C’est fini.

I finished around 4 pm yesterday. This is one of the most detailed and complicated puzzles that I’ve had the pleasure of working on. I loved every minute of it. I think it took me 5 days to complete and on at least one of those days (Christmas) I did very little work. I’ve had fun identifying certain characters. There’s a big sheet of paper with a large picture of the finished puzzle and on the back, there’s a key to the characters, though I didn’t look at the key at all until this morning. My one complaint is that the sheet with the picture is so big and, therefore, very awkward to refer to when assembling the puzzle. Mine is now torn on several seams simply because I used it so much. It would be nice to also have a smaller version of the picture.

But then again, maybe that’s impossible, as there is so much tiny detail that would be almost impossible to make out on a smaller sheet of paper.

There’s a Jane Austen version that is on its way to my front porch later today. And I also have a New Yorker puzzled on tap that Don gave me for Christmas.

We’re thinking about ordering Thai food for New Year’s Eve. We have a bottle of sparkling cider on hand and we’ll toast 2021 and 2022. We’ll be in bed by 11:00, of course.

Woke up feeling rested and grateful. Grateful for quiet mornings, for incredible conversations that I have with Don (like the one we had earlier this morning), for this tiny cottage that sometimes drives me crazy but mostly fills me with profound gratitude, for opportunities that come out of nowhere, for dolls that bring out my inner child (so glad to see her again!) for twinkly lights (yes, the tree is still up and will remain so into the new year), for books stacked up and waiting for me to crack them open, for dollhouses, for good people (and there are so, so many of them), for animals and sunsets and butterflies and murmurations of starlings and food and heat and music and theater and film and adventures and love, for family and friends, for my sister whom I love so, so much, for my estranged sister whom I will alway love, for my brother and father and mother – no longer with me in bodily form but with me always, for our dogs (I miss them every day), for neighbors who bring us baklava (I snuck a bite), for coffee, for pie, for foggy mornings, for poetry, for a Higher Power/God/Universe/Great Spirit, for kindness, for humility, for big belly laughs, for solitude, for flowers and gardens and birds, for people who appreciate irony and the absurd, for old movies, for satire, for joy (and sadness, which is a part of life and the reason I appreciate joy when it appears.)

I could go on and on.

Stay safe.

Happy Thursday.