Take the Long Way Home

Elsie's in the back seat With a paper crown gone flat Counting every lit-up reindeer As we pass the laundromat Mom says dinner's nearly ready Dad says roads are getting white There's a cardboard star he saved for me Still hanging in their light

I could turn beside the station Be there in a minute more But a small voice from the back seat Says, I've never seen that road

Let's take the long way home for Christmas Let the little lights roll by There's a house with everybody waiting And a moon above the pines We've been hurrying since January Tonight we've got the time Let's take the long way home for Christmas With your small hand holding mine

Dad would drive us past the hardware store And down to Miller's farm Where a snowman taller than the barn Had a tractor for an arm I was certain that he loved it Just as much as little me Now I watch her in the mirror And I know what he could see

She says, Daddy, you should look at that I say, Honey, yes I know Then she hums a tune her grandma sings And we follow where it goes

Let's take the long way home for Christmas Let the little lights roll by There's a house with everybody waiting And a moon above the pines We've been hurrying since January Tonight we've got the time Let's take the long way home for Christmas With your small hand holding mine

After dinner Dad gets sleepy With his slippers by the chair Elsie brings his heavy jacket Says, Grandpa, there's a bear And a Santa on a rooftop And a whole street you should see He reaches for the car keys I say, Dad, tonight it's me

Let's take the long way home for Christmas Let the little lights roll by There's a house with everybody waiting And a moon above the pines We've been hurrying since January Tonight we've got the time Let's take the long way home for Christmas With your small hand holding mine

Three of us beneath those lights And Mom has left the porch light on Let's take the long way home for Christmas No hurry getting home