In this episode, I'm sharing practical encouragement for expat immigrant women to help you turn your holidays into meaningful, festive celebrations. Instead of homesick and lonely, this is how you can create fellowship, warmth, and soul deep reflection this Christmas season. Keep listening. Welcome to starting over in the USA, the Expat Woman's Guide to overcoming Homesickness, embracing cultural Differences, and creating a new home away from home. Every Friday, I'll share mindset shifts and practical tools to support your journey. Join me with some incredible guests every Wednesday as we spill the secrets of what we wish we'd known, the triumphs we celebrate, and the mess ups we've learn from. The holidays can be absolutely heavenly. But for expat and immigrant women like you and me, they're often complicated. Our guest today is an expat woman living in California. Her name is Manuelita Antonio Rangel Sosa. She is a Venezuelan- American artist, sharing with you and I today, how Christmas back home was a total thing. The season of parties, dancing, food and fabulous outfits. She's going to reflect on bringing pieces of that festive spirit into her life, while also creating new rituals it's about family, poetry, and light overcoming darkness. Keep listening. Christmas. You are an expat woman. You come from Venezuela. What is the Christmas season like for you? Is it a thing? It is a total thing. I don't think even the most adamant deniers of Christmas in Venezuela can deny that it's a thing. Mm-hmm. It is officially a party. Everyone is on party mode from December 1st to January 7th. At least as the shortest period. And, it is a time for getting together and cooking a lot. Mm-hmm. And eating and partying and dancing. That sounds merry. It's the time for dressing up. Getting your outfits together was really big. They call it Los Enos. Because you're supposed to be, sporting something new. Uhhuh and fabulous for the 24th. We celebrate Christmas on the 24th of December with a big dinner. Yes. And for New Year's. Body, obviously. So now that you live in the US here in California are you still able to be that person here in the us? Just for context. I've been here. Longer than I lived in Venezuela, so. Oh, okay. I've been here for 23 years. I have brought the things that I really miss from my Christmas in Venezuela and combine it with things that I really like. Oh, that's lovely. So things like what? Things like the outfit. Oh, so you still dress out? I still dress, dress. i, I'm still like, what are you wearing everybody for both occasions because it's two parties. Yes. With very different modes. Christmas is like, you know, more cozy and composed. And New Year a little bit more, like this year I'm wearing like a lace dress and New Years is more like a sparkly and fun and Yeah. More like nighttime. But also the foods. But I think the advantage after 23 years, I can see this, the first five years that I was in this country, I was going back home for the holidays. Home is here now. I have a son, I have a partner, I have a dog. We have a home and so home is here. And I think it's really important to bring that spirit of the holidays where home is. Yeah. And the advantage of being an expat on the holidays is you can design your own holiday. Yeah. You can bring what you love the most from home and then integrate what you like about here and leave everything outside. So what else are you integrating? Is it mainly the party that outfits and my partner and I. I agree one tradition, one ritual around the solstice, the winter solstice, which usually happens on the 20th or the 21st as the longest night of the year. We got inspiration from a Persian tradition called Yalda, in which families and friends spend the longest night of the year reading poetry. Oh, that's beautiful. Usually by Hafez or Rumi. And candlelight and a fire..How did you start that? Yes, we, so my partner and I really love poetry and we really love having friends over we installed a fireplace. Oh. Just to. have, just so you can have. Yes. On the day of the solstice. I was Like. Painting and getting a new rug. And it means, it means a lot. It means a lot. It's the one thing because we come from such a different places. Yeah. Um, our I think that the vibe in Venezuela was very much, of partying, of joy, of dancing. This is a different Okay. Kind of energy I think here is about going inward and really sharing with friends beauty and intimacy. People get very touch about coming over, coming home, being by the fire, reading their own poems. It's a very bonding of close friends. It feels like it's a very safe space that you are creating. Very warm and comforting. Exactly. I've been encouraging expat women listening in case they might be alone, this Christmas. Just to reach out to one or two other people, invite somebody else for a meal. You don't necessarily have to try so hard to recreate the things from back home, because that might be so difficult. Try to make hallacas by yourself. You need a whole extended family to cook 200 hallacass.do you like American Christmas, the American traditions? I'm very selective in my tradition. So I take what I like. Yes. And I just don't pay attention to the rest. I like decorations. I think traditions are difficult and are so triggering because they speak to a part of us that goes deeper, the smell of the pine trees make people feel at home when they come for Christmas. The little objects they might have been past generation from generation. So, and I think that's also why it's so hard to adopt new traditions.'because you can't let go of the old. You can't let go of the old. You don't understand the new. And when you don't understand something. A lot of people, including me, will reject it. Mm-hmm. And so the trick for me okay, what I like of my, what can I bring from home that is doable and that is enjoyable. Every time I see something I like, then I try to be curious about it. Mm-hmm. Ask questions and then adapt it to my own values and way of living. That's beautiful. That means for a very rich, surprising, intriguing, beautiful life. I feel like there's always going to be a surprise around what's Manuelita going to do this year I think there's always an element of excitement to come to your house. I think that's beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing your Christmas. Thank you for asking me about it. Now I'm gonna be thinking about a little bit more. Manuelita beautifully illustrates, I think, how expats navigate the holidays. You know, balancing inherited traditions with new rituals and other things that we create to feel comforted and to feel at home. Manuelita has taken us into her confidence, into her private space, shown us how she's celebrating her Christmas in a meaningful way. And you can start your new traditions. You can build your community, but based on authenticity, based on kindness, based on peacefulness, joy, love, and patience. To me, that's the foundation where you, me, and anybody else will always feel like we belong. That's it from me today. Have a lovely day. Enjoy whatever you are doing. Bye.