Finished the puzzle!

This puzzle was started over the Thanksgiving weekend of 2011!  I thought I'd never get it finished, but I finished it today.  It's my Christmas present to myself!  And, yes, when the weather is this cold I wear this sweater every day.  It is SO warm!  You see all the tools of a real puzzler; the picture of how the completed puzzle looks; a magnifying glass to inspect the picture closely; a pancake turner to pick up the little 'communities' that grow around the puzzle and place them where they go when you find that place; pie pans to hold like pieces; a candle to burn up the whole thing if you give up!  Seriously, all but the candle are a big help; that's just the place I found to let the candle live.   I am so relieved to be done with this puzzle and really pleased to find that all the pieces survived over a year and a move from the dining room to this guest room!  If you make this huge, you'll see it's 1000 pieces; the top right corner was the part that has been undone for the last year.  Those last 75 pieces were TOUGH; yes, I counted the pieces when I couldn't find any that fit.  Then I counted down as I found a piece here and there.

I had been challenged about 3 years ago to make a snow angel when it snowed when we were in Branson.  I only had my good coat there and didn't want to get it all wet, so I didn't do it.  So, today I went out to make a snow angel.  Holy cow!  How dumb was that???  People my age should never get down into the snow; they have to get back up!!!  And, getting up messes up the snow angel!  Well, I'm a sport, but I'm a lot wiser, now.  I will stick to jigsaw puzzles and never, ever lay down in the snow unless I fall.  And, I'll thank God for letting me NOT fall when I got up!  I did it when Lee was reading the paper online, so he didn't miss me.  He would have wanted to help me and we could have both fallen!  Certainly we would have both gotten cold and there was no need for both of us to freeze!  Freezing me was enough to teach me the lesson.  I thank God for just letting me be frozen to learn the lesson!