My wife took photos of the kids which I then made frames for by hand. We gave those to the grandparents.

We had some great gift ideas. I was proud of them all.

With so many young couples and college kids, it was a money saver. Most of the older people don't need anything and don't want doodads to dust around, so it worked out perfectly.

There is more talent in the family than I realized.

They talent level in our family is incredible!

What a surprise!

We're going to try it for dinner later this week. She's a vegetarian so I'm thinking we'll have some some kind of veggie meat with the sauce!

Each got a small bottle of sandalwood scented cuticle oil. I combined jojoba oil and vitamin E oil from Trader Joe's with a bit of sandalwood essential oil. It softens cuticles and is good for nails.

Below is a how-to thread I did a few years ago for the biscotti cookies I give every year (been doing this for at least ten years, or maybe fifteen.) I don't receive a lot of home-made gifts, but I do enjoy giving the food gifts. Last year I had the time (being unemployed) to also make chocolate truffles

Biscotti in Pictures! (dial-up warning)

My daughter is though and she tends to give homemade gifts.

but we still did the traditional kind for most. We used to do more home made gifts than we do now and we decided we need to aim for that next year.

When I was a stay at home mom and did a lot of knitting, crocheting, jewelry making, sewing, baking I used to give homemade gifts all the time.

Now, I'm a single mom who is in school full time and just don't have time to craft anymore, but I did buy a few gifts off of Etsy. I did received some baked goods as a gift

for a few people with aches/pains and my MIL in Japan who has terrible osteoporosis.
It's amazing stuff.

Only bought our son a couple of much needed items - shoes and a new pair of pants.

Plum preserves made from our 25 yr old Damson trees
Watermelon Jelly
Pickled Watermelon Rinds (DIVINE)
Blueberry Ketchup

Banana Bread, Lemon Dreams and Ginger Nuts went in the goodie bags too.

Far more satisfying to me than buying gifts

From reclaimed lumber; the only direct expense was about 25 bucks for some really nice lacquer to make it shine.

It ended up being pretty cool. The door opens out with a convenient cutting board.

Vanilla (started this summer)
Toffee
Jam (3 kinds)
Pickles
Pickled asparagus

We did a bit of traditional shopping for the kids and for each other, but this was really the first year that we pulled back for everyone else. I don't really like shopping. The adults in our family have plenty, so things that can be consumed seemed like the way to go.