Thanksgiving Day Horror Stories

[White Rose]

I was replying to the "Holiday Guilt" thread and was remembering some horror stories from years' past...most specifically the year where we found out my aunt's cat had peed on the table where we ate our Thanksgiving dinner...

So, out of curiosity, what are some of your T-Day horror stories? :D

[DVC2004]

LOL this could be a very interesting thread! I can't think of any T-Day disasters. I remember one Christmas I realized I needed chicken stock for a recipe in the middle of cooking for guests and I had none or anything to substitute. Very frantic! My husband and I drove all around town until finally we found 1 place open- Kmart. And out of stock! They did have bouillion cubes which ended up doing the trick.

Another Christmas, when I was a kid, my mom wrapped gifts and forgot to label them. We showed up at a party and she ended up passing the wrong gifts to the wrong people. I remember a man opened his gift and it was a bottle of women's perfume.Embarrassing. Another year, she didn't have wrapping paper and I guess didn't feel like buying any. She just left all our gifts under the tree unwrapped. It was sort of a let down I must admit, took the fun out of Christmas morning. And we were still kids so... LOL I don't know about her and wrapping gifts.

[MississippiDisneyFreak]

We had a gas stove growing up...I remember one Thanksgiving we ran out of gas about an hour into the turkey baking. Luckily, they had someone at the gas company for emergencies:blush:

[tinklover]

I had thawed my Turkey in the fridge and in a cool bath in the sink the way you are supposed to, well Thanksgiving morning I went to start the turkey and unwrapped it to find out it was bad. The smell was awful. I ran out to the 3 stores that were actually open and no one had any turkeys. so we ended up with cornish hens. They were even out of the oven stuffer chickens. needless to say our 2 pm dinner turned into a 5 pm dinner and I was so upset that I did not eat.

[Chic-a-pin]

While maybe not horror stories, but one Thanksgiving I was making the mashed potatoes and got busy doing something else, forgot about the potatoes and boiled them dry...peee-uuu!!! Another year we had my husbands family over, it was a sunny but cold day. We have two walls that are floor to ceiling windows, so a lot of sunlight coming in. We had started a fire in the woodburning stove in the morning before everyone got there, well, by the time everyone was here, the oven on, sunny, the house ended up 90 degrees! We finally had to open the doors, lol!!

[Disney4us2]

One time when I was in my teens (really long time ago). I made a pumpkin pie for my grandfather.

I thought I was doing it the right way. I scooped out all of the insides, took out the seeds and added all the other ingredients. Substituting baking soda for baking powder. Mixed it all together and baked it for what seemed like forever.

I finally took it out of the oven. :sick: It just didn't look right. My grandfather was a trooper and tried it... and promptly spit it out.:ack: He didn't do that in front of me. He told me it was good, so that my feelings would not be hurt. It was NOT pumpkin pie.... Later on I figured out that I had to cook the pumpkin and not use the insides of the pumpkin.:pumpkin:

To this day I still get reminded of my "Pumpkin Pie", and that was way back in the 70's. We all had a good laugh out of that blunder. I gave up on any further pumpkin pies and just stick to apple and blueberry.

[NewDVCowner]

It took three years in a row of stopped up sinks to remember that potato skins do NOT go down the garbage disposal. For three years running as dinner was being made there was someone under the sink pulling it apart to get the potatoe skin blockage out. :blush:

[azdisneymom]

I love this thread. One year DH decided he wanted to try deep frying a turkey. I made the rest of the meal - traditional flavors. DH, without telling me, had injected the turkey with cajun spices. It was a horrible match with my flavors. No one ate it. It was very juicy and tender, just didn't go well with my food. Fortunately we all love dressing and potatoes. :blush:

[Fangorn]

It took three years in a row of stopped up sinks to remember that potato skins do NOT go down the garbage disposal.

After 35 years, DW still can't remember this. Although I'm pretty sure that at this point the "forgetting" is merely her way of getting me to peel the potatos for her. But since her mashed spuds are incredibly wonderful, I gladly buy into the deviousness.

Steve

[Kairi_7378]

We were going to a dinner with the in laws (who are not very good cooks) and my MIL set my sweet potatoes on fire. (There were no marshmallows in them!)

