A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON CHRISTMAS

Have you ever looked at a decorated Christmas tree, from underneath it, through the eyes of a three year old? Me, neither…until last week.

I arrived for my weekly Charley visit at their home near Auburn.  Due to a nasty cold that I did NOT want to pass on to anyone, I had missed the previous week’s visit. This was the first time I had seen their Christmas tree. As Charley & her mom greeted me at the door with hugs, I noticed the tree in the living room.

“Oh, wow!” I exclaimed, “There’s your Christmas tree!!”

“NO…NO…GAGA!!  STOP…NO!” Charley hollered at me holding out her arms to block my entrance into the room.

I immediately stopped, stepped back & said, “Okay, okay. What? What did I do?”

“Mommy, turn on the lights. Turn on the lights!” Charley didn’t want me to see the tree until the lights were on to get the full effect.

Mommy plugged in the lights & I was now free to gush over their beautifully decorated Christmas tree. Charley laid on her back & scooted under the tree which was about 15 inches above the floor. She then commanded me to join her, “Gaga, you do it, too. Lay down here.”

Gaga is usually game for most anything that Charley wants me to do although some things do require a little modification for Gaga’s limited flexibility & age limitations. J  But this was tame compared to some of Charley’s requests so I laid down on the ground & scooted up beside her under the tree.

You know what? It really was pretty cool looking up through the branches with the lights glowing & ornaments reflecting the lights. It was a totally new perspective on viewing a decorated tree that I had never experienced in my 64 years! And, I’ll be darned if my three year old granddaughter didn’t show it to me.

A couple weeks prior to that day I watched Charley at my dad’s house for several hours while her mom hosted a book party for her Barefoot Books business. Charley’s Auntie Masha is taking care of my dad (AKA Pop) & my sister, Karen (AKA Zizi), was coming to visit also. I had put up my dad’s little artificial tree & decorated it the day before but I saved the string of lights to put up around two walls of his house for everyone to help.

Charley helped me pull them from the box & untangle the strings. Auntie Masha was on the ladder draping them over the curtain rods & Zizi was on the back of the couch thumbtacking them to the wall. I looked over & Charley was also on the back of the couch holding the string for Zizi. What a great little helper!

The finished product was actually quite breathtaking. All of the lights & the tree were plugged into an extension cord in the outlet which is controlled by a wall switch. I showed Charley how to turn them all on & off with one flick of the switch…which she did many, many times. Now, it is her job to turn on Pop’s Christmas lights when she comes to visit.

Christmas through the eyes of a three year old is an enlightening experience. It has been more than 25 years since we’ve had a child to help us celebrate & it puts a whole new twist on the holiday. I love it!

SLEEPLESS IN SACRAMENTO

I can’t possibly be the only person with this problem, can I? It can be 10:30 PM, I’m watching a TV show that I really enjoy (Nashville, The Good Wife) & I’m falling asleep on the couch. I mean I literally can’t keep my eyes open. I go upstairs to bed, lay down & I am instantly wide awake. I don’t go to sleep for an hour or more. It’s crazy!

Or I know that I should get at least 7-8 hours sleep (even though I function perfectly well on 5-6 hours). So, I go to bed at 11:30 PM figuring I’ll get some good sleep since I’ve got a nasty cold right now only to still be wide awake at 1:00 AM. Damn it! That’s what happened tonight, which is exactly the reason that I am up writing this at nearly 1:30 AM.

Pretty much all of my adult life, I have had difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep. Apparently my grandmother suffered from the same thing years ago & my sister sometimes has similar sleep issues. We comment that we sleep well about every third night. It even seems that my Charley Ellen doesn’t fall asleep quickly or easily. Guess it is something that runs in the family. It kind of makes you want to just slap those people who are asleep two minutes after their heads hit the pillow.

I know that once I had Darrin my sleep patterns changed dramatically. Prior to his birth, I think someone could have torn down the house around me & I’d have slept through it. Since then, my child turning over & sighing would wake me up! Once that nurturing gene kicks in I don’t think a woman gets many nights of sound sleep again. It doesn’t seem to matter that Darrin will be 39 in a few months & has been out of the house for 18+ years!

The sleeplessness really began to surface 24 years ago when my mother was dying of cancer, my dad was in denial of what was happening & my 14 year old son was losing his beloved grandmother. I was doing my damndest to hold it all together. My sleep diminished to barely a few hours a night. I would toss & turn. I would tell myself I needed to sleep if I was going to handle this. Yet I would lay awake night after night. After her death the wide awake nights continued. Finally I simply gave myself permission to lay awake all night if that is what I needed to do. It didn’t change the fact that I needed more sleep but it sure was a powerful path to acceptance.

