Serve by Design

It was only two days away from Halloween and the local grocery store already had a display featuring a row of one of the Christmas time favorites – “Premium Fruit Cake!” Yes, this one was extra special and premium! Why is it that bakers feel like they must add additional adjectives to describe their holiday cakes? Your Old Favorite! Not Mine!! Let’s be more realistic and say, “Here it is again… your old favorite, making its annual trek around the world to your table!” There are a good many of us who believe that there is only one fruitcake that’s being passed around and re-gifted during Christmas season to unsuspecting fruit cake-loving folks! I have a brother-in-law who will, like me, eat almost anything. He says, “I can even eat hominy, but I don’t prefer it!” That’s the way I am about fruitcake. I can eat it, but why?! I’d rather eat a pecan pie or some good creamy fudge or homemade pecan brittle during the holidays! I recently attended a Bible retreat with some pastor friends...

This past week, we just concluded the season on the Christian calendar referred to as Twelfthtide or the 12 Days of Christmas. One of our pastors reminded us on Sunday, New Years Eve, that technically, Christmas was not yet over! I suspect that he had his tongue firmly in his cheek when he addressed primarily the youth and children and suggested that they could still take advantage of this in the remaining days leading up to Epiphany on January 6th!😉  "This was marked down and I couldn't pass it up!" Marc texted. What was your favorite gift of the Christmas season? What gift did you give to another that received a special response? I doubt that it was a fruitcake! Am I right? Just a few days ago, I received a picture and text from our good-humored son, Marc. He was weighing in after Christmas as to why he was able to just now purchase a discounted fruitcake at the local Texas HEB grocery store. I teased him by responding, “You do know why it was discounted, don’t you?!...