Grandpa Mel was the “hider,” and he was very creative at finding new locations to baffle the “finders.” His reward was seeing the excitement on a child’s face when the snowman was spotted. Our reward was the twinkle in Grandpa and Grandma Scott’s eyes.
Surely the little snowman was new and clean at one time, but somewhere along the way it got shabby and dirty, and lost its hat and scarf. Being left out at the curb, tucked in its hiding spot on the Christmas tree, didn’t help its image. How frantic the search when after Grandma left us, we realized the little snowman had not been retrieved before the tree was put out for pickup. Searching along the gutter and digging through dirty snow and slush, Mike found the tree and dug it out. Even then the little snowman was not evident and all seemed lost until joyous shouts of “Here it is!” were heard.
Since it is not possible for everyone in our family to have the original “Dirty Little Snowman,” we created “stand-ins” for each of our children. Our hope is for them to continue this tradition which delighted our family and highlighted Christmas get-togethers at Grandma and Grandpa Scott’s house.
It would be wonderful to be all-seeing and all-knowing, so we could simultaneously visit each of our children’s homes and watch every grandchild discover “The Dirty Little Snowman,” and share the wonder of this tradition with them.
Who knows, perhaps Grandpa and Grandma Scott are “stand-ins” for us.
Merry Christmas
