who says he is NO GOOD anymore???

One day as I was walking from my home to run a few errands, I happen upon this dirty snowman on the side of the street... not too sure is he is being thrown away... or put out to dry to get cleaned up??? I can only hope that it is the latter as he is still pretty much in good shape... with just a bit of washing and scrubbing - he would be as good as new... and will display nicely for the Holidays...

Anyway, seeing this snowman made me think of one of my favorite Children's Book ever, The Velveteen Rabbit. The tale of a stuffed bunny rabbit that was given to a boy one Christmas, loved, and then over shadowed by other fancier toys, and eventually thrown to the side and forgotten. In the end of course, the stuffed rabbit was granted by a magical fairy his wish - to become real.

The book was written and originally published in 1922, written by Margery Williams and illustrated by William Nicholson. I did not become aware of it though till the mid 80's when, for Christmas one year, I was given the Video recording version of the book, narrated by Meryl Streep. I remember loving the story so much that, not only did I play the recording over and over, I also made it a tradition to read the book every XMas from then on.

To this date, I do still have the book, and I do still re-read it each and every Holiday season. It still gives me that same warm & fuzzy feeling each time -- just as all toys of mine will always have a place in my heart... even after I have passed some of them on to friends and loved ones, or donated to children's charities... I can only hope they do love them and take good care of them -- as much as I did....