Buzz
Thanksgiving in the United States is observed on the fourth Thursday of November each year.
The holiday revolves around beloved traditional dishes like turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and pumpkin pie. It also includes events like the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade and football games. Beyond the feast and celebrations, it’s a time to come together with loved ones, reflecting on what we're grateful for.
While typical Thanksgiving news features tips on cooking, free meal locations, and broadcast events, these Thanksgiving-related stories go beyond the ordinary. Even though Thanksgiving has passed, these tales are too remarkable not to share.
Here are ten unforgettable Thanksgiving stories from years past that are bound to amaze and move you.
10. A Thanksgiving Text Mix-Up Becomes a Heartwarming Tradition
In 2016, Wanda Dench from Mesa, Arizona, accidentally sent a text that read, 'Thanksgiving dinner is at my house on Nov. 24 at 3:00.' She had meant to invite her grandson, but he had recently changed his phone number. Instead, 17-year-old Jamal Hinton, who was in class at Desert Vista High School, received the message.
Confused by the unexpected message, Hinton replied to ask who was texting. The mysterious texter responded, 'Your grandma.' Thinking it might be his grandmother with a new number, Hinton asked for a photo. When he received a picture of Dench, a white woman who wasn’t his grandma, Hinton sent a selfie and jokingly texted, 'You not my grandma. Can I still get a plate though?' To his surprise, Dench replied, 'Of course you can. That’s what grandmas do… feed everyone.'
Hinton shared a screenshot of the exchange on social media, where it quickly went viral. He then took Dench up on her offer and drove from Tempe, Arizona, to Mesa to join her family for Thanksgiving. This accidental encounter blossomed into a deep, lasting friendship that has grown stronger over time.
Since that first Thanksgiving, Dench and Hinton have celebrated every holiday together, making their friendship as integral to the occasion as cranberry sauce and football. Beyond the annual gathering, they’ve supported each other through life's challenges. For example, Hinton was there for Dench after her husband, Lonnie, passed away on April 5, 2020, from COVID-19 complications. In return, Dench welcomed Hinton’s girlfriend, Mikaela, into their family, and even accompanied Dench to get her first tattoo.
In 2024, Hinton took the initiative to host Thanksgiving, while Dench, who had recently moved to Prescott Valley, was planning to make the two-hour drive to join Hinton’s aunt in Phoenix. However, in October of that year, Dench, aged 67, revealed she had been diagnosed with breast cancer earlier in the year. Having just completed her chemotherapy treatments, both Dench and Hinton agreed that staying home would be the wisest choice for her health. Despite the distance, the two planned to keep in touch over FaceTime during the holiday, looking forward to a much better next year.
9. Thanksgiving Pizza
Travis Kaiser, a native of Toms River, New Jersey, grew up surrounded by a rich pizza culture. From a young age, he worked at a local pizzeria during summer vacations. After leaving New Jersey for college, he returned to the Garden State after graduating from the University of Tampa in 2007 to pursue a career in law enforcement. However, two years later, he followed his bigger dream of becoming a restaurateur and moved back to Tampa, where he immersed himself in the growing hospitality scene. By 2021, Kaiser had turned his dream into reality.
In early 2021, Kaiser’s Jersey-style pizzeria, named Santoro’s after his firstborn son, opened its doors with a soft launch. The official grand opening took place on March 7, 2021, and the pizzeria was a hit, selling 243 pizza orders within its first weekend and running out of dough! Santoro’s became even more popular in 2024, when its Thanksgiving pizza went viral on Instagram. This unconventional pizza blended the classic flavors of a Thanksgiving feast in a unique and surprising way.
Rather than serving traditional Thanksgiving dishes separately, Santoro’s took the bold step of combining roasted turkey, garlic mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, and cranberry sauce into a Thanksgiving pizza with a special ‘no-flop’ crust. Available until November 27, 2024, customers could either enjoy the pizza freshly made at the restaurant or take it home to heat up later.
8. Water Park Chat Breaks Open Thanksgiving Cold Case
Mandy Stavik, a basketball player, cheerleader, top student, and aspiring airline pilot, was someone who always strived for excellence in everything she did. Described as 'larger than life,' her promising future was tragically cut short in an unexpected way.
