For my second Christmas puzzle of the season, I did Christmas Cornucopia from Elena Essex. It’s a 1000-piece puzzle with beautiful colors and gold foil accents.
This is also my second Elena Essex puzzle to put together. The first one was Woodland Magic, which was an absolute dream to do.
This puzzle was harder than the mushroom puzzle as there weren’t as many different colors. It was definitely doable, however, once I hunkered down and started picking out the different textures in each color.
The only downside of this puzzle was the border. There were so many false fits, and I really struggled to get the border completed. I had to move things around multiple times and was very far into the puzzle before I got it completely done.
How far I got before the border was done
I did love the colors and the gold foil accents. I also appreciated how well the pieces held together. It was very easy to move sections around.
Finished puzzle
I highly recommend this puzzle for a fun holiday experience.
Snowman with Presents is my first Christmas puzzle of the season. It’s a 500-piece puzzle from Bits and Pieces, and the artist is William Vanderdasson. I chose this one because of the cute image. I love snowmen, and the colorful presents and the hat/scarf looked like they would be fun to do.
The puzzle was enjoyable to put together. I have only done a couple from this brand before, so I had to get used to the odd piece shapes again. Once I did that, it came together fairly easily. There were a lot of white and gray pieces, but they did have varying shades on different parts of the puzzle, so they weren’t too bad to figure out.
Camping for Christmas from Vermont Christmas Company was the first puzzle I did from my December puzzle haul and the last puzzle I completed in 2022. It was a gift from my husband, and I was so happy to get it! It was 1000 pieces, and the artist was Randy Wollenmann.
I would classify this as a medium difficulty puzzle. The edges and the main part of the campers were pretty easy to complete, but from there it got harder. I did the Christmas trees and as much of the people and animals as I could, then I hunkered down and worked on each quadrant of the puzzle to fill in the missing pieces. These were mostly snow and trees with some lights thrown in.
Here is a picture of the completed puzzle:
And here are some closeups of the campers:
I’m glad I got to do three Christmas puzzles this year. I enjoyed all of them, and they definitely enhanced the holiday experience for me.
As you can imagine, my wish list for Christmas this year was mostly comprised of puzzles. My birthday is also on Christmas Day, which can be seen as a good or a bad thing, depending on your perspective. Because of this, I did get a bunch of cool puzzles, so I wanted to share them here.
The first puzzle I got was actually not from either Christmas or my birthday. I had entered and won a giveaway from the YouTuber The Casual Puzzler for Whisper of Cactus, a 1000 piece puzzle from Antelope. It looks fun, although there is a lot of green, which could be tricky.
Next up are two puzzles that I got from my Secret Santa at my husband’s family Christmas. We get together on Christmas Eve and open presents at midnight. The puzzles I got are Ocean from Ravensburger’s Circle of Colors series and Songbirds from Mudpuppy. These both look like they will be fairly easy, especially since they are only 500 pieces.
After getting home at 2 AM and sleeping for a few hours, my husband, son, and I gathered in our sunroom to open the presents we got for each other. My husband got me 3 puzzles: Camping for Christmas from Vermont Christmas Company, Hungry Plants from Mudpuppy, and Favorite Things from Elena Essex. I have already done the Camping for Christmas puzzle and will post that next. Hungry Plants is another cute 500 piece puzzle, and Favorite Things is from the same brand as my favorite puzzle of 2022, Woodland Magic.
My son got me one puzzle for Christmas and one for my birthday. They were Cats in Quarantine from Exploding Kittens and Hawaiian Food Truck Festival from Buffalo Games. Both of these have a lot going on in them, so they may be a bit challenging but still look like fun.
A couple of days later, another puzzle arrived as a birthday gift from my friend Renee. It was the Ice Cream Dream puzzle from Lego. I have actually started this one and am about halfway through. It’s like doing a bunch of mini solid color puzzles. It’s harder than I thought it would be but quite satisfying to finish each section.
I am so happy with all the puzzles I got this year. I am looking forward to many hours of fun putting them together. I have already started a new wish list, however. There are just so many cool puzzles out there!
I did another Christmas puzzle this week. This one was the Michael Storrings New York City Subway from Galison. It was 500 pieces. I actually received this puzzle for free from Galison, after I contacted them regarding the defects I found in a previous puzzle of theirs.
This was a super fun puzzle to do! I really enjoyed the image with all of the different buildings and vehicles. The pieces were good quality, with no false fits or bent/broken pieces. The feel of the puzzle was much better too. I would rate the difficulty level as easy, especially because there were no solid color areas or difficult textures.
Here is a picture of the completed puzzle:
I’m not sure if I’ll get another puzzle done before Christmas. I have a busy schedule this weekend, and then Christmas is next Sunday. I am off work between Christmas and New Years’, though, so I’m hoping to do some puzzling then.
Just before Thanksgiving, I completed my first Christmas puzzle of the season. I had taken the whole week off from work and had been very productive, taking care of various administrative duties and running a bunch of errands, so I decided to take a break and do some puzzling. After this, I put up our Christmas tree and decorated the house a little with the help of my son Michael.
This was such a fun puzzle to do! I enjoyed the image very much, and the puzzle quality was very good as well. The puzzle is a 500 piece puzzle from Bits and Pieces, and the artist is Susan Rios. I’m sure I will enjoy doing this puzzle for years to come.
