Do You Want to Build A Sandman?

It began as all good intentions do, a mother hopeful for the idyllic Christmas portrait to share with family and friends. She'd traded her St. Louis winters for the sunny shores of Florida over a decade before and embraced a tropical version of the holiday season. 

It was supposed to be a snowman, hewn from the granules of coquina. Having never seen snow, nor having an understanding of how sand differed from the frozen matter, my little sister and I had no contributing talents for the task. This, however, did not dissuade our mother from her holiday card vision. 

Our enthusiastic attempts at sand art translated into a blob-shaped mountain. Masking our lack of sand-shaping skills, we collected seaweed strewn along the shoreline, then completed our sandman with a winter hat and scarf befitting the fish out of water situation that it was. 

I don't remember if anyone commented on our final family Christmas card flop, but I do remember the chilly breeze and high spirits of our best Florida holiday efforts. The magic is in the experience, because who needs Frosty when you have Mr. Sandman?