My son is now 13 and I find myself remembering how to play at different stages/ages. Now we are in our guitar hero days and let me tell you – I CAN WAIL.

Congrats on slipping the grip on the firm headlock you had placed upon your inner-child!

This shared memory reminds me so much of the same scene in our household last year – the serious fun and effort to design the perfect snowman, “Ned”. It also lead to a bittersweet learning as well for our then 4 year-old, now five-year old fellow co-conspirator of your pink tornado. The melancholy learning that snowmen and women are but temporary things. Last year’s stingy snowfall only made for a few days for the joys of building Frosty-kin, which were all too soon melted away.

It was heartbreaking indeed that first time that “Ned” and “Mrs. Ned” became puddlefied, leaving behind the wet remains of hats and scarves which had so nattily beclothed our snowpeople.

I wish I could spare my daughter the fact of finding out that things in this life (people, pets, plants, and cheese sculptures) are not permanent. I am blessed that she has learned the lesson from the snowpeople and not from another loss. Plus, we learned that it was just as fun for the rest of last Winter and now this Winter to continue to make “Neds” and “Mrs. Neds” and that we’re waiting for the perfect snow to make the tallest “Ned IX” and “Mrs. Ned VII”.

Cling tight to the memory track of this wonderful time it’s precious!

Awright, time fer more cocoa!