For as long as I can remember, Thanksgiving morning was spent eating a chocolate turkey while watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.  The only two exceptions was the year my father took me to see the parade when I was around 6, and the year I marched in the parade with the Boy Scout contingent that followed Ben Vereen who was riding on a float.

I tried to keep the joy of traditions that I had as a child for DJ.

Chocolate turkeys, Saint Nicholas Day, the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, and of course Halloween were all days where a tradition in one form or another that I had throughout my life.

Of course, things don’t always work out the way we intend them.  Chocolate turkeys ended up being eaten after dinner but before dessert.  Saint Nicholas Day was a stocking the weekend before or after the actual day, depending entirely on which week I picked up an extra tour.  The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree was a one time event in 2005 when it was bitter cold, and thanks more to some comp time I had coming as opposed to any sort of nagging tradition.

Which ultimately was the problem with tradition.

It wasn’t always convenient.

It tended to nag. 

I hadn’t allowed tradition to nag… and therefore ultimately to lag.