Christmas tends to bring out memories of all shapes and sizes

During our last family reunion, some of my siblings and I relived some of our childhood Christmas memories.

We were not the most affluent family in town. Dad raised 10 kids on a factory worker’s pay, so to provide special holiday memories, our folks sometimes had to be creative. We all remembered the time some of us had begun to doubt Santa Clause. We drove up to Grandma’s that Christmas Eve, and when we returned, Santa had been there. We believed for at least one more year.

Who could forget Mom’s silver tree? I think she found it in a garage sale; she surely wouldn’t have bought it new. It lo...