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'Twas a week after Christmas and all through the house
I spent the day cleaning along with my spouse.
I tore down the stockings we'd hung with such care
‘Cause there was a Bowl Game real soon on the air.
The kids were undoing all the work we had done;
"Why don’t you two go somewhere else to have fun?!"
With Lynn in her sweat pants and I in my jeans
We’d just settled into our cleaning routines,
When all of a sudden there arose such a crash;
I sprang from the mop and was off like a flash.
Away through the kitchen 'mid dishes and pans
I ran to the front room and threw up my hands.
The TV was on, and its flickering glow
Lit up the whole room and the subjects below.
Now there on the floor with a faint sheepish grin
Lay the younger of two where the rocker had been.
And over the sofa with lights that still flashed
Bent the once stately Christmas tree, totally trashed.
With ornaments bouncing all over the floor
Avoiding the wreckage, I stomped through the door.
"Now Mandie! Now Carrie! Now jump from this room!
Now dash away! Dash away! And get me the broom!"
Like rabbits that leap from a hiding place found
They sprang to their feet and were gone in a bound.
They returned in a while with the dust pan and broom
And with tears on their faces they entered the room.
How badly I felt at how sad I had made them;
In spite of the tree and the mess and the mayhem
I knelt down and lifted them both from the floor
And hugged them and kissed them and hugged them some more.
This is a season we all hold so dear
A time of thanksgiving, of joy and good cheer.
These are the days when a family draws near;
In our hearts it's still Christmas, and it shall be all year.
Dan Wagner
Dec. 26, 1992
(Revised 12/30/2010)
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