Watermelon Skates

I'm very lucky to have a pretty amazing family. We're close and see each other at least once a week. We are close with our cousins, my mother's cousins, and even my grandmother's cousins. We're even close with the families who marry into our family. Just this weekend, my uncle by marriage was telling me that his family wanted to come up to Maine to celebrate my grandfather's birthday with us. We just feel like family is really important.

My grandparents especially have instilled this feeling in us. Despite the fact that they left Mexico for the last time almost 60 years ago, we are close with our family there. And part of the way we stay close is through stories. Anyone who knows our family knows we are storytellers.

This weekend while we were celebrating my dad's birthday (Happy birthday, P-Diddy!!), my grandfather was sitting with LoLo and me, telling us stories from his childhood. My grandfather is going to be 90 in October. Sitting there listening to him tell us a story about times he spent at his grandparents' house (my great, great grandparents), I couldn't help but think "Don't forget this story. Don't forget this moment."

But the best part was the story. He told us that when he was a little boy, his grandparents owned a fruit distribution company in his town. They would bring home lots of fruit for the family every night. His favorite was when his grandfather would bring home watermelons. His grandmother would cut them up and give them to the kids to eat, but when they were done, they would run to their grandfather who would tie the rinds to their shoes and they would skate across the shiny cement floor in their huge living room. He laughed as he told me how his grandmother would run out of the kitchen with a mop and try to shoo the kids off the floor.

I never forget how lucky I am to get to hear these stories. And I'm so happy I have a place like this one to document the moments that could easily be forgotten.