Christmas, Puzzles, And Memories...

I took a couple of pictures of my son yesterday. He was doing something he loved--putting together a puzzle. I know there are people who hate putting together puzzles. My son is not one of them.

When I took out the SD card and downloaded the photos to my computer earlier today, I forgot I had taken those pictures. With a nice camera and basically cost-free photography, I tend to take a lot of pictures, probably more than I should. One day I'd like to have them all printed and put in books, but that would end up being a pretty big photo album--that happens when you've got over 20K pictures on your computer and backed up on drives.

But when I saw these, they brought back a lot of memories--memories of when I was a kid. When I was my son's age, I don't recall putting together a lot of puzzles. I think I kind of liked puzzles, but not too much. The picture reminded me of what it was like to be a kid at Christmas.

And when I was my youngest son's age, my father had passed a way a couple of years previous. My mom was raising three kids in an unfinished home. I'm sure times were tough, but I never really knew how tough. We always had food and we always had shelter and I had a great childhood. 

And Christmas was truly the best time of the year. As kids we always got enough stuff, enough to make me happy. I remember having the time to play with our new toys and spend time with friends and family. 

I showed this picture to my co-worker and he commented on how he liked putting together puzzles, but only when he has a lot of free time. Maybe that's why the picture reminds me so much of my youth at Christmastime. I had a lot more time to do things like putting together puzzles.