November Memories
Tags: Writing Prompt Response, November, Thanksgiving, Blog, Family Dinner

First, a round of applause for our November banner photo by Louis Hart! The moment I saw that image attached to one of his submissions, I knew it was destined to be our November banner. Thank you, Louis!

Now, let’s talk about November.

Here in the USA, it’s the month of gratitude due to our Thanksgiving holiday falling on the fourth Thursday of the month. Thanksgiving is my least favorite holiday. To me, it’s lame. A great deal of cooking, eating, football, and cleaning up and really not much giving of thanks. More a holiday of excess than appreciation. Most of my life, I and other females in attendance did the cooking and cleaning while the men ate and watched football.

Not fair. Not fun.

During my first marriage, my husband and I hosted his family for more than twenty Thanksgivings. By the time I walked away from him and them, I was done with Thanksgiving — done with the many hours of house-cleaning, cooking, hostessing, and cleaning up. It really was wrong that the only vegetarian in the family roasted two turkeys every year to feed 20 or more people!

The first Thanksgiving that Captain Argentina and I were together, I had no intention of cooking. But, my stepmom came to spend Thanksgiving week with us and my cousin and her husband were in Florida from Maine as part of the hurricane recovery after 4 storms hit our state during a 48-day period. They had no place to be for Thanksgiving so I invited them to drive up from South Florida and join us for a dinner I didn’t want to cook.

The first Thanksgiving of my new life did not go well. Our rental home had a gas stove — I was accustomed to electric. A small hole in the bottom of the turkey pan resulted in a scary oven fire caused by the fat dripping from the pan. When we put out the fire, we also put out the pilot light. Captain Argentina and I had no idea how to restart a pilot light but fortunately, my cousin’s husband did, although it took a while before the oven was operable again.

Dinner was served two hours late. I was mortified. Although everyone told me it was fine, my cousin and her husband had to wolf down their meals and leave quickly to drive the five hours back to South Florida.

Thanksgiving is a complicated holiday. It involves a great deal of cooking, often travel, and sometimes too much time with family. We, meaning Americans, all have Thanksgiving stories. Maybe some Canadians do also, although their Thanksgiving is in October.

So, the Weeds & Wildflowers November writing prompt is:

What was your worst Thanksgiving experience?

Believe it or not, the story I just told about my first Thanksgiving with Captain Argentina is definitely not my worst. That story is forthcoming!

Although your Thanksgiving day is a different date than mine, I hope the Canadians will chime in. Surely, they have stories as good as, if not better than, the Americans!

For Brits and others who don’t have a Thanksgiving holiday, tell us about your worst family dinner. Could be Christmas or a birthday or an ordinary weekday dinner gone awry. Oooh, maybe an engagement dinner or even a wedding reception!

Come on — we’ve all had them. Those dinners that were supposed to be special but turned out to be horrendous. Spill the beans and entertain us with your family dinner disasters!