It's really not your fault. The holiday has fallen into politically-correct disrepute, prey to the same forces that have polluted the rest of our culture. Walk into a Border's Books, you'll find plenty of books about Thanksgiving. But most of them offer a deeply distorted view of the holiday. For instance, readers will get the distinct impression that the Pilgrims were atheists, because all mention of God has been omitted from many a modern holiday tale.
Pilgrim motives are under assault, as well.
If money had been important to these families, they would never have left England in the first place. Most suffered serious financial reversals when they fled their homeland reversals that dogged them the rest of their lives. Still other books suggest the Pilgrims held their feast in order to thank the Indians. Assuredly, certain Indians Squanto, especially were key to the Pilgrims' survival. But despite illness, homesickness the death of half their members the previous winter, and the on-going difficulty of scratching out a living in an unknown land, the Pilgrims thanked God for blessing them.