The Evil Snowman - Turning Joyous Moments Upside Down

 This is my little snow village that I put up each year.  My ten year old granddaughter, Genevieve, has always been fascinated with it and loves moving things around.  Yesterday I picked her up after school and as I was working in the kitchen preparing an appetizer to take to a Christmas party, she walked into the foyer to see the Christmas village.  After a few minutes I heard a noise that did not sound very promising.  A small thump on the floor with a distinctive small after effect - sort of like when an earthquake hits and then the aftershock occurs.  Well, that example may be a little overkill, but you know what I mean.  I knew what had happened, but I waited.

The next thing I heard was, "Mamaw, do you have any glue"?   I very calmly said, "What happened?" and walked into the foyer.  She was holding one of the little village people - a little girl - in one hand and the little girl's broken arm in the other.  She explained to me that when she saw the little girl running towards something, she wondered what effect it would be if she were running away from something so she had placed the "evil snowman" (as she called him) where it would look as if he were chasing the little girl with a broom - and then the girl "tripped and fell" and slipped through her fingers.  I laughed and she began to laugh too.  She knows how much I love my little village and I could tell she was really upset that she broke it.  I calmed her down by telling her that I didn't think we should fix the little girl's arm because this was how Christmas memories were made - and each year when we put the village up, we would remember how her imagination had run away with her by creating scenes with the village people.  And we would laugh about it just as we were laughing now.

I like to "document" memories with my camera, so this morning as I was setting it up as she had done, I noticed one thing that I didn't yesterday.  She had placed the Bad Snowman and the little girl in front of the school building.  Was this coincidence?  Or was it a sub-conscience effect of her dealing with the tragedy of last week's events?  I feel sure it was a coincidence, but it reminded me how our world has been turned upside down in the last week and that almost every thing we see and do in the aftermath of such tragedy can knock the breath out of some of our most joyous moments.

I will try hard to keep this little memory alive in a positive way.  A little girl with an active imagination playing with the Christmas Village figurines.  Just wishing we could all wake up from the nightmare of last week and find it never happened and that there could be tranquil scenes in Newtown such as the little girl running towards her father.  But then I'm reminded that this village scene and the characters represented is in another place in another time.....the scene depicts life over half a century ago when brooms were the only weapons in the hands of Evil Snowmen.