"Greg got a bit upset because he didn't buy me a Christmas present and I said, 'just having you home is the best present'," she told the Herald on Sunday.
"Christmas is about family and friends and being together. It doesn't matter whether you open a diamond ring worth $50,000, it's where it's come from. And it didn't matter that I didn't get a present from him. Next year might be different.
"It's like a miracle. We're just looking forward to our new life. It won't be the life we planned, but it will be a pleasant life."
After the accident doctors removed a large chunk of Greg's skull to relieve pressure on his brain. He also broke his collar bone, suffered a punctured lung and bruising. The story was reported around the world.
Greg suffered several bouts of pneumonia and a burst ulcer, which meant he had to be fed through a tube for about six months.
Several times the Watts family were told to prepare for the worst.
"About five times we said goodbye to him because they had given us a day or a weekend," Jane said.
But Greg defied the odds and, about seven months ago, had the top of his skull reattached, meaning he could at last remove the rugby headgear that had protected his brain.
His gruelling rehabilitation has involved learning to speak, walk and swallow again. He is still unsteady on his feet but can get around the house on a walking frame.
"I'm about 60 per cent," he told the Herald on Sunday. "I did have some concerns coming back home, to be honest, because I had a good life at ABI [Rehabilitation] and I did wonder how difficult it was gong to be for me to come here and be a father again and a husband.
"But it's wonderful to be home and all the people around me have been so good. How other people accept you is a big, big thing."
The couple have three sons: Mark, 43, Lee, 38, and Luke, 33. Lee is intellectually disabled and struggled to cope with his dad's situation.
Jane, a parking warden, did everything she could to make things easier for her son while also caring for Greg.
"Lee loves his routine so I'd have to put my uniform on for work and then change once I'd dropped him off because if he thought something was different it would upset him. So I became like Superman and would change in every toilet I could find and then go and sit in the hospital with Greg, then change again before I'd pick Lee up," she said.
The couple wanted to thank the many people who have supported them since the accident - the staff at ABI Rehab, Greg's doctors, his ACC case manager, Jane's employers Auckland Transport and their friends and family. "Just knowing that people cared was such a big help," Jane said.
