My elementary school was a block away from my house. My house sat at one end of a long road, and my school sat at the other end.

There would always be the excitement when, on an early December day, I could tell from far away that my dad was putting lights up on the house. You could see the ladder in the front yard. Maybe he was testing the lights out, and you'd see the incomplete display flicker on and off. Mostly I remember the far-away figure of my dad moving around the yard and roof. He liked to wear this big, silly, puffy vest in the winter, so from far away, he looked kind of like a plump, light-colored raisin with legs.