Happy 2012!

Happy New Year Everyone!

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I hope you all had as wild a party as we did New Year's Eve to ring in 2012!  Want to hear how wild it was?

Alright, then, I'll tell you, but you might want to sit down first.  When we go wild on Blueberry Hill we pull out all the stops.

Okay.  Ready?

We played dominoes, Scrabble, and hearts in the glow of the fire and the Christmas tree lights.  We ate homemade brownies (not at the table!) and got crumbs on the rug.  At midnight we popped open a bottle of bubbly (Sparkling Cider - Stop & Shop's Finest!) and toasted the New Year and each other.  Then we all went to bed.  The dogs slept through the entire thing.

Wild.  Times.

I told you :)

I hope 2012 will be full of all good things for all of you!

Now then.  Even though you are probably still recovering from your much-wilder-than-mine celebrating, I have four things of import to mention today.  I will try to be brief, but you know me...

First, I want to thank Saba for bestowing the Superstar Blog Award upon me.  I was so honored to receive this lovely award for the first time!  In addition to thanking Saba, I am also supposed to pass the award along to 5 other deserving bloggers.  But you are all so amazing and wonderful and deserving that I can't possibly pick just 5!!!  So my New Year's present to you is that you may take this award if you feel it fits you as long as you pass it along to other deserving bloggers.  Look how pretty :)

Second, I have a very important question.  I'd love a show of hands on this.  In the form of please vote below :)

Here's the question:  I've been having so much fun with the writing contests, getting to know everyone and reading all your awesome work.  Would you like to continue with writing contests once a month as we have done for October, November and December?  If so, I would be happy to run them!  But if that sounds like more work than fun and you don't want to do it so often or at all, it's best if I know :)  So please let your voice be heard below:



I will leave this poll up until Wednesday or Thursday, depending on response time, so I can tell you Wednesday or Friday whether there will be a contest this month or not :)

Third, I am participating in Julie Hedlund's 12X12 in 2012 Challenge.  (Note the gorgeous new badge in the sidebar!)  I know quite a few of you are doing this as well, and I'm very excited about being part of such an enthusiastic, supportive community.  Here's hoping we all accomplish great things in 2012!

Last but not least, as you know, anyone who posts Perfect Picture Books is eligible for the random (and when I say random, I do mean random - you never know what might end up in the goody bag!) end-of-the-month drawing for a prize.  You get one entry for every book you post during the month (so in December, some people got 4 or 5 entries!)  I load all the entries into random.org and let it pick the winner.  Last month (November) it was Stacy.  December's winner is Clar!!!  Clar, please contact me and let me know which prize you'd like.  This month's goody bag contains a $10 Amazon gift certificate, a signed copy of Freight Train Trip by Yours Truly, a paperback copy of The Land Of Painted Caves by Jean Auel (which has nothing to do with children's books but I received one for Christmas and I already have the hardcover so it's up for grabs :)) and a hardcover copy of Bad Kitty by Nick Bruel - you may take your pick of one of those lovely items!  The rest of you, who knows what will be in the goody bag for January?  You could be the lucky winner just by posting excellent Perfect Picture Books on Fridays!  Thank you all so much for participating!

Okay.  Those are my four things of import.  Happy New Year Everyone, and see you Wednesday as we get back on track with Would You Read It!