Heading Into the Holidays

In this episode of the Red Lips Real Talk Podcast, hosts Jasmin, Monica, Maritza, and Deibys share personal reflections and experiences about family holiday traditions, festive decorations, and the emotional impacts of the season. They discuss varied holiday practices and cooking tips, nostalgia for past traditions such as wearing Christmas pajamas, and the sentimental value of Thanksgiving meals. Key themes include the bittersweet aspects of children growing up, the joy in maintaining holiday magic, the importance of thoughtful gestures like homemade gifts, and emotional reflections during New Year celebrations. Additionally, they highlight favorite holiday movies, Christmas shopping experiences, and the significance of close friendships during festive times. Through heartfelt anecdotes and practical advice, the podcast captures the essence of holiday joy and the emotional weight of family traditions.

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Transcript

Hey, chicas. Welcome to Red Lips Real Talk Podcast. I'm Jasmin. I'm Monica. I'm Maritza. And I'm Deibys with a Y. And we are four Latinas from South Florida, bringing you real talk on life, love, and everything in between. Time to get real.

What's up, ladies? What's up? What's up? How's everybody been? Good. What are we talking about today? I don't know. What are we talking about today, Jasmin?

What's that? We did it. You know how many times he practiced that twice? We're talking about Deibys, Monica Marissa and to our listeners. That took about 10 minutes, but we did it. We're here to talk about the holidays. My favorite time of the year. It is, and I'm so happy that it is for you. It is. For me.

David loves the holidays. I do. I do. I do. I'm glad. I'm glad that you love the holidays. Jasmin, you don't like the holidays? I used to. I sound very depressed. I used to, because it was just, uh, I don't know, I just feel like Adam Sandler. Do you remember that movie that Adam Sandler, um, did with, with, uh, Drew Barrymore?

The Wedding Singer. The Wedding Singer. And, uh, yeah, this is how I feel. I'm a Grinch. That's how I feel. But I have my reasons. But why? Yeah, what are these reasons? Because you decorate for Christmas. Like, you have this ginormous tree and the whole nine. Well, you know that, that place, I don't even know if it exists anymore, Santa's Enchanted Forest.

Yeah. I think so. Yeah. You know, those huge, like, big trees. Trees. I've taken my kids, well, years back, but this though, I haven't been there for a while. But, um, the inside joke in my family is like, Oh, when you go to Jasmin's house, it's like Santa's enchanted forest. Cause I have like a 17 foot Christmas tree.

Yeah. Well you have nice high ceilings. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's really beautiful. I love the holidays, but I think for me it's become a little bit more like a melancholy because my daughters are big and they're in college and they're not with me as much as they used to. So, um. I miss when they were little.

Right? Yeah. You know, I can can understand that. Yeah. I miss it. And so I hold on to the memories of when I was a young mom and the wrapping of the presents, and that's kind of not that, you know, I still have my family and my daughters of course, but it's just very different and yeah. So it makes me a little sad, you know?

But it is beautiful. Yeah, it definitely is. Well, when they're little, it's like the innocent part of it. Like they don't know. It's the whole making everything magic. And, you know, when kids are little, everything is a big deal, the small stuff, so, you know, when they get older, I can see, I can see it being a little bit, you know, it changes.

It changes. Yeah. I'm missing that. But they're older. And I could definitely say, yeah, it has changed. It changes. Yeah. I mean, even with, um, Halloween is coming up, you know, and like, I remember, you know, That was such a big deal like we were planning the costumes and the little trick or treating like I, I remember I don't know about you guys but my mom like I have a beautiful memory my mom would buy like those little individual trick or treat bags and we would fill them up and we wouldn't just put our hands in a bucket and grab a whole bunch of candies and throw it in a bag we would give each child that knocked on our door an individual little bag.

So that's like a little bit of a tradition that we have. And I did that with my daughters, but now they're like, you know, she's 23 and my other one's about to turn 21 and that's it. They're women. They're women. And they're now like, do they usually do something for Halloween with their friends or like they go to Halloween parties as they should.

Yeah. Oh my God. Like as you should. I was just wondering if they still like enjoy Halloween like they have wonderful memories of it. Yeah, childhood. But for me, it's kind of like it's more like that stage of my life is over and I miss it. So the holidays make me melancholy. Yeah, just because of the stage that I'm in.

But it's beautiful. I mean, I think driving around the neighborhoods and seeing those beautiful beautiful homes and the way people get into it. I love that. Yeah. Yeah. I barely put any decorations up and my, my husband's like, Oh babe, like decorate. And I'm like, ah, like I used to decorate for Halloween and I haven't for two years.

You can put a little things up. You kind of, you know, just adjust a little bit. You, you don't have to go as overboard maybe when the kids were little, but you still put that little, you know, Halloween spirit in the home and yeah. You know, the festive part of it, you know, when the kids come over to there, even though they're older, they still come over.

It's it's good. You know, of course, of course. And I'm not trying to be a Debbie downer, like honestly, like who doesn't love the holidays is absolutely beautiful. I was just, you know, I'm, I'm cracking jokes, but deep down inside, I do feel a little bit of the sadness of that stage of my life. coming to an end and now I have to start new traditions because you had mentioned that to me.

Yeah, especially for like Christmas and stuff like that, even Thanksgiving, you know, you get the family together. You can play fun games like minutes, win it or, you know, you just create new traditions. Yeah. And you can still get together and bake, you know, some, Sweet treats and watch the movies because there's still things you can do when they were little now that they're older.

Well, what are some of the, I know yours are still pretty little, so yeah, let's talk happy things. What do you do with your family? Well, I love all the holidays, but um, September kicks everything off. Football starts. So we tend to watch a lot of football and my girls don't sit and watch as many games, but they definitely, you know, we're a football family.

They will watch some of the games and stuff. So I even decorate a little bit for that. Like I'll have my little football blanket and my little football signs and um, stuff like that. So I kind of started early and then Halloween rolls around and um, I always, I like to order. This is something that just started like on its own, but we were watching Ghostbusters one year.

I was showing them like old school movies and stuff and the new one came out where it's all the girls, the ladies are the Ghostbusters. Did you like it? I loved it. It was actually really good. Yeah. And um, so we ordered Chinese food, but we ate it out of like the little white boxes that, that the food comes in on the couch and we'll make like little Halloween treats and like, you know, I'll find something to bake and yeah.

