I have mentioned several times over the last few weeks how much of a holiday junkie I am. I love the smells of the fall and of cinnamon and gingerbread candles and the smell of yummy hearty foods baking in the oven on Thanksgiving morning.

Butter Ball recently asked me to share a favorite Thanksgiving memory of mine:

Naturally any Thanksgiving my hubby is home is the best considering we have missed quite a few holidays together. Surprisingly though, one of my best Thanksgiving memories was when he was deployed. It was November of 2007  and two of my closest friends stationed at Hunter Army Airfield with me ,husbands were deployed too. We banned together and Sherrill my bestie and neighbor brought her Patti Labelle Somewhere Over the Rainbow Macaroni and Cheese and the turkey. I stayed up overnight preparing everything from rice and beans , ham, bacon garlic string beans to cakes and pies. My other friend Erin brought all the utensils , desserts and drinks.

Just some of the food we had and there was a ton more not seen here...

I had been alittle down because no one from my family could make it but that day in addition to Erin and Sherrill, I went from having two extra people to more like thirteen. My best friend since childhood showed up all the way from NC. Sherrill’s mom her sister and sister’s fiancee as well as Erin and her mom and family came over. That combined with all of our kids made for one of the best holiday memories simply because in a time that can be a sad and lonely place for a military spouse, we made the best of it by coming all together and sharing our thanks!

Giveaway

Butterball wants 2 of my lucky readers to have a Turkey on them this Thanksgiving!

Simply leave a comment below telling us your best Thanksgiving memory or kitchen blooper.

Make sure to leave a valid email with each comment.

Extra Ways to Win

Of course I love to give you extra ways to win. Simply leave a comment for each extra entry you do. you must complete the mandatory entry to do a bonus entry.

1. Visit the Butterball and tell me a recipe of their’s you would try .

2. Subscribe to Army Wife 101 by email and verify

3. Follow @armywives101 & @butterball and tweet ” Share your turkey day memory and win a @butterball turkey at http://bit.ly/aNMoYT @armywives101 #giveaway #milspouse

4. Like Army Wife 101 on FB

5. Like Butterball on FB (say hi from Army Wife)

Contest ends November 11, 2010 at 11:59 EST

Winner will be chosen via Random.org

Disclosure: Butterball sent me 3 Gift cards to complete this post. No other form of compensation was received.

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Krystel is the mom of two and an Army Wife. In addition to Army Wife 101 she is the Co-Founder of SoFluential.com a digital media agency that connects brands with the military market. She has appeared on MSNBC ,FOX LA and formerly was a weekly contributor to HLN's "Raising America". She has written for various outlets including Sheknows and Lifetime and is a big fan of cupcakes and french fries.

Krystel is the mom of two and an Army Wife. In addition to Army Wife 101 she is the Co-Founder of SoFluential.com a digital media agency that connects brands with the military market. She has appeared on MSNBC ,FOX LA and formerly was a weekly contributor to HLN's "Raising America". She has written for various outlets including Sheknows and Lifetime and is a big fan of cupcakes and french fries.
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148 Comments on *CLOSED*Foodie Friday:Thanksgiving Memories & Free Butterball Turkey Giveaway!!!

  1. I must say that all my previous thanksgivings were the best! I am so far from home now and this will be my first US holiday….hoping to make many more great memories on my new adventure!

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  3. My fav memory was our first Thanksgiving together and i wanted to host it at our home. I got up at 5 am to start the turkey sliced my hand, which I still have the scar and I cooked everything. I had my husbands family my family and a few friends so like 20 people. I was also 3 months pregnant and cooking all of this. My father in-law said he wanted ham half way through our dinner so every year since I have had to make both but it was worth it to have everyone together for the holidays

    Reply

  4. I have done the Roast Turkey with Cranberry Orange Glaze for the past 3 years from the Butterball recipies website It’s an amazing flavor and will do it agian this year. I love it.

    I can not think of just one Thanksgiving that is my favorite memory since becoming a mom for the pass 9 years from the start of our growing family I couldnt ask for more on Thanksgiving is being blessed with a wonderful family and being able to share the holidays with them I will cherish everyday of my life.

    Reply

  5. i just remember all of my family and since we have lost 2 immediate members in the last year to cancer i cant imagine not being there to get and give support this year. thank god we pcs’d only 4 hours away.lol

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  6. One of my favorite Thanksgiving memories happened last year. My husband decided to finally use the deep fryer I had bought him. He went over all the safety rules with our two boys. They misunderstood him some where along the way, because they really thought that instead of frying it was going to fire the turkey. They crept as close to the back door as they dared and kept yelling “Fire in the Hole” to get their dad to fire the turkey from the deep fryer.
    This year, instead of having people over we are just going to enjoy a family Thanksgiving and count our blessings.

    Reply

  7. My favorite Thanksgiving memory is probably from my husband’s first deployment. He came home the day before Thanksgiving and his parents and mine were coming. My sister came to help-not only to cook dinner, but to move us into a new apartment two days before T-day. We thought we had done well and started cooking the morning of Thanksgiving, and about 6 hours later, the turkey still wasn’t done and the items “cooking” on the stove weren’t cooking. Turns out, there was a malfunction with our gas stove and the apartment maintenance staff didn’t view an uncooked turkey an emergency. We ended up eating crunchy green beans and microwave-warmed ham (thank goodness for precooked ham!) and had a great time, anyway.

