This puzzle is one of the gifts I bought myself to put under the Christmas tree from Santa. My other Santa gift was a recipe binder which isn’t very full yet, but hopefully will gradually fill up as I collect more recipes. I want to print out the ones I always go to on Pinterest because scrolling through food blog posts to get to the actual recipe is a pain!
Taco Truck is part of the Food Trucks line from Ceaco, and it is 500 pieces. The artist is Stephanie Peterson Jones. I did this on New Year’s Day because I wanted a smaller, fun puzzle after tacking the cactus puzzle the night before. And it was the perfect choice.
I loved the fun colors and all the distinct textures on the puzzle. My favorite parts were the areas with words, but really I enjoyed the whole thing. I liked it so much I ordered three more Ceaco puzzles – two more food trucks and one camping scene.
Colorful Donuts from fishwisdom is a cute little puzzle snack, no pun intended. I had bought it along with a couple of other 100 piece puzzles to use for puzzle chess. When I showed my friend Renee the three options I had, she said she didn’t want to do this one because it would just make her hungry for sweets! So when I needed a lower piece count puzzle for a puzzle challenge I was doing, I decided to use this one.
It was very fun to put together. I think this would have been the perfect puzzle for me at 6 or 7 years old with the colorful designs of the donuts and the bright backgrounds for each section. Very cute puzzle!
We didn’t get to play puzzle chess the night she was here because we ran out of time, but I still have two puzzles to use for it when we get the chance. I’m looking forward to it!
Whisper of Cactus is a 1000 piece puzzle from a brand that is new to me, Antelope. The artist is Lynn Weilin. I actually won this puzzle a little over a year ago from a YouTube giveaway at The Casual Puzzler. I had been putting it off because it was a little intimidating with all of the green, but I pulled it out on New Year’s Eve Day to give it a try.
It did turn out to be a hard puzzle, but I ended up finishing it in one sitting. I thought about taking a break after I finished each of the harder groups of pieces, but then I just kept going. I think it helped that I started rewatching Gray’s Anatomy while I was puzzling; that sort of kept me engaged.
I started out with the colorful flowers, then did the maroon ground. After that, I did the blue cacti, and then started tackling the various shades and textures of the green cacti. I’m not sure how many hours I spent on it exactly, but I finished up around 2 am on New Year’s Day! Way to ring in the New Year!!
My friend Kim gave me this puzzle for Christmas. I was so excited when I got it because it was a perfect image for me. I put it together the same day she gave it to me, and it was just as good as I thought it would be.
Christmas Countdown is a 500 piece puzzle from the brand Galison, and the artist is Deva Evans. I have done several of their puzzles before and have always been happy with the quality. It’s so nice to do a puzzle without any false fits or other issues.
I started with the border, then did the areas with the white background. Next I did the areas with the dark green background and then the light green background. I finished with the center medallion. It was an enjoyable finish to my Christmas puzzles!
This year, I took off the week between Christmas and New Year’s. I like having off at this time of year because work is usually slow, and it’s nice to have a few days to just putter around.
Christmas Eve fell on a Sunday this year. I went to the family-friendly morning service and the evening candlelight service. I really enjoyed the evening service, although the wax from the candle did drip onto my hands a couple of times! After church, I redid the puzzle Michael Storrings New York City Subway.
Christmas day was pretty quiet. I watched a few episodes of Silo and did some reading. My mom had sent money for Christmas, and I had bought a few books that had been on my wish list for a while because it didn’t seem like the library was ever going to get them. I have read the first two already and loved them!
Michael came home around 6:30. He had forgotten my presents at his dad’s house, so I gave him mine and opened the couple I had gotten myself, lol. We had dinner together, and then later on, his dad brought over the presents Michael had gotten me. Of course, he got me two puzzles – one for Christmas and one for my birthday!
Wednesday and Thursday Michael had work from 10-2. On Wednesday, Kim came over, and we ate lunch and watched a movie. After I picked Michael up, we went to Target to get a drive up order. I have decided to use Target instead of Amazon when I can due to a package being stolen last week.
