John gave me a new puzzle for Christmas which we assembled on New Years’ Eve. It spurred a week of puzzling—something we’ve not done in a long time. Of the five we began, most notable was the 1000+ piece Mickey Mouse photo-mosaic puzzle that my eldest received for Christmas two years ago. It has never been put together in its entirety, as it was a daunting task for him to do all alone and he gave up after a while. I decided to tolerate living without a dining room table long enough to see it completed. Chris was highly amused that I was drawn in so easily and so frequently to the week-long project. He commented “It’s been so cool to have this out! It started as something I was just going to do with Em, but now it’s become something the whole family has worked on.”
Wouldn’t you know it though, as we got down to the last few pieces, there was one that was simply not to be found! Somehow it wandered off in the last two years of inactivity. As with most things, even our best efforts don’t always turn out perfectly. Even so, the process and product were no less satisfying to its participants. Who would have thought that filling in the missing gaps of a picture could be such a unifying and bonding activity? Though we didn’t always work on it at the same time, it created a unique sense of purpose to see it through. Now if I could only get them to have a similar drive to keep their shared bathroom clean...
I wonder where that last puzzle piece is. Hmmm. The funnest puzzles were the ones we got to work on together, that is when one of us wasn't blocking the light by leaning to find a puzzle piece.
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