Twenty years ago this Thanksgiving was the first major holiday away from my East Coast family. I was newly in love with a guy named Tom and decided I would cook my first turkey in my apartment in San Francisco.

Needless to say I was nervous about this endeavor and he and I started "cooking" early in the morning. I remember being on the phone constantly with my mom and dad asking them what to do next. To calm our nerves, we both decided to open a bottle of wine and proceeded to follow my parents directions of taking out the gizzards, rinsing out the cavity, stuffing the bird with our famous Italian Sausage family stuffing, yada, yada, yada.

As we continued to cook, drink wine, fall more in love, the fated time to take the bird out of the oven had arrived. Just as this was happening, our friends were anxiously buzzing my apartment door so they could join the festivities. I remember my anxiety kick in at this point and as I went to answer the door, I asked Tom to take the bird out of the oven and pull the stuffing out. Just as I was about to open the door, he yells, "WAIT! Come here! Now!"

I quickly go back into the kitchen and there Tom is standing, a look of total shock on his face, with the wooden spoon coming out of the cavity of my first turkey ... slowly ... he pulls out the spoon and nestled in the middle of the stuffing is my quartz watch blown up in a million pieces!

As we enjoyed our wine and stuffed our bird, it seems as if my watch fell off my wrist and I unknowingly stuffed it back into the turkey and cooked it for 6 hours!

We laughed so hard we fell to the floor ... friends pounding on the door wanting to come in ... we just laughed our hearts out as we picked pieces of glass, leather, and metal "hands" out of the stuffing.

This Thanksgiving will be our 20th holiday together ... the last 13 have been in Napa with our 2 daughters.

(Editor's note: This is one of the five finalists in our Thanskgiving Dinner Disaster contest sponsored by Vallerga's Markets. Read this and the other four entries, then vote for your favorite in our online poll. The winner of $100 to Vallerga's will be announced Tuesday, Dec. 2)