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Roger was a squirrel who lived in a large oak 

tree in the middle of the forest, along with his 

wife and his two children. 

Unlike most woodland animals, Roger and his 

family actually looked forward to winter. More 

specifically, they looked 

forward to Christmas. 

Roger and his wife, Lori, had spent months 

preparing for it, gathering dozens of nuts 

and berries for their impending hibernation, 

as well as retrieving decorations from a 

campsite, with the objects left behind 

by their human owners. 

These decorations included a necklace with 

sharp teeth and bones, a small candle, and a pine tree 

air freshener to top it off. 

After so much   preparation, at long last they had 

reached Christmas Eve. Lori was in their kitchen 

preparing their feast while Roger sat beside the light-up 

toy that served as their warmth, telling stories of past 

Christmases to his children. Everything seemed perfect, 

at least until a loud knocking came to the entrance of 

their home. 

Roger made his way to the doorway, seeing that it had already 

started snowing, and saw a short, plump mouse standing there, 

shivering, “Wallace?” he asked.

“R-R-Roger!” the mouse stuttered, “G-g-great to see 

you! M-m-may I…?” 

“Of course, come in.” said Roger, welcoming him 

inside. Lori rushed from the kitchen into their living 

room to greet them. “Wallace! What on earth are you 

doing out and about in this weather?” she said. 

Wallace scratched behind his hand and 

shrugged, “About that, you remember 

my hole in the wall of that cabin down 

the forest a ways?” “Yes, you had us 

over for Thanksgiving.” 

“Well...the owner of the home got a cat so...we had to 

move out.”   “Oh my, that’s terrible!” Lori said, though 

Roger was a little nervous. “You said you moved out, 

but why are you here?” Roger asked, dreading the 

answer. 

“I was wondering if you could let us stay here, at 

least until we can find a new place.” Before Roger 

could respond, Lori spoke up, “Of course, you and 

your family are welcome to stay here as long as you 

need.” 

In an instant, Wallace threw open the door and in 

came a plump, female mouse and four little mice 

flowed in, the children tackled Roger giving him a 

massive bear hug before jumping off of him and 

flooding his living room. 

“We thank you so much for this,” said Wallace’s wife 

Diane, “we won’t be a burden.” “Nonsense!” said Lori, 

“You’re family can stay as long-” 

“Lori,” said Roger, brushing the loose fur from his 

body, “can I speak with you, alone?”

He and Lori walked into the kitchen, far out of earshot of 

the mouse family, “Lori, are you crazy? You remember 

what happened at that Thanksgiving dinner, it was a 

disaster!” 

“Roger,” she said in a calm yet intimidating voice, 

“these people are our friends, it’s Christmas Eve and 

they have nowhere to go, we can’t just turn them away. 

They’re staying.” 

Roger knew that he could not change his wife’s mind, so he 

walked out of the kitchen to help Wallace and his family get 

settled, and that was about the point that the perfect Christmas 

he had planned for his family completely vanished. 

Rather than listen to his own stories of Roger’s 

past Christmases, many of the children were 

more intrigued by Wallace’s story about the time 

he had his tail caught in a mousetrap, it wasn’t 

even a Christmas story since it took place in April! 

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