The Christmas Gnome

Welcome to another addition to Friday's Fun Family Facts.

If you have not been following my blog over the past year let me catch you up. I have an interesting family! So on occasion, and always on Fridays, I post a story about things that have happened in my family. Usually these things are from my childhood but today I have a special treat...a glimpse into the present!

About 5 years ago we (my family) all got fed up buying cheap presents for everyone (which ironically cost more) and decided to take all the money we were spending on everyone and concentrate it on one person. The result, we spend less and get nicer things. Enter the Christmas Gnome...

Having an interesting family, it isn't possible to just do a normal name exchange. Without a certain element of mystery, competition and bitter sarcasm it just doesn't fly with us. The Christmas Gnome provided all those essential elements to our name exchange and for the last 5 years we have relied on him to help us navigate through the logistical nightmare that is buying presents for a big family.

I wanted to give you a glimpse into the mind of the Christmas Gnome (and consequently into the personality of my family) so I've copied an email that he wrote to my family below. Please know that everyone in my family is trying very hard to figure out which one of us is masquerading as this vicious little imp...it really has been a mystery. If any of you have an idea who it might be I would love to know!

Well,

I know you have been eagerly awaiting this email for days now, so let me get right to it...

This year we, the governing body of the Bishop/Cushing-and-Extension-Christmas-Gift-Purchase-and-Delivery-Extravaganza led by the illustrious Christmas Gnome, are going to experiment with something a little bit different.

Rather than just send a boring email with your gift recipient's name in it, we are going to make the actual name acquiring portion of the present exchange process part of the fun! You will be receiving an email in the next 24 hours with three clues as to who your secret gift recipient is for this year.

You will only have three days to figure out who your person is on your own and then I will send a cheat sheet so that you don't buy presents for the wrong person. The first person to email thechristmasgnome@gmail.com with a correct guess for who you think you have this year will win a highly coveted and desirable prize (to be awarded on Christmas day...).

As always you can begin "replying to all" with your Christmas lists so that your mystery Santa can know what to buy for you. Your Christmas list will be due no later than December 15th...a very nice day for things to be due indeed...

The amount to be spent this year is $50.00.

The Christmas Gnome

Here's what the Christmas Gnome thought would be good clues to describe me...I was not very happy!

JOHN
1) TALENT: The Scrabler...or is it Scrabbler?: Could win at Scrabble every time, if only spelling weren't an issue
2) LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8ISuRkO3Fs
3) ANIMAL: Shrew

Sometimes having an interesting family is fun. Other times, it's just down right painful!