Thanksgiving firsts.

This Thanksgiving was one of huge firsts. The first without my mom. The first without both of my parents. The first time not cooking in my childhood home.

I’m amazed at the resiliency of my little family. How powerfully we all carry our mother; how deeply we honor our father.

Grief has hit in weird waves this year, and although our hearts were all aching on Thanksgiving, this one of many firsts will be memorable because of the overwhelming and palpable ammount of love between all of us. We are building our own traditions now, some quirky (like collectively singing the thanksgiving song from Bob’s Burgers as our before meal “prayer”) and some really healing (like walking down to the beach for sunset beers and deep breathing).

I’m so incredibly grateful to my sisters, their partners and their daughters for being a kick ass group of people that I’m lucky enough to call family. Mom and Dad would be so proud.