The village sighs in relief the typhoon is gone
\nand here comes the sun on a Xmas dawn
\nSanta\u2019s annual global trip has been delayed
\nmail and presents will be late we are afraid
\nbut look! lots of fallen fruit out on the lawn.<\/p>\n
One Xmas morning it was quiet as a mouse
\nas we brought baby Jesus from house to house
\nsinging Christmas carols we ate bunelos dagu
\nthough twenty years ago I can still smell pagu
\nyan bulala titityas made by Mrs. Santa Claus.<\/p>\n
We walked to the guma yu’us mass at midnight
\nchurch decorations with palm fronds a delight
\ndown the chalan kaskao we heard happy noise
\nmaila fan baila dandan with Marpo Valley Boys
\nBaby Jesus in the manger was a wonderful sight<\/p>\n
A happy voice on our old truck radio
\nsays listen for the sleigh bells in the snow
\nbut I think the first thing that I heard
\nwas pounding hoofs of Santa\u2019s reindeer herd
\nas a Christmas crescendo began to grow.<\/p>\n
Of course there were all those silver bells
\nand all those delicious Xmas cookie smells
\nwhat I remember about the absolute most
\nwas the smell of a nearby island pig roast
\ncrispy skin and cheek fat in my brain dwells.<\/p>\n
All around the Xmas tree kitty chased a mouse
\nknocked the tree over and woke the whole house
\nwe put it back up adding a fresh popcorn string
\nsang songs that Tun Henry boy taught us to sing
\nand ate hard tack biscutsu baked by Santa\u2019s spouse.<\/p>\n
Seems like almost every year we got a Xmas rat
\nthat had a long tail and always looked quite fat
\nclimbing around sniffing goodies mother cooks
\nsticking a whiskered nose into crannies and nooks
\nand underneath the chair where Santa always sat. <\/p>\n
In upstate NY us brothers planted trees out back
\npulling young saplings out of the woods in a sack
\nthey were mostly blue spruce or red and white pine
\ntwelve years later they made Xmas trees quite fine
\nwe cut one then went in for a hot chocolate snack.<\/p>\n
Aunt Mary made garlands from small thread spools
\nwe tied them with ribbon and glued on glitter jewels
\nthen around the tree it went with strings of popcorn
\nin anticipation of some presents on Christmas morn
\nsmells from the kitchen brought out babies drools.<\/p>\n
A bearded man from the North Pole Santa Claus
\nreindeer pulled his sleigh with magic flying paws
\nbringing presents all around the world he would go
\nthrough typhoons tropical storms and ice and snow
\nwhile laughing with lots of ho ho hos and gee haws.<\/p>\n
A simple red and white peppermint candy cane
\nsweet memories of it are stuck inside my brain
\naround and around went those delicious stripes
\non my tongue mouth chewing down my pipes
\non my sticky fingers it left gooey red stains.<\/p>\n
I found a present underneath the Xmas tree
\nthat at the time meant the whole world to me
\nusually it was much needed warm clothes
\nof which those I could not turn up my nose
\nlove from Mom that all of us kids could see.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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