This will be my first Thanksgiving without my father (he passed on this summer) and my mother is in the end stages of Alzheimers. I think it is all finally hitting me now. You have to be strong for your kids, your family, your mother...and you think you're doing just fine until all of a sudden you're on the verge of tears at the oddest times. It gets harder and harder to hold them back and then they start to spill over onto your cheeks while you're at work or in the checkout line or on a…