fbpx

Disastrous Thanksgivings

The Thanksgiving “disaster” stories below are samplings submitted by 7th graders at The Orchard School in Indianapolis. *** Thanksgiving Disaster I once had a Thanksgiving disaster. My mom one year, bought…

The Thanksgiving “disaster” stories below are samplings submitted by 7th graders at The Orchard School in Indianapolis.

***

Thanksgiving Disaster

I once had a Thanksgiving disaster. My mom one year, bought a big plump turkey. It looked very delicious. We also had French bread, tetrazzini, ham, and mashed potatoes. It was going to be the best thanksgiving ever. Boy, was I wrong.

All of my mom’s side of the family comes over to our house every year for Thanksgiving. I have a lot of cousins, so every year when they come over we play football in the front yard. After we play football for a solid three hours we go inside and either its time to eat or we all watch football in the basement. But this year we ate right after we played football. Everything looked great! The rolls were buttered and ready, the mashed potatoes were looking good, the ham nice and juicy, and the tetrazzini was ready to go.

We were all seated in the dining room. I was sitting next to my brother, Marshall, and my cousin, Parker. Everything looked perfect. My mom picked up her fork and tapped it to her glass and said, “Well, it looks like everything is ready! Now, Jeff, would you mind bringing out the turkey?”

“Why, of course,” my dad said. “Is it in the oven?”

“I would hope so. Wait, you did cook the turkey right?

“No, why would I? You do it every year.” My dad replied.

“I TOLD YOU TO BAKE THE TURKEY!” my mom screamed.

It was a disaster. It took another hour to get the turkey ready and by then everything else was gone. When the turkey was ready my mom called everybody back upstairs to eat it. Hardly anyone ate the turkey though. My mom was not happy with my dad. Let’s just say that my dad slept on the couch for a week.

***

My Worst Thanksgiving

I was feeling great and running around chasing the dog. I was in 1st grade. We were at my grandmother’s house in Illinois in the middle of nowhere.

Then I heard my mom call me, “Carter, come in for dinner!” I was on the other side of the yard and decided to run in as fast as I could into the house and fling open the door. Then I started running. The wind rushed past my ears and  the smell of fall was around me. Then, as I reached up to open the door I tripped, and went right through the glass door.

After I went through the door I heard my mom scream. I looked around to see if anyone was hurt. Then I felt a strange sensation on my left arm. I looked down and nearly threw up. There was blood everywhere! I could literally see the bone inside of my arm. Then I said, “I think I need to go to the hospital.”

My mom grabbed a towel, wrapped it around my arm and we went to the hospital. We were about 20 minutes from a hospital so we had to speed to get there. When we got there I was rushed into the emergency room. When the doctor came in, he said we had to make my arm numb with anesthetic so he could examine it. He also said that a mask would not work, and he had to inject about 15 shots of it into my arm. He said that I could scream and yell but I could not move. When he started to inject my arm I screamed as loud as I could but did not move. It seemed like an eternity even though it probably took about two minutes. After that was done he said to us that the main artery was not cut and that I was going to be ok.

After that, I went home having about the worst Thanksgiving ever.

***

Thanksgiving Disaster

When I was really little, about two-years-old, I was running around our wooden table in the basement before dinner. As I was running around the table, I tripped over the carpet and fell. The table hit me right above the eye. The impact was so forceful I ended up bleeding a lot right above my eye. Everyone was really worried about me and nervous, so they rushed me to the emergency room.

When I was there they had to put at least seven stitches right above my eye. From what I remember it hurt like crazy, but I stuck through it and made it to the end. Since it was so long ago, I can’t remember if I had to stay at the hospital overnight or not. From what I do remember, we were driving home from the emergency room. I was still in excruciating pain. My head still throbbed like crazy. After I had rested I felt better, but my head and face still hurt.

Our dinner was really good and well prepared. My grandmother and mom normally cook Thanksgiving dinner every year.  I recall having green beans, mashed potatoes, pie and of course turkey. After my incident, I don’t think I have ran around any tables recently. I want to try to avoid anymore scarring. All and all my Thanksgiving was pretty good. I ate really good food and learned a valuable lesson about how to not be such a klutz.