So that's kind of like been like a tradition that we do like every year we make sure to take time out to at least watch one movie. If it's Ghostbusters, it's Ghostbusters, but we do that little thing there, you know. What's your favorite holiday movie? Holiday movie? Um, I have a couple of um, you know, I like more of like the funny ones.

Um, Home Alone is definitely like a classic for me. I like Elf. Um, I also like uh, Christmas National Lampoons. I think that is hilarious with Chevy Chase. My husband and I love that one. Is that the one where the mom passes, or the mother in law passes away and they put her on the top of the car? No, no. That, that's um, that's another one of those, but it's not that one.

No. Oh, that's right. You're talking about the Christmas one. Christmas one is with the tree that he cuts down the floors. He gets fired from his job. The house is so bright, like, it makes the whole power go out. Sorry. Wrong movie. You can tell I'm depressed. But, you know, I don't know. I can't think of all of them now, but like for Christmas too, we like to do, we do it every year.

I like to get us Christmas pajamas. for the whole family. So for a little ride that we do to the neighborhood where we go around and see Christmas lights, I put on last year's pajamas because the new pajamas are for like Christmas morning, you know? So we just wear like whatever old pajamas we have from the years before throughout December.

So we'll wear like whatever pajamas from last year and we do popcorn, we'll bake cookies, we get in the car, we play Christmas music and then we drive around the neighborhood. Sometimes like my husband will find, you can like search to sometimes online, like areas that are doing like big light up stuff.

Like there'll be neighborhoods that the house is kind of um, you know, coordinate together and they'll do like a whole street, you know, and people like will park their cars nearby and like walk. So you have a lot of areas like that too. So we always, we, we always do that. You know, gingerbread house, silly things like that.

We carve pumpkins for Halloween, you know, Thanksgiving. I love to watch the Macy's parade. Like that's like my thing. I love to get up. I love the Macy's. Yeah. That's one of my favorites. favorite memories of my childhood and it is a tradition with my family. Yeah. We watch it every year religiously. I think, I hope they never get rid of it.

Yes, me too. It's just such a beautiful tradition and if, and if you've never really watched the Macy's Day Parade on Thanksgiving. So, we're going to talk a little bit about Thanksgiving. Please start watching it so they don't take it off the air because it's just such a wonderful. I don't want them to.

And it's in the morning. So, it's like that nice time where you're making breakfast with the family, you're preparing the dishes that you're going to be doing later on that evening, you know. So, it's like that nice morning. Well, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Yeah. It really is. I know it's not celebrated worldwide.

Like Christmas Right? Is worldwide. It's more of an a United States tradition. But for me it's always been my favorite because it's truly the only holiday I can think of. Well, there's 4th of July too, but it's, it's where you just get together with your family, right? And have a beautiful meal together, right?

And you're thankful for the people that you love and for the roof over your head and the meal you're about to eat. And it's a very meaningful one for me. Cook everything from scratch and I spend the whole day, even the night before preparing. Do you guys cook your own turkeys? Yeah, we do. We, well, not me.

That's my husband. But how does he cook it? Oh, different ways. We've done fried. Yeah. Uh, there's a year that he wrapped the whole thing in bacon. My mom tends to do it like that a lot. And that just like the, the bacon grease, it goes into the turkey so it makes it really moist. Yeah. So I've always been afraid of frying a turkey.

Um. Yeah. Yeah. Do you recommend it? So fried turkeys are amazing. They're very juicy. They taste very good. And there's a lot that goes into it. So I suggest people do their research before they try it because it can be dangerous. But I know that your husband has done it a couple of times. Yeah. Yeah. We've done more than a couple of times.

We've done it a lot. One year we did like, I don't know how many turkeys in that month alone. Because after Thanksgiving, people were asking us to like, uh, do the deep fried turkey. So he's done a lot of turkeys. We still have the deep fryer. Got to be very careful that Monica said, search it up. Don't go by what I'm saying, but I'm giving you tips that, you know, we've done.

The turkey has to be very dry and very, very dry. Cause any, you know, it's just like if you're frying in the kitchen and you put water, it's going to splatter. Right? So you want the turkey to be dry. You inject the turkey with seasoning, you know, outside, um, seasoning because everything is inside. So when you fry it, it stays very juicy.

So then when you are dropping it. In the deep fryer, you have to go extremely slow, like you just have to be patient and drop it very slow because you don't want that last drop to like be hard and it splashes. So it's like a very long, like slow drop into the air fryer and it is pretty fries pretty quick.

It's good. It's good. I don't want to give the time because I'm not sure you would have to research that. Just like when you're baking it, it's by pounds, but it's way quicker than baking it. Like way quicker. I mean, it's done like super fast. You have to use peanut oil, peanut oil for frying. Yep. Yeah. Yeah.

And they sell the kits for the injectors. Too. They'll sell like, you like the injector with like the seasoning you can get, you can even use mojo. We've used like mojo, like the bottle, you know, that has it. Anything that's liquid, you inject it. Yeah. I've never done that. I've always wanted to put, I actually go to Home Depot and buy those big Orange Home Depot buckets.

Mm-Hmm. brand new and brand new. When I clean it very well and I do a brine and I put the whole Turkey in there for 24 to 36 hours and then I traditionally cook it in. The oven. When you put it in the bucket, is it in a bag or is your bucket like the bag and the turkeys literally? I literally put the turkey inside the bucket, but I mean, it's a brand new bucket.

I I'm just carrying it because I it. And I make a brine. Right. And I put it in there for 24 hours. I have to. put it for 36 hours, but I don't recommend that because then it just can disintegrate the skin and you want the skin to get like that toasty buttery. Yeah, I love that. And then underneath the skin I put sage and I'll put like butter.

More butter. Yeah. And it's just extremely juicy and it's just a tradition that my mother taught me. My mother taught me to do that. It's I'm learning how to like make, so I've gotten really into cooking, but one of the main reasons I did is because there's an emotional attachment to food. There's certain things that you eat that remind you of your grandmother, your grandfather, your mom, your dad, your sister, or, or a special moment.

