Do Holiday Traditions Uplift the Culture or Hold Us Back - Live From Miami |The Mama’s Den
🎄 This week we’re live from Miami joined by the ladies of The Mama’s Den discussing the highs and lows of family traditions and the pressure women face to uphold traditions.
BOC Squad, what holiday traditions are important to you? Is there a specific story you want to share with us? Get in on the conversation and let us know over at BankingOnCultura@gmail.com OR you can always submit a DM over @bankingoncultura on Instagram.
Full Transcript:
Without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, we're going to start this amazing evening off. Would you please put your hands together for the beautiful ladies from the Mama's Den in Banking on Cultura Ka K? I did good. Don't I said it? I did good. That was good. Just beautiful. Come on in here. Black and brown women will say the plan. Let me get that out your way. All right. Not not in the water. Watch that. The ball is not a cement thingy. All right. Make some noise for the mama's den y'all in banking on cultura kind of noise though. Thank you. Thank you. Hello. We we're moving these in. Okay though we also have another Hello. Hello. Hello everybody. All right. Hi. Hi. Thank you. You got to get away there. Lots of melanin in here. I like it. Oh yes. Yes. Well hello there. I want to first I want to make sure we can see whoever is going to tell us our time. I wish there were people in the pool. If not, we just gonna go. We just gonna throw y'all. Okay, that's what we going to do. All right, y'all. So, I am Cody Elaine Oliver, one quarter of the Mama's Den podcast. We are the place where sisterhood and motherhood meet with 11 children between the four of us. And we are so excited to collaborate today with Miss Victoria Jenn Rodriguez from Banking on Cultura. Tell us about it. I love how everyone is getting cultura together. We try. We rehearsed it. We passed this. Yes. Well, what's up everybody? Victoria Jenn Rodriguez banking on cultura. For those of you who don't know, cultura means culture. And exactly. And we exist because there isn't a hub for Latinos to really celebrate the vibrancy and complexity of their culture. Entrepreneurship eod in between. Boniche means gossip. So, we educate and entertain around increasing your income streams and really owning your cultura, your DNA, where you come from. Love it. Mamas, will you introduce yourselves? Hi, I'm Melanie Fiona and the DJ was running my songs a few uh minutes ago. Shout out to the DJ. Shout out to the Run It Up and I am 14th of the Mama's Den. I am a mother to two beautiful children, eight and two. And I got new music coming out so make sure you listen to it. Okay. Okay. Um, I'm Felicia, also known as Fee, Somebody's Mama. I have two babies. I have a 10-year-old and a 5-year-old. And I am the co-parent of the crew. Um, I'm Ashley Chea. I am a mother of four girls. I have a 15-year-old. Damn. Zam, that's that's rude. An 8-year-old, a six-year-old, and a three-year-old. While still looking 17 yourself, correct? And do Okay. Okay, y'all. Well, we are here December. What is this? December 5th, 6th, I don't know. Ch. We are here in December because in the words of Mariah Carey, it's time. Yes, we need artists today. Cody, Cody, you promised for this. I know it was going to be We are in holiday mode, y'all. We are in holiday mode and we are thinking about tradition. I want to know from everyone like what are the traditions that you celebrated for the holidays growing up and like who was the leader of your house in the in that effort. Okay. Anybody? Anybody? Okay. I'll go first. Tradition. So, you know, food is very much a big part of how we celebrate our culture, how we celebrate each other, our love and affection for one another. So, lots of family around the table. Yeah. Lots of family, lots of different personalities. uh at the table. Lots of food, you know, traditional foods are of course always on the table. But my favorite part about celebrating the holidays with my family is like being in the kitchen with like all the ladies and the matriarchs and like they putting you on so you could take care of your boo. You know, you know those recipes that nobody knows about, but when you like graduate to get the recipe, you feel you feel good about it. Um so that's my favorite part is like cooking in the kitchen with everyone and being a host. I love to host and I love to celebrate family. What's your sign? I'm a Taurus. Earth sign. Wait, I need to hear what's the recipe like what's your Oh, well, you know, we got the recipe for a good peline for a roand or partles and bananadas, you know, and of course the turkey and all that stuff. I like the way you say that. Like I think the little you got to roll the tongue, you know what I mean? Yeah. Uh but yeah, those are my favorite parts of the tradition