Expat Report – February 2025: A Twisted Valentine’s and More Family Drama

Like most years, I try to see the beginning as a second chance to do things better. Keyword: Try. Things don’t always go as planned—that’s life. But I have to admit, aside from a few hiccups, 2025 has started off pretty well.

For starters, I have a fresh batch of new students, many of whom are more eager to learn than some of their predecessors. And new opportunities just keep falling into my lap.

This year, we celebrated our first Valloween—a combination of Valentine’s Day and Halloween.

We even set up a mini-Valloween tree decorated with red ornaments, some heart-shaped, along with an axe, a gun, and a few creepy pieces from Kripta, an Argentine online store that specializes in horror items.

Our Valloween movie lineup included:

• My Bloody Valentine (2008) (with Jensen Ackles)
• Valentine (2001) (I had no idea Izzie and Arizona from Grey’s Anatomy were in this film!)

Our dear friend Melisa joined in the celebration. She even helped us create a wall of hearts with some, uh… NSFW messages written on them. (Ha! Not going to show you!)

Of course, no Valloween celebration would be complete without food. We had homemade treats like cake and donuts, plus heart-shaped cheese and salami crackers—because what’s Valloween without a little sugar and a touch of decadence?

Meatball subs, chicken wings and fries were on the menu

Bloody Cherry Spritzers

But things haven’t exactly been all rosy.

In mid-January, my mom got pneumonia again. For those who haven’t read my other posts, she was hospitalized late last year when she first got sick—and almost didn’t make it.

This time, she chose to recover at home instead of going to the hospital. But her doctor screwed up and prescribed antibiotics with penicillin, which she’s mildly allergic to. While it wasn’t life-threatening, it certainly didn’t help her already weakened health. Over the past few weeks, I’ve spoken to her, and it’s clear she’s come to terms with the fact that she may not have much time left.

Meanwhile, my dad—who has dementia—is struggling with depression over my mom’s declining health. I find it ironic, considering that in 2023, his delusional mind convinced him that his (then) 75-year-old wife was cheating on him, and he actually threatened to kill her over it.

On top of all this, I’ve taken on even more responsibilities when it comes to managing our rental properties. It hasn’t been easy. My parents have no friends here in Argentina, and the few family members they have left are estranged. As for my husband and me, our circle is currently down to one friend, while all our other friends and family are back in the U.S. And before you ask—no, they can’t help. So, we’re on our own out here, which is both overwhelming and terrifying at times.

But we’ve managed to survive in Argentina for nearly 13 years. And while 2025 will no doubt bring big changes and losses, we’ll adjust course as each challenge comes our way—just like we always do.

Ringing in 2025: Our Expat New Year’s Celebration in Argentina

Happy New Year, everyone!

I’m so glad the husband and I survived 2024 so we could say goodbye to this b*tch of a year and welcome 2025 with open arms. This year, we made a ham with pineapple slices and cherries, along with beer rice and plantains. If you’re wondering where the plantains come from in an American family, let me remind you that my husband’s family is Puerto Rican, and plantains are a common food staple in his culture. Also, I’m from Miami—Hialeah, specifically—and I was raised in a community full of Cubans who also love plantains. Naturally, I developed a taste for this Caribbean side dish early in life.

For dessert, the husband and I made a coconut cake, decorating it with marshmallows and cherries to simulate the hours on a clock. We used half of a ladyfinger cookie as the hand of the clock, pointing to midnight. We also made chocolate pudding and wrote our wishes for 2025, like health, money, and friendship, on coconut cookies.

At night, the winds picked up violently. This wasn’t a problem for us; it allowed us to open the back door and windows, letting the winds flush the old 2024 air out of the house and replace it with fresh air.

For those of you who don’t know, we are Wiccan. We recited an incantation to remove negative energy from our home and our lives, replacing it with positive things like new opportunities, money, and health—similar to the affirmations we wrote on the coconut cookies. We always find these incantations helpful for protecting ourselves and our home from negative energy.

When the clock struck midnight in Argentina, we drank champagne. (It was the cheapest sh*t we’d ever bought and will never buy again.) For us, though, the New Year isn’t official until the ball drops in Times Square. Sadly, we can’t watch Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest from Argentina, but we managed to watch the ball drop via the NYE Live Webcast.

We waited until midnight in New York City, which is 2 a.m. in Argentina. In preparation, we cleaned 24 grapes. This tradition involves eating 12 grapes, one for each wish we have for the new year.

Since the champagne earlier was so nasty, we made a mix of Malibu coconut rum and pineapple soy juice. When the countdown began, the ball started to drop, and 2025 officially arrived. After a long, emotional hug and a kiss, the husband and I drank our coconut rum mix and ate our grapes.

Phew! We did it! We survived another year in this world and living abroad in Argentina. I don’t know what 2025 will bring, but we plan to take things one day at a time.

Until next time…

Creepmas 2024: A Spooky Twist on Christmas in Argentina

In case it wasn't obvious from my previous posts, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas are our favorite holidays. But if I'm being honest, there's nothing better than Halloween. Christmas isn't exactly chopped liver, though! So, this year, we decided to combine the two holidays and turn a regular old Christmas into Creepmas!

Basically, Creepmas is Christmas but with a spooky twist. I was surprised to learn it's a growing trend among horror fans. While some call it Creepmas, others refer to it as Navidark. We were thrilled to discover stores in Argentina selling horror-themed ornaments, making it easier to bring our spooky vision to life.

