Transcript
Hi, Everyone. It’s Shelly Lefkoe, co-founder of the Lefkoe Institute. So by now, you know, I have all my best ideas in the shower. So this morning, I was getting ready to start the day. And I had this realization. The holidays are coming. And I’m going to Colorado to be with my daughter’s in-laws. And all of a sudden, it was like presents! And I started getting stressed. And I started going crazy. And I stopped and said, You know what?
I called my daughter’s mother-in-law, who I adore. And I said, instead of presents, let’s do experiences, let’s just do something fun together, and give each other an experience of a hike and a picnic, or, you know, going to a comedy club or something like that, something that will remember and have fun doing.
And then I started thinking back to a time when Morty and I had just started our business. He had just created the Lefkoe method. And the business took off, and we were doing it in businesses, and we were making a lot of money. And Morty realized that he was miserable. He hated traveling. He hated being away from us.
And next thing we knew, everything imploded; we lost our big magnificent house that we had bought. And we were declaring bankruptcy. Now my kids were in a private alternative school, and they had lots of teachers. And I thought, Oh my God, how can I not get these teachers presents. So Brittany and I sat down and brainstormed, and we decided that we were going to make homemade presents for the teachers. So I opened up one of my cookbooks, Mada Heater’s Chocolate, my favorite cookbook. And I found a recipe for homemade hot fudge, and it’s called the world’s best hot fudge.
So Britain, I went to the stove, we went shopping, we bought heavy cream and dark cocoa and sugar and butter. And we had stations at the kitchen. And it took us a couple of years to realize that we didn’t have to keep washing the pot after every four jars, that we could do it in separate pots.
So we finally got it down to a science, and we made hot fudge for all the teachers. Well, the stories that ensued, one of the teachers told me that she used to hide the hot fudge behind the green food in the refrigerator, you know, the moldy food where no one would ever go back there so that no one else could eat it. Another one told me that her family was going to church on Sunday. And she said she got up, and she was like in this stupor. And she said, Okay, guys, you go to church. I’m not feeling well. And they all left. And she sat down with the jar of Hot Fudge and proceeded to finish the entire thing.
So I started getting these stories. And the last year that we left Connecticut before we moved to California, I made 80 jars, or we made 80 jars of hot fudge, and the stories and the memories and people would say, oh my god, I’m so looking forward to it was such a meaningful thing.
And I didn’t have to think of our presence. So I just wanted to give you some thoughts for the holidays, whether you’re doing Hanukkah or Christmas or Kwanzaa, or whatever you celebrate. Think about what you can do that’s meaningful instead of going crazy and thinking about going to all the stores and going online and shopping and finding sales and all of that. Have an experience. Give away an experience or do something homemade. That’s fun. I promise it will mean more than another sweater.
Okay, that’s it for today. I wish you a Happy happy happy holiday, and I’ll be back with more holiday wishes.
