Chilly Treats* – Aldi – 80 pieces

It looks like the ice cream truck is coming down Lollipop Lane, snow cone anyone? My treat! 🍧

I like this image too, although the border on this one was a bit difficult as well. But at only 80 pieces you can assemble the middle of the image relatively quickly and then fit the edges together later on.

That isn’t how I normally put a puzzle together, but you don’t always have to follow a strict order – sometimes switching things up and doing them differently gives you new perspective. I prefer to put the border together first, but if it’s easier to put those pieces in last then that’s what I’ll do. 😊

Only three days left in this Advent calendar, we’re nearing the end of the holiday puzzles for the year. I’ve been enjoying these little one coffee puzzles in the mornings with some quiet time and a nice cup of hot coffee. I’m actually hoping that next year I can find another good quality calendar of little puzzles to put together in December, it’s been lovely!

Merry Masquerade* – Aldi – 80 pieces

Not my favorite of the images, but once I got going with the faces the rest of the puzzle came together relatively easily. It’s a merry masquerade party – according to me.

Today we’ve have the first quality issue with these puzzles, but I believe it was more about how they were packaged than anything else. You cannot see in the finished puzzle, but there is one piece with a tab bent so far that the actual chipboard is broken. It’s still connected to it’s piece by the image/paper on the front of the puzzle, but care had to be taken not to further damage the piece.

When you have a puzzle packaged in a container that isn’t overly large sometimes pieces get crammed into the space available to them and bent pieces like this can occur. In comparison to other problems it definitely isn’t a deal breaker, and this is the first issue I’ve had with these puzzles at all.

Santa’s Village* – Aldi – 80 pieces

I enjoyed assembling this image very much; that blue-ish background wasn’t the easiest to work with – but there was the added bonus of having words to assemble. And not just the title of the image either, but lots of little sections of words to assemble. Loved this one all the way from Iceberg Lake to Reindeer Games Park to Gift Wrap Station!

The quality remains constant, which is another reason for happiness. I dislike companies whose quality waxes and wanes; not knowing whether or not you’ll end up with one of the good puzzles is a reason that there are several brands whose puzzles I refuse to purchase unless I can open the box and look at the pieces first. The fact that each of these puzzles has good quality and there hasn’t been an issue yet makes me happier than it should.

The PADS struggle is real, my friends. 😉

Skating Party* – Aldi – 80 pieces

I’m not overly thrilled with this image, but you can’t love them all, right? No matter, the puzzles are still enjoyable and it’s very nice having a completed puzzle every day. The fact that it’s only 80 pieces doesn’t matter at all.

The mind is blank again today and I can’t think of a thing to add. My apologies.

Kookies for Kringle* – Aldi – 80 pieces

Loved this image, but that red border wasn’t easy. Still, this is more my style; bright colors, atypical holiday image, and good quality puzzle. You can’t beat the classics, am I right?

When I first glanced at this puzzle on the back of the box it seemed as if it was a closeup of a wrapped candy; it didn’t really register until I was seeing the pieces come together that it was a plate of cookies and a couple of pastry bags to decorate with. Sometimes I can be very thick! 🤪

I have to tell you, this set of puzzles is making me happier by the day. There have been absolutely no issues so far with missing pieces, extra pieces, or missing puzzles. What a novel concept – making sure you put out good quality puzzles for your customers. Who would have thought such a thing would work?!

There isn’t a larger puzzle on my board at the moment, and there hasn’t been one for more than a week; the only puzzling I’ve been doing is these little ones in the morning. I don’t seem to have the energy for much more these days and my puzzle mojo seems to have taken a holiday vacation. I sure hope it comes home soon!