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!

The Stockings Were Hung* – Aldi – 80 pieces

So far this is my least favorite of the images, and it took me a while to get my bearings with another muted color palette. But the quality remains quite good and I’m enjoying these little puzzles very much.

By the fourth day of my last Advent calendar two of the four puzzles had pieces missing – this is a delightful change! I know, I keep referencing the previous Advent calendar puzzles; they still haunt me and apparently I haven’t gotten over it, even four years later. I made a special trip just to find them and wanted so much to like and enjoy them and ended up being unbelievably disappointed.

Luckily, these puzzles have not had one problem so far and I’m really having a good time with them – that’s what really matters. 💜

City Charm* – Aldi – 80 pieces

I know, not a terribly inventive title; but it’s as good as it’s going to get today. Today’s image was a little harder to assemble, but I’m doing all of these without any assistance from the box image. It looks easy as pie (or cake, or cookies, or ice cream – wait – why is pie easy? Back to the puzzle, Stacey. Focus!) but the buildings in the background made it a little bit more of a challenge.

The quality remains constant. The piece size, shape, cut, and thickness seems exactly the same as the previous puzzles, which is a good thing in my book. Many of these special editions I’ve done have had variations in some of the puzzles, this one hasn’t had that issue yet.

If Aldi still has some of these sets available, they are definitely recommended. At $9.99 it’s a very good deal, and the quality is surprisingly good in my very humble opinion.

Fireside Nap* – Aldi – 80 pieces

Another cute image, and another good quality puzzle from this Advent calendar. I enjoyed this one more than yesterday’s puzzle, even though yesterday’s image was more to my liking. The muted color palette isn’t the type of image I normally go for, but the assembly of it was actually quite nice.

My mind has gone blank, and I can’t think of anything else to tell you. Other than that I do NOT have all my Christmas shopping done, and the holidays are stressing me out. Thank goodness I have a new puzzle every morning to look forward to.

Drama-less day deux – definitely delightful! 😎

Wintry Windows* – Aldi – 80 pieces

We’re finally getting to my advent calendar puzzles. Hooray! Wait. Did I just say that? Perhaps aliens have finally come Earth and have taken control of my brain – where in the world/universe did that come from? 🤔👽

Onward to the puzzle!

None of the puzzles have a title or artist credit, so I’ll be giving them a title when I post them. They’re not overly creative, like today’s “Wintry Windows”, but I’ll try my best.

I was happily surprised by the quality of this little puzzle. There is no name brand, other than that it was made in China and distributed and sold exclusively by Aldi. The pieces are a very good thickness, the image reproduction is clear and crisp, and the fit is good. Unfortunately there is no variety in piece shape; they are all ballerinas (2 prong/2 holes) one thinner that is placed vertically and the thicker one is placed horizontally. The finish is a bit shiny but it’s not too terrible to work with under artificial lighting.

So as it stands there are three pros and two cons – as we get further into the calendar we shall see if the quality stays good throughout. I’m hoping that every puzzle has all of it’s pieces and that there are actually twelve puzzles with no duplications or omissions. Stay tuned!

It may look as if the pieces are interchangeable and that all the vertical pieces would fit anywhere, but happily there are small differences and they only fit where they belong. That may seem like a ridiculous sentence, but anyone who has worked with a puzzle whose pieces are exactly the same knows what I mean. It’s nice that there aren’t false fits to deal with.

Day one of the Advent calendar is done, with no drama – I’m hoping for good things from day two!