Hallmark, Pro-Skiing, Two Dads, and the Reality of the Holidays

It’s been an impossibly hard last few days. We recorded this episode before the Brown shooting and before the terrorist attack on the Jewish community in Australia. We’re in this tragic space with you and hope that our episode this week provides a moment of comfort. 

The weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas are weird. Are we working? Are we pretending to work? Is everyone emotionally already done with 2025 (yes)? Add the first snow, holiday grief, and the general state of the world, and suddenly “cozy season” feels… complicated.

That’s where this week’s Momarchy episode lives.

We’re joined by Luke Macfarlane and Hig Roberts for a conversation that starts with Hallmark Christmas movies and ends somewhere much deeper: parenting, identity, chosen family, and what it means to raise a child when the world keeps debating who gets to be a family in the first place.

Luke’s the Hallmark guy that women and men across the country are falling in love with. Hig is the elite skier and former U.S. Ski Team athlete. Together, they are a power couple for the ages. We talk about Christmas movie myths versus real life (Target parking lot diaper changes > mistletoe kisses). But what made this episode special was the honesty. Luke and Hig talk about becoming parents as a same-sex couple, the constant decision-making that comes with it, the joy, the fear, and the moments the misinformed parts of the world remind you that you don’t fit its default assumptions.

They also remind us of something we don’t hear enough during the holidays: perfection is fake. Real family life is messy, loud, tender, exhausting, and deeply meaningful — and that’s true whether your family has two moms, two dads, one parent, or something in between or beyond.

We also touch on the weirdness of holiday culture, the comfort of familiar movies when the news feels heavy, and why joy isn’t shallow — it’s necessary.

If you’re heading into this season feeling behind, overwhelmed, or a little out of step with the picture-perfect version of the holidays, this episode is for you.

🎄 New episode out now
🎥 Our first full YouTube episode

For moms, dads, parents, and anyone just trying to make it through December

Sarah and Tanya at Momarchy

PS — If you need a laugh, go back to the Holiday Armadillo episode of Friends. Simpler times.