Out with the old!

Well, this is it! The end of 2008. The end of a whole year of ups and downs, good and bad.

In preparation for the new year, we've been busy cleaning, organizing, sorting, and purging in our house (which as those who have seen it know, is a far overdue task!). Although we won't be done the whole house by tomorrow (DON'T go in those front rooms!), the living room and kitchen look like new places! Haj has been working day and night (late late night!) to get new shelves up, so all our DVD's and videos are finally organized and easily accessible to the kids. One old junky cabinet has been removed, crates (yes, multiple) of dishes have been moved into the storage shed...

We've been living here for 4 years now, so its about time we started really 'moving in'! Better late than never! I'm just excited that its all starting to come together! Now, if I can just get through this mountain of laundry before tonight...

The boys have been pulling their own as well, especially Kai. Jiichan had them sorting and tidying the disasterous toy corner. They'll take a while to get into the habit of really tidying up after themselves every time they play (as will I), but they're really making an effort!

They are down for an afternoon nap right now, as we're planning to be up to midnight tonight, so we can visit the village shrine and watch as they burn all the old house-charms of everyone in the village, then get the blessing of the year and the new charms for the upcoming year. More wonderful old traditions.

Out with the old! We're ready for a new start!