And that's what food does for me. And my mother always loved Thanksgiving because my mom was extremely grateful to be in the United States at this time. Country allowed her to come here at such young, young age and start a life. And my mother embraced and like the food and she goes, it wasn't the best food because I was used to my food from my country.

Right. But it's the tradition. But she embraced it. So she always loved Thanksgiving and she taught us to be grateful for the opportunities that were given to her. So it's very meaningful for us. So we, you know, a lot of people cook other types of food on Thanksgiving because they don't like Turkey, but I just feel like I'm not gonna do that.

No, I want. cook the mashed potatoes. Yeah. And I want it. I love all that stuff because I can eat my food anytime. Right, right, right. But this is the one time that I really do try and keep the American tradition a lot. Yeah, definitely in my home too. And we, I've done a turkey by myself in my home, but I haven't cooked too many turkeys other than my husband deep frying.

We get with family together, like me and Monica get together a lot. So usually it's like, like you said, her husband or a family member is cooking the turkey. So I haven't had. Too many chances to cook a turkey, which I'm okay with, but I want, you know, I would like to, uh, to try your, your little method there for that one time.

Oh God. Oh God. Please share. It was, it was a mess and it wasn't, it was because we found a new technique about like cracking the breast bone and like laying the turkey flat on a pan. Yeah. Hmm. But we didn't have the proper. I mean, I almost, we almost, well, yeah, we weren't home. We were away. Yeah. We were away.

In someone else's house. In someone else's family member's home. They, they don't do a lot of cooking there. So we were working with what they have. Okay. So that was one thing. And then of course. Yeah. It was a Pinterest thing that she found, I think it was. Right, yeah. Or Instagram, it was something. It was on Pinterest.

And Dennis really, I wanted to do it, but my husband likes to look up recipes too. He actually likes to cook a lot. So he was like, this sounds cool. I'm like, yeah, no, I think it was, it was Instagram. It didn't work out. Because, yeah, because it was a real, and we couldn't pause the damn thing. So we had to keep watching it over and over to see, okay, oh, now this step, now this step.

No, you can pause tiktoks, , . Look at that. But I mean, it came out good. It was just, it was, well, besides the fact that we almost burned the kitchen down and mean smoke was coming out of the oven because the pan, it needed to lay flat a certain way. So again, we were, you know, working, we're working with what we got.

We were getting creative and then like Grease started kind of coming. Oh. And you know, that's it, you know? Yeah. It's like the smoke's gonna start it. We were like, oh my God, we're gonna burn the house down. It's not our kitchen. I mean, the person's kitchen that I was is, is, is our family member and memories were made.

Oh yeah. There was a lot of us that, uh, yeah. That's thanksgiving. decorate for all holidays? Oh yeah. Really? I decorate very little bit for 4th of July, but I have my, have my stuff Valentine's Day for sure. Easter for sure. Valentine's Day? Yeah. Very little bit. Well, Valentine's Day is a special day for Maritza's birthday.

Yeah. That's my favorite holiday. So you definitely decorate for that? I mean, I don't really like decorate a lot. I'm very, very simple. You do have one space in your home. You know, I have all my little stuff for that. And that's about it. I don't decorate as much as I used to. But I did. So your table is your spot.

Yeah, my dining room table is my spot. Okay. I don't decorate for that. For what? Valentine's Day. Valentine's Day. I just do little things like kitchen towels. You know, a couple little decorating things, hearts, this and that. I have the kids that are little, sorry, no, no, I have the kids that are little. So it's like, I like to just like, you know, they get excited.

We do the Valentine's Day, um, you know, little, um, cards for school, whatever, you know? So it's like the hell I want the house to have that, you know, Valentine's Day vibe for them, you know? And I actually really love 4th of July. I think it's a fun time. You know, you're just. Barbecue and pool time, you know, hanging out with friends.

Like I'm always like trying to find like a new thing to make, but I'm drinking too much. And then I ended up not making the recipe I found on Pinterest. I'm like, Oh, I don't know. I bought the stuff. I mean, am I really going to make it now? Unless I make it beforehand. Yeah, I do that all the time. Yeah.

Right. On Easter, we definitely celebrate. You know, I mean, and it's not, yeah, those, see, those are the things that make me melancholy. Yeah. 'cause I did the Easter baskets. Mm-Hmm. . I did the tooth fairy, you know, my daughter's teeth would fall out and I would go in the room and put the money under the pillow and take her tooth and then she'd wake up and be like, mommy, mommy, mommy.

I know my tooth is. She came, she came, you know, or them running down, I could hear like six o'clock in the morning. Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Santa showed up, Santa's here, Mommy, let's go downstairs. Like, I want to actually tear up because that's why, you know, Oh, Jasmin's being a Grinch. It's not that I'm being a Grinch, it's just, those are the things that I no longer have.

And I and I, I mourn it. Of course, I mourn it of course. And I am, I'm getting all these flashbacks of the tooth fair of, of Santa Claus and the cookies and having to eat a few cookies. Cookies so they can see that. And leaving crumbs on the porch. Mm-Hmm. , the wrapping of the presents. Uh, making sure that they each got one, got five, the other one has to get back too, because God forbid, gotta make sure, you know, um, the Easter baskets, their dresses, their Easter.

Yeah. The dresses and the hats. Pictures. Yep. All of those things. I think the least Valentine's Day is our least favorite because like my husband. Oh, I don't know about your husband's but he's not the type of guy to like buy presents. So it's just he doesn't need the presents that day. I really just want flowers in the car.

He hates that. He's like, this is the most cum Bullshit commercialized and it's like right after like Christmas too, it's like right there. So there's always been one that kind of like, Oh, I'm sorry, Maritza, I know that's your birthday thing. No, I agree. I agree with all of that. But I think that's the one that we least participate in and like.

You know, St. Patrick's Day is fun, but it's mostly like drinking beer and things like that. Yeah. That one, I've never really done too much with the girls. I know people do the, um, like the green, yeah, the green, um, the leprechaun and it'll leave like some coins or something, candy coins. I have never done anything with that.

I know that people have done a couple of things with that. Yeah. The Easter bunny I actually do for Santa Claus as well. I cut out. Paul Prince, like a stencil of Paul Prince, and then I put them like hopping from the back door into the house kind of towards their basket and I use like flour. So I'm there.

