Christmas and Christmas puzzles are behind me now, and I’m quite pleased about it to be honest. *insert happy dance here💃💃💃*

I’m so very glad that the advent calendar was a success and every puzzle was different and had all it’s pieces; but I’m also glad to go back to puzzles that I have chosen and whose images make me happy.

I received three puzzles as presents. But here’s the problem with being a prolific puzzle blogger – one of them I’ve already assembled (February 2022), and one of them I have here but haven’t put it together yet. I felt so bad telling my daughter that I already own the puzzle she bought me, but she always wants me to be honest and so I was. It doesn’t matter though, I LOVE that they picked out puzzles that they knew I would enjoy. If I already have it or have assembled it, then they know what I like – and that makes my heart happy. 💕

So now we’re back to puzzle images I like (for the most part), and there are 10 or more than have been sitting in the queue for more than a month waiting for their turn in the spotlight. It’s a good thing I’ve started writing up the entire post once the puzzle is finished, because I can barely remember the assembly of these puzzles, it seems so long ago!

I used to just put the pictures in a draft post, write a couple notes that I wanted to talk about regarding the assembly, and then type up everything later when I was more in the mood for “writing”. Now I’ve started writing up everything immediately so I won’t have to remember anything later because menopause and pain meds seem to have taken quite the toll on my poor, aging brain cells. It’s better to get everything down as soon as I’ve finished while it’s still fresh in my mind.

We’ll also be back to my usual format, which is two days of puzzles followed by an in progress post about whatever puzzle is on my board. My son has picked out a collage of movie posters for me to assemble next (thrift store purchase), and the box is sitting on my board but it hasn’t even been opened yet. Maybe today I’ll crack it open and start sorting, but it might be tomorrow too. At this very moment I’m not really in the mood for puzzles. Hopefully soon!

Did you get any puzzles as gifts this year? Tell me all about them!

My daughter and I went shopping on Sunday, and while wandering around the store we found these two books – each with nine 96 piece puzzles inside – and even better, they were only $2.99 each!

I looked through the books and realized that even though the pieces are extremely thin (almost like cardstock) I didn’t care. The fit seems to be quite good, so even if they’re thin it shouldn’t be too difficult to assemble each one. Plus, the images on the puzzles are interesting, beautiful, and look like they would be fun to put together.

And who doesn’t smile when they think of Bob Ross? I actually used to sit and watch his show when I was younger, and was amazed at how quickly he could put together a stunningly beautiful image. He made it look so easy! And I was a rambunctious, always-on-the-go kind of kid; there was something special about the man himself, something that made hyper little me (who was usually only interested in the fast paced commercials rather than the actual programs) sit down and just watch a man paint.

So on those days when I’m wanting to puzzle but feeling like a 500 or 1000 piece puzzle is too much, I can take a little 96 piece puzzle out of one of these books and put it together. They are “one coffee” puzzles that are larger than what I usually assemble, and it looks like they’ll be lots of fun.

I’m not ashamed to tell you I was almost giddy when we found these. Basically I got eighteen 96 piece puzzles for less than $6.00; you can’t beat that, even if they aren’t premium quality pieces.

Doesn’t matter, I’m still pleased as punch to have found them, and just looking at them puts a great big smile on my face. 😎