At 18 years old, Stavik, a freshman at Central Washington University, decided to return home to Acme, Washington, for Thanksgiving break in 1989. On November 24, that Friday afternoon, she went for a jog, bringing along the family’s German shepherd, Kyra. While Kyra returned home hours later, Stavik never made it back. After three days of intense searching, Stavik’s body was discovered on November 28, 1989, in the Nooksack River. The cause of death, as confirmed by the autopsy, was asphyxia due to drowning, and she had been sexually assaulted.
In the wake of Stavik’s murder, law enforcement launched a comprehensive investigation, scouring the area for leads and consulting with a task force that was working on the unsolved Green River serial killer case in Seattle. However, despite their efforts, they found no viable suspects, and the case eventually went cold. The unsolved murder lingered as a grim shadow over Acme for nearly two decades, until a chance encounter in 2013 set the stage for a breakthrough.
In June 2013, Heather Backstrom and Merilee Anderson took their young children to Birch Bay Waterslides in Blaine, Washington, for a fun day out. Though the two women didn’t know one another, they found themselves in a group of local moms discussing their lives, their families, and their hometown of Acme. During the conversation, the unsolved murder of Mandy Stavik unexpectedly came up, sparking a series of events that would ultimately lead to a breakthrough in the cold case.
During their conversation, Backstrom suddenly exclaimed, 'I know who killed her.' Anderson immediately responded, 'I do, too.' Both women had had unsettling encounters with a man named Tim Bass, who had not only attended Mount Baker High with them and Stavik but also lived just two miles away from Stavik’s home, along her usual running route. Despite their shared suspicions, they lacked concrete proof to link Bass to the crime, and as a result, neither had voiced their concerns. Now realizing the importance of speaking out, Anderson reached out to their former classmate, Detective Ken Gates, from the Whatcom Sheriff's Office.
What followed was a complex tale of determined investigation by local authorities, a prosecutor who came out of retirement to take on a case he had started years earlier, and the crucial assistance of a local woman who provided key evidence that ultimately unraveled the mystery of a seemingly unsolvable case.
At the time of the investigation in 2013, Bass, who was married and had three children, had moved to Everson, Washington, and worked as a local delivery driver for the Franz Bakery Outlet. However, when approached by police, Bass refused to provide a DNA sample. Without sufficient evidence to secure a search warrant, they couldn’t force Bass to comply, and his employer was also uncooperative, refusing to allow police to take DNA samples or share information about his delivery routes.
In 2017, detectives revisited the bakery, still without a subpoena or warrant. This time, the bakery manager, Kim Wagner, decided to act independently and gave police valuable details about Bass’s delivery route. Wagner also offered to help collect a DNA sample from Bass, but since the detectives couldn’t ask a civilian to gather evidence, they had to decline. Undeterred, Wagner took matters into her own hands. On August 10, 2017, she secretly collected a plastic cup and a Coke can that Bass had discarded, placed them in a Franz Bakery bag, and handed them over to the police. The DNA from the cup and can matched Bass with a 1 in 11 quadrillion probability to the DNA found on Stavik’s body.
On December 12, 2017, 50-year-old Tim Bass was arrested in the bakery parking lot, facing charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping, and rape. Coincidentally, that very day marked Stavik’s mother Mary’s 81st birthday. The sheriff was able to deliver the most meaningful birthday gift possible—informing her that her daughter’s killer had finally been caught, 28 years after the crime. Bass was later convicted of first-degree murder on May 24, 2019, and sentenced to 320 months in prison.
Customers left disappointed as Maddhouse Catering fails to deliver on Thanksgiving promises, leaving families scrambling for alternatives, from grocery runs to fast food options like Whataburger.
With the Deer Park Police Department confirming an investigation into Maddhouse Catering, many families found themselves without the planned feast, forcing them to either cancel their Thanksgiving or settle for last-minute fast food options.
Further complicating the situation, Texas state business records show no current information for Maddhouse Catering or Madden, whose previous connection to Maddhouse Cookers ended in 2012 when its license expired without renewal in 2022.
NICU nurses provide invaluable care for premature babies or those with severe medical conditions, offering life-saving attention round-the-clock with advanced medical equipment and technology.
Premature babies or those facing critical health issues often require specialized care in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), where they receive constant medical support tailored to their needs, which could last from days to months.
Kathryn Callahan, a NICU nurse at Texas Health Southwest in Fort Worth, Texas, understands the emotional difficulty for parents separated from their newborns, so she goes the extra mile to make sure the babies in her care feel cherished during the holiday season. Even after completing long 12-hour shifts, Callahan doesn’t rest her hands.
