Christmas doesn't always go to plan, does it?

[More:]

Next to the turkey

'Twas the night before Christmas and quiet in the house
When right next to the turkey, we spied a big mouse!
Its whiskers were twitching and tail curled with care:
It was almost like someone had placed it right there.

I imagined the in-laws sat shaking their heads.
There was certainly no way we'd sleep in our beds.
Now John went to catch it with such a big clatter.
“There'll be more,” I said firmly. “This one doesn't matter.”

I swear then he stopped, and turned pale as the snow.
While he ran up to phone, I just waited below.
With my suitcase in hand, I tried hard not to whistle
cos that Christmas, at last, we were off to the Thistle.

BACKGROUND (for those who may think this poem sounds familiar): This was written to fulfill a writelink brief for a poem, preferably humorous, giving one's own version of The Night Before Christmas in a maximum of 12 lines. I decided to add my own additional constraints of trying to stick to the metre and rhymes of Clement Clarke Moore's (1779 - 1863) poem. Obviously, the original is much longer than 12 lines, so I started with the first three rhyming pairs, ended with his penultimate rhyming pair and took the other two rhyming pairs randomly from the rest of the poem.)

Merry Christmas everyone. Hope it's a good one.

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