The Puzzle

The first night we were in Cannon Beach my niece Lydia found a 1000 piece puzzle in the house game cupboard. She brought it out asking if we could do it, I explained that it being 1000 pieces it might be too hard but we could give it a try. My intention was to complete the outer rim with her before she went to bed and then we could put it away and find a new (smaller) puzzle in the morning. While we were waiting for dinner (pizza) Lydia, her dad (John), and I started putting the out rim together. Lydia lost interest pretty quickly but it became apparent to me (and to John, I think) that we weren't going to be putting this puzzle away any time soon. Pizza arrived and John and I were frantically trying to get the outer rim complete. We had caught the puzzle bug. We ate our pizza and then immediately got back to the puzzle. We all had our own strategies or plans of attack. The puzzle was a Thomas Kinkade painting and John noticed the windows on the house had a distinct look so we starting searching for window pieces. I thought I'd start with one of the large trees that had cherry blossoms on it. John and I got a few pieces in place that night and then decided to continue in the morning. By morning several others had caught the puzzle bug my dad, and sister Carrie were just as obsessed with working on it. Lydia would come over occasionally saying that she really wanted to help, so we got in the habit of leaving a few "previously placed" pieces out for her to put in the puzzle. She loved it! We worked on this puzzle all weekend long Carrie, my dad, and I stayed up until 2 one night puzzling away. When Ben and I were leaving Sunday night the puzzle wasn't complete, but I was promised the rest of the group that was staying one more night would do there best to complete it. I got a text later that night saying they finished it in the wee-hours, but they did leave the last 4 pieces out for Lydia to put in in the morning. Thanks Lydia for initiating a fun activity that lasted all weekend long!

On a dorky side note: I have scoured the internet to show you the painting from the puzzle but there are too many paintings to go through. I wanted to show you because John and I discussed that Mr. Kinkade might need a lesson or two in the 4 seasons. The particular house had snow on the roof, but flowers in full bloom throughout the garden and no snow on the ground. Some things become perplexing when you've stared at a puzzle for as long as we did!