Twas the night before Christmas... - by Juli Fisher

… fog lay over our land.

All was quiet and calm, like a sweet little lamb.

The chickens were tucked in, their heads out of sight.The cats were all in the house, in their beds for the night

I was wrapping a few gifts, some last minute buys.

Bob was already in bed, he’s so healthy and wise.

As I put on the last tape, tied my last piece of yarn.

I heard some noises outside, they came from the barn I thought of that old poem, wondered if it could be 

Old St Nick himself came to pay a visit to me I donned my jacket and mittens, a hat on my head 

And braved the cold night instead of heading to bed

The air was so crisp, the stars shown so bright

I could see all the trees outlined in moonlight

I heard some voices I thought, but how could that be 

There were goats and some coyotes, otherwise only me

Inside the warm barn the goats seemed to be sleeping

But all came alive when they caught me a-peeping

There was Lily and Lilac and Poppy a-pile

Velvet all by herself, which is really her style 

 Rocky grunted and butted his way through the herd

But the voices I’d heard, well, not a word

Then the littlest one, Willow, stood up and said “Mom!”

In English! In words! It hit me like a bomb!

I looked about at the goats, and they all looked to me

I said “I can understand you? How can this be?”

Then Amelia came forward, the wise and sweet one

And said “We’ve always been speaking, it’s what we’ve always done.

But it took a Christmas miracle for you to really hear

To understand what we say when you’re with us out here

We each have our thoughts on our lives here with you

Now you can understand what we want you to do

Annie wants you to feed her, just peanuts all day

Cypress wants you to hug her in your own special way

Filbert wants you to stop shoving meds down his throat

Fiona wants you to tend and to brush her fine coat 

Willow knows she’s your sweetheart, your favorite pet

It’s ok, we all know she’s the cutest goat yet

Lilac’s a good doe, just frozen by fright She’s frightened of darkness, oh, and of light

Now Poppy we know is one special doe She’s very Zen, introverted, or maybe just slow The new babes are happy, we love them all well And we love you and Papa, in case you couldn’t tell

Now we must stop, you’ll no longer understand

When we call out and holler and make a demand

But you know what you know now about your goat herd

But you can’t tell a soul, no you can’t breathe a word

This is our little secret, so go back to your bed

And in the morning you’ll think this was all in your head.

Juli and I use to work together 15 years ago for a crazy person and became good friends.  She and her husband Bob have been raising goats and making cheese for many years.