Thanksgiving Memories – The Good and the Bad

Posted On November 24, 2025

Thanksgiving Memories from my Childhood – The Good

I have no clear memories of Thanksgiving meals when I was a child. I’m sure my sisters and their families came to our house, or we went to theirs. But I have zero memories of them. I do know the meals were perfect because my mother and sisters were excellent cooks.

Being much younger, I’m confident that I did nothing to help and just played with my nephews and nieces.

Thanksgiving Memories Early in our Marriage – The Good

Once I married, all of our family generally went to my sister, Peggy’s in St. Louis, MO, for Thanksgiving dinner. The food was delicious with Peggy preparing the main foods and everyone bringing a side. What I actually remember most was her mother-in-law, Bessie, who insisted on providing all the pies. She would ask everyone if they had eaten her pie. She was quite sure that no one baked a better pie than she did.

The fellowship was wonderful and I really miss those days. Our family eventually got too large to meet there after my nephews and nieces started getting married. My sisters and I then started having just our own family Thanksgiving meal.

Thanksgiving Memories at the Pancake Supper – The Bad

Our church always has a Pancake Supper the night before Thanksgiving. It is a fundraiser for the youth group. They prepare, serve and clean-up. It’s always well attended. One particular year, I was the youth group leader. I had purchased eggs to scramble, sausage to fry and pancake mix and the ingredients.

The only thing I did not have to buy was syrup because a church member, Umbra, offered to donate it. She said she had lots of individual servings of syrup left over from a previous pancake supper and we could use it.

When I arrived to the church with my purchases, sure enough, the syrup had been delivered and there was lots of it.

The kids and I went about frying sausage and stirring pancake mix. When one asked about the syrup, I showed it to them. Thankfully, I decided to open one to see how it looked. It was solid as a rock; totally dried up and unusable. I opened another, Same. Another, Same. None of the donated syrup was usable.

We were expecting around 80 customers starting any minute and we had no syrup!

Our church is in a rural area, and the nearest grocery is about 18 miles away. I sent one of the teenagers to town for syrup. But we needed syrup NOW! So, I called all the ladies living near the church and asked them to please bring all the syrup they had in their house to the church immediately. They didn’t know the situation and probably were laughing to themselves thinking, “Oh wow, how could she forget to buy syrup!”

This mishap made for a very memorable Thanksgiving but I don’t recall being very thankful!

Thanksgiving Memories with the In-Laws – The Bad

At My Sister-in-Law’s

Again, memories are vague of most of the in-laws gatherings. My mother-in-law was a good cook too so I’m sure the food was good. Around 2001, my sister-in-law, Debbie, decided to host the Thanksgiving meal. While the food was probably good, I can’t remember anything except what went wrong that day.

I was to take green beans to the gathering. I left my daughter, Lori, at home to prepare them and I headed to Wal-Mart. Yes, good ole’ Wal-Mart was open on Thanksgiving Day and I was on a mission to buy some paint for the spare bedroom so I could paint it during the holiday break. I selected a color that was a perfect match to one of the colors in the bedspread I had previously purchased. It was a distinct lime green. I was going to use it one wall as an accent color.

I’m sure you’re thinking, “Ew, who would paint a bedroom that color!?” The answer, “Me.”

The clerk mixed the paint, I paid for it and hurried to the car. As I grabbed the paint can to put it in the car, the lid came off and bright green paint spilled all over my calf-length, black wool winter coat and my favorite boots! Ugh!! I didn’t have time for that and that coat was expensive!!

I was so irritated with the clerk who had mixed the paint and didn’t reseal it well but there was nothing to do about it. I went inside the store where they gave me some paper towels to clean my coat and boots as well as I could. I’m sure the other shoppers and clerks were astonished at the color. I told them I would be back another day to get more paint.

In a bad mood, I hurried home. Upon arrival, Lori met me at the door with a wad of bloody paper towels wrapped around her hand. She had sliced open her hand on the jagged edge of the opened can of green beans. I hurriedly finished cleaning the paint from my coat. Then I looked at her hand and decided she would have to have stitches. We delivered the green beans for dinner, left the rest of our family there and Lori and I headed to the ER for stitches.

Amazingly, all of the paint came out of the coat but there was always a slight green tint on one boot. Lori didn’t need many stitches and there’s no scar. I got a new can opener!

These mishaps resulted in a memorable Thanksgiving for which I was not very thankful!

