Here Come the Snowmen ... in Life 
One night about a week or so ago, my oldest daughter asked me at dinner "Daddy, when are the decorations coming out? I have been waiting for a long time for them to come out." I stopped eating and paused to look at her. "Really? You've been waiting a long time?" She nodded. "Where is Gilbert and Sullivan? I have been waiting for them to come out too." Gilbert and Sullivan are stuffed snowmen. I'm really surprised she remembers them, considering she was only two years old last Christmas. "Oh I don't know, somewhere upstairs. Should I go get them?" I asked her smiling. "Yes!" she replied. So I got up from the table and headed out to start hauling all of our Christmas stuff down from the attic. After I finished stacking the boxes in the hallway, I began looking for the two snowmen. Due to my wife's labeling, they were pretty easy to find. My daughter excitedly darted from one box to another asking "where are they Daddy?" "Hmmmm ... maybe you should look in this box" I said pointing to the one that had their names marked on it. "Oh! There they are!" she joyfully exclaimed as she pulled them out. Gilbert and Sullivan had returned! My daughter "gets" Christmas this year, and she's no longer afraid of Santa Claus. Her excitement is contagious, making the holidays very enjoyable for us.
The rest of the my snowmen collection came out this weekend. Well, at least a majority of it. There's just too many now and not enough room. And the Lenox snowmen are just too dainty and fragile to have out now. They'll need to wait until the girls are older.
So, yeah, about the snowmen. Every year I make my own Christmas cards. I create the artwork and also write a story to accompany the image. One year's story contained the phrase " ... but one can never have too many snowmen." Apparently my family and friends took the story to heart, because every year after that I have received all sorts of snowmen. And so now I have a rather large collection, and it grows bigger ever year. And every year my wife tells me that I have enough. But I truly believe you can never have enough snowmen, and I still enjoy receiving them. Just don't tell my wife that. 
