Every morning I walk my kids to the door and watch them as they stroll up the street to their bus stop. I always tell them I love them and to make it a great day. They never respond. In fact, they never even turn around to acknowledge me. Today was an exception. Kayla stopped, looked back at me and said, “Dad, please don’t hide chocolate ‘gold’ coins today, tell us the ‘leprechaun’ left them, and make us hunt for them around the house when we get home.” It felt like someone had just punched me in the gut. I looked to my son, Tyler, for help. He solemnly nodded in agreement with his big sister.

Why was this happening? How could they not enjoy hunting for gold coins? We’d done it for years. In their defense, Kayla is in high school and Tyler is in 7th grade. Maybe I’d been clinging on to this tradition a little too long. As if reading my mind, Kayla continued to tell me, “We’ve been too old for a long time now. We just didn’t know how to tell you.” So if I wasn’t feeling bad enough, now I was the immature one in the house? Okay, I can’t really argue with that one either.

As they started walking down the driveway, Tyler yelled back, “But make sure you make our special St. Patrick’s Day Reuben sandwiches for dinner, please!” “Yeah,” echoed Kayla. “We’re still having those, right?” “We’ll see,” I shot back. We definitely were. I just didn’t feel like delivering good news to them when they had just unloaded bad news on me. Again…there’s that maturity thing.

I didn’t get a lot of work done this morning as I pondered my kids’ message to me. It just didn’t sit well. It was like finding out that there was no Santa Clause all over again. Just wait until I have to have that talk with them. Kidding. That was another not-so-fun conversation that included a lot of tears. Mine, not theirs, but still.

It’s difficult for me to let go of a family tradition….to know that this stage of life is over forever. I’ll now be reduced to one of the those guys who looks at old photos of his children holding their gold coins while sad music plays in the background. Then I remembered Tyler’s plea. The Reubens! I don’t know why, but I made modified Reuben sandwiches for Saint Patrick’s Day dinner years ago and the family loved them so much that we’ve had them every year since. Here’s the secret recipe: Jewish Ryle & Pumpernickel bread, double the meat with equal parts pastrami and corned beef, baby Swiss, sauerkraut, and smoked Thousand Island dressing. Slap all these together, fry in a skillet, and you have Heaven in your mouth.

As I was buying the ingredients for this delicacy, a thought occurred to me. I had been so consumed with losing a family tradition that I hadn’t even noticed that we started a new one. Sure the kids may be too old to run around the house on a treasure hunt, but they are sincerely looking forward to our regular Saint Patrick’s Day dinner.

And that’s life. Traditions come and go. Whether we outgrow them, or we lose the people with whom we shared them, or we simply move on to others, most traditions are around for a season in our lives. They are hardly ever permanent. So enjoy the traditions in your life today. And look forward to future ones. Traditions are important. They bring us together. They help us to celebrate. They help us to cope. And they are meant to be part of our lives. When one disappears, a new one almost always has a unique way of replacing it.

Whatever your Saint Patrick’s Day tradition is, I hope you enjoy it with family and friends today. You may be celebrating in a whole new way next year!

And if you plan on copying my sandwich recipe, please give credit and refer to the final product simply as “The Foreman.” (Patent pending)