As I walked in the door I could still smell the cinnamon and the nutmeg. The aroma of warm cookies wafted through the house. I had finished baking seven batches of cookies and had packed them up with the stockings and a few little packages for Kay and Gary. Is there anything better than the aroma of good food? The smell of bread baking, coffee perking or bacon cooking seems to envelop you and give you a warm hug. We always used to have Thanksgiving at our house, partly because we loved the smell of turkey roasting. . . and of course there were the leftover.

There are those who don’t feel that the effort and cost of making a holiday meal are worthwhile. They perhaps never knew that it isn’t just a meal, it is what goes into it and with it. At Kay and Gary’s house, while Kay and Gary cooked, the kitchen was crowded with people talking, tasting, watching, and participating in the Kitchen Fellowship. The same thing happens at Ron and Pam’s house. In most houses, the kitchen is the heart of the home and that is where important stuff happens. It isn’t just Holiday Meals, it is every meal. I have pictures of my daughter “helping” me cook since she was able to stand. In one picture she is helping me make bread, in another she is making hamburger patties. She used to help me make French Breakfast puffs when I entertained church ladies on Thursdays. When you are cooking together, conversation comes easily and you can talk about things you normally don’t discuss. It isn’t the just the meal being prepared, there is Kitchen Fellowship going on.

I love to hear Carol, Terri and Heidi talk about their Dad’s cooking. Carol tells me that Heidi has David’s soup recipe down pat. She and Terri can duplicate their Dad’s dressing for roast turkey. They can make their mother’s recipes. When Carol and Terri are cooking in the kitchen there is companionship and fun and laughter. I doubt that our kids will talk about how they remember how their mother or dad ordered pizza, or how their mother put frozen dinners in the oven or how their dad could read menus at a restaurant.

To borrow a phrase from Martha Stewart, “Kitchen Fellowship - it’s a good thing.”

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