It Lasts A Lifetime

I have never really "gotten into" doing jigsaw puzzles. My older granddaughter has been enjoying doing them for several years. So I was not surprised when I arrived for my Christmas visit to see that she had been working on one. It wasn't long after my arrival that she was asking me to come work on it with her, too. So on Christmas Eve after lunch we spent the rest of the afternoon getting this one finished. It really is a pretty picture, and it had a fairly high level of difficulty, too. Thankfully, Gabi had already gotten a pretty good start on it, but the more difficult areas were still unfilled when we began. Four eyes are certainly better than two when working such puzzles. And this large round table was perfect on which to do it, too, since I found myself wandering around it as I tried to find various pieces. Maybe some people can sit down and work jigsaw puzzles, but I would like to know how they do it, especially for these large ones. By the time the last piece was added, I would have loved to have had a nice back and neck massage. I will admit that there is a thrill to finding and fitting the pieces together, especially when you have been looking for a particular one. But I generally prefer entertainment that has a higher degree of instant gratification than I find with these puzzles, not to mention the question of what do you do with a finished one? It seems almost criminal after all the hours spent to put it together, to snap it apart and put the pieces back in the box. What made this activity worth while for me on Christmas Eve, though, was taking the time out to spend with my granddaughter creating something together and doing it in a medium that she especially enjoys. It is a fact that we did not create anything of actual value. However, something much more important and better was created. Memories of spending such time together will last a lifetime. They will not break, tarnish, or wear out. They are forever.