A Birthday Trifecta

Every Sunday, my family of 5 drives an hour south to spend the day with my maternal grandparents on their ranch. My mom is the oldest of 6 siblings, and 2-3 of them are usually there with their families as well. Everyone tries to come every week, but naturally, some of us can't always make it (e.g., I have this thing called college I have to go to). But this past Sunday marked not one, not two, but THREE birthdays: my grandmother's, my uncle's, and my cousin's. So everyone came. Because they are required to. Because we are Mexican, and there is no greater guilt-tripper than a Mexican mother, except maybe a Mexican grandmother. I know this because I have both. (don't get me wrong, it's not like we're going against our will--we enjoy ourselves!)

Our family is still expanding, as there is a 20 year gap between my mom and my youngest uncle and we're all constantly getting married and having babies and so are all our families-in-law. So there's usually 25-30 people at just our "immediate family" gatherings. This is my grandma (or Abuelita as I've always called her) grilling steak, chicken, I think turkey and also some kind of other very small bird (a pigeon or something?). This is about a quarter of all the meat she grilled that day.

Grilling for birthdays is the only time I actually see my abuelita cooking. Otherwise, all I ever see is her pulling finished dishes out of the oven. Where do they come from? When does she make them? Where does she find the time? How does she do it?? Nobody knows. I hope I find out, as I'll most likely have to do this for my own family someday (my mother is the firstborn daughter, and I'm her firstborn daughter, and I think I'm starting to inherit her sense of responsibility for everyone). I don't dread it; I'm a little anxious, but I actually can't wait.

It's a Mexican thing. We want our whole family by our side and we want to feed them all until their stomachs hurt.

I suppose I should probably focus on graduating from college first before worrying about how I'm going to feed my giant family someday. :)