Happy New Year!

So I'm a couple weeks late with this declaration, but the party is still going on in my head, so that counts, right?

I'm almost 100% recovered from my month-long bout with bronchitis. Not fun. Since my Christmas tree and decor never went up, I didn't have the dread of taking them down after the New Year. (Maybe that's why I'm still celebrating!)

I spent the holidays in Texas and enjoyed eight blissful days with my friends and family. I also frequented all of my favorite restaurants (sometimes even more than once!) and almost polished off a whole carton of my favorite ice cream - Blue Bell's White Chocolate Almond! (Oh, so sinful!)

In early December my middle sister moved into a swanky townhouse in downtown Dallas. Since she has a lot of space to fill, we had so much fun shopping for furniture, rugs and accessories. And the icing on the cake was she got to put up her Christmas tree with all of her beautiful decorations.

Here's all of the Smith girls in front of Holly's tree.

Here's a better view of the tree behind us.

And while I was home, the two puppies finally got to meet each other. My dad was nice enough to fly Lexus home for me (one of the perks of being a pilot - free puppy travel!), so she got to spend some quality time with her cousin Charlie, an Iggy that my sister adopted last year.

Even though they never quite got on (no worries about a love connection here!), it was fun to observe their similar mannerisms. We took them to a puppy park one afternoon and my mom snapped this adorable shot:

Some say that the dogs aren't the only thing that look alike in this picture!

The two pups are actually being featured on the Paper Crafts Connection blog today. Yesterday was National Dress Up Your Pet Day, so I thought I would tie that holiday into our new special issue Card Creations: Start to Finish, Vol. 2. I'm not sure if I pulled it off, but we'll see. Since I'm giving away a few issues of the aforementioned magazine, hopefully people will participate in my crazy little challenge. If you're interested in seeing what it's all about, click on the link above.

Happy New Year!
PK