March 21, 2011. Jackson, MS. A Country Lunch.

We were so fortunate to be invited into this family lunch on Sunday.   The family dines together  after church at the farm in Madison, just north of Jackson.  One son and his wife live at the farm with Mother but all the other four children and spouses live in Jackson and gather each week for the family get-to-gether, complete with grandchildren of course.   This is an old Mississippi family so their traditions have been around a long time.  Between the excellent food and the wonderful accents, we enjoyed every minute of the event.

First, wine in the living room.  The room must be thirty five feet long and twenty feet wide with ceiling 15 feet high.  A massive room, made smaller by different groupings of chairs and couches, so a guest could either talk to those beside you or talk across the room to the other folks, which what everyone did, in true family tradition.

The dining room is at the back of the house, and is the same size and shape, so it will seat a lot of people.  The main table will seat twenty, although we were a smaller group, while the other four tables are normal dining tables, used for different occasions.  One table was set for the middle aged children and another smaller table was set for the under four.  One table against the wall was clearly the place where mail was sorted as the papers were still  out and scattered around, thus looking exactly like a lived in home.

Every table in every room held a bouquet of flowers from the garden, placed there by the Mother.   There was graciousness in every part of the home and I was delighted to have been invited into this family group.