Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Puzzling weekend.

Our family loves jigsaw puzzles.

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This weekend we worked on a 1000-piece puzzle on our dining room table. Robert and I were the most focused on it, but Dots also helped quite a bit. Hockey Boy happened by for a few minutes every so often, and even sweet Vivian, who has had a lot of practice on puzzles with her occupational therapist, worked diligently with one little piece for about 30 minutes. She pushed and rotated that piece every way she could think of but never got it to fit. I pulled out another piece and tried to get her to replace that one in its spot, but she was only interested in the one piece she held and she didn't seem the least bit frustrated or bothered by her lack of success (sweet girl).

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By Sunday night the puzzle was largely complete except for probably 50 pieces, all of which looked extremely similar in color and pattern. I worked on these pieces a little on Monday morning before leaving for bridge. When I got home and returned to the puzzle, I thought, "Gosh, I didn't remember finishing so much earlier today." I finally emailed Robert and asked if he'd come home at some point and worked on the puzzle. He replied that yes, he'd stopped by to eat lunch at home before returning to his office after an appointment with the eye doctor. (Then he asked if I'd noticed he'd worked on the puzzle but neglected to realize he'd cleaned up the breakfast dishes in the kitchen. Oops.)

Monday afternoon Hockey Boy brought a friend home from school and the two of them worked on the puzzle for 20 minutes or so before leaving for hockey practice (though of course they didn't hang around long enough for me to take their picture). When Dots came home, she patiently put the rest of the pieces in place to finish the puzzle!

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Quite a rewarding family endeavor.

10 comments:

Hopsy said...

THANK YOU for coming by today! It was so wonderful to meet with you! After you left I ran outside and saw Vivian with her class! I could not believe it, two celebs in one day!

Erin said...

Good idea... I need to remember to put one of these out. My family loves games and puzzles too!

sallywrites said...

Aww... that's really nice for the whole family to do a large puzzle like that. I loved the fact that hubby had cleared the dishes and you hadn't even noticed. The puzzle was far more important of course. Your priorities are spot on! :)

Liz Harrell said...

Wow. I'm impressed. My family always got really stressed and quite puzzles! Your dining room looks so pretty too!

Lexy said...

Oh wow - you post brought back so many memories! My family used to sit and do puzzles together ALL the time when I was growing up!

I might have to put our empty formals to good use - and spread out a puzzle all over the floor!

Tami said...

We love puzzles too. January is our puzzle month and then we can't stop.

Darlene said...

Hi I just stopped by to visit from Buzzings of a Queen Bee.

I LOVE that puzzle is it a Charles Wysocki?? My hubby and I used to do large puzzles back when we were first married. We haven't done one in a long time. That one is beautiful.

Melissa said...

Eloise,

I love puzzles too. What a great family activity.

The room that you have pictured is beautiful. Do you have Nell Hill's decorating books? The room looks just like her formal dining room. Same colors.

You have exquisite taste in decorating.

Melissa

Anonymous said...

I'm jealous. My boyfriend is not a fan of puzzles at all. I bought one recently, though. Maybe I can convince him to sit down with me ...

The 5 Bickies said...

Our family loves puzzles too. I have been on the hunt for a good one to work on over the holidays. We do the same thing, breeze through, fit a few pieces and come back to it later.