Endless Christmas Break Finally Ends

We here in the Midwest have been battling a polar vortex.  First we were hit with 12-14 inches of snow. Then, the temperatures dipped to uncomfortable regions. For six days we were pretty much holed up in the house. That can be hard on little boys with pent up energy. Of course, I sent them out to play in the snow every day, despite the freezing temperatures (and they did well as long as they kept my girly scarves wrapped around their mouths and noses - they would have died if I had taken photos of that). Bryce went out with them and I did snag a photo of him with a stunning icicle (thankfully, he wore Dad's face-mask):

Plus, a shot of the beautiful house across the street, blanketed with snow:

One day followed the next with calls for snow days. They rejoiced. They ended up being off all of last week. The quiet in the house this morning is deafening and very welcome.

While on the lengthy break, we tackled two more puzzles. First, we did the one I gave to Sean for Christmas.

Side-note: I always like to give books and a puzzle to the boys for Christmas. This year, on Christmas Eve, I told the little boys they could open one present as long as it was from me. They both selected the one with books in it. While Trevor was thrilled with his set of Dude Diaries (a real hit if you are looking for books for 8-10 year old boys - full of crazy questions for them to answer within the pages, like "What would make an insanely good Super Bowl halftime show?" and "Famous person you would trade places with for one day?" and "If you were a monster what would you be?"), Sean was less than thrilled with his books. Then, his older brother didn't help things along by saying, "Man, getting books for Christmas is worse than getting coal. At least when you get coal you can laugh about it, but getting books is like getting a job for Christmas." Way to make a book-lover cry!

This was the puzzle Sean received (it was a thrift store purchase and, sadly, was missing two pieces):

It was great fun to do. If you click on it to enlarge it, you will see that it has two different-sized pieces. It was intended to be worked on side by side, with the grown-up placing the smaller pieces and the child placing the larger pieces. I think Sean only helped with about five pieces. Sob.

Then, I decided to tackle one of my favorite 1000-piece puzzles (one I brought back with me after living in England in 1987-88):

I love this one because it is easy enough to be fun. I don't like puzzles which are too hard to figure out, like this 2000-piece one I purchased long ago at Target for only a buck (good thing I didn't waste any more on it, since I doubt I'll ever attempt it - too much white and blue):

Still, I did purchase this hard one for Trevor this Christmas:

I thought the fact that you could use the pieces to make your own designs might appeal to my artistic son. We'll see if he ever tackles it. For now, the puzzle sessions are over and I am back to running errands and cleaning in peace. Whew! Next up, I will begin to tackle editing the novel I wrote in November.