Happy Father's Day, Guys! (Kids and Puzzles)

As the father of two girls and the grandfather of three teens, Father's Day has become my favorite day of the year. I hope everyone out there spends the day with family and enjoys it as much as I do.

"Tis the Season" (Cobble Hill) - But, Baby, It's Hot Outside

"Tis the Season," Cobble Hill, 500 pieces, 24 x 18 inches

I suppose it's a little strange of me to be doing a Christmas puzzle when it's almost 100 degrees outside, but I can't tell you how much I enjoyed this one. I'm not overly familiar with the cut of Cobble Hill puzzles, so this little 500-piece gem turned out to be a good bit more of a challenge than I expected it would be. Take, for instance, the picture shown just below in which I show the effort it took for me to finally find the "missing" piece of the puzzle's frame.

For the longest, I thought that a piece was missing in the bottom part of the puzzle's frame - and then I decided to try something different. As you can see from that little four-piece cluster in the center of the picture, it did all finally come together, leaving me with the makings of a complete frame (the last couple of pieces turned up in regular sorting).

Right out of the box, this one didn't really look too tough...I mean, it's only 500 pieces, right? But Cobble Hill's cut made this one as much fun as I've had with a puzzle in a while.

I pretty much decided to work this one from the bottom up early on because of the way my sorting evolved into several distinguishable stacks of pieces.

Bottom-to-top worked out pretty well from the start, and I really got a kick out of matching all the tiny faces and clothing together to  capture the spirit of "Tis the Season."

It was when the buildings began to show up that the challenge changed in difficulty because the architecture of the buildings is similar throughout the puzzle. That meant lots of very similar windows, doors, and roof tops - but bottom to top was still the plan.

Speaking of the faces of all those shoppers, I've taken a few closeups to show the intricacy of all the distinct little scenes captured in this relatively small puzzle of 24 x 18 inches:

side-street shoppers

window-shopping at the antique store

Santa doing his thing for excited kids at the toy store

kids building a snowman on the sidewalk

"Tis the Season" left me impressed with the Cobble Hill brand because of the way the company designed the cut and presentation of the puzzle. 500-piece puzzles seldom offer all that much of a challenge, but this one did - and I loved it.

Happy Memorial Day, Puzzlers.

Memorial Day is one of those holidays during which families across the country come together to enjoy lots of outdoor cooking and each other's company. The holiday marks the beginning of summer break for students everywhere, a period of warm weather, summer sports, and time to be spent on the country's lakes and rivers. Everyone seems to be in a great optimistic mood at this time of year.

But let us not forget the men and women who have made, and continue to make, it possible for us to enjoy this wonderful holiday with our families and friends. Please do take an hour or two out of your three-day holiday to visit the grave sites of some of those who died in the process of making the world a better place for you and yours. We must never forget their service.

Happy Mothers Day

Happy Mothers Day to all the mothers and grandmothers out there.

You make the world go around for sure.