What’s Grand About This New Year?

What’s Grand About This New Year?

Along with good health, all parents want our children to be happy. As the holidays arrive, so many of my happiest memories involve being together with family, and my beloved parents and Grandparents, of blessed memory. In life, we ultimately take turns being the matriarch and patriarch. Now, it’s our turn.

As the holidays arrive, I make Grandma Freedman’s strudel and lovingly recall the holidays. As a grandchild, I looked forward to weekly visits with my grandparents who I adored. In my eyes, they were perfect, and in their eyes, I could do no wrong. That combination made for a lifetime of unconditional love shared out loud.

Our Grandchildren brighten our lives with their smiles. Their hugs and happy faces when they see us, melt our hearts. While some of our parents or grandparents have passed, many of us didn’t know ours. We keep their memories alive and close to our hearts by their good deeds and holiday traditions.

Our families are built on love, devotion and caring. As the Jewish holidays arrive, hopefully in person this year, grandparenting and loving family, friends who feel like family and those no longer here, continues to be a blessing to honor and cherish.

Who benefits the most? We all do. Here’s to a sweet year — to your family from ours. Make it grand!

Robyn Spizman Gerson is an award-winning New York Times Bestselling media personality and author of Loving Out Loud: The Power of a Kind Word.