Lou & I watched part of a two hour show on PBS the other night called “Sleepless in America”. It tried to find answers as to why much of America doesn’t get the required sleep necessary to function efficiently. There was one relatively quick point that pretty much explained my predicament. The narrator said that there are some people whose brains simply don’t turn off at night allowing them to get the sleep they need.

That is exactly my problem! Although I’m not too upset about it because I often come up with amazing ideas & perfect solutions to problems or issues at 3 AM. My brain just kicks into gear & starts whirling around with all kinds of thoughts. I’d say that maybe twice a year I will sleep through the entire night without awakening to go to the bathroom. Sometimes I can go back to sleep fairly quickly but many times I lay back down &, bam, the thoughts start coming fast & furious. Yep, my brain just doesn’t turn off at night!

This isn’t something new, it has happened to me for 20+ years that I’m aware of….& I’ve come to think of it as a blessing rather than a curse. You wouldn’t believe the things that pop into my head in the middle of the night. Solutions just seem to materialize out of nowhere. And consequently, I’ve solved a shit-load of problems with my overactive brain.

So, please, how many of you have similar middle of the night, can’t sleep issues? I know there are a few of you because I see Facebook posts at 3:17 AM. As much as I’d love to get 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep each night, that just ain’t in the cards for me. But I figure it’s served me pretty well so far. And now, here it is 1:54 AM.

Oh, well, there is an old Bon Jovi song titled, “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead”. Sounds like a plan!

LET IT GO

There is an amazing phenomenon sweeping our nation – little girls are obsessed with the Disney animated movie “FROZEN”. Even though the movie was released a year ago, it is still going strong. Stores are overloaded with "FROZEN" merchandise. The Academy Award winning song “Let It Go” sung by Idina Menzel has little girls breaking into song at the drop of a hat.

The movie & the song are such powerful messages for young girls (& women of all ages). You are strong, you are capable & you are amazing just as you are. After trying to be the perfect girl hiding her powers of freezing things for years Elsa is finally letting it go & being herself. “It’s time to see what I can do. To test the limits & break through.” What an inspiration for girls everywhere. Even if you don’t have children, I highly recommend watching the movie.

My granddaughter, Charley, is one of "FROZEN'S" biggest fans. I’ve watched the DVD with her three times so far – she knows many of the lines & sings along with all of the songs. She just turned three years old & she literally knows all of the words to “Let It Go”. And it is not an easy song to learn. I downloaded it & listened to it at least 20 times on the ride into my dad’s a few months ago in order to learn the lyrics.

Charley will suddenly start singing out of the blue –

“The snow glows white on the mountain tonight.

Not a footprint to be seen.

A kingdom of isolation.

And it looks like I’m the queen.”

She’ll walk around the house & really get animated as she stomps her foot, spreads her arms wide & sings at the top of her lungs –

“Here I stand in the light of day.

Let the storm RAGE....O-N-N-N-N-N!

The cold never bothered me anyway.”

My Charley is not alone. The other day in the grocery store, I suddenly became aware of a little voice singing, “Let it go, let it go. Can’t hold it back anymore.” I looked around & there she was, about 4-5 years old sitting in the shopping cart just singing away while her daddy picked out tomatoes! There is a precious video making the rounds on social media of a dark-haired little girl in her car seat singing the entire song with her daddy joining in.

Last night I picked up Charley & her parents at the airport after spending Thanksgiving in New Mexico with Allison’s family. Charley requested “Let It Go” on the car CD player. She & I sang along with it in the back while the “adults” chatted in the front seat. Here’s a little secret for you – I can’t sing worth a damn & THE ONLY place I will even attempt to sing is with my little sweetie.

My son, Darrin, is a pilot & he loves flying. Nothing fazes him in the air & I think in his opinion the bumpier the ride, the better. He related the story that there was a lot of turbulence on the flight so the pilots had the flight attendants take their seats, too.

Charley was listening to “Let It Go” on the iPad with her little pink headphones on just belting out the song as the plane bounced all around the sky! She wasn’t the least bit scared & hit all the notes with gusto! Darrin said they received several comments (I’m pretty sure they were all positive) from other passengers once they were all safely on the ground. Darrin said, “I just thought, that’s my girl!” There’s something special about little girls, daddies & “Let It Go”.