HERE'S TO TRADITIONS--OLD AND NEW

I love traditions, but we learned long ago with our blended family

We needed to look at our traditions with more objectivity.

With so many relatives to be considered and only so much time in any holiday

We decided to uphold tradition but in nontraditional ways.

Even Shakespeare, I believe, would have found a way to spin it

He’d say though this be madness, yet, there is a method in it. 

For instance Christmas at our house has a tradition our children first conceived

We eat pizza and open presents not on Christmas, but Christmas Eve.

Then we’d put Christmas music on the car radio, and look at lights along the way

As we drove to their other parent’s houses where they’d wake up on Christmas Day.

Even now with our children grown Christmas Eve we still hold dear

As this is now the tradition we look forward to each year.

Shakespeare, never a playwright who was afraid of twists or change 

Might agree by saying this is different but it is also wondrous strange.

Take Thanksgiving, though we celebrate it as it once was celebrated

We may not always celebrate on the day that’s designated.

This year our Thanksgiving had all the traditions as it did in times of yore

Only our dinner with all the trimmings occurred the Saturday before.

While, for most of you, Thanksgiving was still five days away

We celebrated yesterday with our traditional buffet.

(Bryan was the only person missing but we have a computer with web cam

And all our phones and devices have Facebook, text and Instagram.)

It’s a simple fact that all parents in every family have found

As children grow up it gets more difficult to gather them around.

So we’ll give thanks on any day and change dates quite cheerfully

In order to be surrounded by our friends and family.

For nothing makes us happier, beguiles or enthralls

Than the sound of family laughter as it echoes off the walls.

We parents know as families change and our children become grown

It’s up to us to establish new traditions of our own.

Yes, if Shakespeare was alive today I’m sure that he would tweet

That which we call Thanksgiving on any other day would taste as sweet.