A Moment of Silence, please...

We had a bit of snow here. Only a bit. Enough to build a snowman...on our van.

When it was time to take a ride, I planned on putting the snowman next to the garage to live out his days.

But this idea was met with four voices of resistance.

So our snowman went with us. On the hood of our van.

Let me tell you a little bit about our temporary friend. His name was...Pancakes. Don't ask. He was 2'3" and quite thin. Unlike the picture I found on the internet, he had a carrot nose and seedless red grape eyes. He was very quiet and, for some reason, loved deeply by all.

So off we went, up the road, with our friendly hood ornament guiding us. It was amazing the looks we got along the way. The kids actually watched each car we passed to see the reaction of the drivers and passengers. Some people laughed, some pointed, and some just gave us really confused looks.

We worried about Pancakes as we went along--he was shaking with fear and we knew his time was short. We took every curve and hill verrrry carefully. Every bump may have ended in his demise. The scariest part of the trip was the dreaded train tracks. We practically stopped to go across. But Pancakes survived.

As we merged onto the highway, thinking the worst danger had passed, we lost our beloved Pancakes. He had had enough. He leaped to his suicidal death. We were devasted. We screamed, "NOOOOOOO!!!!!" in unison.

Then I declared a moment of silence. One child could still be heard sobbing... And then we all went around and shared a memory of Pancakes that would make us smile. "He was such a good snowman", "He was always so quiet", I remember his cute carrot nose". Great memories.

We were still talking and laughing about it when we reached our destination 30 minutes later.

And, hey, it made our trip go by so much faster!

And so, in memory of Pancakes, a riddle for you:

What do you call a snowman with a tan?


A puddle.