Sthnowman!

The picture here of my granddaughter Elania, was taken about five or six years ago. But every year about this time of the year I am reminded of Elania, and of this picture. You see at our house, as part of our decorating for the winter season, my wife brings out all of her snowmen decorations.

At the time of the picture, Elania held quite a fascination with snowmen and one in particular. At a time when you might expect a little girl to carry around a teddy bear or a doll, my granddaughter took a real liking to a snowman candle! That's right, a fairly large, heavy, wax candle that was shaped and decorated as a cute, smiling snowman.

Everywhere that she went throughout the house the snowman was close at hand. And if she ever misplaced him she would set off through the house looking for him and asking us over and over the one word question, "Sthnowman?", "Sthnowman?", with the cutest little distressed look on her face.

Elania carried the snowman for a very long time, dropping him frequently on our hardwood floors, until he was so dented, flattened and misshapen that he was hardly recognizable at all as a snowman.

So that's what she is holding so closely in the picture--her very favorite "Sthnowman!", or at least what was left of him!

But the truth is she never seemed to notice or mind his deformities. I guess that there's just nothing quite like the comforting warmth of cold wax!