Well, I might have to call this one a puzzle fail, but I’ve gotten as far as I am going to on my newest puzzle. It’s called Christmas Carolers, and it’s a 1000 piece puzzle by Galison. The artist is Louise Cunningham Starling. My son Michael got it for me for my birthday (which is on Christmas Day).
It was a few weeks after Christmas when I decided to start it, but at least it was still winter so there was some snow here and there! I did the border first and started on the houses, but one day my dog Baxter got hold of the puzzle and I lost most of the lower part of the border.
I did the rest of the houses, then the windows with the Christmas trees, then the big Christmas tree, and finally the people down in the snow. Then I was left with only white pieces for the rest of the snowy ground, and it got pretty slow going. After a while, I decided that I had done enough and would call it done.
If I still had the whole border intact, I might have pushed through to finish the entire thing, but with so many pieces already gone, I lost my will to complete it.
I’m not sure which puzzle I am going to do next, as I have several options from the ones I got for Christmas and my birthday.
I started my personal winter break today. I will still be doing some work, but I won’t be working my regular hours until after the New Year. I was so productive today:
Took Baxter to daycare
Took Michael for bloodwork
Went to the store and got a few things, including stuff to make Peanut Butter Blossoms (requested by Michael)
Cleaned the cat box (I don’t do this often enough!)
Called the gas company
Emailed the lawyer about Michael’s SSI appeal
Did some filing
Went to Rite Aid for Michael’s new weight loss medication and the rest of our stocking stuffers
Went to the library
Made lunch
Made Peanut Butter Blossoms with Michael (used dark chocolate Kisses because that’s all they had at the store)
Went back to the store to get stuff for chocolate chip cookies (Joe’s favorite)
Picked up Baxter from daycare
Made dinner
Wrapped Christmas presents
Checked my work email
Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, and we are going to make the chocolate chip cookies. Michael asked if we could watch a Christmas movie, so after dinner we are going to watch Christmas Vacation.
For Christmas Day, the three of us are celebrating in the morning with stockings and presents. Then Michael’s dad is picking him up at noon, and Joe and I are going to his parents’ house at 2pm. His dad has recently stopped treatment for his stomach cancer, plus he has a lung disease, so he wants to have his kids there for Christmas. There won’t be any grandkids, so it will just be ten of us.
Sunday night Michael will come home, and then he has all of next week off school. He does have some past assignments that weren’t turned in, however, so I will be working on those with him. Monday I get to do something I have never done before – prep for a colonoscopy. I am having my first colonoscopy on Tuesday morning. I have had many endoscopies, but never a colonoscopy.
Wednesday a friend of mine is coming over with her boys. She is going to work remotely in the afternoon while the boys play with Michael, but then we will get to visit after she is done with work for the day. I am really looking forward to their visit!
Thursday I will probably work, and then Friday (New Year’s Day) I am going to make the turkey dinner I had planned for Christmas Day before we got asked to go to Joe’s parents’ house for Christmas.
So it should be a nice holiday season. Hope you all have a happy holiday season as well!
I thought I would sit down and write an update as to what’s going on these days.
The holidays are going to be different this year. Normally, we get together with my husband’s family for Thanksgiving Day and also for Christmas Eve. But my father-in-law is still undergoing chemo and needs to be very careful to avoid catching anything, so we are not going to be getting together this year. My parents both live in Illinois, so we don’t usually see them at the holidays either.
My in-laws decided to splurge this year and got us a grill as an early Christmas present. It’s the same model they have, and it’s really nice. We have used it a couple of times already. Speaking of early Christmas presents, we have done a little shopping for ourselves as well. I got new drapes for the dining room and a replacement set of Little House books since my originals are in bad condition and I still enjoy re-reading the series from time to time. Joe got barbecue tools and a cover for the new grill. Michael has been updating his wish list on Amazon for any family that want to get him something.
Michael has been struggling a bit with the hybrid schedule his school is on this fall. His grades aren’t as good as they normally are because he has missed a few assignments or not read all the directions for the week when he is online. He has also been feeling a bit stressed/overwhelmed with things. His psychiatrist has increased one of his meds to help, and we are also back to biweekly sessions with his therapist. The autistic support teacher is also meeting with him over Zoom once a week to review his assignments and the directions for the week in his classes.
For his senior year, Michael is taking English, Chemistry, Financial Algebra, and four credits of Electronics Technology. He was originally going to take a couple of half-credit electives, but he doesn’t need them to graduate so he decided not to take them. The seniors have online school Monday – Wednesday and in person school Thursday and Friday. Thursdays are his academic classes, and since there are only three of them he gets out at 11am. Fridays he has his shop all day. The shop teacher has them working on individual projects for part of the day, and Michael is programming a video game for his project.
Work has been busy but not overwhelmingly so. We are still working towards our new computer system and are finalizing all the product data uploads now. We hope to be live before Thanksgiving. I think the timing is good, because we will have a few weeks during our typically slower time to get used to the new system. Then when things pick up in January, everyone should be pretty comfortable with it.
So that’s the news for now. Hope you are all doing well and staying healthy.
In So Many Words 