A couple of Christmases ago, the grandkids and I, mostly Ben and me, worked on a puzzle when we weren’t cooking or opening presents. So, in 2024 when Ben, AJ, and I went to climb Guadalupe Peak, I picked up a puzzle at the park gift shop, thinking that would be an appropriate one for us to work on that Christmas.
We weren’t together that year for Christmas, so I got it out this past year, 2025, when we were together in Muleshoe. Perhaps I didn’t choose wisely. A thousand dinky little pieces, mostly shades of brown. We all worked on it, but Ben and Erin did the most, I think, getting all four sides put together and some of the top of the puzzle. Well, they left on December 26. Today is January 24. I have been working on that brown mess for hours at a time and that blasted puzzle is still not finished!
Now, that picture of the puzzle might look like clean, distinct things to match up. Ha! Don’t be deceived. Those little pieces all look alike when you have to put them together.
When they left, it was recommended I just put it all back in the box as all the pieces that had lines and colors that were relatively easy to match up were the ones pieced together first. The rest were a mess of little brown, beige, tan pieces that just went here and there. I hated to give up on it, so I decided I would just finish it myself. This is how much they had gotten done when they left. I had helped with the lettering at the top, which you might think would be fairly easy to match up. It wasn’t.
So, I got to work. I would start working on it, deep in concentration. and the next thing I knew, two hours, three maybe, had all of a sudden passed, and I might have been lucky enough to put maybe five or six pieces in place.
I would like to call finishing it a challenge; I fear it has become an obsession by now! I can’t let it win. I have tried everything. I have grouped pieces of the same similar coloring together trying to get them in order; I have taken one piece at a time and gone around the unfinished edge looking for where it fits. And then I have done it again. And again. The going is slow.
It has gotten to the point that when one finally does slide into its rightful place. I am skeptical it actually fits. I turn on my phone’s flashlight to double check that it really fits and the patterns on the pieces match. I turn on all the house lights, but all those browns are so close to the same color, I have discovered working on it in the daylight with the lights on, too, is better than at night, even under all the lights.
I will go along with precious few matches, and then all of a sudden maybe four or five will magically fit somewhere! And when they fit, they really fit. They slide into their spot so easily, there really isn’t any doubt you’ve finally found the right spot. But sometimes I still double check with the phone flashlight to see if all the colors and patterns match up. Then there are the imposters that will fit the space, but the colors or patterns on the piece don’t match the ones they are touching.
At the rate I am going, it may still be unfinished by this year’s Christmas! This is as far as I have gotten as of today, January 25.
I’ll let you know if I finish it before another Christmas rolls around. I know many people look forward to doing a Christmas themed puzzle every year on that holiday, but that probably won’t be us. If we do tackle another puzzle, the next one won’t be a thousand pieces and all the same color.
Or we might just binge watch “A Christmas Story” instead.
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