot of decorations.
Yeah.
Interesting.
That is straight.
I've never thought about that.
The verb deck comes from decorations probably, right?
But it's spelled differently.
Yeah.
I only thought about, yeah, it's, I guess so.
I guess so.
That makes sense.
Is it like, just like we're abbreviating, are we just shortening the word decorate?
I guess so.
But it's funny how I never thought about that.
Yeah, same.
Because it's also spelled D-E-C-K.
It's not just like D-E-C.
I don't think of the words as related, but it's like I'm decking the halls with decorations.
Right, right, exactly.
So my mom is so good at decorating.
Seriously, she decks out our whole house with colorful lights.
Nice.
Or you have to see the lobby.
It's completely decked out.
My mother-in-law decks out her house.
She has a storage unit full of holiday decorations.
Because they just have so much they can't fit it in their garage or wherever.
That's when you know someone really decks out their place when they're buying storage units.
Yes, exactly.
Yeah.
But I you were talking about Halloween, and definitely it's always.
We always try and go trick or treating, not necessarily in the closest place to us, but where the you know where you can see the best decorations.
Yes, because that's so much fun.
So I love that.
I agree.
We have a good street for that.
Lots of those big 20-foot skeletons.
It's fun.
Oh, that's fun.
That's fun.
People spend a lot of money on that.
I know.
They're kind of expensive.
And then the storage, they fit into this giant box.
So we have an outdoor shed for our Halloween skeletons.
Oh my gosh.
That's dedication.
That for sure is.
Let's do a role play here with this fun vocab.
All of these phrasal verbs here.
Michelle and I are friends talking about our holiday plans.
Yes.
Okay.
So I'm going to my friend's house for Christmas Eve.
We love to go see the lights in her neighborhood because it's completely decked out.
Her neighbors do such a great job.
That's awesome.
But it will be cold.
So be sure to bundle up.
Oh, of course.
We will go for a little and then warm up with hot cocoa.
Oh, that sounds nice.
Then you can cozy up with a movie.
Yes, definitely.
And give out toys.
But I have to start shopping now before they sell out.
Yeah, so we have to shop early, right?
Oh, great role play.
This is fun.
We used all of these phrasal verbs.
This, you know.
The neighborhood being completely decked out in that first example reminds me we have this area.
We call it Christmas on Comstock.
The street is Comstock.
And they all are so decked out, tons of Christmas lights and they'll have cocoa.
You can walk and like get cocoa.
And so there'll be like a line of cars six miles long like waiting to just drive through there every Christmas.
So I just avoid the whole area entirely unless we're going to try and see the lights.
I can't imagine living there.
You'd never be able to get to your house.
Right.
They have to be in before dark.
Oh, wow. but that sounds cool.
That sounds really interesting.
Yeah.
That was the first use here.
The neighborhood is completely decked out, just like that area here.
So here we're describing it as decked out.
We're not saying to deck out.
We're describing it as decked out.
Right.
It means just decorated a lot.
And then you said it will be cold, so be sure to bundle up, right?
So to put on All your things, your gloves, your hat, your scarf, what Aubrey wishes she could wear.
All those layers, especially if you're going to be outside for a long time.
That's when it's especially important to bundle up.
You can't just throw on a coat and call it good.
Yes.
And then you said we'll go for a little and then warm up with hot cocoa.
So, yeah, you know you're going to be outside in the cold.
You plan on warming up after, whether that's going somewhere warm or drinking a hot cocoa to warm up.
And then you said, then you can cozy up with a movie.
So that's the idea of sitting on your nice couch with your blanket and having a red wine or hot chocolate.
Absolutely.
Cozy up by the fire.
And then you said, got to start shopping now before these toys sell out.
Means there won't be any more because they're so popular.
Perfect.
All right.
Oh, my gosh, this was fun.
So also, guys, check out episode 2533.
That was what are you wishing for your English?
So another good episode.
Yes.
Awesome.
That was a great one.
And this is so fun.
It is.
Such a great connection skill to talk with people about their holiday decorations or their holiday plans, especially if someone has decked out their home.
They would love to be asked about it because that's a lot of work and expense, right?
Yes, yes, exactly.
So definitely use these as good conversation topics.
And also yeah, we'll end the episode by saying if you celebrate Christmas, we wish you a Merry Christmas or any other holiday that you celebrate during this season.
Yes.
Happy holidays, everyone.
So fun.
I'm glad we were able to be here together on Christmas Day, Michelle.
So cozy.
Yes, very cozy.
All right, Aubrey, I'll talk to you soon.
Talk to you soon.
Bye.
Bye.
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