Past times and traditions.

Ever since I was young I've liked building puzzles.  It's something my kids have inherited.  It's not uncommon for us to have a puzzle on the dining room table.  It gets worked on randomly when someone is killing time or stalling on doing a task we don't really feel like doing....like fixing supper or starting homework.

When the kids were small and Christmas Eve was the longest day of the year we began a couple traditions that have outlasted my need to keep three young children alive through December 24th.  (Read into that sentence something about me keeping my own sanity, too.)  I would surprise them with a new Christmas puzzle.  It isn't uncommon for my husband to have to work that day and I usually have a lot of kitchen type work planned so setting up a new puzzle helps us pass the time in a way that we all enjoy.

This year we piled up the boxes and brought them up from the family room and started working.  The kids just went to town building one puzzle after another.  Sometimes the whole family would be flocked around the table putting a few pieces in.

Before long they had one puzzle on top of another because nobody wants to dismantle one to make room for the next.  

Some of them, like Santa sleeping in his chair, have been built so many times we just fly through it.

This one is my favorite.

When the kids were young, I tried to find Family Puzzles.  Do you know about those?  Usually I find them at the Hallmark store. 

Like the picture on the box shows...there are three sizes of pieces.  The idea is that younger children can build the area on one side, intermediate pieces are in the middle,

and the smallest on the other side.

We have a couple that work from the outside in...with the largest on the outside and the smallest on the inside.

I haven't had a chance to find a new puzzle for this year but I hope to stop at Hallmark this afternoon.  If I don't find one, I bet we can uncover one we haven't built yet. 

5 days! 

Pam