When I was about 7, our family moved to a small town where my father took a church. As it is with many small town churches, it was very poor. We knew, even as small children, that there would be little for Christmas.

My oldest sister, Ellen, was about 16 when we made this move. She and my mother spent hours working on a project in the basement. Ellen was very creative, as was my mother.

On Christmas day, my twin sister and I, and our older sister, Frankie, were delighted when we were presented with the gifts. Ellen and Mother had created dollhouses out of Grocery Store shipping boxes. They cut them down, put in partitions, painted each one and even put curtains up for them. They were complete with furniture. They used spice boxes for the kitchen appliances, painted white with the knobs and burners painted in black. A taller box was the refrigerator, and they had crafted a little table with a tablecloth. The sink was a spice box with a recessed lid. Small pieces of wood were padded and covered for sofas and for bedroom furniture. They used sewing spools for small tables, and carved the bathroom tubs, sinks and stools out of Ivory soap. We were over the moon and spent many hours playing with them and our paper dolls for families. One nice feature was that they would slide under the bed when we were done playing.

When I think of that Christmas, I know that was the most creative and loving of all gifts I have ever received. It taught me that it doesn't matter what you don't have, but it does matter what you do with what you do have.