This is the Title of an Uncreative Violinist.:)

Wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving ❤ This year we will be having a small and quiet, but relaxing, Thanksgiving with just us and my dad and brother. Ryan is cooking the turkey and I'm making mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, roasted Brussels sprouts, pumpkin cheesecake and apple spice cake. A lot of food for just four adults and two littles,  but without my mom for this one, I just want to maintain some traditions. Especially my apple spice cake (recipe somewhere on this blog...just not enough time to find it!) which my mom always asked me to make for previous holidays. While we're certainly feeling my mom's absence on her favorite holiday, I still have to count my blessings. I have my own little family, a roof over our heads and food to cook and eat today. I know I have much to be thankful for today. Wishing you and yours a safe and happy holiday today❤

I feel a little strange writing this particular post; my mom used to read my blog (and probably was my only reader!) and now she is not.  Yesterday was what would have been my mother's 72nd birthday--she passed away two weeks ago on October 29th. I've been dreading this post for a long time.  I can vividly recall writing a post right after my mom was diagnosed with brain cancer and how scared and sad I felt.  Those feelings are still so fresh, and yet, I haven't really cried too much, or as much as I thought I would, since her funeral.  Probably because the last 2.5 years were so emotionally taxing already.  It's possible my family is in a daze right now.  I don't think I'm in denial--I haven't felt those feelings as if she's going to appear around the corner nor have I reached for my phone to text or call her mindlessly, only to remember she is gone and I can't do that.  No, I'm perfectly aware she is gone.  She HAD been gone for the last 6-8