Today Jonathan put together a collage/mosaic out of various papers he and Benjamen had cut out with the new set of edging scissors I got them for Christmas. That was an all-day off-and-on project that he kept coming back to.

We spent a pretty good chunk of the morning doing thank-you notes for the sets of Grandparents and the one Aunt-Uncle-Cousin who had sent gifts to the boys. Jonathan wrote them all out and covered the front and back of all of the papers I had given him for note writing.

When the baby went down, we tried out a few more Christmas gifts, Hungry Hippos and the set of Playmobil pirates. I think we all had lots of fun.

Also while Nicholas slept, on this last day of the old year, we started doing our end-of-year out-with-the-old decluttering. We got rid of lots of broken and duplicate hot wheels, bunches of duplicate utensils and dishes for their little wooden kitchen, a bunch of the "guys" from their guy box (who had somehow cloned themselves, had a war, and maimed each other beyond all recognition in some cases), and lots of odds and ends from the playroom in general. Tomorrow (in-with-the-new!), the first day of the new year, we'll find permanent homes for all of our new toys; so far they've mostly been living in a big bucket tote in the dining room. I had picked up little brief-case type plastic carriers at the dollar store, and we're using one of those for all of our Playmobil guys and their accessories. They fit quite nicely!

Nicholas woke up about 10 minutes into the decluttering, and "helped" us for another hour or so when Papa suddenly showed up from work several hours earlier than usual. They had let him off early for New Year's Eve, so we're enjoying the rest of the evening with him ...and the next few days until he has to go back to work on Monday.

Happy New Year to everyone!