The tradition continues

Ever since my first birthday, my dad has taken each one of us kids out for breakfast on our respective birthdays.  He's traveled to Khazakstan, Egypt, and Nevada to follow through on the tradition, and this morning was another birthday breakfast on the books.

There's been a combination of crazy (like breakfast on the 50 yard line of my high school's football field back in the day, another one at Sugar Shack in Huntington Beach when I got my surf board from a dear friend who's now passed on) and calm like this morning at Panera before the sun rose while Emma and Dan were asleep at home.

The point isn't that each one is memorable, or stands out above the last, but that they've been consistent. What I remember is that it happens each year, that our spouses were brought into the fold with their own birthday breakfasts, and that even as life gets busier my dad makes that morning a priority.  It reminds me that traditions are important...that having a couple things that are constant no matter what give us something to look forward to.  Life has taught me not to take those constants for granted, and to be grateful for things like birthdays that let us flip the page to the freshness of another year.

Flip.