by Laura Thomas

Early on Christmas morning, as my husband and I lay in bed, talking, I heard a rustling sound. I thought of our presents under the tree, but it was just the two of us at home this year. So, no kids were trying to sneak a peek. And no dogs trying to chew open the tempting presents. So, I settled back down under the covers, snuggling under their warmth from the chill of the early winter morning. Soon, however I heard the rustling again!   

“What am I hearing?” I asked. And again went through my list of possibilities and still the answer was the same, nobody but us, and yet I kept hearing the noise. The sound was definitely one of paper rustling and something was moving around. But the noise wasn’t loud, wasn’t persistent, just coming every once in a while.

“Well, I’m sure there’s no burglar in the house, so go back to sleep”, my husband said to me. So, once again I snuggle down. There, there’s that sound again! This time we both got out of bed to find the source of the noise. My hubby went over to the Christmas tree to inspect around. I suspected he thought, she’s hearing things, when he announced, “All is well”.

But as I was standing near the warm woodstove, I again heard the noise, so I went to do some investigation in the kitchen; sure enough the noise was louder. And as I approached the trash container, I realized the sound was coming from there. I looked around the container and then something caught my eye.  And what do I see?  It’s a small mouse sitting at the bottom of the container looking up at me. I started laughing out loud, and my hubby came to see what was so funny.  All I could do was point at the cause of our noise.

He looked and said “What?”

And through fits of laughter, I said, “It’s a mouse in the trash!”

He smiled, and said “Ok honey, I’ll deal with it later.”

“Honey”, I said “It’s Christmas, please don’t kill it”. “Ok”, he said as he gave me a hug. And with a merry twinkle in his eye, he took the container outside and set the mouse free.