By Clif Knight 

The Christmas season remains the favorite time of the year at our house, even though all three of our children are living away, pursuing their own careers and raising families of their own.  

Their three daughters, our granddaughters, are adults with careers in education and medical technology.  

The family’s youngest, most daring and most fun-loving member is Layla Fullerton, a second-grader at Crestline Elementary School.  

Fortunately, we’re all north Alabamians who are able to spend quality time together during the holidays, on family vacations and on other special occasions.  

At our ages, staying on track with where we store things for safekeeping is not something we’re doing very well.  The storage of Christmas decorations seems to be a troublemaker every year. After a week of searching, we’re still missing our pre-lit artificial Christmas tree.  

After taking down the tree and packing it back in its original shipping carton a few days after Christmas 2020, I remember storing it in either the upstairs attic or in the storage unit we rent from Roberts Storage. I looked in the storage unit first and was unable to spot it because of all the clutter.  

After a few days of thinking, I tried looking in the attic. It wasn’t there either. I backed off checking out the stairway closet because I already know how difficult it is to find anything in that packed space.  

Another trip to the storage unit looks like my next best bet. This time I’ve asked Geanell to give me a hand, just in case other stored items have to be moved out of the way to get a better look.  

The fact that we have Christmas décor stored in three different locations, including outdoor wreaths and lights that we no longer use, has me thinking I might be better off to vacate an unused upstairs bedroom and use it for nothing but holiday decorations. 

I’m also reminded of how few Christmas decorations we had in the house where we lived as a farm family 75 years ago. The center of attention was a homegrown cedar tree us boys found, cut down with a handsaw and dragged home to be set up in the bedroom of our parents. The tree had no lights. It was decorated with hand-made ornaments, a dozen store-bought colored glass balls, a 10-cent pack of silver tinsel and a golden plastic star. 

The tree was taken down and thrown away the day after Christmas. The glass balls and plastic star were stored in a shoebox and reused the next year.