Since the famous Thanksgiving disaster of 1983, reservations "about" dinner, instead of "for" dinner was the sentiment, every time we invited my in-laws for a meal.

My husband, Gary, is the main chef at our home. Twenty-five years ago, we were busy preparing a holiday feast for my new in-laws. Gary had coordinated his savory presentation to perfection. As the gracious hostess and helpful assistant, I decided to pour some cold water into a baking dish of golden crusted stuffing that had just come out of the hot oven. For some reason, I thought it could use a bit more liquid.

Our family was conversing in the adjacent dining room, enjoying the aroma of the gourmet meal in preparation. The moment the cold water hit the hot baking dish, an explosion occurred and shards of Pyrex flew across the stove top, over the kitchen counter and directly toward my new in-laws! As my eyes grew wider, I could see everyone ducking down to avoid the airborne glass.

Despite the disaster, no one was injured. We all pitched in and cleaned up the mess. Sadly, we lost the stuffing and gravy, but the rest of the meal was delicious. The Pyrex fragments added a unique sparkle to the floral centerpiece.

When invited to our house, the standing joke remains, "Who's cooking, and do we have to wear hard hats?" As the years have passed, I am grateful for the wonderful sense of humor this family displays. We are all so grateful that my husband continues to treat us to his culinary delights.

My Thanksgiving day disaster was in 1974. My husband and I had been married for 10 months. So, we decided to have Thanksgiving at our house. I bought the turkey and the things that go with it. Now, back in 1974, turkeys didn't come with a pop-up timer on them to let you know when they were done. I had to cook it a half an hour per pound, and that meant getting up at 4 a.m. to have a good-sized bird ready to eat at about 2 in the afternoon.

Well, I got up , fixed the stuffing and had it ready for the turkey. I washed off the bird outside and inside. Then, I stuffed it. Things were good, the bird was cooking and I got other things ready.

About 9 in the morning, the turkey was cooked through and ready to eat. It came unglued and did not know what to do so I called my mother-in-law (my mother had passed away years before), and explained what had happened ‹ in tears. She told me they'd be right over. When she got there, she took care of the turkey and to this day I don't know what she did.

But that wasn't the end of my turkey problem. When she was ready to serve dinner, my mother-in-law took over stuffing from inside the bird and then asked about the giblets. I said, "What giblets?" Come to discover, I had not checked the other end of the bird and had found that I cooked the whole thing with the giblets still in the bag in the front end of the turkey. We did not use them. I was so embarrassed and upset about ruining the turkey. I had never cooked a turkey and had no idea about those two places on it to put stuffing in.

I was a new married woman and made a complete close to disaster dinner on Thanksgiving Day 1974.

Since then, all turkey I've cooked have come out done just right and stuffed properly in both ends!

My worst Thanksgiving was a couple years ago. The turkey was almost done.

The rest of the food that had to go into the oven was almost ready. Things were moving along fine and there was a house full of hungry people waiting for dinner. So, it's time to take out the turkey. I opened the oven and had just sat the turkey on the counter when there was a big flash of light and a loud pop sound. Well, I took off out of the kitchen, almost knocking down an elderly lady in my hurry. A chunk of the oven coil had burned out and flew across the kitchen. So much for dinner.

Then I remembered our neighbors were visiting in California, but I knew where they kept the key to their house. So, four of us trooped back and forth to the neighbors, cooking the rest of the dinner in their oven. We finally got to eat it and it turned out to be a good day. Later, I sent a thank you note to the neighbors for us having a good dinner. They didn't know what I was talking about, she said, "We didn't do anything." I said "Oh yes you did!"

It seems my family always had issues on Thanksgiving. I remember when I was little, my dad had to leave in the middle of the meal because the roof at his work building was leaking. Another time, we had to have our holiday meal with our mom at a Chinese restaurant because my dad was in bed sick. This particular Thanksgiving I believe we were all thinking, "What will go wrong this year?" It was a variety of things of which we never could have guessed.

It was a typical Oregon holiday season with the weather pouring cats and dogs. The wind was shaking the trees and the eaves on the roof. Like idiots, we decided to go up Smith River to my sister's ranch and have Thanksgiving there. It is eight miles up the river and another two on the gravel driveway up the mountain to her ranch. We did worry about the flooding, but heck, we decided to brave the weather and go for it because her house is much bigger than my parent's house. Plus, Grandma lived on the ranch and it was easier if she didn't have to travel.

When we got there, we found out the my brother-in-law was out hunting and the turkey was only half way done. We began the normal holiday tradition of eating finger foods and watching football and watching the rain pour down outside. Then it started. The power went out.

Because my sister lives up Smith River, this is a fairly normal occurrence.

We should have been prepared. The turkey was only half way done. So, we threw it and the rest of the food, wine and the booze we'd gathered and put all of it in the back of my Explorer. Grandma wasn't ready to travel back into town, so she decided to stay behind until my brother-in-law returned from hunting. He'd then drive her down to town later.

It was still a stormy mess outside. The gravel road was washed away by a new formed river, but my Explorer had 4-wheel drive so I was fairly confident we'd get out of that mess and onto the highway easily enough. Oh, how wrong I was.

Halfway between my sister's ranch house and the highway, I ran over a stump that had been washed into the middle of the "road" yet was concealed by the raging waters of the storm. I got high-centered.

We all climbed out and gasped at the sight of my SUV raised on this stump, all wheels cleared in the air, with the river washing everything else out of its path. It was dark and still pouring rain, and windy as all get out. I remember Dad shrugging and we all started to giggle.

I think it was me who said, "Well, at least we have a half-baked turkey and booze in the car!" We wouldn't starve and the liquor would keep us warm!

Eventually Dad found an old log tangled in the debris and we dragged it over to the Explorer. After propping it under one of the wheels, I was finally able to gain some traction and drive off the stump and back onto the river road. Everyone cheered, we piled back into the Explorer and slowly headed back into town, where we would find warmth and dryness away from the storm and power to cook the other half of the turkey. Oh, and glasses for the booze.