Hometown Living

When I moved back to my hometown, I dreamed that my days would be filled with moments like today.  Today, my sister Kendall and I, had a birthday brunch–in her new home–for our grandmothers.

How many people can live in the same town with both of their–not only living–but healthy enough to pop over for brunch, grandmothers.  We feel so blessed, and I am ashamed that I don’t take advantage of my ability to soak up their love and wisdom and grace and humor more often.

Kendall clipped these yellow roses and Queen’s lace from my Aunt Alice’s yard.  Then, she mixed some of Mom’s china with her own to complete our sweet table.

Kendall, I’m sorry that the only picture I took of you was when you lit the candles for those few minutes…before we realized that it was too cheesy to have candelabras burning at 10 am.

My tomato tarts were photo-worthy, if I do say so myself.

As was Kendall’s DELICIOUS fried okra salad.  I ate mine and then finished Mimi’s off when she wasn’t looking 🙂

We also made a ham and swiss quiche, fruit salad, and pistachio muffins.  It was good.  I tell it like it is, and there wasn’t a bad thing on that plate.

Along with the food, we reminisced over memories of Mimi’s husband–my Papa–who was Sheriff for 16 years and never once carried a gun…apparently he was intimidating enough without one.  I remember the man who used to take me with him to the barber shop, and bought me a gingerbread after his appointment was over.  A pig farmer, who let me ride beside him in his truck while my cousin Boyd (6 or 7 at the time) playing gate man–wordlessly hopping out of the truck each time Papa paused, to run open and close each gate that we drove through.

We also heard about how Mimi’s opinion that I was “plum crazy” for delivering a baby without medication.  She slept peacefully through the births of all four of her children, with the use of “some kind of gas”…I think I may request that this time around.  Sounds like a good deal to me!

We talked about the way Grandma still loves to sleep with her face touching “Sollie’s” back–despite the fact that he has been having recurring bad dreams about snakes, during which he nearly knocks her out of the bed. Is anybody else laughing out loud?

We compared my Uncle Greg’s night-time terrors as a six-year-old to Pace’s night-time terrors and decided that maybe she inherited her sensitive heart from him.

We laughed about how, with her first baby, Grandma followed her doctor’s instructions so to-the-letter (He TOLD her that her water would break and THEN her contractions would get closer together and she could come in to the hospital.  When her water never broke, she kept refusing to go to the hospital–despite the tremendous amount of pain she was in.) that she nearly gave birth at home with only “Preacher” (her nickname for Grandpa) to help.  Apparently the nurse said, “If you had stayed home any longer, you would have just spit that baby out.”  My water never breaks until the baby comes either 🙂

As you can see, Kendall and I may have rocked our brunch menu, but the priceless part of the day was the quiet, uninterrupted “girl talk” we shared with the these women we love.  Happy Birthday Grandma and Mimi!!! I think we should make this a new tradition.