Jigsaw Puzzle Season

I am literally excited beyond words. Not that "lie awake at night in anticipation" type of excitement, but that deep down feeling of knowing in a short time those I love most, will all be together and it will be good. I am already smiling at the witty chatter that will be. The chatter that inevitably emerges from a gaggle of gigglers, who have honed so much of a shared past down to hilarious key phrases.

Two fine little characters will be able to marvel at their tiny cousin, who will before too long emerge from their loved auntie's tummy. I hope the growing little bundle of life puts on a good show for them. I hope the babe will be absorbing the fun of it all, going on in the outside world.

It is time to search out a great big jigsaw puzzle and bring down my grandma's wiggly old card table from the attic. Part of summer and Christmas preparations for family gatherings is to make ready a central place for puzzling.

Christmas now seems like too crowded a season, to offer the moments to casually walk over to a puzzle to find the elusive piece everyone is looking for, find it and with great satisfaction put it effortlessly in place. Christmas belongs to so many new faces and new places and new traditions, it will be the rare time we will all be together. This summer I am hoping there will be time to do justice to a puzzling tradition.

From places on high, my Aunt Barbara will be trying to find that piece that looks like a dog's head, you know like a dogs head. My mother will be going over the trays looking for the piece that is mostly blue and grey with just a touch of red. I will feel the warmth of their smiles, when I by sheer chance find a key piece effortlessly. My quiet uncle, no doubt, sits nearby reading, mystified by the appeal of it all.

It seems a pleasant irony that the biggest and last puzzle we put together on my mother's screened porch, at the cottage, was the Bluenose.

My daughters, who at one time were held in arms or crawled through the legs to safety under the table, to drink juice from a Wibbly Wobbler, are now active participants. One with more zeal than the other. It remains to be seen whether a new generation of puzzlers have been spawned. From all indications, my elder grand was born with the special skills. Her younger sister is a whizz with her Tinkerbell puzzle.

We will be welcoming friends, who walk in unannounced to the big kitchen, drawn by the allure of the emerging picture.

Doing a communal jigsaw puzzle is one of those things that make little sense and make all the sense in the world.

I am so excited.