It's Almost Christmas!

It's almost Christmas and the Millers are ready.

Our pup's stocking is a new addition this year...

Our first Christmas tree!And Christmas breads! Rachel has been attempting to duplicate her mother's breads for our Christmas morning. So far, she has a 50% success rate. (The loaf on the right didn't rise correctly.) But the successful loaf still equals 100% deliciousness.

Christmas Snow

We walked to our friends Phil and Nicole's house last night in the snow storm (for some amazing, authentic foundue) and took these photos along the way. Most of the time we walked in the street because no one in Philly knows how to shovel their sidewalks. But no one knows how to drive in snow, either, so no cars were on the streets.

Altogether we had about 6" of snow. Just enough to stick around until Christmas!

Addendum: The Philly airport reported 23 inches of snow over the weekend! More than 300 flights were cancelled. Glad to be staying in Philly this Christmas!

Snow Dog!

Philly has already had 2-3 inches of snow and it's still falling in big, thick flakes. I know that all you Nebraskans and Wisconsinites think that isn't much, but for Philly it's a lot of snow. Parts of the area are expecting up to 10 inches. It's also Bella's first snow and we were eager to see how she'd react. She LOVES it. Loves eating it, running in circles around us in it, lying down in it, etc. Here's a video and some pics of our snow dog!

Uplift

It's time for a more uplifting post! Here is Russell, watching the Huskers game versus Texas with Bella. (Note: Bella isn't allowed on the furniture. Guess who likes to pick her up and put here there?) Russ is turning the longhorns on their heads. Too bad the Huskers couldn't do the same!

At our trainer's suggestion, we got Bella a yoga mat to chill out on. She absolutely loves it and doesn't think it's a big chew toy, thank goodness. We're currently working on the command "go to your mat." (The dog version of "go to your room.")

Dude, Where's Our Car?

We've lived in Philly for just over three years now, and deep down we knew something was missing. We had eaten the cheesesteaks, become Phillies fans, and embraced the local "how yous doing?" slang. But it wasn't until last month that we felt completely welcomed by the city. That happened when our car was stolen. We parked the car a few blocks from our apartment (and we don't live in a "bad" neighborhood, by the way) on one Sunday, and the next Sunday when we went to drive it -- it was gone. After the headache and hassles of filing a report with the police and going through our insurance company's requisite paperwork, we signed over the title of our missing car to our insurance company. So, if you see our Maxima out there -- call State Farm, because it belongs to them!

On the bright side, we don't need a car to get to work and can now use a car-sharing program when we need to get out to the 'burbs for a few hours. And we'll save a bunch on car insurance, maintenance, etc.

Happy Trails, Maxima! Hope the chop shop didn't hurt too badly!