NOTE: For our devotions from Friday December 29 through Wednesday January 3, I have chosen to write some devotionals you might just re-read in the proposed Advent Devotional 2018: My Favorite “Christmas” Things. These devotionals deal with different topic and are being used to set your own “creative juices” flowing that you might make a submission to the Advent Devotional 2018.

Read: Luke 2:7

One of My Favorite “Christmas” Things is my paternal grandmother’s Cornbread Dressing. In my mind’s eye I can still see her preparing this dish to accompany the turkey served at Christmas. She would make a huge quantity for our relatively small family – my grandparents, my great aunt and uncle, my two aunts and their husbands, my five first cousins, my parents and me, but then we all loved this side dish. Relatives often went back for seconds and my uncles may have even eaten third helpings.

MaMa prepared some of the breads (biscuits and cornbread) a day or two ahead before preparing and baking the cornbread dressing. She chopped and cooked the onions and celery and added these to the crumbled breads with broth and butter. She liberally added sage and black pepper. She then poured the mixture in a large roasting pan and baked it. The cornbread dressing was marvelous with its crispy top and moist center. There were no leftovers!

My grandmother was a good Southern cook and she could get a meal on the table in record time. I have her recipe and have attempted to make it, but mine is never as good as hers was. I suppose I just can’t put in the “grandmotherly love” that went into hers. I am grateful for the memories and for the opportunities to keep on trying to make Cornbread Dressing taste like hers.

In one of my nativity sets there are villagers, who come bringing water, fruits, etc., to the new parents and their infant son. I can visualize my grandmother extending such hospitality by bringing some Cornbread Dressing to Mary and Joseph to satisfy their hunger.

Prayer

O Lord, whose birth we celebrate, we thank You that good food and table fellowship are part of blessed and special events. We are grateful for food that has brought smiles to our faces, nourished our bodies, kindled wonderful memories and strengthens us even now for Your service. Help us to savor the food and the moments of sharing meals so that we have memories to last us for the rest of our lives. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.