and want to make sure we keep moving forward with those. Yeah, I'll follow up with the family part. For me and my family, everything is about family. Like if we're baking cookies, if we are decorating a tree, I am a woman of God. So, it is very big that we are celebrating the birth of Jesus. Okay. Um and so birth of Jesus, y'all know. And so, um but family time is like the most important. And that sometimes look like dancing. That looks like joking. That looks like people at the table. That looks like Dominoes. Shut up. That look like a little bit of Hennessy. Copy up in there. It just looks like we're such a happy laughing family despite what life is bringing to you. So that is that's my tradition is families. Fee, was there one thing you did every year growing up? Girl, laughed. Like really I I feel like um laugh and cooking like that's probably the biggest thing. and probably playing games like but it it feels like if anything holidays to us is a moment for all family to gather and get together and just like you know love on each other. Um I'm going to third this and say food. Um because I'm Caribbean, my family's from Guyana. Shout out to the GT Massive in the building. Um so food is like definitely like we have very specific things and it's really Christmas morning that's the thing for us. It's not Christmas dinner waking up to that smell. Yes. So, our Christmas morning prep happens weeks in advance because my mom makes something called pepper pot and it has to cure like it's meats in a casip gravy basically. And fun fact about pepper pot is that the base of it is made from cassava root. So, it's very thick and black. It's dark but it's a natural preservative. So, if you heat it up once a day, no matter how big that pot is, it will continue to stay good on the stove. You don't ever have to refrigerate it again. It's crazy. So, wait a pepper pot is a breakfast dish. Okay. So, pepper pot is a Christmas breakfast dish. Okay, for all don't hate on meat lovers in a pot. Okay, it's the oxtails, it's the beef, it's the cow heel. If you eat cow heel, it's all the things. Garlic beef, garlic, pork, homemade bread. Um, my mom makes all of these things and so like even like the garlic meats, those have to cure. Black cake, that's our traditional. Um, it's rum cake, but my dad does that. It's amazing. So to me, I just think about the food. And then now because all of my family is back home in Toronto, it's about the ways in which we can gather wherever we are. So if my mom comes, I make sure I got a pressure cooker so she can keep the tradition going. She also made me a recipe book with all the recipes so that I can told her like one Christmas. What it is one one Christmas my mom said, "I want to give you something for for you know what do I get you for Christmas?" I said, "Don't ever get me anything else. Just make me a recipe book one day." and she did. So, I I'm happy to know that those things will carry on. I'll make sure to do that with my children. But while she's here, praise God, she will be the one in the kitchen and I will be the one eating and falling asleep after. We eat too. We eat her food. Um, for me, I actually was raised Muslim and Christian. So, we would do like Quanza and Christmas. So, Quanza was like a really big deal where I grew up. Like, we did all seven days. My mom and her friends, every friend would host a different day. So that was like the highlight of my childhood is like knowing that like who's going to host Umoja, who's going to host Cooji Chakali and then like our whole family would like you would read together and all of my friends would get together. So that's like a tradition that I'm trying to like recreate with my children. Um and then Christmas day like my mom would always just like turn on like a Charlie Brown Christmas movie and then we would just sit around and watch movies all day and open gifts. So I'm like that with my kids. I'll let them open like a gift the night before, like one gift the night before. But we also have moved to like only three gifts. Like something you want to wear and need. Oh, I love that. Very necess Yeah. It's just three. And then actually we've been moving away from that. Like we're going to go on trips. Like y'all don't need anything. Yeah. I just really enjoy I have a big family. I have seven brothers or sisters. So like I just love being with my family. Like that's the most important thing is just being together. Who was like responsible for maintaining these traditions? Cody, what were you doing? Oh my gosh. Always trying to skate around trying to Walters like you got to answer questions too. So my mom had a Christmas Eve party every year for like 30 years. Thank you Melanie for like 30 years. And I mean literally only stopped recently as I me and my sister have like a bunch of kids between us. We have six kids between