Guests at the table...

I sometimes find it a bit lonely eating at Mum & Dad's table alone, although you'd think I'd be used to it by now -- it's three years since either of them sat at that table.  (One year since their deaths, three years since they went into nursing homes.)

I tend to distract myself by reading while I'm eating, but that means I hardly notice my food -- definitely not mindful eating, nor conducive to good digestion, methinks.

A friend jokingly suggested a blow-up doll for the chair opposite me -- at least I hope it was a joking suggestion! I've found a better alternative, at least for the coming month.

I'm populating the other end of the table with friends and family -- through the birthday cards and Christmas cards that will be arriving through December. They're joined by a little vignette of a scene -- my Christmas music box (in the shape of a grand piano) and three little stuffed mice that I dressed last year to represent three of the mice in the book The Great American Mousical by Julie Andrews Edwards and Emma Walton Hamilton. Pippin, Harold and Addie (the diva). (Click to enlarge.)

I think they'll all make very nice guests at my table.