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I just finished off a story about Fulton resident Jerry Stubblefield's 30-year tradition of decorating his house with enough Christmas lights to make up for the sun’s nightly disappearance. Seriously, thanks to Mr. Stubblefield, we can all get a lot more outside work done. Thanks.

Be sure to pick up the Dec. 8 issue of "The Itawamba County Times" to read the story.

Stubblefield's a nice guy. He’s got a kind of frank, no-nonsense demeanor that I find totally refreshing because it’s completely unlike my own. I mean, honestly, I peddle BS like street vendors peddle knock-off sunglasses. But Stubblefield just kind of up and says exactly what he thinks, and it’s awesome.

“So, why exactly do you go through the trouble of setting up all these lights each year,” I asked him.

He laughed and rubbed his forehead and replied, " I don’t know. That’s a good question.”

Nobody ever tells me my questions are good. Points for the man for admitting he’s as baffled by the tradition as I am.

Not that I can say much anyway. I don’t ever go big for Christmas.

Anyway, during our conversation, he happened to mention he had a whopping total of eight Christmas trees in his house. Eight. I’ll be doing well to set up one, and this man has an entire fir stand set up in his home. Geez. I wish I had that kind of gusto when it came to doing anything…anything at all. If something requires even a modicum of effort, Adam Armour ain’t gonna do it, and setting up Christmas trees requires slightly more than a modicum.

Still, I’m glad Stubblefield goes through all this trouble each year. There’s definitely this special feeling that only this time of year can conjure — as if staring into those little lights somehow transports you back to childhood, before you knew about Black Friday tramplings and massive credit card debt, to a time when Christmas was still the most magical part of the year.

Just don’t stare at those lights for too long or you’ll go blind.