Yesterday I shared the repeatable, year-after-year joy of the singing snowman, including the quest to find a replacement. The inevitable will happen. One year, I will pull down the Christmas decoration tubs from the top shelf in the garage, set the beloved singing snowman in the chair, press his hand, and he will not sing. Or worse, he will make the horrible garbled noise just before everything quits working. And I will find myself answering the question, “Where’s the snowman, Grandma?”
Before everyone arrived to celebrate Christmas, I moved the snowman to a bedroom. The kids could play with it, but it did not need to share its loud joy on repeat in the middle of a crowded living room when there was plenty of activity and entertainment. We ate lunch, cleared the table, and settled in to open gifts. It’s quite the adventure with little ones. We don’t open gifts one at a time—I know, some will gasp in disagreement. We all have our approaches for different reasons. We keep things moving.
My daughter had told me she had found a treasure—a couple treasures—on ebay. I didn’t know much, except the kids were excited, and something came in a hash brown box. It sounded, um, interesting? I opened a present, not the hash brown box, and I was shocked to find a singing snowman identical to the treasured one! We had been looking for years. Where had she found it? Well, I already gave that away. Ebay, of course. I showed it to my mom, who was the one who purchased the original. She was shocked. My daughter was pleased with her find and announced her discovery that the original was bought at Cracker Barrel. It all made sense. It looked like a Cracker Barrel item. Why hadn’t any of us thought of it?
The kids were too busy with their own gifts to pay much attention; plus, they had already tested it. I kept it tucked into the box and moved along to the next gift. I removed the wrapping paper to reveal a box with handwritten words in marker that stated, “hash browns.” My daughter had mentioned a hash brown box. I was intrigued. Hadn’t I already opened the ebay treasure? I looked at her inquisitively as I opened the box. I was surprised to find a singing Santa and Mrs. Claus inside—and even more surprised to find out the three musical items had been released together and available at Cracker Barrel the same year. And my daughter found them all!
Of course, they had already tested them all, but I needed to try them as well. Santa and Mrs. were not as loud as the snowman, and I’ll put them out every year, but I’ll reserve my extra snowman for when my existing snowman no longer works. (I’ll probably still use him as a decoration, because he’s one of my favorite Christmas decorations. I’ll just have two in the house!)
I’m not sure what my favorite part of the gift was—receiving a backup snowman and with bonus friends, watching my mom’s shock that someone actually found a replacement after we looked for years, or the joy on my daughter’s face after quite the accomplishment. Actually, I know my favorite. It’s the fact that a moment in time and a simple item brought together four generations—my mom, my daughter, myself, and my grands—and on that day, in that moment, we were all crowded into one room with our family, making memories together.
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