One of our Christmas traditions is clearing the decks for a jigsaw or two. I have loved puzzles for as long as I can remember, and I have a serious collection of favourites. I have several rules though;

• no modern ones because the digital photos don't enlarge nicely
• only houses, castles and boats - don't know where that one came from
• if possible, only ones with weird interlocking shapes
• nothing over 1000 pieces, as they just take too long, and take up too much space
• nothing with too much sky

So WHY are we doing this monster? It's 3000 pieces, and there must be a thousand sky pieces alone. This is two days of work, to get it to this stage. However, every person who walks in the door is put to work, and they can't leave until they've got two pieces in place. At this rate we estimate it will be finished in December 2008.

Matt was very helpful, and put a lot of pieces together. Unfortunately, none of them were right. Thanks awfully!We have already decided that if we get the landscape done, and we are sick of it, we won't bother with the sky; however, I would love a photo of the thing completed, just to say we did it. Then the whole lot goes back to the op-shop, to inflict this insanity on another unsuspecting family.

Another Christmas tradition is courtesy of our Italian SIL, who every year delivers one of these intruiging boxes. Panettone is an Italian sweet bread full of raisins and citron, and it is so divine. I don't eat bread at all normally, but I make an exception for this. It is best eaten with a cup of brewed coffee; what a combination of flavours!And I have a confession to make. I have been feeling a bit smug, reading the posts detailing unfinished projects on Stashbuster and several blogs. 'Goodness gracious' I thought to myself. I don't have THAT many things started. Enter Reality,with a notebook and a camera and a desire to know exactly what I do have in my cupboards.67.

Well at least 67, because the memory card was full, and it had been a long day, and who really cared what was in that final cupboard, and who's idea was this anyhow!!??

I pulled out a set of blocks that was very near completion, and sewed them together, using a metre of sashing fabric in the process, which caused me great happiness. Then I had the brilliant idea of a pieced border. It does look good, but instead of slapping on a few strips of fabric to finish this I will be sewing 200 Flying Geese units. Some great ideas are just a lot of extra work, grumble grumble grumble. Trouble is, once I see it like that I can't settle for less.