Ravensburger Limited Edition Christmas Puzzle - Merry Mischief

A Police Sketch Artist Drew My Kitchen and the Resulting Artwork was Released as a 2023 Ravensburger Christmas Puzzle

Hello there! It’s that time of year when snow starts to blanket older, grayer snow and evolution earns a big thumbs-down as citrus season conveniently collides with chapped-lip season. It’s the time when bakers everywhere hole up in the kitchen to create their holiday masterpieces to share with family and friends, a messy process that we do in private so as to not frighten those who will later be putting the treats into their mouths. 

I thought my kitchen was a relatively private space, so you might understand my surprise when I was browsing the Puzzle Warehouse offerings and instantly recognized my kitchen in the form of a jigsaw puzzle. Of course, my kitchen is not quite as idyllic as this scene. It’s more like all the weird things that happen in my kitchen were described to a third party – who sketched what they heard – and then that artwork was released as the 2023 Ravensburger limited Christmas release puzzle, Merry Mischief. 

Merry Mischief by Ravensburger

Fortunately for you, I have photographic evidence of this, so you don’t have to hear a description of my kitchen and draw it for yourself. Let’s begin with the most literal interpretations of my kitchen. There are the melty snowman cookies.

Then there is the penguin cookie horde. Don’t worry! We ate them, not the other way around.

And who among us has not baked a cake that stared back at us with a confused and/or worried look?

Then in the room adjacent to the kitchen, we can see the decoy Christmas tree – you know, the one that I have to put up to distract the cats so that they spend their misguided energies on that tree rather than the real Christmas tree, which, unbeknownst to them but knownst to me, is tucked safely behind double doors.

This gambit always proves effective from the day we put up the tree until at least Dec. 5.

And speaking of cats, this puzzle depicts a cat causing unnecessary stress, which is a hallmark of my kitchen. 

If you don’t know what may fall on you (and from what angle and why) while you’re baking, it adds that special whiff of danger to the recipe.

Then there is the countertop mess that accompanies baking. This photo shows the aftermath of a single pan of brownies being baked by one of the kids. They really cleaned that up nice for the puzzle, don’t you think?

Plus we have this priceless scene that inspired the powdered sugar snowfall. 

What was he doing with this much cornstarch and why? We’ll never know! He was not forthcoming with an explanation. 

Finally, we have this family portrait, featuring the same culprit, sick with Covid and sequestered to a room off the kitchen, where he got to enjoy a slice of pie with us through the door.

I have to admit it was a lot of fun putting together a puzzle featuring my kitchen. The only thing I’m wondering is: Who provided such a detailed description of my kitchen to the artist?

Happy holidays to you and yours!

~Robin