Dad’s Crossword

After the success of Aaron’s birthday crossword for Avery, they decided they would make one for Dad for Father’s Day. Dad got both Avery and Aaron interested in crossword puzzles at a fairly young age and he still does them today. The first thing they did was to brainstorm together on a Google Doc for theme answers (Dad calls these “jokes”). Due to the coediting feature, they could see each other typing in real time. There were several instances where Avery would write a joke just as Aaron was thinking it (and vice versa!). This demonstrates their exceptional Brother-Sister Synergy as well as how wide-spread some inside family jokes were.

Over the course of a few weeks of Hangouts sessions, a backpacking trip where Aaron brought the answers to work on the clues, and say 30+ total hours- this is what they came up with! Because Avery wanted to get so many specific fill words in, they struggled greatly with the top right section and the middle left- finally having to make some clues and answers that would not pass muster in the NYT for sure! (10D, 23D)

On Father’s Day, they presented their baby to Dad at brunch. They were tickled to see that Dad got all the “jokes” and some of their more difficult clues (including the ones they weren’t very proud of).

Spoilers below!

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