Greetings! I don't know if anything will ever come out of creating this but I wanted to try to track what I make this year and what not. So here's how my "Operation thoughtful giving" came about ...

I'm a geek, I fully admit it. Aside from Doctor Who and other geekiness that I love, my husband and I love Harry Potter. Every few months we do a Harry Potter marathon over a week. And EVERY SINGLE DANG time we watch the first one (where Dudley is getting his presents) I turn to my husband and tell him that I don't want our son to end up like that.
Of course it seems each Christmas / birthday we end up with an insane amount of presents.

This was the Christmas before last, and not showing the stockings! Now I admit we live in an extended family household. At the time this was taken it was my husband, son and I with both of his parents and his great grandmother. So it's expected that there will be quite a bit. But it still shocked the heck out of me.
This year we (meaning me) tried really hard to reign in on the presents. I even tried for the third year in a row to enforce the "one handmade gift" from everyone rule, yeah that worked out real well. But once again it was an insane amount.
I love my family dearly and know we are all very blessed but dangit, I'm tired of it being about presents.
Now this whole blog is about presents but this year I'm going for, if not 100% at least 90%, homemade Christmas. I started back in April, it is now the end of May and I have almost all of my Mother-in-laws presents finished. And a few started for my husband and son. I know I am going to end up buying things for my son, but I'm striving for a small amount and things that go with the stuff I have made (like the Lego tray I made last week).
So this year if we have a huge amount once again like the Christmas of 2012 I hope I will have worked my butt off enough that it will be stuff I made with love, care, patience, and thinking. Instead of randomly pulling out the credit cards. And anyone who has crafted knows, just cause you made it doesn't necessarily make it any cheaper (unless you love your coupons and wait for sales *drool* coupons).
So what does this long ramble mean ...
I WILL NOT RAISE A DUDLEY!