Yes, we DO want to Build a Snowman

So, Andy and I were part of the probably small population in town that was excited about the snowstorm a couple weeks or so ago.  Big, fat flakes that you could hear falling, if the wind wasn't too much anyway.  And it was beautiful packing snow!  Naturally, Andy started throwing snowballs as we were leaving work...until the second one I threw hit him square in the face.  

Still, when we got home, we texted a couple of friends and put on our boots and cuddleduds--it was time to build a snowman.  I'm not sure what it is we made, but it was made out of snow.  

HAAAAAAAAI.

In the end, we figured he looked more like a muppet than anything else.  A sad, drunken, mangled muppet.  The red dye from Krystal's gloves really made the eyes, with the cherry tomato pupils, properly terrifying.  And we made him tall.  Here's another shot for size comparison.  

With a demon little brother next to him.

Because why not?  Andy and I are the kind of people to still build a blanket fort in the living room.  We'll flip back and forth from a reasonable discussion to songs that are narrating our current actions, filling in the word "waffle" or its variant "wafflecone" when we need more syllables.  Who says we have to grow out of playing?  Whenever I made my imaginary list of things desired in a future partner, "someone I can play with" was definitely up there.  It's a trait I look for in my friends, too.  The type of play can vary--board games vs verbal jousts vs frisbee--but my friends tend to know how to play.  Different kinds of play are met with different social opinions:  people can look down on D&D for being "weird" or building a snowman as "childish."  On top of that, everyone has different scales for "childish" just as everyone has different opinions on what is funny.  There will be elements that we can all agree on, but personal preferences are going to vary along the way. Laughter and play tend to go hand in hand, that laughter seems to be a side effect of play.  I'm not sure I would go as far to say that laughter cannot happen without play (in that maybe play can happen in an instant, if given a broader definition) but there is decidedly a connection.

So bearing that in mind, some kind of play is important (vital!) to our household, but it is also healthy in our relationship with each other and in our relationships with other people.  I do not understand how someone can keep up with the pressure of taking themselves seriously all the time.  We're ridiculous creatures.  So many times in my life I have been at that precipice where I was either going to laugh or cry--I tend to choose laughter.  Both have a kind of catharsis to them.  

As a result, Andy and I don't take ourselves seriously, but we definitely take our play seriously.  I won't even make the claim that this is the secret to life or true happiness, but it certainly seems to make the rest easier to swallow.