In her spare time, Callahan uses her crochet skills to make personalized hats and costumes for every NICU baby, covering every holiday, including Valentine’s Day, Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and more. Over the last 10 years, she has created nearly 1,500 hats!
The festive spirit Callahan brings to the NICU has brought immense comfort to families. Despite the challenges they face with their babies, her heartfelt gesture has helped bring joy and warmth to their difficult moments.
5. Some of the priciest items you can find on a Thanksgiving menu
The Old Homestead Steakhouse, which was first known as the Tidewater Trading Post, has been serving customers since 1868 in New York City’s Meatpacking District. Harry Sherry, who began his journey as a dishwasher there, later bought the business in the 1940s. Sherry’s grandsons, Greg and Marc, also started out as dishwashers, eventually working their way through various roles, including busboys, servers, and chefs, before taking over the restaurant as its current owners.
Having been in operation for over 150 years, the Old Homestead Steakhouse is America’s oldest steakhouse. It is not only known for its long history but also for being the first to serve Wagyu Beef in the United States. Over the years, the family-owned restaurant has hosted a number of famous patrons, including Liza Minnelli, JFK, Mickey Mantle, Herbert Hoover, Beyoncé, Billy Joel, Stevie Wonder, and Mike Tyson. The steakhouse has also garnered attention for its exorbitantly priced Thanksgiving menu items.
In 2019, the Old Homestead Steakhouse offered an extravagant Thanksgiving dinner for 12 with a jaw-dropping price tag of $181,000. The meal featured two 20-pound free-range turkeys covered in $2,000 worth of edible gold flakes and seasoned with $4,000 worth of imported spices from the Middle East. The turkey gravy was infused with a $3,650 bottle of Louis XIII cognac, and golden caviar from the Caspian Sea, costing $1,800 per ounce, was served. Though the meal also included traditional pies like pumpkin, apple, coconut custard, and pecan, the most expensive part of the package wasn’t even edible.
The extravagant dinner package also came with a seven-day, $50,000 Seam Dream Yacht Club cruise for two, a $8,000 bottle of Cristal champagne, a $20,000 Black Friday shopping spree, matching his and hers iPhone 11 Pro Maxes, four tickets to Super Bowl LIV in Miami, and more.
In 2024, the famed New York City restaurant once again presented a lavish Thanksgiving offering—cranberry sauce priced at $195 per dollop! What makes this cranberry sauce so expensive? It includes white truffle shavings costing $1,500 per pound, edible 24k gold flakes, and Manuka Honey from New Zealand at $100 per pound, along with Taylor Fladgate Scion Vintage Port priced at $4,000 a bottle.
For those seeking a more affordable Thanksgiving meal, the Old Homestead Steakhouse offers options such as a roasted turkey dinner for $85, served with classic sides that are free of gold or white truffles.
A Thanksgiving argument between two long-time friends escalated to a deadly confrontation. The disagreement between Richard Lombardi and Frank Griswold led to tragic consequences, ending both their friendship and, ultimately, one of their lives.
Richard Lombardi, 65, and Frank Griswold, 80, had known each other since the 1990s when they worked together at Charles River Management in the finance industry. Despite being close friends for around three decades and living as roommates for over 20 years, a quarrel over Thanksgiving dinner would soon sever their bond and lead to Griswold's untimely death.
Lombardi claimed that Griswold had a habit of sneezing frequently. Given that the Thanksgiving turkey was placed near the sink, Lombardi feared that Griswold’s sneezes might contaminate the food. On November 27, 2024, Lombardi warned Griswold to stay away from the food, even going so far as to use salt and pepper to create a physical boundary.
Upon returning to the kitchen, Lombardi discovered Griswold washing dishes near the turkey. In a fit of anger, Lombardi grabbed Griswold by the collar and forcefully shoved him aside. The push caused Griswold to trip, and he fell to the ground, his feet becoming tangled beneath him.
When emergency responders arrived at Lombardi’s home in Marshfield, Massachusetts, they found Griswold unresponsive and bleeding from his head. Despite efforts to revive him, Griswold was later declared dead at South Shore Hospital due to blunt-force trauma to his head and neck.
Lombardi is facing charges of assault and battery against an individual over 60 years of age, resulting in serious injury, as well as involuntary manslaughter. He is currently being held without the possibility of bail.
