But somehow all the dinosaurs died.
Then, the Arabs came...
Historically, here’s no problem having snowmen intermingled with a Nativity scene. Because of Global Warming, climate change has turned the Middle East into a hot, dry desert. Two thousand years ago, heavy snows were frequent there, and reindeer were more common than camels.
Dad was a great one for Christmas yard displays. Each year he would take the time to put together a display that delivered a message of Christmas cheer. He seemed to work secretly on this project, since we were never quite sure what would appear in the front yard until he finished. The backdrop was always the same, a salvaged wooden highway snow fence. He would build before the fence a scene as elaborated as a movie set.Fantastic panoramas that took on the changing themes of our family life.
Sometimes the messae was a simple one, "Happ Holidays from the Ware Family." with snowman, snow woman, and snow children cut outs representing everyone in the family. In later years he used the display to welcome Frank home from college and Billy home from the service. All of us had been portrayed in the annual display. Babies were announced, graduations honored, and homecoming prodigals were welcomed back to the family that always missed them, always worried a little when we were gone and always kept the lights on as a homing beacon.......
I'm not sure how others felt about it, but it was both heartwarming and a little embarrassing for me to see the giant snowman with a hand painted William Penn College banner welcoming me home from my freshman year. What had delighted me in my childhood made me a bit self-conscious at eighteen. Years later I looked at home movies of mom and all of us playing around the front yard with the banner waving in the hand of the frosty giant in the background. Mom directed me to stand up against the snowman and stretched out my arms to match the snowman's pose. It looked to me, through the grainy image of the film like I had an embarrassed or some other miserable expression on my face. Wanting to feel grown up, I probably felt foolish. If I had only realized that our Christmases together were limited, I might have acted more grateful and less humbug. I might have smiled for the man behind the camera.