Snow Globe, Magic

She's living in a snow globe. Turn the world upside down and presto-- there's mesmerizing swirling white confetti. Shake. Repeat. Day after day. Confined in a bubble. Same old scenery. Stock snowman, fir tree, gingerbread house. She's dizzy from being upside down, blood rushing to her head.
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When she is three her mom tells her that Santa Claus doesn't exist. Jewish girls don't get presents for Christmas. She spins the dreidel and lights candles, trying hard to remember the words to the blessing from night to night. She thinks her friends are silly, believing that someone comes down their chimney overnight, but she keeps the secret to herself for years, until they finally figure out the truth.

The magic ended for her then. Later, she put lost teeth under her pillow so the Tooth Fairy could come and take them, but only because she wanted the dollar bill that she got in return. Her parents took the first tooth and put it in a cup of Coke. In the morning it was gone, not even a trace left behind. She stopped begging to be allowed to drink soda.

She discovers magic in nature, never ceasing to find wonderment in the metamorphasis of tadpoles. Staring at the embryos in their clear eggs under her kiddie microscope, watching them change hour by hour, wiggling in their jelly sacs. Wriggling free, so tiny. The limbs popping out, one by one. First a bump by the head, then suddenly, arm, complete with tiny webbed fingers, perfect. She knows that once she was a tiny embryo, tries to imagine herself as a tadpole, so hard to believe without a shred of memory of her watery beginnings.

She's jealous of her friend's daughter, Grace, six years old. She believes in Santa Claus but finds the thought of him coming down her chimney scary, begs her parents to cover the chimney. When she finds a necklace of fairy dust under the tree with the inscription "Follow your dreams," she's elated. Her friend, Katie, miraculously, received the same present, Grace tells her with amazement. Grace's imagination knows no bounds. Her mom straps a horn to Snowfall's head and her horse is instantly transformed into unicorn. The magic permeates the little girl's richly imaginative world, and although it is too late for her, she basks in Grace's joy.