Hello, everyone, and welcome back to EnglishPod.
My name is Marco.
My name is Catherine, and we are your English language guides here at EnglishPod.
That's right, and today we're going to be taking you to Christmas morning.
It's Christmas Day.
Oh, one of the best times of the year.
You wake up, you smell the good smell of delicious eggs and bacon, and there's presents.
Yeah, I guess that's when you're a kid, though.
I guess when you're an adult, do you really get excited when you wake up for Christmas?
Hell yeah.
Sure do.
Yeah, I sure do.
I love Christmas morning, even as an adult.
Especially, I think, because of the special breakfast you get, like pancakes, scrambled eggs.
But anyways, we're going to be taking a look at a situation here where a kid is opening Christmas presents and we're preparing a meal for Christmas, because that day people are going to come over.
So let's listen to this dialogue for the first time.
Dad!
Dad!
Dad!
Wake up!
It's Christmas!
Timmy, it's too early for this.
Look, it's six in the morning.
Go back to bed.
No way!
Santa already came and left all our presents.
Can we go open them, please?
Please?
Of course we can, honey.
Bill, come on, get dressed.
Fine.
Not like Santa brought me any gifts.
Bill, honestly, you can be such a grouch sometimes.
Look at all these presents under the Christmas tree!
Awesome!
Alright Timmy, knock yourself out.
We should get ready and head to the market to buy everything for Christmas dinner tonight.
Yeah, you're right.
It's the first time we're hosting Christmas dinner at our house, so everything has to be perfect.
I got the list right here.
Ham, turkey, mashed potatoes, ingredients for the gravy, and of course, yams.
My dad offered to bring the eggnog, so we should be set.
Alright, we're back.
So there were a couple of different and interesting words there, so let's take a look at them now in Language Takeaway.
Language Takeaway Okay, this first word is not a very happy word.
It's a word that we try not to use too much around the Christmas season.
But sometimes you're just tired of people because the holidays is all about people and doing stuff.
Someone who's not being very happy, someone who's a little bit grumpy is called a grouch.
Okay, so a person that's not very happy, not very friendly is a grouch.
I don't want to open presents.
This is stupid.
Okay, that's a grouch.
Okay, so a person is a grouch or you can act like a grouch or be a grouch.
Don't be a grouch.
All right.
And well, they were talking about heading to the market to buy something for dinner.
So to head to.
Okay, to head to is a way to say to go towards someplace or to go somewhere.
All right.
So if I'm driving my car and you ask me where I'm going, I'm saying oh, I'm heading to the bank.
Right.
So, to head to means to be on your way somewhere.
I'm going somewhere.
It's a way to say that you're in the process of going.
You can't say, next year I will head to Alaska.
Okay.
It doesn't make as much sense.
You usually say, you know, I'm heading to the bank or let's head to the market.
Okay.
And, well, they were talking about heading to the market because they are hosting Christmas dinner.
So, to host...
To host is a, well, it's a very important holiday term.
It's a verb.
You do it.
And it means that you are the person who has the special dinner and your friends and family.
They come to your house.
Okay.
Okay.
So we could say this Christmas, I'm hosting the dinner at my house.
So I want everyone to come to my house and eat.
All right.
And it can also be a noun, right?
You can say, I am a host.
Exactly.
I'm the host of this dinner.
Right.
And it doesn't have to be holidays either.
You could say, hey, Marco, how about you host a dinner next week?
I'll come.
Right.
Okay.
I'll bring wine.
All right.
So, to host a dinner or to host a party, etc.
And our fourth word for language takeaway is probably the most popular drink during the Christmas season eggnog.
Okay, it sounds kind of disgusting.
Yeah, a drink with egg.
But it's a very popular creamy eggy drink.
It's very thick and it's cream colored.
And normally you add a little bit of rum.
Okay, so it's alcoholic.
Yeah, and you drink it warm.
And it's kind of just a thick, warm, alcoholic beverage that's very, very popular.
And my dad loves it.
During Christmas, right?
During Christmas.
Usually you don't have it like any other day.
No, you wouldn't want to.
It's too heavy.
But it's very, very popular like the days before Christmas and on Christmas.
Okay, so eggnog.
Very good.
So I think we should take a look at the dialogue again and we'll be back soon with Fluency Builder.
Dad, dad, dad!
Wake up!
It's Christmas!
Timmy, it's too early for this.
Look, it's six in the morning.
Go back to bed.
No way!
Santa already came and left all our presents.
Can we go open them, please?
Please?
Of course we can, honey.
Bill, come on, get dressed.
Fine.
