This month’s Monday Morning Mojo features the powerful concept of tradition and the role it plays in shaping lives. November/December is especially meaningful to my family because we have a series of events happening during this time, steeped in tradition. Apologies, once again, for a very self-indulgent post.

Thanksgiving Traditions

To begin, in the United States, we just celebrated Thanksgiving. This holiday, marking harvest festivals, is a day for giving thanks for the blessings of the past year. Thanksgiving is most notable for family gatherings, non-stop eating and lots of American football. I have the very best memories from my childhood of this holiday. My parents were always most welcoming to anyone we wanted to join us, and I remember one year bringing several friends home to Flint, Michigan, from Syracuse, New York, where I attended university. Thanksgiving is a meditative holiday in my view, unless, of course, you are responsible for preparing the food. Meditative as it centers around doing a lot of nothing :-), catching up with family, and just taking a break in advance of welcoming Winter. The Kronick family celebrated Thanksgiving this year at my sister Dana’s and brother-in-law, Michael’s, house, an event captured in these pictures below. I am thankful this year to the Monday Morning Mojo community for taking the time out to read these monthly missives and occasionally commenting and sharing your views on what inspires you.

Jameson Williams of The Detroit Lions

Thanksgiving is also a day when Michiganders gather to watch my hometown football team, the Detroit Lions, play an annual game against their long-time rival, the Green Bay Packers. Jameson Williams, Detroit Lions’ standout wide receiver, participated in a particularly inspiring tradition this year of giving back to the Detroit community. Sharing this here as such activities during this holiday are most inspiring.

Birthday Traditions

In my immediate family, Thanksgiving is followed by the tradition of celebrating my daughter, Jackie’s, birthday, pictures below, and Lisa’s and my anniversary, which is the exact same day. I consider this period of the year particularly lucky, and it has become tradition that the four of us spend time together to mark this important date.

Tradition Reflection

I reflect often on the traditions that defined my childhood and those Lisa and I created in raising our children. For example, Sunday evening dinner was, and has remained, a moment all of us come together for dinner to end the week past and to kick off the week ahead. Celebrating Chinese New Year is also an important tradition for our family, which is like Christmas/Hannukkah celebrations put together. I have only the fondest memories of spending this period with Lisa’s family every year when we lived in Asia, and there are several traditions associated with Chinese New Year, like giving kids and parents red envelopes with money inside as a sign of good luck for the new year.

Whatever tradition moves you, marking time with such events can bring inspiration to your world that I feel makes life even more colorful.

A Few Shout-Outs

A Monday Morning Mojo shout-out to my Aunt Ricia and cousin Caren, cousins Fern and Ronnie, and their blossoming families (pictures below), whom Lisa and I visited this past month in Florida. And a huge congratulations to my good friend, John Hartner, on his recent marriage to Rene Johnson earlier in the month. Lisa and I had the delight of attending their wedding celebration, also in Florida.

Finally, a note to wish Peggy Kronick, my stepmother, the very best. Peggy has not been well lately, and she was one of the very important people in our family who helped uphold many of the Kronick traditions over the past three decades.

Have a great month ahead.