Jigsaw puzzles

Lately I've been in a jigsaw puzzle sort of mood. I know that seems crazy. Greg thinks jigsaw puzzles are a total waste of time. I probably like them because they remind me of Grandma Inge. My Grandma Inge loved puzzles. She had a cedar closet in her basement that was FILLED with puzzles. She had well over 100 of them. I remember almost everytime I was at Grandmas' house, a jigsaw puzzle was spread across the dining room table. Because the kitchen was so small, she'd just roll up the puzzle for me to set the table for dinner. Every Christmas involved working on a puzzle or two. It was just something we did.

Last week, I spent a few days completing this puzzle of gumballs. It was Grandma's. When Grandma passed away, my mom and I each kept some of her puzzles. We kept the ones that we liked the most and the several others were sold at the estate sale. Grandma took such good care of her puzzles --- each still in its original box with the edge pieces nicely kept in a separate bag to help you get the sorting done faster when you wanted to get started. I think of her everytime I work on a puzzle. I just get in a mindset that can't be satisfied until I do one. Perhaps, it's also because I now have her dining room table in my dining room. I piece together her puzzle on her table even with her table pads. It seems that for the last few Christmas, I've just instinctively made the dining room the puzzle room.

When we were at the lake in May, David was on my shoulders as I was taking him to Granny & Granddad's cabin to sleep. We passed by the window of a cabin and looked in - the room brighter than the dusk outdoors. There, covering the entire kitchen table was a jigsaw puzzle -- maybe 1/3 completed. I didn't really pause too long, the window was just wide enough for us to see in. David said to me, "Look, Mommy, it's Christmas in their cabin."

Grandma's favorite hobby lives on.