us. I might have to hold it. Ow. Um, and so the Christmas Eve party was definitely the thing that I look forward to. Every year my best friend in the whole wide world is here, Kimberly. So every year like family, friends, everybody would come over for my mom's Christmas Eve party. Doesn't matter where we were in the world, we coming home. And so that is that for me is one of the big Christmas traditions. The second was on Christmas morning, my sister and I would get up like crazy early. My parents were never up and we would like try to look at the gifts but not open anything. assess the shape, right? Like, what kind of Barbie you're shaping? Um, and then, oh, okay. And then I don't know if this is working. And then on Christmas morning, we would go to my grandparents house and then to every like elder that my grandparents knew, we would do a like we would drop by everybody's house. Oh. And maybe we'd get a gift there and sometimes we would just be like hugging and doing the awkward kiss thing, but that was the the the the Christmas day celebration. Awkward kiss thing. What's that? Well, you know where you like have to hug and kiss the elders. You know what I'm saying? Where you not? Nowadays, we don't make our kids do that, but you know, we did that. We did that. You guys wait until midnight to open gifts. Like, so we celebrate Christmas Eve. Like, Christmas Eve is like when it's lit, and then at midnight is when we go crazy, not be bullying me and a week. I'm trying to put them kids. I'm trying to put them kids to bed. Midnight, my kids. Good night. No, I used to buy my kids so many gifts that like I would let them open like one a day before Christmas. Like, so it would be like a week before. It was ridiculous. That's also what made me stop buying so many gifts cuz I'm like, if you could open five gifts 5 days before Christmas and still have gifts on Christmas, you have too much. That's too much. Wait, you mentioned to me that your dad was the one that like kind of held Christmas together? Like, will you talk about that a little bit? Well, so I grew up with a single dad. So, my dad's been raising me since I was like 5 years old. So, um you know, he's really the reason why I celebrate my Latin, you know, why I celebrate Boriqua. Shout out to any bodies that's in the building. Uh and he's really the one who introduced me to all of these traditions. So for him, he had a lot of help. So he had a lot of help from the family, all the ladies, my theas, my cousins you. So watch me as a little girl. And so they actually were the ones who were just like, you know what, just bring Vicki. We'll be good. We'll take care of her. So he he was lucky to have the ladies in the family look out for him. Uh but he was the one who was taking me to all the events. He was the one who was making sure that I spent time with family. So every summer I would be with Matias and Theos in Puerto Rico. And so he really is the reason why I'm so ingrained in my culture, but also the reason why all the women in my life that come from that side of the family. I'm spoiled. I was daddy's little girl and then, you know, he was a single dad. They felt bad for him. So they was like, "Of course, we'll take care." Shout out to the dads and shout out to the Shout out to the daddies and the aunties. Yeah. So now that you're we're all adults, right? So what of those traditions are important to you to keep and maintain for your families or for yourself and friends and and what are you like, nah, this what we doing now? Um I think it's interesting cuz I feel like traditions are beautiful, but I'm also in this space of like just doing whatever feels good for my family. I think sometimes we feel beholden to traditions and it doesn't always necessarily like work for your family unit. So, I'm more like if we want to do that again, we'll do it. But if like the vibe is like let's all just go on a trip, then that's what we're going to do. Do you know what I mean? Like I went from a lot of gifts to like three gifts to now I'm like y'all don't need no gifts. Let's go somewhere like let's go to Big Bear, you know? So, I think my tradition is to just keep doing whatever I want every year. Whatever feels good when I'm in the mood for as long as I'm with my kids, that's all I care about. I feel the same, too. I feel like my especially because now that I co-parent, the traditions that I had, which was waking up in the morning and the kids run downstairs, I have to share that with somebody now. So now for myself, um it's I I don't mind sleeping in. I've also had to work with that. But as long as I'm with my kids, like as long as with my I'm with my kids in the morning time, I spend oneonone time with my mom or my sister up there in town. Um, and then my kids, I get them at some point in the day, but as long as I'm with family, like I'm straight. I don't