23 November 2023 , 07:00
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Thanksgiving is a time to give thanks – hence the title – although one Reddit user was not so grateful when their turkey was stolen, causing a huge row and ruining the whole day. Sharing the unfortunate event on social media, the woman revealed her family had got together for the annual holiday to feast and celebrate what was sadly expected to be her mother-in-law's last Thanksgiving.
The Redditor, who goes under the handle @Stolenturkey22, shared the unconventional turn of events on the site in the True Off My Chest thread. She shared: “I’m confused and frustrated and need to vent. We hosted Thanksgiving this year - husband and I, our two kids, husband’s siblings, nieces and nephews, and most importantly, husband’s gravely ill mother.
"We’re all at peace that this Thanksgiving and Christmas will probably be our last holidays together. It’s been emotional and exhausting but we really wanted to make a memorable day that everyone would enjoy.”
However, things started to take a turn when the Redditer’s daughter invited her boyfriend along. She continued: “Our daughter Mary is visiting from college and one day before she flew in she says her boyfriend (Chris) is actually flying to our city to visit friends over the break. Mary asked if he could come over for Thanksgiving.
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She continued: “We’ve never met Chris before but to be honest, we’re not wild about him. As soon as Mary started dating him, we started seeing some worrying changes in her. Our son, who is just a couple of years older, confided in us that Mary is getting into the party scene largely because of Chris. We’ve tried gently bringing up our concerns with Mary, but she shuts it down and has started to pull away from us.
“Because we didn’t want to alienate her, we said Chris could visit, but they’d need to stay in separate rooms. She said that won’t matter because he’s booked a hotel room and she’ll be staying there with him the whole weekend. Cut to Thanksgiving and Mary and Chris arrive. He’s not the greatest. He makes a couple of rude/snide remarks throughout the visit and hits the alcohol way harder than is appropriate. My family was in a very earnest mood if that makes sense. Lots of emotion and he was just dismissive and flippant and cast a shadow on everything.”
Feeling anxious and upset about her mother-in-law's ill health, the whole family started sharing happy memories about their favourite holidays with the matriarch. She went on: "My husband and I stopped working in the kitchen to join the conversation but when we go back to the kitchen after maybe half an hour, I went to check the turkey in the oven, and it was gone."
Confused, she revealed she asked her husband if he had moved it but he was as bewildered as she was. She added: "We looked all over the kitchen and house and couldn’t find it. We go out to the living room and ask everyone if they know what happened to the turkey, and no one knows what we’re talking about. At this point, I realize Chris isn’t around."
Keen not to outright accuse Chris of stealing the turkey, the woman said she pulled Mary to the side and asked where he was. She wrote: "Mary said he had to leave to go meet up with friends, so I asked her to text him and ask if he knows what happened to the turkey, and she kind of rolled her eyes.”
Stressed, frazzled, and angry, the woman revealed that she felt Thanksgiving had well and truly been ruined, what with the main centrepiece of the dinner gone awol. The post continued: “At this point, it’s dawning on me that Chris probably stole the turkey and left out the back door while we were sharing stories with MIL but I’m just so confused why anyone would do something like that. I can’t bring myself to actually make the accusation out loud.
“We were left in the terrible position of having everything else ready, but no turkey. We had to break it to the family that we had no turkey and everyone was confused and sad. Mary said she had to go to an event with Chris, which deeply disappointed me. I told her as much and she just said she’ll see us again later this weekend.”
In a frantic bid to save Thanksgiving, some guests went on the hunt for a turkey, or additional courses to feed everyone at the table. She continued the post: “My in-laws went driving around to restaurants and grocery stores and pieced together enough stuff that we were able to have a meal much later than expected, but it felt like the whole day was ruined.
“Everyone was kind of murmuring about Chris leaving around the time the turkey disappeared, but no one wanted to actually accuse him out loud because it’s such an explosion allegation and there’s not actually any proof. I’m just confused why anyone would do such a thing, and heartbroken because my MIL didn’t deserve this at all. At one point she teared up but pulled it together."
The woman later revealed that Chris was proven to be the turkey thief when he started messaging her son taunting him about it. She finished: "So that settles it - Chris stole the turkey basically as a big f**k you to all of us. My son didn’t say anything at the time because he didn’t want to make people more upset than they already were. One of my husband’s siblings is very mad at us for how things turned out and how MIL was disrespected. The sibling is not talking with us right now. I’ve tried calling and texting Mary but she is so far ignoring me. ”
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But fellow Reddit users are not surprised by the culprit, as one commented: “All else aside, who just leaves Thanksgiving family dinner out the back door? And he 1000% most definitely stole the turkey, which is SOOO f***ing disrespectful and everyone should’ve made a huge deal out of it. Daughter needs to understand that it’s a FACT, not opinion that she’s dating a POS.”
Another weighed in: “I don’t know how someone could even think of it, what if someone had come and seen him do it? Would he not have died of embarrassment at the thought of possibly being caught at such a ridiculous crime by his gf’s relatives?”
And a third person added: "The poor woman can't understand why someone would do such a thing because she is a decent, compassionate, caring human, and doing such a thing is not within her realm of possibilities; unlike Chris, who is clearly a self-centered, self-indulgent, selfish, little punk who only cares about himself, and he is training Mary to be the same. What a putz!"