Cape May- Crab Feast 2012

A couple years ago my family started this tradition at Cape May. One night, during our week-long vacation, we eat in and have a good 'ol crab feast, complete with freshly steamed crabs (loaded with Old Bay, of course), corn, potatoes, shrimp, and cold beverages.

This was just the first round...

I am a Maryland girl, so I have grown up with the idea that I am supposed to enjoy crab feasts. But until Cape May, I honestly cannot remember ever attending one. That said, ours our very fun and I'm not sure I'd want to go to any other.

What is most enjoyable is not the minutes you spend, dissecting crab after crab in search of the morsel of meat you can actually eat, but the conversation around the table as you sit there. This evening, I didn't eat any of the crabs (and we had a TON!). I just find the whole picking process so complicated. I'd much rather pull the shell off a shrimp or take a bite out of an ear of corn. But there's something so special about spending time with your family, it doesn't seem to matter whether you're eating crabs or not.

Think about it. We all live busy lives. Normally, at any given time, my family is moving in a million different directions. (As yours might be as well.) How often do we get to sit down and just enjoy each other's company? To recline in outdoor furniture, revel in the comfortable evening air, and laugh with each other? To pick crab meat out of impossibly thin legs until you poke yourself in the thumb with a claw, and your nails smell of Old Bay?

Okay, so maybe that last one isn't so great, but seriously, spending time with family isn't something that can necessarily happen like this every day. To have the time to be so carefree and liberated from any worry is especially rare.

So, did I want to sit there and pick meat out of crab claws for the crab cakes we'll have tomorrow? Not really. I don't even like picking meat for myself, let alone for a whole batch of crab cakes. But I did it because I love spending time with my family. They've always been there for me and always will be, and I didn't want to miss an opportunity to be with them.

So, what's a little Old Bay under my nails? It's nothing, when compared to the lifelong memories I'll have of our few hours outside around the table. Sometimes it's the humblest things that make you realize how good life really is.

We didn't need to go out tonight to enjoy each other. We had everything we needed right in our backyard.