feel anger. Because of your faith and connection with God, do you go to church on like Christmas Eve or Christmas Day? Girl, no. Church is everywhere. Okay. Church. I know that's right. Cuz that's a big thing. Some people are like, "We have to go to Christmas Eve mass or like whatever it is." Y'all know I'm a modern day Christian now. My Muslim mom would make So, I'm going to have some eggnog. No, I said my Muslim mom would make us go to Christmas Day mass. Yeah. Really? Yeah. I don't know what's wrong with her, but I feel like that's going to get in the way of presents in the morning. I don't think my kids would ever go. They did Christmas Eve. Like she did. We would open them on Christmas Eve. That was like a big deal. All of them? Most of them. Christmas day was just for chilling. You Puerto Rican, too. So that's what my mom is. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's a part of y'all. Yeah. Yeah. Growing up Catholic, we would go to church a lot. But as I got older and started learning more about my faith and exploring spirituality, I was like, we're going to put a let me shake this a little bit. We're going to we're going to put a nub in that um and really create, you know, our own energy in our own moment. So to your point, like with traditions, I think it's really important for us to do what feels good to us just because traditionally, you know, someone handled this or someone hosted that or this was the kind of the agenda for the day. you get to decide, you know, and that's the beautiful part, I think, of the time and space that we're in right now. We're like in this evolvement state where we get to decide how we want to show up in the world. And that boils down to our traditions. We get to create new ones. This year, I actually actually Thanksgiving, I realized that I was the one that everybody was kind of following. I was just showing up, not realizing, but it's very much like, what are you doing? What are you and the kids doing? Maybe because I have kids. I don't know. Yeah. But people want to be with the kids. Yeah. Yeah. Man, they use us. They use us for the children. They're like, "Oh, no. Where you going to be? It'll be about you, girl. It's about it." But you know what though? I think that that's something to like be said because truly, and you have a different experience cuz you were raised by your dad. Like I You said the matriarchs in your family. Like I want to just address the fact of like how the the pressure to keep on the tradition sometimes often falls on the women of the family and how much that changes when the matriarchal figure passes or or transitions on and who steps up to say, "Oh, we're going to make sure we keep Pepper Pot alive. We're going to make sure we go see the elders or whoever it is." You know, it's it's um it's something that I do think about because like I said, I don't live where my family lives anymore, you know. So travel is a big thing for it and and I have nieces who are older now and I just have one brother. So I'm like when my parents are no longer here hopefully you know 100 years from now uh you know like who is it going to fall on? And I feel like naturally it is me. Like I'm going to be the one to pick up the phone and be like oh let's let's keep in touch. Let's you know but often times when the matriarch passes on we see a lot of traditions fall to the wayside and they shift and it's sad and I really don't want to. But I think I'm also in a space to create new traditions as well. Yeah. Well, can I was going to ask like I was about to say something real quick. Sorry. I think something also that's important to point out is seasonal depression. I remember because my mom was a single mom and I remember being like eight or nine and my mom just stopped Christmas like no presents, no nothing. And I remember as a kid feeling so sad. So it's almost like her depression kind of spilled onto us. But then that's when I was the one like no we're going to have fun. and we're there was times sometimes she wouldn't even really show up. She just wasn't there and then she ended up telling us it's because my brother's not around. He deals with his mental health issues. So I think also paying attention to sometimes people shut down at that time and I've had to learn to not really like take on what my mom was projecting and also make sure that I'm keeping the tradition and that energy alive of like I like to celebrate and I like to do this. I love to be around family. So seasonal depression. Yeah. Keep going y'all. I was going to say like what if anything do you feel pressured to keep up? Whether it's from your you know grandparents and your parents or whether it's just like I started this thing and I want to do it every year. Like what is the food for me? I just don't have the confidence that I can cook like my mama. You got it girl. I