I Hosted the In-Laws

Several years we hosted my husband’s family Thanksgiving dinner. I only clearly remember one.

My son, Brady, who was about 20, volunteered to deep fry the turkey. That sounded good so I told him that would be great.

Thanksgiving day arrived. I was preparing the main dishes but everyone else was bringing a side or drinks. It seemed like everything would be easy and I wouldn’t have to work much so no worries.

We were expecting about 26 for dinner. All morning, I was peeling potatoes, making dressing and baking pies. Every once in a while, I’d ask Brady if he’d put the turkey in to cook. Each time he said no. The last time I asked, he replied that he had looked it up (no, he had never cooked one before) and it didn’t take but a couple of hours. I argued with him about that, but he was adamant that he knew what he was doing.

Finally he put the turkey in the fryer. Everyone arrived. The turkey was not done. Wait. Wait. Wait. An hour later, the turkey is not done. I kept apologizing and we finally ate without turkey. The turkey was done in time to eat it as a dessert at the end of our meal!

I don’t recall being very thankful for Brady or that turkey that Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving Memories in Florida – The Bad

A couple of years ago, we decided that it was too far to travel back home just to have a day with the kids for Thanksgiving. I was feeling pretty bummed by this decision since we had no plans for a special dinner for ourselves.

My husband loves to fish, and I never go with him. I suggested that to make Thanksgiving more special, we’d both go out early in the fishing boat. He could fish and I’d take a book to read. It would be a special time shared together.

We got up early and took out on the boat. The weather that week had been quite warm and pleasant and the forecast prediction for Thanksgiving was for the same weather.

There was an early, deep fog. Jimmy guided the boat through a canal in near zero visibility. It was quite chilly. We assumed the fog would soon dissipate. We assumed wrong.

We got to Lake Denham and could not see one foot in front of us. In fact, we could hardly see each other. He’d never had to use lights on the boat and didn’t know if any worked. He spent some time trying to get lights on while I sat shivering in the wet, wet fog. He was freezing too. We had not dressed for such cool weather.

I can’t remember if he ever got any lights on. I do know that we were concerned that another boat might plow into us because of the lack of visibility or we might run into one.

Once you get out on a lake and have zero visibility, it’s very hard to know what direction you are going. We didn’t have any fancy gauges to help us navigate. He turned the boat around and hoped we were headed back to the canal. We got lucky. We went the right way, did not get hit and did not hit anyone else. We were glad to get back to our dock.

I do not remember being thankful for what was supposed to be a special time together!

Thankful for the Good and Bad Thanksgiving Memories

All of these memories passed through my mind the other day when my kids and grandkids were texting back and forth about this year’s Thanksgiving meal.

BL: Are we not doing anything for Thanksgiving?
LD: Was waiting to see what everyone’s plan were. We only have something Friday at 5.
KC: we have something this sunday and also on thursday.
BL: We don’t have any plans on Thanksgiving day. We have plans Saturday.
LD: A’s family is busy Thursday I think.
ZC: Me, mom K can’t do Thanksgiving Day.
KC: Wednesday???? nvm. p has football that day We can do that sunday? the one after Thanksgiving
BL: We work on Wednesday. We should be able to that Sunday.
KC: so do i, i had meant after work lol. L CAN YOU DO SUNDAY? the sunday AFTER thanksgiving
LD: Sure
BM: Lets just wait a week or 5 and do it on Christmas
ZC: No, need that turkey u be making
LD: I said the same thing but Z told me your Turkey is the best and he wants it
AC: He does think b makes the best turkey. It’s probably on his list of top 25 foods he keeps on his phone.
ZC: Top ten
TD: We can do it at the farm couldn’t we L?
BM: Well I reckon I’ll make the turkey. I want to move up the list.

LD: Yes the farm is fine with me.

As per the text thread, it’s evident that the bigger our family gets, the harder it is to all get together. What really struck me was their memory of Brady’s turkey. Evidently, he’s perfected his turkey deep-frying skills.

My Advice on Making Thanksgiving Memories

The most important thing is to gather with your family or close friends. The meal doesn’t have to be perfect.

My most vivid Thanksgiving Memories are the ones I considered bad at the time. They are also the ones that make me smile or even laugh thinking about them.

Thank you God for giving us time with family and friends, for good food and for ALL the Thanksgiving Memories we fondly remember.

What are your fondest Thanksgiving memories? Please share them in the comments.