After waiting patiently for the snow to finally stop falling last week, the winds to die down to a slight breeze and the colds to run their courses through the home; the children and I finally ventured on outside to enjoy some of the snow magic.
With perfect snowball making snow, my children were determined to have a snowman they could call their own. Since my snowman skills are less than impressive, while I went to work on our new friend, the boys enjoyed their time sleigh riding, building forts and throwing snow at one another.
Even with the amount of snow that we received, we decided that a doll-sized friend made out of all items we could find outside would be the perfect companion. The boys collected stones for the eyes and nose, found twigs from our mum bush that we planted last year for the arms; and after much rolling, shaping, breaking and remolding, our new friend was born.
We named our new friend, Fred and we all gathered around to add our own little touches to him. A little bit of snow here, a twist of an arm there. He was perfect. The magic of the season was glowing in my children's eyes.
But with all things, Fred came with a valuable lesson. Like many things in life, Fred was fragile and needed a gentle touch. Unfortunately we learned the hard way that without that soft touch, things that we work hard on will and can break.
Although Fred's time with us was short-lived, he brought the boys together, with a lesson in patience, creativity and delicacy filled with compassion, amusement, laughter and pure enjoyment. Thank you Fred, you will forever live on in our hearts.
The Short Life of Fred the Snowman