mean maybe with maybe I need to just try a little bit more with her. Try it on non-th Thanksgiving like other days like a regular Monday. you you're absolutely right. That's such a good advice cuz you don't want to mess up Christmas and dinner, Christmas breakfast, you know. But but truly, I think that that's the thing. My mom's cooking is such a huge like thing that everyone looks forward to and she takes such pride in it that I'm like, "Oh man." But I remember my mom used to say this, but she's like, "I never learned to cook as good as I did until my mother passed away." Oh wow. Because it it all fell in her mast. Yeah. She didn't even know she could cook. And in my mind, my mom could make like she could take a beach ball and make the best meal you've ever had. So, you know, she's a real she cooks with so much love. And so, I think when she stepped into that role of matriarch, so I feel the pressure to be able to like feed people's souls. Yeah. Based off of the footsteps of my mom. So, that's that's the pressure I feel about the tradition. Yeah. You know what's interesting? I don't feel pressure. Maybe it's because I'm a Capricorn and I do what I want, but I'm I don't feel I'm not like a pure pressure. I never feel pressured to do anything that I don't want to do. So, I I don't feel that way. I feel like my mom did what she did and I'm going to do what I want to do. My girls are going to do what they want to do. I think the only maybe pressure that I feel is to make sure that my daughters maintain a healthy, loving relationship. I think that's the most important thing for me. So, I always just try to make sure that my kids are enjoying one another and they're really like being sisters to each other and really being friends to one another. Yeah. Because like you said, when you think about when I pass, I don't want one sister to feel responsible. I want them all to step up. I want them all to have each other's back. You know what I mean? So, that's the only thing. But as far as like Mercury retrograde is really retrograding right now. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We have lane trains and automobiles or microbes happening. Um but no, I I just really focus on their relationship and then just joy. But I always just do whatever I want. I'm always going to be like that. I don't care what anybody else does. I feel the same. I think for me the big I I wouldn't even say it's pressure. I just want my kids to be happy. If that looks like a trip, if that looks like they want something specific for Christmas, as long as I see my kids smiling, I see my mom happy, my my my sister happy, my family happy, like that's really what's most important. But my kids that like joy, I don't want to kill that joy because I remember what it felt like when my mom was like, "Yeah, Christmas is out. We not do this more." So, yeah, I think just making sure everybody's happy. Yeah. Yeah. I think any entrepreneurs in the building? Any entrepreneurs here? Yes. No. Maybe. So, so I don't know if you guys felt this pressure, but I became an entrepreneur 7 years ago and I couldn't do Christmas like presents and all of that was was a no-go. Like, we weren't doing that. And I sent a message out to my family and was like, "Hey, I just started this journey. I'm an entrepreneur. All the money that I make is getting reinvested back into my business. So, all those kids you got, yeah, they getting just kisses and love and hugs from me. this cooking, right? Exactly. You're just getting all of that. And I think all of us, especially when we're on a journey financially, like we all feel that pressure around the holidays because we think like we have to buy stuff for our family. Like that is a I think a tradition across the board. Like it's just common. Um, but there are other ways for you to showcase love without gifts. And so if you're on like a financial strain or a new entrepreneur, like don't be afraid to just be like, "Hey, yep. This holiday season, I'm bowing out." and I'll see you next year. Yeah. Something something that I've I've done with a lot of my friends or family or anything like that when it comes to gifts is like sometimes we feel the pressure to spend so much money and I encourage a lot of parents or aunties or uncles or whoever if you want to make a difference in your children's nieces, nephews lives, like open up an investment account for them. You know what I mean? like rather than spend $100 or $50 on a toy that they're going to just disregard in a few months, spend give them $25 or go buy some stock. Yeah. Go pick go put something in an account that can just continue to grow. And I feel like that's what I've tried to do with like my godchildren or like my friend's kids. It's just like what's their account so I can even if it's just $20, you know what I mean? like, yeah, let it grow, let it