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  8. I have had really nice thanksgivings in the past and since my husband has been in the army i have cooked for a lot of the single soldiers and the married ones that don’t have any kids it make it that more special having them spend the holiday with me and my family.

    Reply

  9. My Favorite memory of Thanksgiving would be Nov-26-92. It began Nov-7 met a guy while shooting pool at Midnight Rodeo in Tulsa. We stayed up till 6am at a local pool hall. He asked me to go shopping with him later n the day.. we went to dinner nd he went with me to shoot in a pool tourney on the 8th.. He sent me a dozen long stem roses to work on the 9th. I was shocked. We went to TGI the to see Pure Country that nite. We were parked in front of his parents house nd yea makin out, nd he just came out nd Asked me to Marry him . I ssid Yes, he asked my father the next evening over dinner, nd then he had to go back to Ft Carson, His CO wouldnt let him leave again until the nite before Thanksgiving. He drove though a blizzard to get to OK, he gor to my parents home, we ate dinnwr and had to drive to Harrison Ark. That was the only place we could find to get married in that short of notice because Ok requires blood test nd he cldnt gt there for it. So my hubby n I were Married Thanksgiving Day Nov 26 1992.. We Celebrate 18yrs this year.. Now thats Love at First Sight!!

    Reply

  10. My favorite Thanksgiving memory is probably any and every year my entire family was together….I have a huge family and we’re loud crazy but we all love being together we play games and cook together….Thanksgiving was always a reminder of how truly blessed I am to have such a close and loving family.

    I don’t know how I’m going to make Thanksgiving special this year because it’s my first in my entire life but it’s also our first Thanksgiving together as a married couple!!!
    That right there is special in itself

    Reply

  11. Well I will say that my first best Thanksgiving in my opinion will be last year’s Thanksgiving simply because my husband had just came back from deployment and it was my first Thanksgiving Dinner that I was able to prepare by myself for my whole family with no one else in the kitchen helping or bring over a dish. Yes I’m sure it seems small, but in my eyes it was big because I had my man back home from Iraq was able to cook him a good old feast.

    This year we are at a new base and now on the mainland so we will have the opportunity to spend this year’s Thanksgiving with relatives. It will be fun having everyone around again.

    Reply

  19. main entry: my best thanksgiving was years ago when my husband had been gone on a yrs cruise and my then little girl missed him so much and he got to come back off the cruise in time for thanksgiving and we lived in alabama at the time far from our hometown to see my parents in tennesse so they to go to come down for the holiday and we all had the best time, i cooked a very big meal and my daughter was so tickled to see her dad and grandparents,
    sewitupjulie at gmail dot com

    Reply

  24. Oh my, my favorite holiday memory is from when I was younger, and everyone was invited to my Grandmas house for dinner. She was going so crazy trying to get all the food prepared, even had two, yes two ovens going, my grandpa is the master chef and he was in charge of the turkey, he has his own way of doing things and he thought that this one particular year he would just let the turkey bake by itself and roast for hours before he went to check on it, well, as you can guess, when he went to check the turkey about 45 min till eating time he found that he had never even turned the oven on!!!!! So much for a holiday meal haha. But all was good when we made it the next day:)

    cosgrove3033@yahoo.com

    Reply

  25. I visited butterball, and the recipe I would most likely try is the cranberry pumpkin crumble, we love pumpkin in this house and that just sounds so good, printing it out as we speak!

    Reply

  31. Our first actual thanksgiving was in San Diego and he was at a training command and so most of his friends were single so I made a meal for 30 people and we had a lot of fun. It was great to be able to share our meal with so many others who couldn’t make it home

    Reply

  34. My favorite blooper memory would have to be my very first time cooking Thanksgiving by myself for my family. I thought it was time for me to start my tradition of Thanksgiving dinners instead of going to relatives every year. I was attempting to make homemade noodles and I could not get it right..I threw out 3 batches of dough and called my mom crying asking why I couldn’t get my dough to look right. She asked me what was wrong with the 3 batches I threw out and I told her they were yellow..She just paused and all at once started laughing..I told her it wasn’t funny and she said it was because the dough is sometimes yellow..She told me my batches were just fine and then I learned that I should always call her and ask before I throw something out because I had no idea what it was supposed to look like..

    Reply

  36. Best thanksgiving memory was in 2005 when my friend and I drove all the way from NY to Cleveland. It was snowing and when we got to her place, her whole family was around to welcome us and the dinner was a feast. Being away from my own family, it felt good to celebrate Thanksgiving surrounded with by warm and kind people.
    mandalarctic at gmail dot com

    Reply

  40. One of my memories actually happened last year. My whole family gathered at my cousins house. That was very special considering I feel like an outcast to my family. So for us to get together as a family was special to me :)

    Reply

  46. This is the first thanksgiving in five years that I will have my husband home and I am thankful for it. I cant wait to make a new memory with our kids.

    Reply

  49. my mandatory didnt show up for some reason….anyway…my favorite memory was our last Thanksgiving we were stationed in Grand Forks, ND. We knew we would be leaving in 2 weeks so we got together with 3 other families and just had the time of our lives, I tried so much food that I had never tasted before. It was just a beautiful day.

    katiesmommy1 at gmail dot com

    Reply

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