The holiday season comes and goes so quickly as we get older, youthful anticipation turns into coordinating foods and family. The holidays are a unique time to embrace the history of family while adding in new members and traditions; new babies, new significant others, new foods and recipes.
Thanksgiving has always been a big thing in the Kranz/Blodgett household, with the whole month of November being dedicated to recipe preparation and food purchasing for the big day. Thanksgiving day is always much smoother when everyone follows the schedule of mama Kranz, Cynthia, Tony Kranz’s wife. Mama Kranz can pull off dinner for over 50 and make it seem like no big feat, she’s the real brains behind the homestead operations and one heck of a hard worker.
Cynthia’s motto with planning big events is work smarter, not harder. Prepping what you can ahead of time is the main way to do that. Rolls are made weeks ahead of time and frozen raw so they can be pulled to thaw and rise on the day of. Desserts are made and frozen beforehand too. Veggies are chopped a couple of days before the event. Whatever can be done before the day of is ideal, the goal is to be able to slide what you need into the oven and bake. Although some cooking mishap on Thanksgiving is almost tradition at this point; this year a breaker had to be flipped from all of the roasters.
Another Kranz family tradition is Thanksgiving football and soccer at the nearest open field. This tradition was created to give mama Kranz her peace while finishing up dinner and to give high energy people an outlet before sitting and consuming pounds of food, those with less energy stay behind munching on appetizers and attempting to help in the kitchen.
This year we added a fun new tradition of an arts and craft corner! One table had an activity sheet to color and another had blank paper and rocks to decorate with acrylic pens. It was nice to add an option for people who aren’t as comfortable socializing or who are overwhelmed with the number of people. An activity to color gives people an opportunity to have some peace on a day that can be pretty stressful.
Thanksgiving is a family favorite holiday because of the opportunity to gather, eat delicious foods and reconnect with family and friends. Every year we have the family gather for a prayer before we separate to eat and this year we went around the circle and said one thing we were grateful for, with family being one of the most consistent answers. As a big and busy family, Thanksgiving is a reminder of how important it is to have purposeful gatherings, where you bring your favorite people together, blood relation or not, and share in the gratitude of having support.
We hope you had a Thanksgiving that was filled with those who love and support you! Follow along with Blodgett Homestead to join in our family activities and see the work we’re doing on the farm and in the kitchen.