work, let it do something. Because these kids, like it's just over consumption. And again, we get caught in the idea of gift giving and the pressure of like how to make someone feel loved. And it's like, make me feel loved. Give me money capitalism. Give me money and make my future. You know what I mean? Like it's like invest in your children's your family's future. I think too often too, especially with like black, black and brown communities, we're not educated enough on financial literacy. Yeah. And how we can help build generational wealth together, you know, and so it's like for you it's like, okay, you want to get me something. I'm on my journey. Invest in my business. Absolutely. You know, you don't buy me a gift, don't buy me that bottle of wine, don't buy me that perfume. Invest in my in my business. You know, so that's I think a way that we can also create new traditions of gift giving for our own communities. Yeah, I I know for me when it comes to gifts, I really appreciate words of affirmation. I mean invest and do all of those things of course but I think it's also important for us to really capitalize on the fact that like even if you don't have the money you can make a cook meal you know you can give words of affirmation you can give business advice there's so many yeah there's so many things outside of but I think because we live in America that sometimes it's very focused on like you have to buy something but I feel like that for me personally that's like the bottom of the podum toll absolutely yeah and I think and I'm looking at Ashley too Because I feel like we're also forgetting some of the little things that we do in the holiday season. Like we talked about Christmas Eve and Christmas. I remember Ashley telling me I think it was like late Nove right after Thanksgiving cuz for Ashley Christmas starts when after after Halloween you were talking about the girls who puts the star on the tree. Yes. And that is a tradition for years. Can you please describe the whole star thing cuz you had to search for pictures. So obviously, well, I had one child for seven years for so long. So obviously she put the star on the tree every year. But then as I kept having children, they wanted to put the star on there. So then it had to be So I got a lot of kids. And so I kept having children. But I did. You got to put their names in like a basket and be like, "Okay." No, girl. I had to go. At first I was doing it in order of birth, but then we have two Christmas trees. So then it was like they would take a turn. So I had to start going like putting in like cuz in November is when we put my Christmas tree up. I would have to put in like November 3rd, 2021, 2020. Not 2009 to see like who did to see whose turn it was. So now that I mean I have two trees and four kids. It was easy cuz now trees two trees two trees, four kids, one man. Okay. Okay. Wait, is everyone's Christmas tree up? Cuz mine definitely is not. That thing is fake as in
February. Yeah. Same. Mine will go up this weekend. Don't judge. It's okay. I'm gonna put mine up when I go back. But I will say I started I started Elf on the Shelf last year. Oh Lord. And I actually really loved it. And I have when we're talking about pressure like I am I'm sad cuz I haven't started it yet this year. Give yourself listen every all the parents that do Elk on the Shelf. I'm going to tell you right now I love it's never going to be for me. I cannot take I have too many responsibilities. I cannot think about where to put this thing. Y'all some good people from time to time. No, no, not the way my brain It's fine. It's like teaching them about the feds like they watching. What? It's also lying to them. You got to throw I mean the whole holiday season on the shelf. No, because most people adhere to the elf on the shelf. It's magic. He moves himself. Most people don't tell their kids that they it's given to different. They even were like, "Can we go to Target and go get our elf outfit?" like they know it's your kids. I said the majority of people make sure just to be clear in my house it's a sheet. Oh, I have a female. It's a shelf. The funny part is that it's a it was a shelf in the box and they were like it's a sheet and I was like okay cool. Okay, wait. So, one more question for y'all. So, 2024 been 2024. Yes. What is something that you were looking forward to this holiday season? What is something that must happen for you now? Oh, I just want for you, your family, whatever. I just want to rest. I don't want to go nowhere. I don't want to do anything. I just want to rest and like not have to get up and go. Like my girls are in Debbie Allen's dance company. Like they're doing the Nutcracker right now. It's been crazy. Like since September, they've had rehearsal like every weekend all day. I just want to have zero responsibilities and just like go