Although most of our daughter’s recent photos were taken while walking her dog on Auckland’s many trails and beaches, she included one showing a Christmas tree in her apartment, with a note that she had put up Christmas decorations earlier than she used to because there is no Thanksgiving in New Zealand.

In past years, we always put up our tree on Thanksgiving weekend, after giving ourselves plenty of time to recover from running the Turkey Trot and then eating the turkey dinner cooked by my husband’s parents in the house where he grew up. But now that they have passed away, Thanksgiving doesn’t feel much like a holiday to me anymore.

We still run the Turkey Trot, and our daughter will do a virtual run to keep the tradition with us, although I have no idea when she’ll do it because of the time difference. I won’t cook a turkey dinner but instead will cook a rib roast to eat with my husband and son; and if we are not as motivated to put up the tree, we’ll do it by the end of the weekend anyway. It’s good to have family traditions, even if they change over the years.