One of my favorite pre-holiday memories is heading to the craft store with my mom just after Thanksgiving. Every year there would be kits to make our own ornaments – paper and pictures, paints and markers, dough for some figures… The store was old and musty most days, but during the holidays the must seemed to lift, leaving only fresh air and possibilities. Over the year I made my own Christmas balls, a couple of disfigured horse attempts, but mostly stars or snowflakes. What I learned from those early attempts is that I’m not overly artistic. I can color with the best of them, but to draw my own pictures? Sad, sad, sad. So, as an adult, I’ve tweaked that tradition just a bit – we head to the mall on Thanksgiving weekend and pick out a family ornament from the ornament maker and have it personalized. Most years the kiddo (she’s 4) also picked out a personal ornament, too. This year it was a princess castle that looks suspiciously like Cinderella’s. One year it was a carousel horse on a candy cane…our family ornament this year is three owls sitting on a branch because, as the kiddo says, ‘it…