On Thursday, I had therapy, which went well. I also went to Barnes and Noble to check out their puzzle selection. They had a good number, but I didn’t see anything I had to have. After I picked Michael up, we went to the Colonial Park Mall to pick up a package from the Amazon locker. That’s what I have decided to do for things I have to get from Amazon.
On Friday, I went to get an oil change. In the afternoon, we attempted to build two dining room chairs. We had built the first two when Bill & Jenn were coming over, but we had more people coming over that evening, so we needed them. One of them was fine, but the other one had an issue with one of the screws not going in properly. I also made artichoke dip and monster cookies. Along with that, I served veggies and dip plus meat, cheese, and crackers.
Friday evening was a lot of fun. Renee and her boys, Evan and Hans, came over along with our friend Chris. They enjoyed the food, and we played part of a game of Star Munchkin. Chris cleaned up my kitchen for me and superglued the chair piece that was causing a problem. It was a wonderful evening!
On Saturday, Kim came over for our weekly lunch and movie. I took a nap that afternoon because I had stayed up way too late the night before. I also went to bed early and woke up Sunday just in time for the online pre-recorded service my church did for what they call Sabbath Sunday. They are closed the week between Christmas and New Year’s to give the staff a rest.
Sunday afternoon, I started a 1000 piece puzzle that I had won in a contest a little over a year ago. I will share that in a separate post. I did stay up until 2 am on New Year’s Day to finish it.
Monday was New Year’s Day and the last day of my break. I slept in, and then Michael and I drove to Target to pick up a vacuum I had ordered. I got him Chick-fil-A since we were near there (I had already eaten lunch). When we got home, I did a 100-piece puzzle as part of the Winter Bingo for The Casual Puzzler’s Facebook group. I also did a 500-piece puzzle, also for the Winter Bingo. I’ll post both of those later this week.
All in all, this was a fun and relaxing break for me. I really like having some time off around the holidays.
Edited to add: I forgot to mention that my friend Kim gave me a 500-piece puzzle when she came over on Wednesday, and I put it together that night.
This weekend, I put together another puzzle from Elena Essex. It’s a 1000-piece called Favorite Things, and the artist is Mara Penny.
I received this puzzle last Christmas from my ex-husband. It’s one that I knew I wanted the moment I saw it; it’s my favorite type of puzzle – an assortment of images arranged by color.
Yesterday, I did the border and the pink, red, orange, yellow, and green sections. Then today I did the purple and blue. It was super fun to put together and very good quality.
This adorable jigsaw puzzle was a gift from my good friends Bill and Jenn. They recently spent 15 days in Japan and brought back souvenirs for Michael & me.
I don’t know the actual name of the puzzle because most of the writing on the box is in Japanese, but it does say Art Crystal Jigsaw in English.
Front of box
Back of box
The puzzle is 208 pieces, and they are both plastic and translucent.
The pile of pieces
This was a very fun puzzle to put together. It was harder than I thought it would be because the pieces were so dark, but the pieces clicked together in a very satisfying way. I did the inside first and finished with the border last.
Finished puzzle
I don’t usually time my puzzles, but I was interested to see how long this one would take. My total time was 1:35:50.
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.
Today was Thanksgiving Day, and it was a good one. I got up early to start the turkey. It was my first time cooking a turkey. We were given a full Thanksgiving dinner from Michael’s caseworker, so I decided to give it a try.
My friend Renée was already planning to come celebrate with me and Michael, and she was bringing the asparagus and dessert – chocolate cheesecake for us and chocolate chip cookies for Michael. She ran a bit late, so I just let the turkey rest until she got here. Then I made the rest of the food.
While the turkey was cooking, I got out a 500-piece puzzle called Cats In Quarantine from Exploding Kittens. The artist is David Kantrowitz. It was super fun. I loved the image and the quality. The pieces fit together well, and you could easily move small sections around. The only weird thing was that some of the colors on the included poster didn’t really match the puzzle.
In So Many Words 