A Christmas Puzzle Things were, overall, going well. Marijke and Fionn were not naive enough to think that everything was fine with Evelyn, or that she was finding the transition to living in a different type of family easy - things were not fine for her, and that was never a straightforward process - but they weren’t getting Major Warning Signs from her. She seemed to enjoy some of their family rituals (who didn’t like gingerbread?) and sometimes took time out to be by herself (which, so long as she emerged looking better rather than worse, they took to be a healthy sign).
Christmas Eve found the whole family sitting around the fire. Everyone had a hot drink, be it spiced cider, hot chocolate, or anything else that took their fancy, and a selection of chips and dips, cheeses and crackers, and sweet treats sat on the table in the middle of them. Marijke had just handed out the traditional Christmas Eve puzzle, and pencils were quietly scratching on paper. Marijke, having authored the puzzle, was sitting with Evelyn, walking her through how to solve it (though not giving her any more help than she judged she needed or wanted, and fully prepared to get stuck herself at some point - she could more or less remember the answers, but she wouldn’t swear that she could remember how exactly she had got to them, just that she had checked and double checked that it was possible).
The puzzle read as follows:
Seven people gather for Christmas. Their names are Fionn, Marijke, Catriona, Lola, Kir, Ness, and Evelyn. They each bring two gifts. The gifts fall into three categories:
Quidditch: Snitch socks, a broom compass, a team scarf, some tail twig clippers.
Food and drink: a tin of shortbread, a bottle of firewhisky, some chocolate frogs, some every flavour beans, some Scottish breakfast tea
Pride (of Scotland/gay): tartan handkerchiefs, a rainbow bandana, 'I <3 Scotland' mug, a rainbow flag pin, some Pride postcards.
Use the information below to work out who received and who purchased which gifts.
- No one received back a gift that they themselves purchased
- Only one person gave two gifts from the same group
- No one received two gifts from the same group
- Both of Catriona's gifts went to the same person
- Neither of Fionn's gifts went to his blood relatives
- Both the person who purchased the firewhiskey and the person who received it are of age
- Evelyn received one pride and one food/drink gift
- Ness and Catriona did not receive any food/drink gifts
- Ness and Fionn did not give any food/drink gifts
- The person who gave the Chocolate Frogs and rainbow pin received tea and postcards
- The person who gave tea and handkerchiefs received the shortbread and the scarf
- Lola received the Snitch socks which were purchased by Fionn
- Neither Ness nor Evelyn purchased pride gifts
- Kir's presents were purchased by Marijke and Lola
- The person who gave Every Flavour Beans and the broom compass received the rainbow bandana and the Chocolate Frogs
- Fionn did not purchase the mug or the postcards
- Both older siblings gave to their younger sibling [C is older than F]
- Lola did not buy the flag or the mug
OOC - the puzzle is fully solvable. If you think you have the solution, PM me so as to not spoil it for others. I may offer some kind of prize (I have no idea what/how, but prizes are nice). If anyone isn’t familiar with how to solve this style of puzzle or gets stuck, hit me up in chatzy or via messenger.
God-modding/overviewing of the visit so far approved by Evelyn’s author.