Honestly, this doesn't really compare to any of your stories, though.

[Dopey's Girl]

The only real Thanksgiving nightmare was the year my aunt who lives in the sticks decided to make Thanksgiving dinner. She never wants holidays, so we were kind of excited. We got to her house and when we got in the house it didn't smell right. Instead of turkey and fixings, she made pork chops and coliflower (sp?) purée. We were all speechless! It was good, but not at all what we really wanted. We went home and cooked real Thanksgiving that weekend.

Needless to say, when ever she has volunteered since, we ask about the menu.

[MissMaryPoppins]

My Mom is from a family of 6. Her 2 younger sisters are very different, one is on top of everything, very much in control of things and the other is a total ditz. A few days before Thanksgiving my aunt, the one in control, told my mother she was having my ditzy aunt cook one of the turkeys because it was time she learned how. On Thanksgiving my aunt comes with the turkey and it looked good. My mom asked my aunt how long she cooked otherwise it was a pretty large bird. She said "oh, it didn't take long to turn brown." I started laughing and my aunt who was hosting that year started yelling about how my aunt was going to kill is all with the raw turkey. Luckily, my aunts neighbors were away for the holiday and told her she was welcome to use their kitchen if it was needed. Someone brought the turkey next door and got it into the oven. It cooked for another 4 hours and we didn't eat until after 8pm.

This wasn't really a disaster but it felt that way to me. My last year of college I came home for Thanksgiving on Tuesday night and spent Wednesday doing my homework. My parents were at work and my mom called and asked me to bake an apple pie that was in freezer. I pre heated the oven and put the pie in before getting wrapped up in an assignment. My brother came down from his room and asked me what the apple smell was from. I forgot to set the timer and gasped as I ran to the oven. When I opened the oven the pie was black and apple was oozing all over the cookie sheet I put the pie
on. It had been in the oven for almost 3 hours. Of course we laughed about it and then ran out to the grocery store to get a replacement before our parents came home.

[DisneyLandMomma]

Not too much of a horror story but its a great Thanksgiving story anyway.... :)

It was our first thanksgiving as newlywed. My hubby was stationed at Camp Pendleton, so we were only about 2 hours away from my family, but we weren't going to be able to go "home" because I had to work Turkey day and my mom was also going to be working at a friends resturant. My mom decided to cook us a turkey with stuffing and I drove up the day before to pick it and my sister up to spend the holiday with us and a bunch of hubby's friends that didn't have any other place to go. So while I was at work, hubby, my sister, and our friends got everything else cooked and ready to eat as soon as I got home. We all ate and were enjoying our meal when I realized they hadn't put the stuffing out, which is(was:blush: ) my favorite part of the meal. By the time it was warmed up and ready to eat, everyone else was pretty much done so I was the only one eating the stuffing. We all just relaxed the rest of the evening and I actually fell asleep while everyone else was watching movies. I woke up feeling extremely sick and had to rush into our only bathroom, practically knocking down one of hubby's friends on his way out. :sick: I was SOOOO sick, and continued to be sick for HOURS after. My hubby was sooo worried he finally took me to the ER where we sat for practically all night with me getting sick, I had an IV and all kinds of tests...they suspected food poisoning of course but wanted to be positive it was just that. They were getting ready to discharge me, so hubbby ran down to the pharmacy to pick up some meds and the dr came in to tell me I was pregnant. OMGosh, major shocker as I was on birth control pills and we weren't planning on getting prenant so soon. LOL. So hubby comes back and the dr says "the test was positive" and hubby says "So she has food posioning." And the dr says, "well ya, but she's also pregnant." I will never forget the look on his face!! LOL :D.

So the big joke after that was not to eat my mom's stuffing unless you wanted to be pregnant. :D. And it also took quite a long time for me to enjoy Thanksgiving food after that!! LOL

[princessgirls]

There have been some memorable ones...that is for sure!!!

