An Ordinary Christmas

In the “old days” we always had a Christmas jigsaw. When we had a house full for several days over the holidays and Edward was small, a jigsaw in the playroom was a means of escape from the overheated sitting room or the chatter and “goings on”. “I’ll just go a put a few pieces in the jigsaw” was code for “I’d just like a quiet half hour” and a thousand pieces were just about the right level of challenge given the time we had to complete it.

When we brought down the Christmas things from the loft, I spotted a pile of boxes - Christmas jigsaws past mostly, but with a couple of unopened boxes there on the top. Thinking that this Christmas might be the one when we were more likely to have time on our hands than ever, maybe it was time to rediscover old traditions? We weren’t going to need the whole dining table, so I settled myself at one end with a fine view of the Christmas tree and lost no time in opening up “The Christmas Shop” and began looking for the straight edges.

My Hero wasn’t really interested. Whilst he was busy elsewhere in the house, I got totally hooked. I’d forgotten the satisfaction and quiet pleasure of sitting putting small pieces in place. I had also forgotten how quickly the time flies as “I’ll just find that one piece” morphs into an hour or more.

Over the next few days, it began to come together and I remembered why I always looked for Ravensburger puzzles. The pieces were well cut and fitted beautifully together. There was just one mystery…I kept coming across the unmistakeable face of a realistic cat and yet, I couldn’t find that face anywhere. All I could find was a cat toy near the bottom of the left hand edge and that wasn’t it.

Actually, that wasn’t the only challenge. One further piece baffled me until I spotted it was identical to another piece! It was a twin! I put it on one side to avoid confusion.

By Christmas Eve, it was nearing completion and having got everything under control in the kitchen and with nothing else to do, I suggested my hero come and join me, to see if we could finish it before we used the dining table for the intended purpose - Christmas dinner. We sat for an hour or so and had put almost all the pieces in, though realised that with only three of us sitting down to lunch, it wouldn’t matter if it stayed put anyway.

So it was actually last evening when I put the last piece in place and for the first time ever, rather than have a piece missing, we had a piece left over! Just one puzzle remained….the cat.

Can you spot it?

And the reason why we couldn’t find it in the picture on the box?

Actually, yesterday was a quiet, but enjoyable day. We began it by chatting with John in Melbourne and ended with talking to Mary in California. Bettine joined us for lunch and a little present opening. We spent an hour zooming with Amy and Edward afterwards - their chicken was still in the oven (they couldn’t find a turkey after the last minute change of plans) and they were as pleased to be able to chat with Bettine as she was to see them. We still have a pile of presents for them which will have to be given and opened sometime soon - don’t know where or when right now.

We count our blessings and felt thankful that, given the circumstances, we’d been able to enjoy all the best things - which of course, aren’t “things” at all, but family, friends, good food and a comfortable place to spend the day. Someone shared one of those cheesy statements on Facebook recently which felt particularly apt:

“This year is not the one to get everything we want but to appreciate everything we have”.