a little sprout

  our first Thanksgiving without Mom This holiday season has already been more difficult than I could have imagined. As Thanksgiving neared, my sister and I talked constantly on the phone planning what we would make. After each call I’d get excited with the preparations, but then as quickly as my joy grew it stopped with a huge halt with the realization that our mother wouldn’t be with us.   And so, with each passing day that the holiday approached, so did my anxiety and pain. I began to feel as though I didn’t want anything to do with this maddening holiday this year and can’t we just skip it altogether. I cried to my sister a few times telling her I didn’t want to celebrate and that I’d rather stay home and be in bed all day long. The closer we got to the dreaded day, the more this idea of hiding out seemed like the way to go. Did I really want to be reminded of her absence all day long? Did I really want to go through the motions- feeling like my heart would fa...