The Gnome in my garden

Have you ever gotten one of those CRAZY Christmas gifts and you aren't quiet sure what to do with it? Plus you can't put it in a garage sale because someone is going to ASK you about the gift.
Hence, the Gnome in my garden. It's sort of a "tradition" now. It all started out one year when my Mom made my sister's family one for Christmas.

You know how Mom's are, God bless them. My Mom does "ceramics".......so we are always getting some kind of funky ceramic things for Christmas and other.

A couple of years ago when my family went home to Iowa to visit our families, we had a great time with my sister's Gnome....who by the way is named "Gnomie"....great name huh? Really orginal and all. We all had decided that Gnomie looks like that very famous "Travelocity" Gnome on the TV ads.

That summer, all kinds of fun stuff happened with Gnomie while we were at my sister's house visiting.
The first big thing that happened was......my kids held him ransom one day and sent a note to my sister Jennifer, that read something like "we have your Gnome hostage, if you ever want to see him alive again, follow the clues"....so we did and they led us all on a "Gnome hunt" of sorts...one clue led to another until finally we found Gnomie, bound and gagged....literarly, and in my sisters clothes dryer! HA! We all had a great laugh over that! She was mortified that they would have done that to the little Gnome, but then, she knows my boys!

Then we even took Gnomie on trips.
Me and my sister decided to do some "bonding" with our two 14 year old daughters and make some memories with them and both of us so we decided to take a trip. Just the girls. We had a hard time deciding where to go, I wanted to go to one town in Iowa and Jenny wanted to go to another place where they vacation at every year. Finally, we made a mutual decision to pick a "nuetural" site by going to Nebraska City, Nebraska and stay at the "Arbor Lodge." Right, the famous one with the whole Arbor Day tree thing going on.
We packed the car and the girls and away we went, Gnomie was with us as well. He went to the pool with us.....he went on hikes with us. I know people thought we were NUTS! My sister even took a photo of Gnomie who had secretly climbed into my bed while I was sleeping. Hummmm.......

This is what led my Mom to make a "Gnomie" for the Mahan family this past Christmas and aren't we fortunate? Every family needs one right?

We forgot to take him on our last family trip which was to Biloxi, MS. over Easter and I really would have felt very foolish taking him into the nice resort hotel we stayed at anyways, so I found him a happy spot in the "Secret Garden" so that he wouldn't feel neglected, and wouldn't be in my house.

That is him hiding in front of the rosemary.
I imagine he has a very proper British accent like the "real" Travelocity Gnome on TV and radio.
I love it when he says......"last one in is a stinky tomato" in that cool accent. Not Gnomie, the Travelocity Gnome.
Hey, there's a thought, can my Gnome speak? Hummmmm........