National Puzzle Day

Friday, January 29 was National Puzzle Day. Did you celebrate?

We did.

I can't even rightly say how I realized it was puzzle day, being neither a big puzzle fan nor the owner of one of those calendars with the bizarre holidays. But somewhere late in the day it came to my attention and I told the kids we could celebrate. So we got out every puzzle we own, spread out on the floor, and proceeded to work them. Now, Sis and Bud do puzzles two different ways--Sis likes to choose which part of the picture she wants to do and hoards all the pieces involved; Bud tries to do the corners and edges first and then work his way in. Inevitably, the two approaches come into conflict and there are problems. So, we finally started working two puzzles at once. Until, at some point, Sis began spelling things with the alphabet puzzle pieces and then took the chunky dinosaur puzzle pieces and was having them play with the flat dinosaur puzzle pieces in a narrative she was creating! Bud was still diligently working his world map puzzle. And I was glad puzzle time was winding down . . . but they were so thrilled about it being National Puzzle Day that when Mama called to say she was on her way home, Bud told her all about what we were doing. Mama says it's the first real phone conversation she's ever had with one of the kids! And we saved some puzzles for her to do when she got home.

And now I know where I can find out what special day it is, so I'll be tying in more of our activities to these eccentric holidays. Mmmm, February is Great American Pie month (which is odd because apples and the like aren't in season!) and includes Tell a Fairy Tale Day, Love Your Pet Day, and Polar Bear Day (I'm not sure how many of these are "real," whatever that means since we're not talking federal or religious here, but who cares). Plus, of course, Groundhog Day (because even though we've already partied, we'll still watch Phil make his prediction around 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday), Chinese New Year, Valentine's Day, the Super Bowl, the Winter Olympics, and Ar-Ma's birthday--lots of stuff for a short month!