Buddy's Best Snow Day

Buddy sat by the window watching huge flakes of powdery beauty, drop from the sky. Each flake fell delicately onto the landscape, turning it white, like frosting on a cake. His chin rested on his hands as he stared at the magnificent wonderland. He could no longer see the steps or the porch, magic had covered them almost a foot deep.

An image began to build, a giant snowman with the new red scarf Buddy had gotten for Christmas, wrapped around it's neck. He could use the torn mittens, the ones that had snagged on the fence post, for his hands.

Buddy jumped off the sofa and ran to the mud room. He began to throw all the stuff that was in the basket, onto the floor. He rummaged through it and found an old jacket, a crumpled up hat, a pair of snow pants and lots of mismatched socks. A pillow case from the laundry room served as the perfect holder for his finds.

Leaning the full pillow case beside the door, he began to dress to go out. This in itself was a lot of work and Buddy began to sweat beneath the many layers of clothing.


“Hi, honey. Maybe you better wait until the snow stops, before you go out to play. It's really coming down hard.” His mom had heard the clatter from the kitchen and come to see what he was up to, knowing that his little brain was working overtime. She quickly realized that he had big plans, noticing the pillow case by the door.

Big blue eyes looked up at her. “Aw, Mom. I have to go now. It might disappear if don't hurry. Wait til you see what I'm going to build. He'll...I mean, 'it', will be awesome.” The last snow they'd had, had come and gone so quickly, by the time he got off the bus that day, it had completely melted away. He was taking no chances today. He had a plan.

“Well...don't stay out too long, I wouldn't want to lose my favorite little man, out in that blizzard.” She picked up his glove and held it for him to put on. “Now promise that you'll come in when your cheeks get cold. Okay?”

Buddy nodded and picked up the heavy load by the door, grunting under the weight of it. Finding that he couldn't open the door while holding onto the heavy bag, he looked up at his mom with pleading eyes.

Mom opened it and closed it behind him, pulling the curtain back to watch him. She had to laugh at his ingenuity.


He shoved the bag down the steps in front of him with his foot. Carefully, he tried to hold onto the rail, while his boots went down deep into the snow, until he felt the hard surface of the next step. Finally at the bottom, he pulled the bag behind him until he reached the perfect spot in the yard. Right in the middle. He wanted everybody that drove by to see his creation, once it was finished. Sharing was a big part of Buddy's personalty.

In a little while, he had two giant snow balls rolled out, side by side. One was a little bigger than the other— both were bigger than him and he was panting from the hard work.


His mom and dad watched from the window, as he struggled to roll the second huge ball on top of the other, falling down on his butt, time and again. They had to laugh at his antics. Finally, when Buddy laid back in the snow and gave up, they took pity on him.

Bundling up quickly, they went out in the yard, trudging through the deep snow to the place their son lay. At least it wasn't snowing as hard and the flakes that fell on their eyelashes quickly wiped away. Buddy was still lying in the snow, tears flowing down his red, cold cheeks.

When he saw his parents standing next to him, he sat up. His dad reached down and took his hands, pulling him up and brushing the clunks of snow off his backside.

After a hiccup or two, he said, “I just can't do it.” Wet gloves went to his eyes, as he tried to cover his tears. He knew he was too grown up for tears now, but they just wouldn't stop.

Daddy hugged him tightly. “Maybe we can do it together.” He bent his head down, even with his son's. “What do you say, want to try again?”

Buddy nodded, then hugged his dad.

“I'll be back in a minute.” Daddy went down to the shed, making huge tracks in the yard. When he came back, he handed Buddy two boards.


Buddy looked at the boards and frowned. His dad just didn't understand how to build a snowman. At least not the kind he had in mind. Big old boards would look funny stuck into it.

Daddy took one board and tucked it into the largest ball, one end on the ground, then he did the same with the other one. “Okay, now we have a bridge to push this other one up on. Y'all come and stand on the side of me and push.”

After much shoving and pushing, mostly from daddy, the second ball of wonder stood atop the biggest one.


“Yea, we did it!” Buddy was ecstatic. Gone were the tears of desperation, replaced with bright eyed joy. His creation was beginning to take shape. Immediately, he began to roll another ball, his chapped and red lips spread into a wide smile of joy.

“Let's save that one for a little while, son.” Daddy was worried that Buddy was getting too cold. “Let's go get some hot chocolate and warm our hands, then we'll come back out later.

“I really want to finish it, Dad. Please.” Despite the fact his hands were almost frozen, he didn't want to give up.

