A Po-Miller Christmas

This past Christmas Craig and I decided to stay out in Colorado due to Craig's work schedule. We were bummed because we wanted to go back east to see friends and family, but in the end it all worked out. I managed to convince my older brothers to come out and visit us! My parents were/are still in the Philippines, so they weren't able to celebrate with us either, but we were able to Facetime with them. We had a great Christmas with my brothers- Lots of good food (homemade and out in restaurants) and we even took them snowboarding at Keystone! *Warning: Lots of pictures!

Thanks to technology, we were able to Facetime with my parents who are in the Philippines. They are taking a picture of us on their Ipad hahaha

Laney loving on Andrew on the way up to Keystone

Christmas Eve dinner at the Craftwood Inn

Brothers

My dinner- antelope!

Craig's dinner- elk...it looked better in person!

Opening stockings on Christmas morning!

Craig helping Laney with her stocking

She was very curious

Still curious about the stocking even after it was empty

Eating fruit snacks

Andrew preparing his Instagram photo of his stocking stuff

Jeremy eating some Wasabi peas

Craig showing off his new shorts

Me showing off my Sugarpova candy

I'm a big fan of Maria Sharapova (tennis player) and was so excited to try her line of gummy candy!

Laney so tired after the morning festivities

It's a Po family tradition for the boys in the family to receive PJ pants from Mom- I had to continue the tradition- can't you tell how excited they are??

Jeremy showing off his Homebase shirt from Andrew

Craig can't wait to use his new tools from his sister, Bev.

Thanksgiving....er Christmas dinner! It was a group effort

Merry Christmas from the Millers! Hope you all had a great holiday season!!!

First Anniversary Weekend

I've been a complete slacker with this whole blog thing. For some reason the weeks leading up to Christmas are always super busy at work. Between all the craziness with both of our schedules, Craig and I found time to celebrate our first wedding anniversary! We started planning this weekend extravaganza when Craig was in Afghanistan. Due to Craig's military schedule we knew we wouldn't be able to take a big trip, but we wanted to do something fun and special to commemorate the event. We decided to spend our anniversary in Vail, CO for a weekend full of snowboarding and good food! And that's exactly what we did...we also splurged a little and decided to stay at the Four Seasons Vail. We had a great time and even had some fresh snow while we were on the mountain! 

Our welcome to the Four Seasons was pretty impressive- Champagne and chocolate covered strawberries in our room!

Enjoying a glass of champagne

I'm really impressed by fancy bathrooms

Yes, that is an espresso maker

Dinner at Flame, the restaurant on premise- It was pretty empty, but we didn't mind at all. The food was delicious!

Elk corn dogs

Even the dessert wished us a happy anniversary

Old Forge pizza for lunch after a long day of snowboarding- originally from Scranton, PA!

The weird sculpture that changes color

We thought we were special, but in reality Vail was celebrating its 50th Anniversary

Dinner on Saturday was at Kelly Liken, a Top Chef contestant- she made it to the final four! They also wished us a happy anniversary :)

A snowy Sunday morning

This is how we celebrated our actual anniversary on December 18th

Our actual anniversary was on a Tuesday, which is why we celebrated the weekend before. On Tuesday, we had pizza for dinner and then I surprised Craig with a cake! It was the same flavors as our wedding cake (vanilla cake, cannoli filling and vanilla buttercream) and it was so good! Craig surprised me with a bouquet of red and white roses. 

We had a fun-filled year with lots of adventures! Looking forward to the rest of our lives together :)

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Picking out a tree at the Heindrich Tree Farm

 I didn't forget about Thanksgiving, but I didn't take any pictures! I was too busy slaving away in the kitchen :) This year, Craig and I hosted our first Thanksgiving as a married couple at our apartment. We invited our friends Aaron and Abby over and they brought their little pug, Wrinkles. We had enough food to feed at least 8 people! The leftovers have been keeping us well fed for days.

So now that Thanksgiving is over- it's time for Christmas! I love Christmas- the decorating, the shopping, but I also love the deeper meaning of  this season. Last Sunday at church the pastor talked a little bit about Advent and being content. During this time of year we're bombarded with commercials and ads telling us to buy buy buy and all the things we need/want. Material things do not equal happiness and contentment. It's a nice time of year to remember what we have and to be thankful/content for what we've been blessed with and who we thank for the blessings in our lives.

Here are a few highlights from our Thanksgiving weekend:

Found the perfect tree!

Craig putting up our Moravian Star tree topper from Aunt Nadine and Uncle Brian- a little reminder of home

All decorated! All the ornaments on our tree are from places we've visited- in one year we've accumulated quite a few. Can't wait to see how full the tree will be in a few years!

The mantle- Still waiting for our stockings to come in the mail, but Laney's is up!

The Santa reminds us of Craig's grandfather since he was a carpenter/contractor.

On Sunday we went to The Broadmoor for their famous brunch! We've been wanting to try it for awhile, but you have to make reservations at least 2-3 weeks in advance to get a table. It was totally worth the wait! We went with Aaron and Abby and spent at least 3 hours eating everything! The quality and selection of food was amazing. After brunch we walked around the grounds and admired the beautiful Christmas decorations.

Gingerbread house display

The front of the Broadmoor

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend with great friends! Now trying to get back into the swing of work- good thing Christmas is only 28 days away!

Long Time No Post

Okay, so life has been just a tad bit busy and I've been totally slacking off on this whole blog thing. So I'm just going to post a bunch of pictures of what we've been up to the past few weeks!

Craig deployed to Afghanistan early October- Here's Laney relaxing on his stuff before he left

Before Craig left, we made a trip to the east coast for his cousin's (Amanda) wedding!

The beautiful couple- Amanda and Joe Frommling

Bev and I on the trolley car tour of Philadelphia between the service and reception

Hello!

Beautiful centerpieces at The Union League in Philadelphia

Don't Call Me Francis- amazing wedding band!

The first dance

After the wedding festivities

Work trip to Charleston, SC- Totally fell in love with this city and the food!

One of my nearest and dearest best friends, Jackie, came to visit me while Craig was away. We spent the weekend visiting Vail, CO

Found the best little bbq bar in a tiny mt. town near Vail, CO

Charming Vail, CO

My dear friend, Sylvia, also came to visit. All the pictures from her visit are on her camera. We mostly spend the weekend traipsing around Colorado Springs. 

I've kept myself pretty busy with work and friends since Craig deployed. So thankful that his deployment is short and he'll be home this coming weekend!