Saturday, December 24, 2016

Flute War

About  five years ago on our annual East Coast New Years party, I purchased flutes for all the kids to make noise at "midnight". At 9 pm our time, we would watch the ball drop in New York City and then let the kids celebrate New Years with noise makers. After that, everyone goes home and is safe in bed before the drunks hit the road. The year of the flutes, it was time to go home and I told the kids they could take the flutes home with them. My sister in law Tiffani would have none of it. She was not allowing her four kids to take four flutes home (I really don't blame her). She made sure to hide the flutes at my place so that they kids couldn't take them home. I found them the next day and told her that they kids forgot their flutes.....and so the war began.

It began as Tiffani not wanting the flutes at her place, and me insisting I didn't want them at my place either. I think the first time we hid them in Tiffani's van and little Drewby found one as they were going down the road. Sometimes we don't see the flutes for months and then I will find one under my pillow after they have visited, or hanging in the shower. Lily once hid them in Emma's bed, and Nate duct taped a couple to the wheel well of Marty's car. That one came back to me in the Safeway parking lot, a flute duct taped to my car window. Not long after that, Tiffani passed us going down the road and we had our sun roof open. Lily was terrified that they would toss a flute into our car!

In the last 5 years the 4 flutes are now down to one. Not sure where the others are....someday one of us is going to move and find one that was a casualty of war.

Today I found one in my makeup drawer. Now I get into that drawer every day, and Tiffani and kids have not been here in weeks. The only visitor we had yesterday was my MOM!!! I can't believe she took sides in this war.

So the kids are trying to come up with a strategy to get the flute back to the Stauffer clan. Lily can't keep a secret or hold a poker face, so we may just not tell her the plan. Wish us luck.

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