A Week Before Christmas

'Twas a week before Christmas, and all through our house,

The boys were on iTunes, choosing music with a mouse.

And Dale in his red shirt and I with some treats,

Were headed to a party to hang with our peeps.

When out on the front porch the doorbell did ring,

And the dogs started barking, and growling, and things.

"We won't let them in here, You will come to no harm."

Thus said Duke and Liberty, our burglar alarms.

The boys looked through the peephole, but nothing did see.

So they opened the door thinking "Package Delivery!"

It was a package, indeed, but not from Fed Ex.

It was shiny and pretty, with a note nonetheless.

"It's a Christmas miracle" said the note, so sweetly written,

The boys were wary; protectiveness kicked in.
They carefully opened the package that night,
Checking for bombs, anthrax, and other such frights.

The next day they told us of the mystery gift.
From what they were saying, we thought something amiss.

Sure enough, it's a gag gift from a few years ago,

And it's really quite creepy, as the picture does show.

The gift had been passed at a white elephant party,
It was mocked and made fun of; the laughter was hearty.
But it had special meaning to one of the girls,
Seems she'd had one just like it in her growing-up world.

We'd long since lost thought of that silly decoration,
We'd heard rumors of its demise in a small conflagration.
So when gifted to us, we were quite taken aback,
The boys wanted it thrown into a large garbage sack.

But the friends we suspect of this dastardly prank,
Are ones we hold dear, and to them we say, "Thanks."
You'll get back this angel, this fun Christmas gift,
And we will be laughing--we'll keep the power strip!


*My sincerest apologies to the family of Clement Clarke Moore (no relation) for the misuse of his classic poem.*