Oh Thanksgiving! O Christmas! And all we had to be thankful for! A baked hen, Mama’s homemade chicken gravy, and biscuits, and dressing. Don’t forget the dressing. Had that been all there was to eat it was more than enough to be thankful for. But wait… all the vegetables, homemade pickles, spiced peaches… family gathered together from far and near… tears and smiles, hugs and laughter, and just being together again. Even the little ones whose eyes had never seen such giggled and laughed and were hugged and hugged and loved as if they had been there forever.

It seemed that we could not get to the table quickly enough, right there in that hot kitchen with all the glorious smells. (Who had a dining room back in the good old days?) The children were served out on the back porch, on the work bench.

TIME TO EAT!!!

A silence fell up on the group as Grandpa’s quiet, sweet voice fell upon the roomful of loving family blessing the food, “and all who are about to partake of it.”

“Pass the chicken. Pass the dressing. Pass the gravy…” and on and on until we could hardly raise a fork. And still there was dessert! Our thought were filled with a forecast of things to come… things too good to be true… cobblers, fresh coconut cake, sweet potato pie, apple pie, and finally the long awaited small slice of Mama’s fruitcake!!
Oh the hours and days it took Mama to gather and pick out the nuts, and cut up the dried fruit (all lovingly grown, picked and dried by mama herself). Then, the measuring and mixing. Filling the pan. And into the oven! How many, many hours throughout the years has Mama spent at this ‘chore”, a chore which she so loved? Too many to count.
And did the children laugh at and make fun of Mama’s fruitcake? Laugh? Just to stand in the doorway coming in from school and SMELL what was magically being created in that oven is something that cannot ever be erased from memory.

Mama cooked three meals a day 365 days a year, every year but her fruitcakes were her own special gift to the family for the holidays.
God bless Mama!