tradition...

I'm a big fan of tradition, but lately I've been asking myself, am I protecting tradition or am I afraid of change?

My family has a number of traditions especially around the holidays... Some of my favorites are Christmas shopping with my mom and sister on Thanksgiving Eve, wrapping presents with my dad and sister on Christmas Eve and our whole family donning matching pj's Christmas Eve. I remember the first time my sister spent Thanksgiving with her now husband and missed our shopping trip. I wasn't thrilled and I make sure to remind her of the two trips she missed.

A couple of my single friends and I have created a tradition of going to the beach for New Year's. It's been a huge relief to know we have single company on probably the No. 2 couple's holiday (second to Valentine's Day in my unofficial ranking). I would think we all secretly hope that someday we won't need a single's beach trip once we have boyfriends and/or husbands... (or do we drag them along with potential extra wheel scenarios) but who is the first to "break the tradition." Or is it breaking tradition?

I think I'm realizing I work best with tradition because I don't work well with change. When it comes to my faith, I'm usually arguing against traditions and rituals and yet when it comes to my family and friends or my daily routine I'm holding on to tradition for dear life. I want to work on it. I think I'll always need some structure in my life, but I don't want to resist change for the sake of tradition.