Since this was the first Christmas my son really "got it", we knew we had to get the rules down for the future, if you catch my drift. We (dh & I) decided that we would each give Jack one homemade present on Christmas eve, and the rest would come from Santa on Christmas morning. He opened up the recycled wool monster I made (out of leftover scraps from the quilt I made him... they match!), & immediately started hugging it. It was SO rewarding to see him love & appreciate something that I made! I posted pictures of it in an earlier entry, but here he is holding it up. This is only one of the homemade gifts that i'll be blogging about in the next week or so. I tried to have a resale, eco friendly, & homemade Christmas this year, and I had great success! See the box towers to the right of my son? The red ones i've had for 5 Christmases so far, and the others for 3. Not only are they less wasteful & cheaper than wrapping paper in the long run, but easier, and make lovely decorative Christmas towers around the house. They neatly nest inside of each other to store, and while they were empty, my son liked to stack & nest them (educational!). It was such a heartwarming Christmas for me, because my son was so into it. I will always remember the look on his face when we were decorating the tree, & he would excitedly say "More Christmas, Mama! We need more Christmas!".