Happy Saturday!  I woke up this morning and started doing the math...11 days until company arrives for Thanksgiving!  That means 11 days to get the dog bathed and clipped, get the carpets scrubbed, whisk all the odds and ends around the house out of sight (thankfully I have a couple of large storage spaces!) and plan menus.  11 days to sew the rest of the family room curtains.  And, most time consuming of all, unpack and display all of my Dickens Village for the holidays. I'm not complaining, as I am so excited that my sister, her family and my mother are joining us for Thanksgiving and can't wait to see all of them.  I am wondering, though, how to squeeze a few extra hours into each of the next few days! 

Having my mother visit is always special, because we are incredibly close and literally finish each other's sentences.  We have a really special bond, forged when it was just the two of us for the first five years of my life.  I'm sure it was difficult for Mom to be a single mother and work so hard to support me, but I never knew it--I was surrounded in a cocoon of love and family. 

We had a series of little apartments, and I don't remember them very clearly, but I do remember two little guys that traveled with us from place to place, and even came along for our exciting journey when Mother married and moved to South Dakota.  They were happy to sit on Mom's bookshelves for many years, and then one day a box arrived at my house--and I happily discovered that Peter James and John had come to pay me a visit!  They now keep their vigil in my library, a treasured memento from the past.  And where did they get such spiffy names, you might ask?  From a Sunday School song I loved, although I didn't quite figure out that Peter and James were two different people, hence the larger owl is Peter James while the smaller one is only John. 

Fifty years ago.....

Peter, James, and John in a rowboat
Peter, James, and John in a rowboat
Peter, James, and John in a rowboat
Out on the deep blue sea!

Cast their nets and
caught no fishes,
Cast their nets and
caught no fishes,
Cast their nets and
caught no fishes,
Out on the deep blue sea!

Today...keeping watch over my Anne Perry books in the library

http://mockingbhirdhillcottage.com/

I'm sharing my favorite owls today over at Claudia's Mockingbird Hill Cottage blog.  You can find Peter James and John keeping company with many other treasured favorite things--please join us over at Claudia's!   

Have a wonderful weekend!