***

Thanksgiving Disaster

All my horrible memories of Thanksgiving dinner are from toefurkey. Since my aunt is a vegetarian she makes a (special) Thanksgiving dinner all for herself, because the smell of real meat makes her gag.

So one Thanksgiving dinner, she made this horrible smelling, poop looking, fake turkey meal for one. Since she sat down with everyone else in my family, all we could do is stare at the disgusting piece of cuisine on her plate. The odor was so foul, it spread through the kitchen and into the dinner room where all we could smell, was the stench of fake turkey. A she gobbled down her toefurkey, all she said was, “ummmm” as if the awful, horrid piece of food was delicious.

My mom excused herself so she could light up some candles and cover the smell of the revolting meal. The family went through dinner as nicely as they could, but I didn’t eat a thing since the picture of dog poop was still in my brain. As we finished our dessert and prayed for our meal, all I could think of and pray for, was for that the wretched smell to leave our house. I, of course, didn’t get my wish, because the odor stayed in our kitchen for hours, until my dad was brave enough to get some air freshener. I was still thankful that my family came to celebrate Thanksgiving together because I love to see my family, but all that I could remember that Thanksgiving was toefurkey.

***

Burnt Disaster

Before I was born, my parents moved into our house. Recently, my mom decided to tell my sister and I of the worst Thanksgiving dinner she has ever made. She began by telling us that she and my dad had decided to host Thanksgiving that year, and that they were going to make a turkey dinner. It was cold outside and all the leaves were beginning to fall off of the trees which made them even more excited to have a warm refreshing dinner. They had prepared it so well and were excited because it was their first Thanksgiving in their house. I guess for a second they both decided to socialize with some of our family members and, well, must have forgotten about the turkey. They both ran back to check on it, only to find out… that the fantastic turkey was now burnt.

My mom said she was so emotional then, so she started to cry and was upset. My dad was frustrated now because my mom had kicked him out of the kitchen and replaced him with my grandmother. In the end, she said that they ended up eating the turkey because it was only burnt on the outside. My sister and I thought that was gross.

Today, my family loves to have un-burnt turkey, and we have a tradition that we make some kind of bread out of my dad’s bread book. We also make a pie each year from our fresh picked apples. I love Thanksgiving because it is a nice time to see my family and to have a nice dinner. 

***

My Thanksgiving Disaster

I looked out the window, and watched the colorful leaves float gently down to the cold, wet grass. The sun was shining across my yard, making everything peaceful and warm. The trees would rustle and the branches would crack and bang against each other. The turkey, sweet potatoes, potato salad, and all different kinds of food we had on our table were looking and smelling delicious. I listened to the soft, warm, and welcoming voices of my friends and family. I heard the loud, clattering sounds of people grabbing their plates, so I knew it was time to eat.

When I took the first bite of the big, juicy turkey, a wire on my braces came out. It was sharp and uncomfortable. I couldn’t eat because every time I chewed, the wire would poke or scratch my gum. I was starving and the food looked so mouth-watering. My Thanksgiving was ruined because I couldn’t eat.

My mother couldn’t help me because she didn’t know how to fix the wire. I was sad and really wanted to eat. She asked my dad if he had any pliers, which, thankfully he did. As he went out to the garage to find his pliers, I watched the mouths of my family and friends chew the appetizing food. I was craving for the food so badly. After five minutes, my dad came in with small pliers with a green handle. We went into the bathroom and he cut the wire where it was poking me.

Even though it was short, that didn’t mean it wouldn’t poke me. So I had to run upstairs to my bathroom and find some wax that I got from the orthodontist. I put a huge chunk of wax on, which sounds really gross, but it helped, which really mattered.

I had to chew on the other side of my mouth, which really sucked. I am so used to chewing on my left side, but my wire was on my left side, so I had to chew on my right. Even though I didn’t get to chew on my usual side, the food was still yummy. The Thanksgiving meal was delightful, and I had a lot of fun socializing with all my family and friends who I don’t get to see often.

