Maybe it’s a sign of age, or a sign that I have too much going on in my head, but as vividly as I remember who gave me certain ornaments, I can’t remember who gave me others. Take this glass square, profile of a snowman, easily one of my heaviest ornaments but one that always makes me smile. I’ve associated it with my older sister for years now, but she’s confirmed it didn’t come from her. So apologies to you, dear friend or family member, if you gifted me this ornament one year. I have clearly forgotten its origin, but it is still full of associations.
For instance back when my older brother and sister-in-law were poor grad students at UM, my sister-in-law made many of their Christmas gifts, much like my younger sister does these days by knitting up a storm each December while she works on her PhD. But my sister-in-law went through a phase of making snowmen families: a tall daddy, a medium mother, and a small child snowman, complete with wooden hats and ribbon scarves. They were made from logs that she whittled near the center to give them a neck of sorts between the head and body. And she painted them white, adding black buttons and eyes and using smaller twigs painted orange for carrot noses. My mother still puts them out near the fireplace and every year I imagine their panic being so close to the flames on Christmas day.
But the reason I associate this ornament with my older sister is because of her snowman phase. Maybe the phase never ended–she’s confirmed all her snowman themed decorations are still around–but they must share space with all her owls now. When people have obsessions (my mom’s include elephants and Santas) it makes it easy to find them little gifts. In fact I think my mom went through a snowman phase, too. I remember buying her S’mores snowmen ornaments, snowmen made out of fake marshmallows, skiing on graham crackers and chocolate. Snowmen, snowmen everywhere. Behold the “Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.” “One must have a mind of winter” to see they work for not only Christmas but the early months of the new year.
