Christmas Island

There's something about being one with nature - camping, horseback-riding, gardening, touching a plant at Target, appreciating a patch of xeriscape on the highway median or ivy climbing a wall otherwise covered with graffiti - a calming effect that beckons creativity to unfold. Perhaps that's why Kathy J was compelled to write lyrics to an old holiday melody after spending a weekend at the ranch.

In the 1950's, my parents, Marianne and John Sumner, owned The Music Box, a music store in Long Beach, California where people could go and browse the 45 rpm records and long-play albums, then sample them in one of three little rooms with players and headphones. That was in the Elvis heyday. My brother and I loved to go to work with Mommy and Daddy and listen to our favorite records, most of which involved purple people eaters, witch doctors or Mary Martin singing songs from the Peter Pan soundtrack. One song I remember listening to at the music store during the holiday season was Christmas Island.

I was entranced by the idea of living on islands back then. Our family spent a month on Balboa Island every summer. I loved crossing the bridge from land to the island - a magical journey to an enchanted place filled with frozen bananas, walks around the bay, sandcastles, seal sightings, ferry-boat rides, ice cream sundaes at the Jolly Roger and Hula Hoops. When I heard the Christmas Island song by the Andrews Sisters, I dreamed of seeing Santa ride up with my presents in a canoe.

Cut to 2008, long after I'd lived my dream, spending dozens of Christmas holidays on islands in California, the Caribbean and Hawaii, all of them magical. At the Garner Ranch - home of my beloved "blended family," my stepdad, Jack, plus permanent residents Meg, Ted and Hannah - this past weekend, Kathy J, who is taking a hula class, shared that she is learning to dance to Christmas Island. Kathy and I sang the song together on Saturday night, but she refused to hula for the assembled multitude. Instead, today she gifted me with new song lyrics for Christmas Island and I like to think of either Leon Redbone or my very own superhero, Jimmy Buffett, singing them. Here ya go...

Christmas in Garner Valley

How'd ya like to spend Christmas, in Garner Valley?
How'd ya like to spend the holidays away up on the ranch?
How'd ya like to spend Christmas, in Garner Valley?
How'd ya like to hang a stocking on a great big pine tree branch?

How'd ya like to stay up late, like the cowboys do?
Wait for Santa to ride up on a horse with presents for you?

If you ever spend Christmas, in Garner Valley,
You wll never stray, for every day,
Your Christmas dreams come true.

In Garner Valley....Your dreams come true.