Cutting Snowflakes on Thanksgiving

When I very young we didn't have much money for fancy holiday decorations. So after we ate our Thanksgiving lunch my mom suggested that we make some Christmas decorations ourselves. Unfortunately adding to the problem, we also didn't have much money to buy craft supplies. We let our creativity run wild with the few things we did have around the house... white lined paper, crayons tape and scissors. I think my brother actually came up with the idea of making snowflakes to decorate the windows and before too long we had tens of snowflakes cut out. We taped them up in every window in the house. I loved it, when you would drive up to our house the snowflakes would be evident from every direction. I'm not really sure how it became a tradition, but now every year after we have our Thanksgiving turkey we hand out scissors and paper and make new snowflakes to decorate the windows. Even though Mom has more money these days, I wouldn't trade our homemade decorations for anything. In fact, when I'm graduate from college and I have a house of my own, I intend to decorate my own home with beautifully handcut snowflakes... no two alike and all made with love.

~Betsey L., Des Moines, IA