We started a tradition of sorts last year by doing Sushi instead of the more traditional Pork on New Year’s day. We did it again this year and it was fucking awesome.

I like that we do things (some consciously, some not) that buck conventional tradition.

If I were to be completely honest, I take secret pleasure in the fact that our tendency as a family to not do things the ‘normal’ way wigs out my mother in law. She’s very much a “you do things because that’s what people do” kind of person and that bugs me. I truly think she’s never taken the time in her life to stop and consider anything on more than a superficial level. It seems most of what she does, believes and lives is based on the idea of “that’s what you do” – and that’s always annoyed me.

So when she calls my wife and asks if we have pork cooking on the 1st, I smile on the inside when my wife explains that we’re doing sushi and the muffled Charlie Brown trumpet voice on the other end of the phone that you can barely make out seems just a little deflated at the notion that someone might actually not do what everyone else does.