“Come on son, just for a warm up. We'll come back in little while.”

Buddy dropped the ball of snow, his smile gone.


Sometime later, cuddled up next to Cocoa, his lab, Buddy was happily drinking hot cocoa and munching on chocolate chip cookies. “I'm really warm now, Daddy. Can we go back out and finish the snowman?”

“Soon.” Daddy's favorite show was on T.V. And he wanted to finish watching it, not realizing that darkness was falling outside.

Buddy got up and went to the rack by the wood stove. His clothes were toasty warm and dry, so he began to lay them in the chair, ready to put them on. “I'm just going to get dressed, so I'll be ready.”


His dad glanced over at him, then out the window. Dark. He knew that Buddy would be extremely disappointed if he didn't at least get to put the top on the snowman. He got up and began to dress too.

They walked out into the night with flashlights and a plastic bag. Daddy showed Buddy how to place his flashlight on the bag and point to the half made snowman. Together they managed to form a ball large enough for the head and placed it on the body. Buddy immediately ran to his bag of clothes sitting on the porch and dragged it over to their undressed frozen statue.


“Here, Daddy, you put the hat on him. I'll put his gloves...oh no.”

“What?”

Buddy's face fell. His lip pouted and his eyes were cast with sadness. “We forgot to make arms. Now what do we do?”

Daddy covered his desire to laugh with his hand, and instead said, “Come with me.” Daddy saw that his son was a heavyhearted little boy, standing in the glow of the flashlight.

Buddy followed his dad over to side of the house. Sticking up through the snow, were branches from the tree they'd cut down earlier in the week. Daddy hadn't had time to cut it up and get it ready for the wood stove yet. He reached into the snow that covered the pile and pulled out two thick branches. They were old and had dried out, so he was able to break them in two.

“Yea, Daddy! You made arms. And fingers too!”

While Buddy stuck the branches into the snowman's upper body and fiddled with the gloves, trying to make them stay on, Daddy disappeared. Leaving Buddy alone in the dark, with only the glow from the flashlight to keep him company. He looked around. It was deathly quiet. He stepped on a piece of the broken off branch. The sound of it snapping scared him so bad, he fell down face first in the snow when he tried to run. Scrambling to his feet quickly, he spied his dad coming out of the door, a sigh of relief puffed from his chest.

“Daddy! You left me!”

“Only for a minute, son. I'm right here now, and look what I've got.”

Buddy squinted his eyes and leaned closer. “Oh neat. Can I put them on?”

“Sure.” Daddy held out his hand and Buddy picked up the Oreo cookies.

Daddy stood beside him. “Try digging out a little hole for them to fit into. Like this.” He scraped a circle of snow away and waited for Buddy to place the cookie into it. “Perfect.”

“That's so cool, Dad. Good thinking.” He finished all the cookies and stood back to look. “Here, Daddy, put his scarf around his neck.”

Daddy reached down and picked Buddy up in his arms. “You do it, son.”


Buddy was thrilled. He'd been thinking about that red scarf around his snowman's neck all day long. Now he was the one that got to put it on, because his dad was helping him.

“Oh yeah, a few more things to add.” Daddy reached in his pocket and pulled out a carrot for a pipe, two figs for eyes, and a small tin plate for a mouth.

Buddy put everything on except the mouth. “How does this work?”

Daddy took the tin plate and shoved it deep into the spot for the mouth, it formed a perfect smile, shiny and bright.


Buddy hugged his dad's neck. “I wish the cars going by could see him.”

Daddy didn't answer.


They walked to the house and Buddy was sent to take a warm bath. When he came downstairs all snugly warm in pajamas, he climbed on the sofa and looked out the window. The snowman stood tall and regal in a blue glow of light.

Buddy's mouth hung open in delight, his eyes wide with wonder. “Daddy! Look!” He ran to the door and opened it wide, letting a rush of frigid air into the room. There on the ground beside the snowman, he saw the flood light that was used at Christmas to light the house decorations. Daddy had placed it so that it shined directly up the snowman.

“Thank you, Daddy. It looks so wonderful.” He gently closed the door. “Do you think people will like it when they drive by?”

Daddy hugged him. “If you listen carefully, you'll hear the toot of a horn every now and then. I think they like it a lot.”

Buddy went back to his spot of the sofa and waited. Soon he saw the lights of a car coming down the street. It slowed down and tooted the horn. His little hands clapped together in delight as he looked over at his father.

“We did good, Daddy.” His little face lit up with love. “Together.”