Escaping Christmas

A passage which incorporates these 12 Christmasy words in a non-Christmasy way:

‘present, boxing, wise men, wait, log, merry, goose, stable, stuffing, card, crackers, star’

Here I am ‘doing bird’ as they say, and all for mistakenly thinking I was boxing clever by fiddling the system. Fortunately the other inmates treat me like a star although they lead me a merry dance at times, especially Biffer, C wing’s card who amuses everyone by stuffing things under my mattress.

Of course, I knew I’d cooked my goose and that it was too late to lock the stable door as soon as I discovered reporters lying in wait outside my apartment. And when they began to present me with allegations which some resentful temp had decided to log down in detail, what could I say? The great and the good may be powerful but, as Job observed, great men are not always wise men.

So, here I am, a disgraced politician whose future now depends entirely on what he can learn from swindlers and safe-crackers.