After we ate all the scrumptious and filling food, my friends and started to play hide and go seek. We played hide and go seek for a while, but then we decided it would be fun to play Sardines, a different kind of hide and go seek game. Only one-person hides and the rest try to find the person. If you find the person, you hide with them. Whoever is the last person to still be seeking is the loser. My friend, Kathryn, hid in a bathroom in our basement. I found her and also hid with her. A few more people found us. There were still a couple people trying to find us. All five of us were squished hiding in a small bathtub. I grabbed onto the shower curtain, and the whole shower curtain and the bar that was holding it fell down. Everyone fell to the ground laughing, including me. I knew that my mom would probably not be happy, so I tried to fix it, but it ended up just falling again. I went upstairs to my mom and told her what happened. She gave me an annoyed look and came downstairs with me to try to fix the bar. She ended up getting it to stay and told my friends and I to play somewhere else.

When I look back on that day, I realize that it really was a Thanksgiving disaster. My wire on my braces broke, so I had to go back to the orthodontist and get them fixed, which I hate to do. I also tore down the curtains and the bar that holds them.

***

Thanksgiving Screw-Up

For Thanksgiving my family and I invite a lot of our relatives. We do Thanksgiving at noon and sometimes at seven p.m. Usually each person brings something, so my mom doesn’t have to do all of the cooking. As a tradition my uncle brings his amazing smoked ham. My mom makes the main meal, which is turkey, and my dad usually brings the main drink, which is wine for the adults. I usually just have a Coke. Sometimes I ask to go to the bathroom, but I really go to the pantry and get some Oreos or something better than what I am already eating.

We moved in December of 2009, and we haven’t had Thanksgiving at our new house yet, so this will be our first year. I remember when we had Thanksgiving two years ago and my brother wanted to blow our huge candle out. I saw that there was allot of melted wax, but he didn’t know that, and I wasn’t going to tell him because it would be hilarious if he got wax all over his face. He took a deep breath in, then blew out really hard and the wax sprayed up in his face, he looked like he was in a fire or something, it was hilarious.

We told my parents the story and they even thought it was funny. My brother said that it didn’t even hurt. He was mainly worried about getting in trouble for the wax that was all over the counter and the bar chairs. We didn’t tell my dad about the chairs because he would be angry, but we told my mom, she didn’t care, besides we got it all cleaned up…maybe.

***

Thanksgiving Disaster

I had been looking forward to Thanksgiving for a while. I love Thanksgiving because all the leaves are falling, and it is so much fun to get together with my family and have a meal. We always had a really good time, but last year something pretty bad happened that made it hard.

Imagine that you are hosting Thanksgiving, and it’s a tradition in your family. A few days before Thanksgiving your mom is testing out the oven to make sure it works. She walks away and a few minutes later the whole entire oven just blows up, and the glass shatters everywhere (the inside of the oven was not damaged). Then you come home from school and your mom says, “Hey, guess what? We might not have Thanksgiving this year. The oven blew up.”

If you can imagine that, then you will have a pretty good idea of how my Thanksgiving went last year…Yeah. Not good. We called a worker from a company that fixes ovens to come and replace the glass. Then, he got here and pulled out another piece of glass to fix it but we had an issue. Then he said, “Well, you see this piece of glass is not big enough, and I don’t have another piece…so, you will need to find someone else to do it.”

That really put a damper on everything. We do have two ovens, though we usually use both of our ovens, one for keeping the peas and mashed potatoes warm and one for the turkey. We also have a warming drawer, but we had no idea how to use it. It took a while to figure out how the warming drawer worked, but we ended up just putting in the peas and mashed potatoes and turning some knobs hoping it would work. We went along with Thanksgiving as planned, and we got no complaints about how anything was cold. Though we never did get the oven fixed before Thanksgiving. We managed to get through without but it was really hard. We eventually got it fixed, but it had caused a lot of stress in the days leading up to Thanksgiving.