We live in Iowa and in the winter we get snow. Last winter we had so much snow that weren't sure we would ever dig out. It was one snow storm after another. In fact we have a photo of my then six year old child standing on a snow drift tall enough that he could see in our second floor window.
This year has not been a terribly snowy one so far. However we did get some snow just in time for a white Christmas. While at my Grandma's house on Christmas we admired the snowman that my cousin's husband, Scott, and son built in her backyard. It was a classic snowman. It looked like it could be on a Hallmark card. This was an amazing feat since the husband grew up in Alabama and has only lived in Iowa for a relatively short period of his life.
Anyway, while at Grandma's, my seven year old says, "I want to make a snowman. I have never made a snowman before." I start to object. He has lived in the Midwest almost as long as Scott. His parents both grew up in Iowa. But as I thought of the many times he has made a snowman, I could actually come up with... zero. No my son had not ever made a snowman, even though he had had many opportunities. No he didn't get to make on that day, but he did get to make one yesterday.
I shooed both the seven and nine year old boys outside mid-morning. I also tried to shoo the three year old out as well, but he didn't shoo. By the time I had him settled in to a show and grabbed the camera, I looked out the window and--lo and behold-- the older boys had one snowman body done. I gathered some suitable face pieces and the camera and headed out. We fixed the face and some stick arms and then a second snowman was started. The nine year old got tired of the building and he and I went back inside. But the seven year old continued to build and finished three snowmen in less than an hour.
Three lovely snowmen decorated our yard. They stood in a nice line, facing the driveway, as if to welcome folks into our winter wonderland. The outer two stood about as tall as my kids (4 feet or so) and the middle one was about 3 feet tall. Come to think of it, maybe they were representations of my three boys. Anyway, Dad did an awesome job admiring the snowmen when he came home.
And then this morning I woke up about 7 and looked out the window. No snowmen. In fact no snow to speak of. The temperature stayed above freezing all night and those snowmen were no where to be seen this morning. Not even a blob of mis-shapen snow to mark their existence. The boys were not overly sad, maybe just a little surprised, as was I and their Dad. Usually a snowman (a tall pile of packed snow) will melt over the course of a few days, slowly disappearing into a puddle of mud. But these snowmen had disappeared overnight.
I commented about this to a friend and she said her daughter was so sad that her snowman died. I told her that I'm sure her snowman was off on a wild adventure with our snowmen. Perhaps they were visiting penguins in Antarctica or polar bears in Alaska. Maybe they were floating on an iceberg snacking on popsicles and snow cones. I like to think those snowmen did not just melt completely away overnight. They are in fact traveling in a colder climate somewhere, having the time of their lives. Maybe I watched Frosty the Snowman one too many times in my youth...
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