The most notable stores we found were Ghostly and Kripta in Buenos Aires. Ghostly offered unique spooky Christmas ornaments, like the Krampus bell. But this year, we decided to try Kripta and ordered from them instead.

We placed our order a bit late, and we were worried it wouldn't arrive in time, but luckily, Andreani (a delivery service similar to UPS in the States) came through, delivering everything on the 24th.

Here’s what the ornaments looked like in the box:

And here’s what they looked like on our Creepmas tree:

Creepmas Crafts

We also got creative this year and designed our own Creepmas Snowmen and a Creepmas Village using empty styrofoam ice cream containers. The stabbed snowman was store bought.

Here’s what we used:

• Faces: drawn with markers.
• Noses: cut from old birthday candles.
• Arms: cardboard spoons from McDonald’s frosty desserts.
• Buttons: made from black tape.
• Scarf (for one snowman): fabric from an old red shirt I wasn’t using anymore.

More Creepmas Decorations

Sweet Treats

With the tree and Creepmas Village all set up, our next focus was food. Luckily, my husband loves to cook, especially sweet treats. Here are some of the desserts we made together:

Peanut Butter Cup Ornaments

We made them by melting white chocolate. Then we coated a thin layer of the white chocolate onto each ornament design and froze the entire mold for about 15 minutes.

After taking the mold out of the freezer, we filled the ornaments up with peanut butter and covered them up with white chocolate. Then we placed them in the freezer for another 15 minutes and voila!

Homemade Christmas Cookies

We used cookie cutters to get the shapes we wanted and then placed them in the oven. Once they were done, we used food coloring and M&Ms to decorate the cookies.

Pancake Gingerbread Men

We made these using pancake batter and a gingerbread men mold. After they were done, we used white chocolate chips to decorate the eyes and M&Ms for the buttons on their shirts.

Cinnamon Donuts

We made these cinnamon donuts with the leftover pancake batter we used to make the gingerbread men.

Store-Bought Gingerbread Men

We also had these gingerbread men that we bought from Rapanui during Halloween but forgot about. As you can see, the bakery we got these from gave them a bloody makeover which went great with our Creepmas theme.

Apple Pie

Pies are a holiday staple, especially in the States, so we made this delicious pie with two stars in the middle. And if you look closely, there are two more stars, which have the first letter of our first names - "G" and "Z".

The Muffin Tree

And yes! There's more!

The hubby made a Christmas tree tower with delicious muffins! But we probably need to go on a diet after this or at least check to make sure we haven't developed diabetes.

The Salty Stuff

For salty food, we decided to skip a traditional Christmas dinner because we both came down with a bad case of the flu. Our appetites were limited to desserts and alcohol. We did, however, order chicken wings from an Ecuadorian restaurant in Córdoba City named Diablo Huma. Not only were the wings reasonably priced, but the sauces (especially the hot ones) were amazing!

We also made mashed potatoes, which, admittedly, didn’t pair well with the wings. We probably should’ve saved the mashed potatoes for another day, but as I said, we were sick and not really thinking clearly.

Our snack platter was a definite highlight, though. It consisted of:

• Cheese cubes
• Salami
• Rex Crackers (similar to Ritz)
• Cherries

Lasagna

Lasagna was supposed to be part of our Christmas Eve menu, so we made it on Christmas day instead.

Despite the fact that the layers looked like skin and the sauce looked like blood, we tried not to focus too much on that or we wouldn't have eaten this tasty dish.

Creepmas Movie Marathon

In keeping with tradition, we did a 25-day movie marathon leading up to Christmas. About half of the movies were scary Christmas-themed, perfect for the Creepmas vibe. A few were regular horror films, while others simply took place in winter. For example, we gave P.S. I Love You and While You Were Sleeping a Creepmas description makeover.

Here’s our list of Creepmas movies this year:

• Black Christmas (2006) - Decent
• Violent Night - Decent
• Krampus - Decent
• P2 - Decent
• Silent Night (2012) - Decent
• ATM - Decent
• 30 Days of Night - Decent
• Santa’s Slay - Decent
• Silent Bite - One-timer, but never again
• The Mean One - Decent
• Terrifier 3 - Decent
• It’s a Wonderful Knife - Decent
• Land of the Dead - Not a Christmas movie, but okay for Creepmas
• Cold Road - Lots of snow, Joy Ride vibes
• The Associate - Whoopi turns herself into a man to beat nasty men in the finance world
• P.S. I Love You - Annoying widow stalked by her late husband via letters
• Season’s Greetings From Cherry Lane - Decent
• Hot Frosty - A one-time Christmas rom-com that was okay
• Gremlins - Horrible! Never again!
• Home Alone - A classic!
• While You Were Sleeping - Creepy stalker convinces coma boy's family she's the fiancee.
• Freddy vs. Jason - Not a Christmas movie, but perfect for Creepmas
• Red One - Surprisingly entertaining but forgettable
• Heretic - Not a Christmas movie and possibly the dullest film ever
• Once Upon a Time at Christmas - Decent

Wrapping Up the Year

With Christmas (or should I say Creepmas) in our rearview mirror, we’ve now turned our attention to prepping for New Year’s Eve, which, as of this post, is less than 24 hours away. We’re still fighting off the flu and enduring the Argentine summer heat, but we plan to have as much fun as ever ringing in the new year.

Since this is my last post for 2024, I want to thank everyone who’s taken the time to read my blog. Sending you all lots of love and a big hug from our family to yours.

See you in 2025!