I laid at night bringing the Easter baskets out, you know, putting that little powder thing on the stencils to look like the Easter bunny hopped. I do that. And then, you know, Easter is also about. Jesus. So God, I make sure that my children know it's not just the Easter bunny. I really let them know like he has risen.

Yes. Talking about religion. I mean, that's a completely different podcast, but I've gotten closer to God as I've gotten older. Um, for, I don't want to say I was an atheist cause I think that's taking it way too far, but I struggled with faith. I struggled with faith for a long time. I have my reasons why, but I had a few things happen to me and it made me, made me believe it.

Yeah. And um, I think that's a beautiful thing about Easter and Christmas. Yes. Now that my daughters are also older and the present factor has kind of gone, you know, you still get little things, but that aspect has kind of left. But what the reason for the season has stayed. And I, and now that I, have my own relationship with God.

I've realized like what it really means. Yeah. And, and it's, it's brought me a joy and a fulfillment that, um, I didn't maybe have 10 years ago. I know I'm getting kind of off the subject, but it is, it is the reason for the season. And I'm glad out of, even though I mourn certain aspects that have changed in my life, I'm glad that I'm closer to God.

Yeah. And, and be glad that those things happen. You know, you're not looking back saying, Oh, I didn't have this with the kids. I didn't, you know, you, you, you should be happy. Those moments happen to, you know what I mean? And it's hard. It's hard. Cause I know that's going to be me. I'm an emotional person. I, you know, I love my kids and I go the extra mile for them because like you said, the little, you know, feet running in the morning to see the print is, you know, like me adding those little footprints on the floor.

Like it just adds to that imagination. It adds to that joy and that twinkle in their eyes. So it's like. Any little thing that I can do extra to leave those memories. Like I even do the tooth fairy money, which is something that I started that I kind of kicked myself in the ass for. But because when I'm struggling late at night, I'm like, Oh my God, why did I do this?

I put glitter on the money. So I take a little sponge, like a, Like a brush sponge, you know, for painting, but it's sponge and I brush on Elmer's glue very lightly and then I dust on some glitter and it dries really quick. You're good. Wow. And then I put that under their pillow and I sprinkle a little bit of glitter around their bed.

So it's like the tooth fairy. Aww. So it looks like fairy dust. I was a terrible, terrible tooth fairy. Aww. Oh, well, I'm bad. I have forgotten multiple times. And then my excuse is the tooth fairy can't fly when it's raining. So I'll be like, I think it was like really raining hard last night. I heard it raining and they can't fly.

Good one. Yeah. I got it from the movie Tinkerbell because the fairies can't fly when their wings are wet. So I was like, perfect. Well, so this is a true story. My daughter had lost her front tooth. baby tooth. It was like, that's the, that's one of the major ones. That's one of the major teeth to lose. And, uh, she fell asleep and I'm like, Oh my gosh, I thought I had, I thought I had 5.

Oh girl. And I didn't have no cash. And my husband was like, I think I have, he only had a hundred. Oh no, I've been stuck with the 20. She banked that night. Hold on. I was like, we cannot. Put a hundred. That's ludicrous. That's ridiculous. He's like, I'm not, I'm not going out there. I'm not going out there, Jay.

He's like, I'm tired. I'm cranky. And he was like, don't put nothing. Just, it is what it is. Yeah. She's getting older. She already lost her front tooth being a humbug. Of course. And I'm like, oh, poor Sita, poor Sita. So he went to sleep and I was like, fuck it. And I put a hundred dollar bill. No, you didn't. Yes, I did.

And she woke up and she was like, And she was like, Mommy, look what I got. And my husband's face was like, No, you didn't realize what you have just done. That's crazy. And I was like, I think she made a mistake. Yeah, she she probably didn't have her glasses on. And she was like, No, Mommy, that's how much money you get for the front teeth.

Oh, yeah, because they think they know everything. Yeah, they make it all up and they think they know. That was. very stupid. Don't ever do that. No, you should have told her that it was raining and I didn't think about that. That was one of the dumbest things. I was desperate. I was desperate. 20 is the highest that I've done by accident.

And who the hell has a hundred dollar bill in their house? Well, you had it. But yeah, it's, it's, it's, you get stuck in those moments. You're like me. And then I also have the elf on the shelf. I never do. God, you know how many times I've forgotten to move that thing? How does that work? I'm sorry. I know it's old.

It's creepy. No, there's movies to it and it comes with the book. So the whole idea of it is that. The elf comes from the North Pole to watch over you to report to Santa if you're naughty or nice. So, it's a way for parents to get their kids to behave even more during the holidays, I guess, you know. Um, so, you move the elf, so, basically, the elf comes, the kids are not allowed to touch the elf, and he arrives after Thanksgiving.

So, after Thanksgiving, the elf just appears in the house. You name the elf, our elf is a girl, her name is Cookie, and she's, she's very cute. You can buy them clothes. Ha Oh, this is a thing. Oh, it's a thing, girl. So then the elf arrived, right? So that evening, I have to move the elf at night after they're asleep or in the morning before they wake up.

And there's been times I forgot. You move around the house. People do funny things with them, like some, like I've done the leave, they leave a note and say, Hey, Hey. Um, with candy canes and I was like, can you find all 12 candy canes and then I'll hide them in the house. You know, little things like that and um, multiple things.

You can find stuff online for great ideas. And then I forget sometimes I'll wake up and, and we have a second story. It's every day, every day. Oh God. So I, the second story saves me cause I'll be like, they haven't gotten up. So it's like I can run downstairs. It's not like their room is going to, I don't know.

Open up into the living room. You know what I mean? It's like they're upstairs. So there's been many times. There must be some stories with these elves. Oh my God, girl. I have forgotten. So basically the elf, if he doesn't go back, he's supposed to report back to Santa if you're good or not. And if you touch him, he can't fly back.

So if you touch him, if you touch the elf, he disappears for a couple of days. So kids traumatized because they touched it by mistake. Yeah. I guess. It's all how the parent handles it too. I make up my own rules and then a little bit and then if I've forgotten to move and I'll be like, well, you remember you were fighting the other day with your sister.

Remember that you guys were arguing and maybe he was trying to be nice and didn't want to report to Santa so he didn't go back tonight last night. You know, like I'll say things like that, but yeah, that's another thing I have to do. But my oldest, I'm so glad we didn't have that. My oldest just started telling me that she doesn't believe in Santa.