The week before Thanksgiving 2000 my husband became ill, he never gets sick, and was miserable, so he went to the ER and was admitted. This was on a Friday, we had a 5 week old baby at home, and were suppose to travel 12 hours to South Carolina on Tuesday to celebrate Thanksgiving with his family.
His symptoms were all over the map, and the biggest problem were that he had a bowel obstruction. It was not looking good...Sunday morning at 3am he calls me at home, and tells me they are wheeling him into surgery...his pain is localized in his appendix, and they think that is the cause of all of his symptoms and pain.
His surgery was successful and although he didn't get to have laporscopic, he was on the road to recovery... He came home the Wednesday of Thanksgiving week.
We were not on any road, we ended up staying home and joining my family who were not cooking and eating out for the first time ever, with my sore husband and our newborn daughter at the Paris Inn in Wayne. It was memorable for a lot of reasons, but mostly because I was so Thankful. Thankful for my family. In the early stages of my husband being in the hospital, they thought he had a tumor which was causing his obstruction. It was a simple thing when his appendix inflamed it kinked up his bowels, and could be fixed. Giving Thanks and Praise for health!!
Julie:mickey:

[SBETigg]

One time when I was in my teens (really long time ago). I made a pumpkin pie for my grandfather.

I thought I was doing it the right way. I scooped out all of the insides, took out the seeds and added all the other ingredients. Substituting baking soda for baking powder. Mixed it all together and baked it for what seemed like forever.

I finally took it out of the oven. :sick: It just didn't look right. My grandfather was a trooper and tried it... and promptly spit it out.:ack: He didn't do that in front of me. He told me it was good, so that my feelings would not be hurt. It was NOT pumpkin pie.... Later on I figured out that I had to cook the pumpkin and not use the insides of the pumpkin.:pumpkin:

To this day I still get reminded of my "Pumpkin Pie", and that was way back in the 70's. We all had a good laugh out of that blunder. I gave up on any further pumpkin pies and just stick to apple and blueberry.

Marci, terrible moment for you, but a great story. You can buy pumpkin in a can, already stewed down and blended, just waiting for you to add the rest of the ingredients. That's how I do it. I wouldn't dream of using canned of much anything else, but for pumpkin, oh yeah.

[DVC2004]

Oh I do remember one now! The day before Thanksgiving I was cooking up a storm and trying to get as much stuff either made or prepped ahead of time. I was having the whole family over the next day. I kept going through various bowls and utensils/attachments and as I would, I filled the dishwasher and would try to keep on top of it. I noticed on the carpet just outside the kitchen entrance a wet spot. My cat had been sitting on that spot for at least half an hour.I thought she had an accident. I tried to clean it up. Later I noticed the spot was even more wet and was growing in size. Just then DH came home from work to tell me water was dripping into the garage (we live in a townhouse and the kitchen is directly above the garage). Well the dishwasher broked and was leaking! What a disaster. We spent Thanksgiving handwashing everything and my whole extended family pitched in. Not the end of the world, but the worst timing ever for a dishwasher to break! We ended up having to get a new one.

[Mickey'sGirl]

I had thawed my Turkey in the fridge and in a cool bath in the sink the way you are supposed to, well Thanksgiving morning I went to start the turkey and unwrapped it to find out it was bad. The smell was awful. I ran out to the 3 stores that were actually open and no one had any turkeys. so we ended up with cornish hens. They were even out of the oven stuffer chickens. needless to say our 2 pm dinner turned into a 5 pm dinner and I was so upset that I did not eat.My story is similar, except that I had ordered a 25 lb fresh turkey from the butcher, and when we got it out to put into the oven, the smell about knocked us over. I thought I was going to be sick. In those days (about 10 years ago) my husband's company would give frozen turkeys out to its employees, so thankfully, we had a frozen one down in the chest that we cooked up for dinner. I haven't done a fresh bird ever since.

Another story is from my childhood. In my parent's home, the kitchen pipes were on a north facing wall, and up here is the Great White North, temperatures can get quite frigid! So of course when it came time to do the dishes (no dishwasher), we couldn't. My Grandma had us all organized and doing them in the laundry sink .... Christmas dishes for 20 people! Eyow!!!!!

