Not Even a Mouse

 

’Twas the night before Christmas,
when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring,
not even a mouse.

 
Well, if no one is stirring, I suppose that’s bad for this Christmas feast’s cheese fondue pot: the cheese may very well clump together. Better crank up the heat on that bad boy and wake someone up to get it going again!
 
With Christmas just one week away, I hope you’re making your final preparations for a festive holiday time. Hopefully you’re wrapping up your shopping (literally!) and, if necessary, making mad dashes to the mall to pick up those last-minute stocking stuffers. Careful, though: those places can sometimes be so crowded that you’ll feel like you’re being herded along like rattle – er, cattle, and locating your car in the crowded parking lot may make it seem like you’re a mouse in a maze trying to find the cheese at the end. (If you find it, would you please share some with yours truly?)
 
Christmastime can certainly feel crazy, what with the afore-mentioned shopping, millions of activities to get to, and visiting those relatives who make family dynamics seem more like family dynamite. Then there are the commercial Christmas song parodies that are more annoying than a bad case of fleas (really, how many more times do we have to suffer through “Deck the Malls”?), but even in this, I strive to remain a contented rat. (At least with the last one I can stuff some fodder from my nestlet into my ears.) I’m sure I don’t have to remind you of those who are lonely this year; maybe they’ve lost a loved one, maybe they’re themselves forgotten. (Maybe they never came home.) Let’s be thankful, too, that we have ears to hear those annoying commercials, and that there’s flea medicine to stop that scratching! (What? I figured you had enough of a lecture on priorities!) This Christmas, let’s draw together in love so that not even a mouse feels left out. And whatever you do, be sure to keep stirring the cheese in that fondue pot – I’m hungry!
 
Keepin’ it squeak,
Bob