12/12/16 Puzzle Completed

When we left our readers last night we had a halfway completed puzzle with some clearly missing pieces. We worked on it some more once the kids were ready for school. Then, with some self control, we slid the partially completed puzzle onto a cookie sheet and put it out of reach until the school kids got home. When we got it out this afternoon the kids and Heidi made quick progress finding proper homes for red brick colored pieces and amorphous Christmas tree colored pieces. Before too long all the pieces on the table had been added and four holes remained. Rebecca and TJ began a search. Rebecca found one and TJ found one, both under the table. Gradually we became discouraged. TJ showed perseverance and discovered several long missing items in the crevice of the couch. He was rewarded at last by finding the second to last piece. But still one last piece remained missing. For me having one missing piece was almost more disheartening than four. With four I thought "oh well I guess we're not ready for puzzles yet". With only one missing we were so close. TJ and I kept looking. Finally I found the last piece in Peter's high chair. So apparently, with some effort, we are ready to do puzzles after all. In the end though we are not at perfection. After we had returned the puzzle to its box and replaced it in the game cupboard we discovered an errant piece on the floor. The box had a leak! We transferred the pieces to a large ziplock bag but now a new mystery remains. Did we find all the pieces that fell from the leaky box?

This evening, for Family Home Evening, we read Thomas S Monson's Christmas Train book to the kids. It's the one where young Tommy learns the joy of giving by overcoming his selfishness and giving part of his train to a poor boy down the street. We talked about ways we can overcome our own selfishness and learn to give.
We thought about reading the book pictured above. An anonymous giver, although we're pretty sure we saw President Nielsen sneaking away, gave us this book last night. It is a beautiful, albeit sad, book about a family experiencing Christmas for the first time since the passing of their mother. For obvious reasons this book touched a nerve for Heidi. The idea of her not being with us for Christmas was too much and we decided to skip this one for now. Perhaps there is a family out there who has experienced this kind of loss who could use comfort from a book like this.