Christmas Robins

 Liberty, 270 pieces. Old-style spiky Liberty cut with some nice whimsy sequences. 3/5

elf assembly line

sleigh and eight reindeer

Ghana, Tim Zeltner

 Elms, 1008 pieces. The price on this was too good to pass up, even though it's probably above my ideal size for a puzzle like this. It was an engrossing assembly, because the limited color palette made the different areas hard to distinguish until assembly was far along. Great multipiece Africa whimsy! 8/10

I think I might need to save this picture which came out really well

Blue Moon Crazed

 Stave, 515 pieces. This is one of their newer extra-fancy cuts--it's got double layers and amazing dropouts. Very impressive. 8/10

bottom layer

dropouts from the mountain and birds

top layer

moon unit

multipiece stork

more moon

multipiece tree

fish whimsy touching color-line cut fish

the top hot air balloon is a freestanding piece

Matisse's Studio, Damien Elwes

 Liberty, 483 pieces. Near color-line cutting on the side panels (pictures within the picture) is the standout here. 3/5

Aaron Wolf, Twilight Treehouse of the Phosphorescent Forest

 Artifact, 426 pieces. This one took a while longer than I expected because the color transitions were subtler when the image was not assembled, which combined with the split-tendril shape and repetition in the details of the image. 3/5

The Old Line State

 Stave, 65 pieces. Hello neighbor! Feels a little generic in the whimsies (no Old Bay!), but fine. 6/10

Methane Studios, Dragon Moon

 Artifact, 258 pieces. The clever near-tesselating wolves are great, but it took a while to do because differences between the areas of darkness only emerged slowly. 3/5

paw prints

The Royal Hunt, Olga Suvorova

 Twigg, 671 pieces. Probably too big for my maximum laser-cut enjoyment, but rich in detail and with an impressive multipiece castle enabled by the size. 3/5

The Aloha State

 Stave, 65 pieces. I've never been (the first of my Stave states for which this is true), but it was charming nonetheless. 6/10

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Children's Games

 Peaceful, 250 pieces. A dark image for my tastes, but a pretty interesting cut. 3/5