Traditions

When I was growing up, we used to go downtown to Dayton's and see the big display on the 8th floor, we'd look at the beautiful Christmas windows, sit on Santa's lap and have lunch downtown. I didn't think of it as a "tradition", it was just part of what came with Christmas. Part of Christmas that I looked forward to.

I started bringing my kids when they were babies, they haven't missed a year. Dayton's name was changed to Marshall Fields and now it's Macy's but the tradition is the same. We head downtown to the 8th floor, have lunch on the 12th floor in the Skyroom and look around at all the decorations.

This year Macy's repeated what they did last year so I wasn't sure if the kids would want to go. We had a day off from school and so I casually asked, "anyone want to go to Macy's"?

"YEAH".

"It's the same display as last year". I warned.

"SO, it's tradition".

So...we went. I enjoyed the company of my kids during a fun lunch in the Skyroom with floor to ceiling windows overlooking the city. We talked about past trips downtown and how it was different from when I was a kid. Max told me that he thought it was sad that some of his friends had never done a day like this.

We headed to see the display, "A Day In The Life Of An Elf", saw Santa, looked around and grabbed some ice cream. As we were walking to the elevators to leave, Claire asked, "What about our candy"?

See, every year that is how we end our trip. We go to the candy counter, pick our favorite and eat it on the way home. I thought since we had ice cream today the tradition of the candy counter would be passed. I was wrong. When I handed Claire her bag of Christmas Creams, she smiled and gave me a hug.

When we got home, they both thanked me for the fun day and I tucked away in my heart another year of tradition.