How Gnorman the Gnome Got his Gname!

I wrote about this last year, but I realize there are a few new 'riders' with us this year, so I'll explain.

It's one of those 'family' jokes. You know, when someone in the family uses a wrong word, and from that day on everyone calls it by that name, just to tease.

I think we do this because the 'wrong' word is such a funny thing is this family. My mother- in law- practically had her own language...most of the time we could figure out what she meant, but sometimes we were left scratching our heads. Such was the case the time she was telling us about a friend who got a foot infection after 'she stepped in cat fetuses'. Huh? Took me a minute to decipher that into 'cat feces' and all the while trying to keep a straight face! But, then again, I'd been doing it for so many years...

In our case it was my grandson. Two years ago,when he was 19, he was watching TV with his parents. A commercial came on with the Roaming Gnome for Travelocity. In front of his parents he referred to it as a *Norman*, which caused his parents to practically slide off the sofa laughing. Poor kid, he didn't even know what he'd said that was so funny. Soon my phone rang. My son couldn't wait to tell me his son's faux pas.

I reminded my son that my grandson came by it naturally, some of grandma's genes will always be with us!

So, from that day on whenever we see a gnome we say, "There's Norman"!

Poor James will never live it down...