So it's the first Christmas. It's that's gonna be hard for me. It's her first Christmas that she doesn't believe. So I haven't had that. I'm just realizing this right now as I'm talking about it. It's gonna be the first Christmas that she's gonna wake up and know that I put all the presents there. It's making me sad about it.

I really forgot about that. Well, I had told my daughter. When she said that and I said, well, that's fine. You don't you don't believe you don't. Oh, yeah. I said you have to believe to receive. You still have to believe. Yes. Yes. But still it's knowing that she doesn't know. It's like the movie, the, um, the Polar Express, but he doesn't hear the jingle anymore.

The bell. You have to hear the bell to believe. But, um, so I, I was thinking, oh, well, you're going to help me. One of my favorite Christmas. That is a good one. I love the music. Yeah. Yeah. And the hot chocolate. I'm sorry. I totally interrupted you. It's okay. But it just came in my brain like the hot chocolate when the kids are on the train and they bring up, they're like, hot, hot, hot, hot chocolate.

I'm going to play that later. Yeah. Find it and play it. That's another tradition. I like to do hot chocolate and you find recipes to do stuff on your stovetop with like real chocolate and milk and stuff like that, you know, like the hot chocolate from Spain with the churros. Mm. That sounds good. Oh, it's so good.

So I, my oldest now, I figure since she doesn't believe, she can help me move the elf around. Yeah. Good idea. That was the positive thing. I just realized the negative thing talking about it, that she's not going to believe. Yeah. They start to grow up. Oh yeah. And you know, and it's a, don't, don't get me wrong.

Every stage is different. Beautiful. Yeah. But there's something so special. I, I would say for me, every parent is different, of course, but for me it was that like five to like eight. Yeah. Five to nine. They're old enough to talk to you and tell you things, you know, and, and then once they start getting into that 12, 13, that's where it's.

That's how my oldest is. She's going to be 13 in December. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's just like, you know, it is what it is. it's a. You can't expect them to keep believing. You don't, they're going to be like, okay, you're born in eighth grade, you still think And then when they go off to college and they leave, oh, that's, that's tough.

So you know it's time to listen to Hot Chocolate. It makes me happy. I love it. Let's get in the mood, ladies. Hot

Chocolate. Now I got some hot chocolate. I love that movie. I love all holiday movies. I would say that Elf is the one I least like. Yeah, that's my favorite. I don't like Will Ferrell. No, I like Elf. But people love Elf. With the passion. What did you say? Oh, it was funny. I said my husband hates that movie. Oh, so that's something we have in common then.

I just, Will Ferrell is not really my type of character. Comedian. Yeah. Let's just like him. He cracks me up. I mean, I don't like, there is some of his movies that are funny and I'm like, okay, this was like, but there's some other ones that I just like love. I mean, I think the best movie he's done that I'm willing to watch and say, okay, that was funny was Anchorman.

Anchorman was good. Anchorman was funny, but his co star was hilarious, which was, uh, the lady from, oh my goodness. She's not with me. I can't remember. With multiple sclerosis. Oh my goodness. What is her name? Oh. Um, Jesus. She was with in married with Children's Christine Applegate, Christina. Okay, she is so funny.

Yeah. And I think that the chemistry that they have together in Anchorman was what made the movie for me personally. But yeah, but Will Farrell, you know, he's beloved and elf. I love Elf. Be loved. Yeah. Elf was, I mean, it was a funny movie. It was, it was cute too. Yeah. And it's fun. It was a family. It's a family movie.

And that's the thing. That's another beautiful thing about the holidays is that, you know, movies have become a little bit more, uh, you know, tough to watch. They could be aggressive, a lot of violence, a lot of sex. And it's getting harder and harder to have like family friendly movies, but holiday movies, you know, they're always going to be a safe bet.

You can sit down with your kids and have a hot chocolate or have some candy or have popcorn and you can, everyone can be in the room, the grandparents, the mom, and there's not going to be any, you know. Awkward scenes, you know, and that's beautiful about the holiday unless you're watching national lampoons.

Don't watch that with your kids The christmas one. Yeah, really? Yeah, you can't watch that with the kids I don't think i've seen Well, there's one scene specifically that I remember it's not that bad. It's not that bad, but still When the police, do you remember that he kidnaps, well his Uncle Eddie, his brother in law kidnaps his boss.

Man, I barely remember that. Well, he kidnaps his boss and he brings him to Chevy Chase's home. Okay. Yeah, I'm Carl, right? That's his name? No. What's his name? I don't remember his name. I forgot his name. I know his name. And, and so. The police come and they're all scrambling in the living room like, Oh my God, what did you, why, Eddie, what did you do and why'd you bring him?

He brings him like, arms tied, duct tape over his mouth, like he kidnapped him. And then, um, the police come breaking in and they, he tells them, freeze. And all of a sudden the wife is like, has her hands on Chevy Chase's like, Package. You know what I mean? Like not Christmas package. I get it now. And everybody's just looking.

So I'm like, I, my kids can't, my nine year old can't see this and she may be like, what is she doing? And then my 12 year old is going to be like, she's touching her husband's ball. You know what I mean? Like, I don't know what's going through their heads. It's like that disgusting movie, Bad Santa. Yeah, they can't watch that.

And Four Christmases with Vince Vaughn. Lord have mercy. Have you guys seen that? Four Christmases? That is really funny. That is hilarious. Hilarious. But it's an adult movie. That's what I was just saying. Which one? That's another one. Four Christmases? Four Christmases. With Reese With a Spoon and Yes, yes.

Oh my God. It's Four Christmases because Vince Vaughn and um, What did you just say? Reese Witherspoon. Reese Witherspoon are, are together. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what I'm talking about. But their parents are divorced, so they have no I like the one that's pregnant in that movie, where she's like, yes! Yes!

Her name, her name, I think her name is Debbie in the movie. And they're playing, they're playing like trivia or something. And her and her husband are so into it. Going at it. Yes. And every time he gets the answer right, it's like she's having an orgasm. Yes. And she's like, yes. And she's spoken. Yes. She's like nine months, ten months.

