Making Memories with Crabs

Eating crabs is apart of our family tradition. My mom and I love them, and for as long as I can remember my Pop has been steaming them. My grandparents now live in Easley, SC, but they used to live in Baltimore. I would go up there every summer to visit them, and normally my visits somehow included eating crabs. My Pop used to steam them in his basement. He would let me stand on a chair while they crawled around in a cooler on the floor. I stood on the chair in case one accidentally got away while making its way to the pot. Those things are fast and you don't want to get pinched by them!! Well, now that my grandparents live in Easley crabs are a rare and special treat. We can only get them when the fish market gets them in. My mom is a regular at the market, and the lady actually calls her when they get in live male crabs so she can have first pick! (and yes, they have to be male...we don't eat females :o)). When we went home last, my mom got one of those special calls! We got crabs!! So, my mom picked them up and took them over to my Nana and Pop's and suddenly all of these memories came flooding back to me. I thought, "How special is it that my son gets to experience the same thing I used to at his age?" So, of course that lent itself to photographic moments!

There's one of the tasty ones now...they're a grayish-blue until they're cooked, then they turn red.

My son watching from Gi-Gi's lap as Pop shows him a crab. They were on ice so the were technically "asleep", but once they warm up they "wake -up". James didn't like that this one was starting to wake-up and move it's claws.

Waiting to be cooked!

Yum, yum...I know my mom is getting hungry for them just looking at this picture!! (I am too!!)