December Daily - Day 4 - Puzzles!

I should be perfectly clear, I don't plan out my December with activities each day.  I could, but our lives are rarely predictable enough for that to feel comfortable, not constraining.  What I do instead is think of a few activities I want to do, prepare for them, and then use them as necessary.  Some  of the ideas are from prior years, other blogs, friends, family, etc... What I like about December Daily is I "know" I want a story at the end of the day.  I look for that story all day and if it isn't happening, well, I help it along a bit.  Thus is the origin of Puzzle night.  

This year, I bought each of our kids a puzzle for Christmas.  It has become clear that they each have more presents than they probably will fully enjoy on Christmas morning and let's be honest, somewhere in those amazon boxes is a video game that would fully distract B from a puzzle.  Yesterday, the Wainrights had puzzle night and last night I was in need of some family time and no other stories had happened, so I decided it was time. I added two puzzles to gift bags and gave them as gifts to the entire family.  The first was a Fairy Tale floor puzzle.  (Ps. I love Crocodile Creek floor puzzles).  The puzzle was awesome and E, M, and I put it together quickly while Brent & B began set up for the larger Our Blue Planet, Double Sided, Round Puzzle. This was possibly my first Christmas purchase.  It is 208 pieces and printed on both sides. One side is the eastern hemisphere, the other is the western.  There is lots of ocean on both sides to keep it complicated.  It also comes in a very cool box. 

It was great fun.  We all loved it!  There is a small error (penguins in Greenland???) but otherwise, totally fun and a great conversation starter to talk with the kids more about other kids, cultures, languages, etc...

The crafting was very simple today.  Washi tape on photo and journaling card.  I think underlining the text gives a nice extra design element.  For embellishments, I used these kraft stamp shapes from the kit for the day, plus hearts, star, and stamping.  Sound familiar?  Still keeping it simple. I attempted to emboss a phrase from the stamp set, but really didn't like it so I added paper over it and a few more elements.

Small update on the calendar - I am adding topics as I go and liking it (also gold year date fell off so finding a better way to add that).