I woke up in the middle of the night. I could hear some noise in the living room. Watch the following video or read the transcript to know what it was... (Spoiler alert: it wasn’t aliens.)
Click to play
Well, let’s be honest, the middle of the night was probably like 10:00 PM. I was eight or nine years old back then, so for me, it was the middle of the night, because my bedtime was much earlier. So, I hear this noise, and I'm sitting in my bed completely petrified, because I'm absolutely sure that there are aliens surrounding our house, or even IN the house. I get up and I start tiptoeing towards the living room. I was scared, I was holding my breath. The one thing I actually wanted to do was run back to my bedroom, shut the door behind me and move the dresser against the door to keep the aliens from attacking me. Yes, I really thought there were aliens in the house.
A child’s imagination is amazing, isn't it? So awesome. We want to preserve that. Now, instead of turning around - and as of today, I'm not sure what brave energy pushed me to keep going - I actually continued my heroic path towards those bizarre noises that seemed to be coming from the living room. When I got there, I wasn't sure what to think.
There they were. My parents. Playing Pacman on a brand-new machine that they were planning on giving my brother and I for Christmas! They practiced at night so that they could get ahead, because they knew as soon as we would get the alien-noise-making gift, there would be no way they would be able put their hands on the joysticks.
Sometimes, our deepest fears are actually a source of joy and fun times. To this day, this is still one of the fondest memories I have of Christmas. I want to take a moment here to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, Happy holidays and enjoy time with your loved ones.