Like she's at her ninth month. Yes, baby. You got it. Yeah. I love it. I love it. Great movie. Those raunchy Christmas movies. Yeah, of course. Yeah. But your point is right. Your point is right. You just got to be careful. You just got to be a little careful, but I think the one movie that I took my kids to go see at the movie theater that I thought, Oh, this is, this is safe.

Like this is a family and they came out traumatized. They're in their twenties and they're like, Oh my God, mom, I still can't see that movie. I get scared. It is a Christmas story or Christmas Carol. The one that was made with Jim Carrey. Oh yeah. It was dark. It was dark. It was scary. It was very like the, the, the.

digital animation that they did. It was with, it was just, you know, and he looks creepy. Yeah, he did. And both of my daughters are like, mom, we still can't see that movie. And I was like, are you like, I, at first I thought they were like exaggerating and like fucking around, but they were like, no mom, like for real, like we can't see that.

Yeah. So something must've scared the shit out of them when they were little that they can't see it today. Well, the, the story itself is a little, you know, it's the three spirits of Christmas and the guy with the chain and the, I mean, it's like the people visiting you are a little scary. Yeah. I mean, I saw the og, like the, the black and white.

That's one of my favorite, favorite movies. So I've tried to see like every version of it, but I think that particular one, because of their age and how gloomy it was, yes. They can't stand it. Yeah. That one was a little creepy. Yeah. So I guess they can make some creepy ones. But Polar Express is still the winner.

For me. That one is a good movie. It is. Yeah. I like watching the, um, 34th Street movie. What's it called? Miracle. Miracle. Yeah. Those are like the good classic ones. I love it. Those are good. So, like, how soon do you guys do your holiday shopping? Like, do you guys have any holiday tips or, like, do you guys go anywhere specifically online, in store?

So, I always like to shop in store, personally. I know online shopping now is The way to go and that's the future, but I always like going to the store because the stores even, I know it's going to sound ridiculous when I'm going to say, but you would walk in the stores and it even smells like Christmas.

That's one of my favorite. That's why Christmas is my favorite holiday because The feeling is just different than any time of the year. It's generations and the, and people are in a good mood. Yes. And people smile more and, hi, how can I help you? Or like, Mm-Hmm, Or like, Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays or, and just people are just nicer I think during the holidays.

And then you find. I found myself buying things that I probably would have never even looked at for a second online. That's what I was going to say. Like, I like the online shopping. It's convenient, but sometimes you just need to get out there and look around and things pop out at you. Like, I'm like, what the hell is this?

Because when you're searching online, you're kind of looking. It's super cute. Yeah. And it's like, oh, I'm going to get this. It's a stocking stuffer. Right. You think of someone. You're like, oh, you know what? Monica would like this. Yes. You know, like, you know, it's, yeah. And you see people eating at the restaurants and the smell of the food.

I worry that we're getting towards closer and closer to these type of things not being around anymore. I hope it's not. I hope so too, because online shopping, yes, it's, I'm going to tell you the truth. Like when I buy stuff online, whether like you usually clothes or shoes, they're horrible quality.

Horrible quality and I end up being or it looks awful on me. I still like going to the store touching it It's being the craftsmanship. I think because i'm also getting older. [00:35:00] I don't like cheap clothes I rather invest in good pieces and and that that I can mix and match and have quality pieces But I notice that a lot of online Things are just crappily made.

It's hit or miss. It's fast fashion. Yeah. Um, I know I'm kind of changing the subject, um, but, but I think you understand what I mean. I like to go to the stores. I like to be in that moment. And I used to shop really early because I was just so excited. Yeah. But now I don't. Barely buy anything. Yeah. I I thought it was the Christmas in July thing where it's like I try to start early and every year I get a little bit better.

I every year I'd be like I'm going to shop early and I wouldn't do anything. I get too busy. Or, plus it's like I don't want the expense to hit me all at once. I'm like okay, here I am now trying to cram. Everybody's present. between November and December, you know, so it's like I try to do it to, to break stuff up and just, you know, get out and do a, you know, early shopping, get ahead of the game.

And then I also want to enjoy whatever activities I'm doing with the family, you know, like if it's Halloween and we want to go to some type of like fall [00:36:00] festival or hayride place or, you know. Thanksgiving, you're just, you're preparing for Christmas during Thanksgiving too. You know, you're shopping there too.

Yeah. And then you got stuff you want to do throughout December. Well, something that we've been doing in our, in my family for a long time is typically the people that you see in Thanksgiving or spend with at Thanksgiving are kind of the same people that you might be spending the holidays with. with two.

Not always, but typically that's how it works. Majority of the time. The majority of the time. So the adults, excluding all the children, what we do is on Thanksgiving, we put our name in a little hat and so I'll put my name up. I'll put my name and then I'll put three things that. I would like to get that's within the budget that we all agreed upon.

Usually we say 100 because we're only going to buy one gift. Right. You're doing a secret Santa. Right. Basically. Yeah. Right. So, um, I'll put, okay, I want this or I want that, blah, blah, blah. I put three things because I still want to be surprised. Yeah. I still don't want to know exactly what I'm going to get.

I like the idea of putting the three things in there. So we put three things and then we all pick a name and sometimes people will pick their name. Yeah. So we have to start all over again or whatever. But typically it always works out and then we get together on Christmas. We only buy for the children and then we play the game and we'll be like, okay, who, who got Jackson?

You know what I mean? And then if you want, you can, we, we switch, we switch it out. You know what I mean? Like you can trade and stuff like that. It's a lot of fun and yeah, we make the budget a hundred bucks, but that's the only person you're buying for. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. And it's really fun. One year we had like 20 something people participate.

Wow. That was a lot of fun. fun. That's a lot of fun. And it's a good way to have fun, to keep a family tradition and not spend a lot of money. Right? Yeah. Yeah. We do the same thing with the adults, but I have an app, the Elfster app. Oh, what app is that? Elfster. Elfster. I've, I've used that before. So I have everybody already in there, like my family.

And then for, uh, Thanksgiving, is it before Thanksgiving that I usually do it or after? I've never heard of that app. It'll just have everybody's names in there and it'll just scramble the names and then it'll send you an email. And then you can also make a wish list on there. So people can go on your profile and it'll see your wish list.

