At 34 people, my Thanksgiving celebration was light

I've survived yet another Thanksgiving with my crazy, lovable, expansive family.

We had 34 on hand this year, and met at a new venue. This year, we had our party at my niece Kelly's house in South Knoxville. We usually have Thanksgiving at her mother (my sister) Janet's house (also in South K-Town), so it was a little odd eating turkey in a new place.

I better get used to it, though, because Janet and her husband, Tom, are building a new house next to Kelly, who lives with her husband, Fred O. Berry III, on a large piece of property. If you are familiar with Knoxville, you may know them as the Berry Funeral Home Berrys. Fred the Third's grandfather, Fred the First, started the landmark business. If you've ever driven between Knoxville and Sevierville on Chapman Highway, you've passed under a bridge named in his memory.

Fred the Third and Kelly have three awesome sons, Zach, Bryson and Jesse, and it's always a pleasure to be a guest in their home. We usually have our summer "birthday party" there, but this year it was at Janet's, another beautiful, warm and welcoming home. So both parties were switched.

(Let me pause while I take a bite of pizza ... courtesy of the Times-Gazette's bi-monthly birthday party. Happy birthday, everyone!)

And now back to our regular programming.

Thirty-four people may sound like a lot to you, but it was a little light for us, as several weren't in attendance this year. I'm hoping for a unanimous turnout next year.

The food, on the other hand, was fabulous and not-so-light. We had roast turkey, smoked turkey, baked ham, casseroles aplenty, and about ten different desserts. My favorite dessert was (as always) Janet's specialty -- The Green Stuff. It's really pistachio pudding pie with graham cracker crust, but we just call it The Green Stuff, and it's awesome!

This year we had a couple of added events after dinner. Usually, we just sit around and doze or visit for a little while before starting up the games. But this time, all the guys (except for my brother-in-law, famed slacker Jeff Sweeney ... ha, ha) piled onto the hay wagon, rode down to the barn, carried about a dozen roof joists behind the barn and stacked them on pallets to keep them from rotting in the tall grass.

This description doesn't give the task much justice, as these things were very large and heavy. At one point, we brushed my brother-in-law Tom Pack off the side of the barn and he took a spill, but was uninjured.

The job took about an hour, and was great to help digest and make room for more Green Stuff. I suggest a family work project every year, in fact. Not only did it burn some calories, but it instilled some added camaraderie among a relatively close family that nonetheless gets together only a few times a year.

After that, a bunch of the kids and womenfolk piled on the tractor for a fun hayride around the property.

We followed that up by making s'mores at the fire pit, then playing two rounds of charades.

My team got whipped.

I didn't help much, as I was completely stymied with my first subject: Leo Tolstoy. How do you act that out? My brother Bob suggested after the fact that I should have used a "sounds like" clue by tugging on my ear. (First word, first syllable, tug on ear, point to knee. "Bee?" "Pee?" "We?" "Lee!?!?" Point to nose. If you've never played charades, you wouldn't understand). Hindsight, I guess ...

The next day we went to my nephew Gabe's wife Theresa's parents' (Frank and Eileen Johns') house for an after-Thanksgiving party. It was a lot of fun, and we played Cornhole, a game like horseshoes that consists of throwing bags of dried corn into holes in a board -- hence the funny name.

They served Brunswick stew, not burgoo, as I had incorrectly reported in my last column. It was a hearty chicken stew and very tasty, served with jalapeņo cornbread. A great dish for the day after Thanksgiving. Frank pointed out at least twice that this was the Virginia version of Brunswick stew, not to be confused with the Georgia version. Also, I might add that Kentucky burgoo is derived from Brunswick stew, accroding to Wikipedia.

Eileen took the time to write down the recipe for me, but I seem to have misplaced it. I'm sure she'll be kind enough to send it to me again, so I'll make sure to include it in an upcoming column.

I ran two miles Tuesday, but other than that, I've found plenty of excuses not to exercise. My official weight this week was xxxx pounds.

I'm still planning on running in First Choice Pregnancy Counseling Center's 5K run Saturday, which coincides with the Shelbyville Christmas parade, in which, by the way, the Times-Gazette will have a float. Hope to see you there!

-- John Philleo is editor of the Times-Gazette. He can be reached at (931) 684-1200, ext. 218, or by e-mail at editor@t-g.com. This column is scheduled to print every Friday.