Visual Description: Year end ritual.
LEGFNU = ENGULF, CUDSSI = DISCUS, RRBBEA = BARBER, LGEELA = ALLEGE, SHMIWY = WHIMSY, XSODEU = EXODUS — Giving us: ENDUSRBRAEEWMYED
Clue/Question: They’d enjoyed the wall calendar all year, but it was now December, and its – – –
Pre-Answer: Three Words (4-letters) (4-letters) (8-letters)
Answer: DAYS WERE NUMBERED
(This was a fairly tough stinky pun. I know that it’s rare, but I kept wondering if they – someone – forgot to put in the apostrophe in “its”. But, I eventually went with it the way it appeared. My daughter and I worked on it together. She decided the middle word was a verb, and I decided the third word was past tense.
All of today’s clue words are familiar old friends. Five of the jumbles came up as new, but we have seen “shmiwy” sometime before. The answer letter layout was an impressive sixteen letter jumble. There was nothing obvious about it.
Nice cartoon of an older couple contemplating the closing of another year. I guess only us older folks use wall calendars these days. We’re definitely the only ones reading news papers. The younger folk do EVERYTHING on their cell phones. I like the dog sleeping peacefully. The photo on the calendar appears to be that shot of Venice we had a while back. A great overall Jumble. Be well and do good, friends.) — YUR
Images courtesy of Google
Unclerave's Wordy Weblog 
We had this same final answer with a different cartoon and similarly-themed but different lead-in on Sunday, September 3, 2017:
https://unclerave.wordpress.com/2017/09/03/sunday-jumble-spoiler-090317/
but that didn’t stop me from wasting time running down two rabbit holes this time, one for YEAR, or alternatively for MEASURED, either of which we had the letters and grid pattern for. I did get the right answer soon after emerging for air for a third try.
I agree, the “its” without an apostrophe was helpful, because that’s a tip-off to solvers that the first word in the answer is likely a noun or adjective. If the apostrophe was there–it’s–the next word would more likely be a verb or adverb. Little details such as that in the clue do help narrow down what to look for when one doesn’t see an answer right off the bat.
Right, David! That’s assuming the ITS that we’re seeing is what our Jumble friends were intending. Mistakes occasionally DO happen. And, that could make a world of difference. Because, the phrasing of the Clue/Question did lend itself to being either one or the other. I’m glad that I took it at face value!
— YUR