Oh, that's so much fun. I think I might try that this year. Thanks for that. I've done that at my job. Yeah. And it's pretty cool. And like when you're doing the wish list, there's like categories, you can do it by age, you can do it by like, you know, styles, things that you like, you've got to narrow down the search for you to add to your wish list.

So you're the person that picked your name can go into your wish list and see it without you knowing that they were in there. And that prevents from that prevents from the double names, like your own name being pulled out. The system won't duplicate it. Oh, okay. And then I had, you can do restrictions on the names too.

So like, we have a lot of couples. You and your husband, I won't let your husband pick you or you pick your husband. Oh, wow. Because I don't, you know what I mean, like that. Right, right. I figured that's So it's like your own, like AI is really putting work. Yeah. You could put restrictions, , so you'll get like somebody else.

No, because that happens like many times I've gotten. My husband. Yeah. Or my, my, my brother got his wife. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I get. And you want it to be somebody not like your husband or your wife. You know what I mean? Oh, that's really cool. I'm going to try that. You can put restrictions on it. So, yeah.

Awesome. But I do it every year. We do it every year. Yeah. That's fun. And it's good, like, if you have people that don't live close by. Mm hmm. I know. We should, like, look into that. We should try that. Yeah. I did it with my family in New York one year, too. Yeah. Yeah, that would help out. And I actually like wrapping the presents too.

I don't know how you guys feel about it, but I enjoy wrapping it. I mean, I'm always losing my mind the night before, but I like wrapping it. And I do, uh, wrapping like little parties with the girls to wrap like our family's presents, obviously not theirs. But, um, I make that fun for them too. We like put on Christmas music.

You know what I did one year? I just remember cause you said wrapping. So I went to the dollar store and I Just bought all these like, um, little like tin, tin, like the holiday tin boxes. There you go. But they're like circular and they have like Santa Claus on them or whatever. And we just made fresh brownies and fresh chocolate chip cookies and we just jam packed them and covered them in Christmas paper.

And we gave those as gifts to a lot of people. And like a neighbor. I'm telling you, that was fun. Like people were so touched by that because it was something that you made and it's thoughtful and it was thoughtful and it was good and it was warm and it was, you can tell it was fresh and we barely spend any money on that.

And I remember I was a little particular. I bought the Ghirardelli brownies because I wanted them to be like extra moist. Right. And we really took our time, but I'm telling you, I don't know, it's because I'm getting older, but I'm just starting to realize like those little things always end up being the big thing.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. It's a beautiful gesture. It's nice. We can still do that even though our kids are older. Yeah. No, I know. I know. But the holidays are, you know, I know I'm, I'm always bringing it down. I don't mean to, I apologize for that, but the holidays in general can be a very difficult time for a lot of people.

Yeah, absolutely. Uh, there's a lot of floss. Yeah. You know, COVID wasn't that long ago and there was huge losses also in COVID. People maybe are going through a divorce or they're having marital problems or there's loneliness and the holidays can be just really, really hard for people. It's not like that for me.

I'm not trying to say that that's what I'm going through. It's just, I'm just melancholy because I miss my daughters when they were little. But it is a difficult time and, um, you know, it's if, you know, if you have a coworker or somebody in your life that you can kind of tell that's going through that, invite them to Thanksgiving.

Be like, Hey, come to Thanksgiving, come, don't be alone or come for Christmas because you know what? You may, you may be impacting them a lot more than you think. Yeah. You know, this is, it's a time to reflect on love and human and kindness. And I still think even though we're getting more and more into a digital world and social media and phones, everybody, you know, we still need human contact.

Yeah. Human interaction. Human interaction. And that's where you're saying like the shopping and those types of things, you're hoping I hope that those things don't go away. People need to have that human interaction. Human interaction. I mean, a lot of people are now like, Oh, no, no, no, I'm shopping online and that's it.

And I'm like, okay. And I respect that. And I, and I will do shopping online, but I want to get out to, you know, I don't want to do all of it. I like to see the trees lit up and everything decorated. Yeah, it's, it's a beautiful thing, but you know, if you notice somebody's going through a hard time, you know, just reach out because you may be, you may be helping them a lot more than you think.

I just wanted to say that. Yeah. No, I think that's a good point. Yeah. What's your favorite holiday, Deb? Christmas. What about you, Jess? Thanksgiving. And Christmas. I like Thanksgiving. That's your favorite, Monica? Yeah. Thanksgiving. The food. Yeah. Same for me. You too? Yeah. Thanksgiving is my second favorite. I think Thanksgiving is, you know, bear in mind that Thanksgiving is only for the United States.

Yeah. So the rest of the world is like, well, you know, Canada has their own Thanksgiving and stuff like that. So I think universal, I would have to say Thanksgiving, uh, Christmas, universally. But in general, I would have to say it's Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving, Christmas, and 4th of July. I love 4th of July.

Yeah, I love 4th of July too. United States, you know, holiday. But I just love it. I love the hot dogs, and the beach, and the pool, and the barbecuing, and the rock and roll in the background. Yeah, me too. Such a lovely holiday, and I love fireworks. The fireworks, yeah. Oh my, and then when they play all those, And I'm proud to be an American.

I know, I love all that stuff too. I don't know. I'm free. I'm like, I cry. You know, New Year's is also another one now that you said crying. And I know you mentioned it. I am right there with you. Every year I cry. If anybody's at my house, like anybody that's come to my parties, cause I throw New Year's every year.

I don't know if anybody's ever caught me, but I do cry every New Year's. Me too. I don't know what it is. What is it? If you don't mind sharing, what is it? It's just. I just kind of reminisce about my whole year, everything, and I just get very emotional. A lot of things happen in a year. Yeah, I feel the same way.

Good, bad, everything. But haven't you noticed that maybe it's because we're older how fast it's going by? Yeah. I think that's another thing. I'm not crying because I'm sad. Right. And I'm not crying cause I'm happy. It's just like another year has passed. It's over. I'm excited for the new year to come, but it's just like, it's just like this, like, I don't know.

It's just emotional. It's emotional when everybody's, you know, happy new year. I mean just the tears. Yes. I'm with you. I think we're feeling the same thing when that day comes. I don't know what it is. Do you guys have any like weird traditions for new years? I don't know if any other Latinas do what I do.

