Home for Christmas, Finally

Every leaf is in the table And this year — every chair is full There was the winter of the deployment, the year of the night shift The Christmas on a break-room phone, two thousand miles adrift But Mom, you set the full table every single time Like the house could hold the door open across the miles No flights to check, no countdown on the wall This year the hallway's full of coats We're home for Christmas, finally Every chair pulled in, every plate Dad, don't say grace too quickly — Look around the table, let it wait The best gift that you're getting Won't fit beneath the tree It walked in through your front door Home for Christmas, finally There's boots from three states melting snow across the mat The grandkids found the cookie tin, nobody's stopping that Dad keeps standing in the doorway just counting heads again Like a man who can't quite trust the math — but the math holds, it's all of them No empty seat to talk around this year Just elbows touching elbows down the row We're home for Christmas, finally Every chair pulled in, every plate Dad, don't say grace too quickly — Look around the table, let it wait The best gift that you're getting Won't fit beneath the tree It walked in through your front door Home for Christmas, finally All those years you said "next year" and kept the porch light on Turns out you weren't waiting — you were pulling us back home We're home for Christmas, finally Every chair pulled in, every plate Mom, you can stop counting — We're all here, and we all stayed The best gift that you're getting Is loud and underfoot We walked in through your front door Home for Christmas — for good Leave the leaves in the table We'll be needing them from now on