3. Green Bean Casserole Sparkling Water
In 1955, Dorcas Reilly, then a supervisor at Campbell’s test kitchen in Camden, New Jersey, was tasked with creating a new recipe for the Associated Press. The challenge was to create something using common kitchen staples, such as Campbell’s mushroom soup and green beans. Reilly experimented and eventually created the iconic green bean casserole, a dish made from just six ingredients: Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup, milk, soy sauce, black pepper, green beans, and crispy fried onions.
While green bean casserole remains a beloved dish served at Thanksgiving and Christmas, it has also inspired an unusual beverage: Green Bean Casserole sparkling water.
Paul Voge, CEO and co-founder of Aura Bora, shared that the flavor was initially a joke among staff as they brainstormed odd sparkling water flavors, with one suggestion being sage. However, after tasting it, which was described as ‘bursting with sweet, earthy, and buttery flavor, featuring real sage extract, and reminiscent of a crisp and juicy green bean,’ they decided to release it. The green bean casserole flavored seltzer water debuted in 2022.
The drink made a comeback in both 2023 and 2024, now sold exclusively on Aura Bora’s website for $33 per case, which includes 12 cans. In addition, customers can explore a range of other exclusive flavors such as sparkling pumpkin spice, an apple cinnamon variant developed in collaboration with Magnolia Bakery, and even an olive oil martini.
2. A Final Act of Love from a Mother
Lt. Ashley Berry, 33, was a beloved firefighter from Richmond, Virginia, known for her selfless generosity. On Thanksgiving 2019, she spent the day preparing food baskets for those in need before heading to her boyfriend’s family gathering in Hopewell, Virginia. Tragically, as she was leaving with her young son on November 28, 2019, gunshots rang out. In a heartbreaking final act, the off-duty firefighter and mother of three shielded her son with her own body, but she was struck by a stray bullet fired by a gunman targeting a nearby apartment, who then fled the scene.
Hopewell Police arrived on the scene shortly before 11:40 p.m. to find Berry suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. She was rushed to a local hospital and then transferred to VCU Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead around 3 a.m. on November 29, 2019. Authorities indicated that neither Berry nor her boyfriend’s family were the intended victims of the drive-by shooting.
To honor her dedication to the Richmond community and the heroic act of protecting her son, the Richmond City Council unanimously voted to rename the 2700 block of Berry Road as Lt. Ashley Nicole Berry Way.
It took nearly four years for the Hopewell Police to build a strong case against the man suspected of killing Berry. Finally, in August 2023, 30-year-old Darrell Donnell Taylor Jr., who was already in custody on unrelated charges, was indicted by a grand jury on multiple counts, including murder, using a firearm during the commission of a felony, conspiracy to commit murder, and shooting into an occupied building.
1. Bread Dough Is a Danger to Dogs
Pippa, a spirited two-year-old golden retriever from Knoxville, Tennessee, was known for her habit of grabbing things from countertops and the trash. On November 25, 2021, her nose led her to a tray of bread rolls that her owner, Rebecca Collins, had left out to rise. It wasn’t until Collins was about to put the rolls in the oven that she noticed half of them had disappeared. Caught up in the chaos of hosting Thanksgiving, Collins thought little of it. However, after the last guest left, she noticed Pippa, usually full of energy, was now unusually sluggish and napping.
A worried internet search prompted Collins to contact the Pet Poison Hotline. After providing details about Pippa’s symptoms, weight, and the amount of bread she had consumed, a veterinary expert advised Collins to take Pippa to an emergency animal hospital right away.
Raw bread dough containing yeast can be harmful to dogs or cats. It can lead to yeast poisoning, dangerous stomach torsion, and even alcohol poisoning. When a pet eats raw dough, it expands in the warm stomach, releasing carbon dioxide gas, which can cause bloating and an enlarged abdomen. Additionally, the fermentation process creates ethanol, which quickly enters the bloodstream and can lead to alcohol poisoning.
When Pippa was brought to the Animal Emergency and Specialty Center of Knoxville, she had an elevated heart rate, a swollen abdomen, and an alarming 90% of her abdominal space was filled with the doughy, yeasty mixture. Veterinarians immediately administered IV fluids, along with cold water and ice chips, to help slow the dough's fermentation. Pippa was monitored overnight, and fortunately, she managed to pass the dough on her own without requiring surgery.