What do you do? You ever heard about like throwing a bucket of water out the front door to get rid of the bad of the year and start the new year fresh. No, I haven't, but I have ran around my block with luggage. I was just going to say, they say to put luggage in the front porch or around the fucking block.

Yes, I heard that one when I've heard about running around, but I've heard about putting luggage so you can have good. Travels for the year or something like that. I thought it was, you know, you, you took the luggage and you ran around the block in one circle with the luggage at midnight to bring travel right into your life, like you said, and to, for the, for the following year and to have those experiences.

So I was like, you know, I love travel. Y'all already know that if I could go your neighbors must have been like, wait, I'm going to start that. Yeah, I got caught when my um, my neighbors are uh, chinese And they don't speak any english at all and they have their own You know traditions, right and they were outside and they saw me running around and they go.

Oh gosh And I was like, Hi! And I was like, Hi! And I was like, Hi! He kicked her out. He kicked her out! That's funny. The clock striked and he was like, You're out. So I do the bucket of water and I do 12 grapes. One grape for each month for good luck, which I think a lot of people do that. A lot of Hispanics do that.

I grew up doing that. One time, I thought you had to eat. That's all. All of them at the same time. The salt, I don't do, but I, I, I've heard, have heard of, if you spill salt on the table, you pick it up and it's, there's a shoulder. You're supposed to throw the spilled salt over, but I don't know anything about salt for New Year's.

Is there something for New Year's too? I, I heard something about salt. I don't, I I don't do it. So No. No. There's, there's a couple different ones though. Yeah. Like New Year's, like little things like that. I mean, new Year's for me has always been like to. dance and listen to music and wear pretty dress and, you know, have champagne.

I like to get dressed up for New Year's. I love to get dressed up and have my midnight kiss. Yes. And, um, I, I love it. These past few years I have not engaged in any type of parties or things of that nature. I don't really know why. Again, it could just be all like the changes. You know, but when my daughters were still little, like I was at Marissa's house almost every year for a few years.

Then I started doing my own parties too. Um, so if I would, if I didn't do a party, then [00:47:00] I would definitely go to Marissa's house. But it's true. She cried right there. Boom. Yeah. Midnight. Yeah. It's an emotional thing. It is. You know, it's, it's, you're thinking about. Everything that happened that year, but it's weird because I'm happy all night.

I'm like party Girl, i'm right there with you and then the end of the night i'm like Yeah. Emotional. Yeah. And it's like, I get this feeling of like the things that did happen and, but then I think about the things that I didn't get to accomplish. Right. And it's a lot of stuff. It's just multiple. Yes.

Everything. It's like you're, it's not like your life flashes before your eyes, the year flashes before your eyes and you just get this like feeling of like, it's a hard time for a lot of people. It's just weird. I know. I'm always talking about sex in the city. I think it's because I. I binged it. I binged it hard on Netflix.

What episode was this? But no, it wasn't, let me take that back. It wasn't the sex in the city show. It was the sex in the city movie. Okay. And it was new year's and Miranda called Carrie. Carrie was sleeping and she's like, Oh, I'm so sorry. I go back to sleep. But she's like, no, no, no. She's like, Oh, I'm sorry.

I'm calling you. It's just, you know, it's new year's and I'm alone. And she's like, well, Where's Brady? And oh, you know, it's um, Steve's night. He took Brady. I just didn't want to bring in the new year alone. And she was like, but go back to sleep, go back to sleep. And Carrie gets up. She gets dressed up in her high heels, which I think is so ridiculous, but she did.

And she's taking the train and she's running the streets of New York with her high heels and her stupid little hat. It's so unrealistic. But it's scary. She runs up the stairs and she's like, knocks on the door and Miranda opens and you see the TV going three, two, one and she goes, I made it and she hugged her and I don't know that scene.

Yes. Yeah. Really, really like you have like you have we have that bond we have that bond like you're and if you were like, I'd be like doing the same fucking thing, maybe not in stilettos. But I would do because you know, it's like there's certain people in your life that you love so much and. If you hear them on the phone like that, you're like, I'm going to go, and I'm going to bring in the new year with you because it's tough.

The holidays can be melancholy. Yeah. And I think that that scene probably, you know, touched a lot of people and they could know. I think so too. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to go watch it now. I know, right? I know. I share it all in my head. And it makes me emotional. I mean, I know it's seen. I know. I know. It's like every episode.

I love it. Every podcast I talk about those stupid girls because we relate to the show was so relatable that was the show of I can't speak for you ladies but I felt like that was a show that resonated with my generation. Yeah, it was. It was a show that I could relate to every character, even, I mean, even Samantha, Samantha's like, yeah, I would like to call her.

Of course. But Samantha, with all her like, her sex stuff and whatever, Samantha was a girl's girl. Yeah. And she was a good fucking friend. Well that's what's good about the cast is because everybody can, you can relate to everybody and you see yourself. So you had, there's a little piece of everybody in there.

And there was great episodes where, you know, they really judged Samantha a lot because of her lifestyle and they tap into that, you know, and it made you realize, you know, like, no, she's a good friend, like how she chooses to lie. And I, I don't know. There's, that's why I talk about it a lot. I'm sorry. I know.

Like I bring it up way too much, but it did. It did make me think about that because beautiful friendships should always be cherished and don't let them go. And I'm grateful that we've been able to maintain our friendships. Thanks. And Deibys, I know you just kind of like came into my But I feel I love you so much.

I love you so much. You too. And you know what? I'm glad that we're gonna This is gonna be like our first real like, red lips Christmas. I know. And we're gonna start new traditions. Hey, you know what? You told me to Find new things to be excited for. This is one of them, bitch. There you go. I'm with it. Yes.

I'm there. Holiday. You gotta find it. Holiday. So no more holiday. Holiday. It's gonna be now. Holidays. And with that, we want to thank you so much. Thank you so much for listening to us. If you were a little sad, I hope you're happy now. We really, really appreciate you guys and we hope that you have a wonderful holiday.

Yes. Happy holidays. Happy holidays. And may God bless you. God bless. Hasta la proxima! Thank you for listening. Make sure to subscribe to our show so you don't miss an episode. We will be dropping an episode every two weeks. Oh, yeah. No, like seriously subscribe now So just chill to the next episode follow us on insta and tiktok Hasta la proxima