Christmas with a twist...

'Twas the eve before Christmas and all through Vienna
Not a creature was stirring
Except Mom with insomnia.

The stockings were hung on the chimney; one, down it fell...
I can't seem to make it stay up--oh, what the hell!

The children, nestled up next to Mommy all snug,
"Enough! Stop kicking!" "But I just want to hug!"

And the whole family trying to get over this cough,
To try to get some sleep around here sure can be tough.

While we waited all evening for the clatter outside
Of Rocking Santa, through the streets, on his firetruck ride

But he never showed up, and the children became quite sad.
And Daddy and I, with two disappointed kids, were quite mad.

We heard him get close, so near that we ran to the street
With the children shouting about how this was so neat!

Yet he turned a corner left, not right, I do fear
And thus, it turned out, he would never appear.

So as we awaited and tried to keep the kids mellow
I made us all hot chocolate topped with marshmallow

Reassuring them, saying, "Santa could not forget us!"
But it appears that this year, it was Orchard Street hiatus.

The question then: tomorrow will Santa have come down our chimney?
Perhaps...but with the flue closed, we should leave out a key.

We are hoping Santa does not follow a diet gluten-free
So he can enjoy at least one homemade Christmas cookie.

Yet my children, so wise in their years, know of Christmas the art...
That the Santa spirit is the giving that comes from the heart.

It is a spirit that long lives within and surfaces each year
Yet should not be limited to only when Christmas is near.

Yet it is only at Christmastime that such spirit is referred
to as Santa, to maintain the young wonder and mystery preferred.

So yes, on Christmas Day our children's eyes will shine bright
As they see gifts that appear with the morning's first light.

And perhaps there will be a little something in the tree...lo!
For Mommy and Daddy too...what a surprise! Ho Ho Ho!

Now here I am, wishing all of you *other* insomniacs so dear
A wonder-filled Christmas and a joyful New Year!