with the vibes. Yeah. Vibes. Just want to go with the vibes. I just want to laugh. Yeah. I just want to laugh and be with family and be merry like but that's that's and yeah Christmas no I'm focused on the Lord. Um no but I just I just I just want to be happy and I want to be at peace and I want to have joy and I want to just continue to work on myself, continue to honor myself and I mean I don't know if that's a lot for Christmas but it is what it is. No, that's all right. That's a good couple weeks. No, I just want to sleep. I just want to sleep. Um, you know, my husband and myself, we've been in a really busy professional season, so we're constantly traveling. I mean, dropping album. We dropping music and, you know, doing NFL field going. So, I just would really love for us to be I want for his phone to be away because he's always working. I'm always traveling. So, I would love for us to just really have uninterrupted time with our kids, sleeping in, no school, no basketball practice, nothing. I just want to sleep. Yeah. Yeah, I just want to sleep in my bed for a solid week. Well, I'm going to come over and watch a movie in the backyard. Come on. With the fireplace of that your kids can come outside with me. Perfect. Um, yeah. I kind of want the same. I just want to chill. And I feel like I kind of captured that over Thanksgiving week. Yeah. You know, so I look forward to two weeks of that. And my children have actually been letting me sleep in and and as a result, they're bonding. I love it. Well, that could be opposite. Wow. That's what she's supposed to do. So they can tear up the house. They doing all types of shenanigans while we sleep. She has three boys. Oh, they was moving furniture with three boys. Absolutely. What about you, Victoria? I think for me, I want two things. So, I want a Buddha to kiss under the mistletoe. Now, that I'm putting that out there into the world. So, God, bro, you got a couple weeks. Yeah, I know, right? Things have happened. And then the second thing, yo, there's beef in my family right now. This is baby. And one of the matriarchs got beef with another matriarch. No. And we felt it on Thanksgiving. So, I'm really hoping and praying that Christmas is a time where we're able to heal. Yes. And we're able to reintroduce, revitalize the love that is still there. Yeah. Um that's why there's pain, right? Because there's love there. Um and yeah, if God wants to use me as a vessel to do that, I am ready. But that is definitely something I I really want to make happen this holiday season. Yeah, you got it. You got it. That's beautiful. I hope it does. Yeah, absolutely. We got you. Oh, thanks. I I'll take all the prayers. Send it all the all of the I'll take. I'll come over and facilitate conversation. That's one of my favorite things to do. I love conflict resolution. She sure does. They'll be like, "Who is this 12-year-old here trying to tell us what to do?" And be like, "Girl, you don't know her. She got like 18 kids. She can't She is way ahead of her time. Like, go play." Well, that has been the Mama's Den and Banking on Pulura. However, let's also share our IGs. Oh, yes. Let's do that. So, Banking Uncle Cultura on Instagram, but also I am Victoria Jenn. You can catch me there. We're on the YouTubetubes. We're on all the audio streams, all the things. So, definitely check us out if you're interested in entrepreneurship, if you're interested in celebrating your culture and just getting more comfortable in your own skin, and some bonas, some tea, some gossip. Definitely check us out. And I'm Cody, Cody Co on Instagram, and we are at the Mama's Den podcast. Thank you, Melanie. Thank you, gang gang. You can find me on the Mama's Dan page and then you can also find me at Melanie Fiona. You can find me also on the Mama's Dan page and you can also find me at Felicia Latoy. Um, you can find me at home. No, I'm kidding. You can find me on Cash. She's not kidding. You can find me in my faux keys. Um, and Watermelon Eggros is my Instagram name. Isn't that so cute? Watermelon and egg roll. Speaking of Is that a thing? It is. My husband is Asian. Obviously, I'm not. So, it's like a little play on um stereotypes. Yeah, it's very cute. Is it ties? They don't exist at all. Oh, they don't. She doesn't even like watermelon. We have to fix black and Asian culture. I hate watermelon. It's kind of like a little tongue and cheek to stereotypes. Yeah. Yeah. Very cool. Interesting. All right. Well, thank y'all. Yes. Thank you everybody. Applauding ourselves. Come on. Give us something. Come on, Miami. Show some love. That open bar got him in a choco. Got him in a choco. Exactly. Hey guys, if you enjoyed this video, I'm pretty sure you're going to love the next one. So, make sure to click right here and tap in to the next episode.
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