What’s it’s really like growing up in a large Mexican family

Happy Tuesday, my friends! How is this week flying by this fast? I can’t believe Thanksgiving day is in exactly two days. I can’t wait to watch the Macys Thanksgiving parade, enjoy some Thanksgiving day football, and be in the company of my family all day. Most importantly, though, I look forward to a day where we give extra thanks for everything and everyone we have in life. Man, does our family have so much to be thankful for this year.

❤️

Originally, the inspiration for this blog came from a reel I saw that made me feel so nostalgic. It featured a couple of siblings sitting at a table together just like my siblings and I do every weekend with the caption, ” I had no idea that sitting together and laughing at random stuff with my siblings would become a luxury after a certain point in life” ..it had me thinking just how blessed we are to have grown up as each other’s siblings. How are we even more fortunate that we are all still so close to each other and doing life together?!

Just a small dinner ❤️

I always get asked many questions about my experience growing up in a large family or being the oldest of the siblings. I am proudly the oldest of 6 siblings, with the youngest sibling being 14! I am going to summarize it in a couple of personal sentences. I could not imagine growing up anything other than 6 siblings. It was and forever will be my kind of perfect chaos. Imagine a house that was always busy. By that, I mean a home always full of joy with us kids coming in and out playing dress up, dancing, playing ball, or a game of hide and seek. A kitchen that was never closed, a fridge stocked at all times, and homecooked meals every day. Busy mornings, fighting for the bathroom, and loud nights as everyone got ready for bed. Lazy weekends were my favorite as we all sat in the living room to watch Sabado Gigante: a staple in our household excited as El Chacal came out with his roaring trumpet to judge your basic everyday singers. What an event Saturday nights were in our home!

The Cervantes family takes on our beautiful Guanajuato

What’s even more special about our large mexican family is that we stick together from beginning to end and through the good and the bad. We thrive on humor, kindness, and storytelling, and you better believe we laugh for hours. We can also be serious, and we may have our differences, but at the end of the day, we can agree to still love each other. I look back and have nothing but all these wonderful memories of my childhood. I have memories of my mom dressing us up in our best, matching outfits from head to toe, and taking lots of pictures and videos of us for her never-ending photo album collection. Birthdays were out of this world. My parents celebrated every single birthday like it was the last one.I don’t even mean big or fancy, I mean in detail and thought . Close your eyes and imagine balloons, color themed everything, pin the tail on the donkey, musical chairs, lots of music, huge cakes, and lots of birthday singing and playing with no phones in sight. She was the OG of full-on all out birthday parties. Little did my parents know they were making core memories for us.

Growing up in a large Mexican family like ours is so unique. We are our village and we show up for each other hard. We rely on our faith and always put family first, especially when going through hard times in which we need to rely on each other. We are full of love, we support, and we celebrate every single success one may have no matter how small or big. Do you have a large or small family and what do you love the most about them?.