[PAYROLL PRINCESS]

My brother and sister in law decided to have us all over to their house for Thanksgiving one year. Well, when I got there, they told me that my portion for the cost of the meal was $20 or $25. This had NOT been discussed before going there for dinner so I was very angry. I left and told everyone that if they didn't want to "pay" for being invited to dinner, they were welcome to come to my house. I had a pot roast and my Mom & sister scrounged up some potatoes. I don't think I've ever been so insulted in my life. Imagine being invited to dinner and then told you have to pay for it!! And it's not like we show up empty handed. I had baked desserts. I was so mad when I left that I didn't even take the desserts with me. Needless to say, that was the last time I accepted an invitation to dinner at their house!

[SBETigg]

My brother and sister in law decided to have us all over to their house for Thanksgiving one year. Well, when I got there, they told me that my portion for the cost of the meal was $20 or $25.

Um, wow. I would have been as shocked as you. That's really nervy, and rude.

My Thanksgiving horror story is probably not really a horror as much as it was amusing to me as a kid. It was the seventies. Mom got her first microwave back when they were nearly as big as an oven and a very new thing. The promo materials said you could cook a turkey in it, and so she did, but of course it was terrible. It cooked but never browned. She had to finish it in the oven and then it was dry. She was frantic. I didn't see why it was such a big deal. We had a lot of good food and the turkey really didn't make or break my Thanksgiving back then. Now that I'm older and I make Thanksgiving for the whole family, I realize what a terrible turn of events this was for my mother at the time.

This year, everything went well and my turkey was amazing-- but I pierced the roasting pan and sent rich juices that would have made a fantastic gravy all over my kitchen counter and floor, requiring emergency clean up before food serving could commence. But not a big deal. I had backup gravy stock.

[Hull-onian]

We live in Massachusetts, and we have a restaurant chain.....Hearth and Kettle.....We all had the same dinner roasted turkey, however, I had a salad. Everything was good, got seated on time, had a great waitress, food served in timely manner....and even desert. Fifteen minutes after leaving, on the hwy headed south towards Cape Cod.....I got bad abdominal cramping:ack:....like you wouldn't believe:ack:.... I said to hubby take me home....well that didn't happen....for four hours or so...I had nothing to drink....and no desert...everyone else chowed down but me....we arrived at home....and I was so sick:sick:...I couldn't believe it....for 24 hours....it wasn't pretty and I had to go to work the next day, Friday....I had nothing to eat all day:(...no appetite....it was a horror show for me.....It took three days for me to get myself back on track......It wasn't too pleasant......and that was this year.....

[faline]

My brother and sister in law decided to have us all over to their house for Thanksgiving one year. Well, when I got there, they told me that my portion for the cost of the meal was $20 or $25. This had NOT been discussed before going there for dinner so I was very angry.

We had a similar experience except it was for a nephew's birthday party. We were invited to the party, went to the party and, of course, brought a gift. My in-laws ordered pizza for the birthday party; then my sister-in-law came around to all the "guests" to collect their "share" of the cost of the pizza!!!

[jillluvsdisney]

I was in 8th grade and my parents were hosting Thanksgiving dinner. 2 days beforehand, the thermostat goes out on our oven. My parents already had all the provisions bought. My aunt offered her kitchen. We drove there,spent the night and my Mom cooked the next day with my aunt's help. 10 minutes before we were about to sit down and eat, 1 uncle said something another uncle didn't take to kindly to and the fight was on. Half of our family got up and walked out. Lots of leftovers that year.:thedolls:

[Hull-onian]

I was in 8th grade and my parents were hosting Thanksgiving dinner. 2 days beforehand, the thermostat goes out on our oven. My parents already had all the provisions bought. My aunt offered her kitchen. We drove there,spent the night and my Mom cooked the next day with my aunt's help. 10 minutes before we were about to sit down and eat, 1 uncle said something another uncle didn't take to kindly to and the fight was on. Half of our family got up and walked out. Lots of leftovers that year.:thedolls:

Sounds like us......I want to go away to Far Far Away next year......LOL:mickey:

[jennbunn]

This year I went to go turn off the burner and turned off the oven too. Noticed about a hour later what I had done. So dinner was served a bit later then planed. Not the end of the world but was good for a laugh that night.