Story of the Santa Flag

If I do not blog about this now, I will forget the story come Christmas '07 and it's just too special to lose.

Early Dec '06, E was having her turn on the weekly call to Gram Duck. E asked Gram how many days until Christmas which resulted in my yelling in the background "DO NOT TELL HER! DO NOT ANSWER THAT!" Well, E being the youngest, the miracle baby, means she is denied very little. Gram shot off how many days it was until Christmas without realizing first she had just sentenced me to xx days of "XX days until Christmas" every flippin' day. I told E that she and Gram both earned black marks in Santa's book. Not. The. Right. Thing. To. Say. Tears and sobs until Gram, who was now faster on her feet, told E that a grandma's magic is stronger than a mama's and she could make things right with Santa. Smiles abound but E still hadn't completely forgotten about the black marks. A few days later, Gram let me know that E was getting an early gift in the mail: a Santa flag with special instructions and a promise that this flag was covered with Grammy magic, it would help Santa find E's house and let him know she had been a very good girl all year long. It worked. A little too well maybe since now E taunts me with "Gram's magic is stronger than yours." but that is a small price to pay for the pleasure of watching the magic of a grandmother's love and the trust of a child at work.