Not like Santa brought me any gifts.
Bill, honestly, you can be such a grouch sometimes.
Look at all these presents under the Christmas tree!
Awesome!
All right, Timmy, knock yourself out.
We should get ready and head to the market to buy everything for Christmas dinner tonight.
Yeah, you're right.
It's the first time we're hosting Christmas dinner at our house, so everything has to be perfect.
I got the list right here.
Ham, turkey, mashed potatoes, ingredients for the gravy, and of course, yams.
My dad offered to bring the eggnog, so we should be set.
Alright, we're back, so now let's take a look at a couple of phrases on Fluency Builder.
Fluency Builder.
Okay, so this first phrase is a phrase that I often heard as a child, because I never wanted to go to sleep.
So I'd go downstairs and my parents would say, Catherine, go back to bed.
Go back to bed.
Okay, go back to bed.
So this is just a very common colloquial spoken way of saying go back to sleep.
Go to sleep.
Don't be awake.
So you can say go to sleep or you can say go to bed.
Or if somebody has gotten out of bed, you say go back to bed.
Exactly.
And so parents often use this with their kids because they want their kids to sleep.
But you can also say it about someone who's, you know, up at night worrying.
And you say, come on, go back to bed.
Relax.
Go sleep.
Relax.
Okay.
And then we also saw this phrase, knock yourself out.
All right, Timmy, knock yourself out.
So what is this?
Knock yourself out.
Well, I'm not really sure where this phrase comes from.
I mean, to knock is like...
To knock on a door, right?
But to knock yourself out.
If I think about it, it probably means that you hit yourself in the head and you fall over.
But the real meaning of this is go have fun, okay?
Have as much fun as you can have.
Right.
Have as much fun as you want.
Go knock yourself out.
So the parent is saying, hey, Timmy, go have as much fun as you want.
Just go do it.
Enjoy yourself.
Yeah, like go open all these presents, have all the fun you want.
All right.
And then we saw another phrase when they finished talking about dinner and all the things they have to buy.
They said we should be set.
We should be set or we are set.
Well, this is funny because she says well, my dad's going to bring the eggnog, so we should be set, which means we should have everything we need.
So we don't need anything else.
We're ready.
Everything is good.
Exactly.
So we can say, we are set.
I'm set.
Are you set?
It's a way to say, are you ready?
Are you prepared?
Do you have everything you need?
Okay.
So I often use this when I'm going on a trip.
Right.
Are you set?
Did you pack everything?
Are you all set?
Are you all set?
Yeah.
All right.
I finished packing.
I'm all set.
I'm ready to go.
All set and ready to go.
All right.
Okay.
So some interesting phrases there as well.
Why don't we have a look at our dialogue for the last time?
Dad!
Dad!
Dad!
Wake up!
It's Christmas!
Timmy, it's too early for this.
Look, it's six in the morning.
Go back to bed.
No way!
Santa already came and left all our presents.
Can we go open them, please?
Please?
Of course we can, honey.
Bill, come on, get dressed.
Fine.
Not like Santa brought me any gifts.
Bill, honestly, you can be such a grouch sometimes.
Look at all these presents under the Christmas tree!
Awesome!
Alright, Timmy, knock yourself out.
We should get ready and head to the market to buy everything for Christmas dinner tonight.
Yeah, you're right.
It's the first time we're hosting Christmas dinner at our house, so everything has to be perfect.
I got the list right here.
Ham, turkey, mashed potatoes, ingredients for the gravy and of course, yams.
My dad offered to bring the eggnog, so we should be set.
All right, we're back.
So as you mentioned, Christmas morning is great.
You open presents and, well, breakfast.
And it's a time to be together with your parents, your family.
But, as in this case, you can be a little bit of a grouch because you're just kind of tired, because you had Thanksgiving in November and then Christmas and now you're having New Year's.
So you're kind of just like, ugh.
Yeah, the holiday season can be exhausting.
And I know a lot of families have a special dinner on the 24th.
That's Christmas Eve.
And then by the time it's Christmas Day, the 25th, you're exhausted.
You didn't get any sleep.
You might have had too much to drink last night.
And so it can be very tiring.
Also because the kids always get up way too early, like 6 o'clock.
Right, to open their presents, right?
And then they'll be playing with their toys all day and you'll have a headache.
But it's a great season to spend time with the family.
And, well, we want to know how you spend your Christmas Eve and your Christmas morning.
So why don't you come to our website EnglishPodcom, and leave your questions and comments there as well?
We're looking forward to hearing from you.
Again, happy holiday season.
And until next time.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Thank you.
