I thought the worst thing my mother-in-law ever did was sneak a turkey leg into her purse.
\nTurns out, that was her warm-up.<\/p>\n
This year, after I spent FOUR days cooking my dream Thanksgiving \u2014 pies, casseroles, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, a perfectly brined turkey \u2014 Elaine strutted into my house in stilettos, said nothing\u2026 and started loading my food into Tupperware.<\/p>\n
All of it.<\/em><\/p>\n Turkey, stuffing, gravy, mac \u2019n\u2019 cheese, green bean casserole \u2014 if it wasn\u2019t nailed down, she packed it.<\/p>\n \u201cMy new man is expecting a home-cooked dinner,\u201d she said. \u201cDon\u2019t be stingy.\u201d<\/p>\n Before we could react, she stuffed the last container into her trunk and drove off with our entire Thanksgiving dinner.<\/p>\n We ended up eating frozen pizza at my beautifully set table while I tried not to cry.<\/p>\n Then \u2014 karma called.<\/p>\n Elaine rang that evening SCREAMING.<\/p>\n Her boyfriend? Why?<\/p>\n He\u2019s a vegan.<\/strong> And while she was carrying \u201cher\u201d turkey in, the bottom of the container broke. He dumped her on the spot.<\/p>\n Then she told us it was MY fault for \u201ccooking too well.\u201d<\/p>\n Eric and I laughed until we cried.<\/p>\n We took the kids out for a fancy restaurant Thanksgiving, just us. And Eric finally said, \u201cNext year, Thanksgiving is only for people who deserve your cooking.\u201d<\/p>\n This year, I learned something important:<\/p>\n Some people take and take\u2026 I thought the worst thing my mother-in-law ever did was sneak a turkey leg into her purse. Turns out, that was her warm-up. This year, after I spent FOUR days cooking my dream Thanksgiving \u2014 pies, casseroles, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, a perfectly brined turkey \u2014 Elaine strutted into my house in stilettos, said nothing\u2026 …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1745,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1744"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1746,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1744\/revisions\/1746"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nCompletely horrified.<\/p>\n
\nShe forgot.<\/p>\n
\nTurkey exploded.
\nGravy everywhere.
\nDog licking the floor.
\nElaine slipping in mashed potatoes.<\/p>\n
\nCandles. Calm. No chaos. Real gratitude.<\/p>\n
\nBut karma?
\nKarma always brings the leftovers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"