PUZZLES PUZZLES PUZZLES PUZZLES PUZZLES PUZZLES

So I think I mentioned a while back that I had started this 5,000-piece puzzle. Well, it seems that puzzle only started a rather frightening trend. I've lost count of how many puzzles I've completed since then, but I know I've done at least fifteen. Plus, I've started one of the most ridiculous projects I could possibly start. First, though, let's talk about the monster puzzle.

As you can see, not only did Juno work on it (sort of), but so did every other person in our family, and even a few family friends such as The Tiny One (known for her love of video games and anime and her inability to pass a cute puppy without screaming "PUPPY" and running towards it) and The Tall One (known for her love of mac and cheese and her inability to hang out with me on a regular basis due to the fact that she lives in Chicago) and her parents. Of course, this project started well before any of these people were aware of its existence, so for the first couple of weeks the only ones who did anything were me and my parents. Mostly me.

One thing I learned during the whole process is that there are certain puzzle-related advantages to having parents who own a gallery/framing shop. One of these being the amount of matboard scraps you can claim as your own for your ambitious puzzle-making endeavors. When I added this discovery to the fact that there were many, many bags in the puzzle box that I could use to sort pieces with, I had a pretty good system going. Sure, I may have taken up the entire dining room table with this gigantic puzzle, but at least I had it confined to that space as well.

It kept going for a while, and we kept making progress...

My brother and sister arrived from Germany, and my sister especially took an interest in completing the puzzle, as she had been the one to buy it several years before. The Tiny One came over around this time as well, and she managed to get a few pieces in despite being a typical teenager who stayed up way too late and was too tired to think coherently. She became very excited every time she got a piece in. It was great.

Christmas Eve rolled around, and we still had quite a ways to go. The other sister had arrived and she was working hard on it as well.

A few days after Christmas, we had made even more progress.

We didn't work constantly on it, of course. There was also time to mess with my passed-out brother by covering him with stuffed animals.

But we did get it done before the family dispersed and headed their separate ways. And, of course, we had the Tall One working on it for a bit with her family.

Finally, it was finished, and we were able to relieve the stress of having a gigantic puzzle taking up the dining room table.

Yaaaaayyyyyyyy