Hello again! I’ve taken an unexpected break from blogging these past couple weeks. I’ve only posted three times in December. Can you guess why? 

Because on Friday, December 18th, Nick proposed! 

We’ve been dating for six years and we’ve lived together the past two. We have been talking for a while now about making things official and I’m glad that day has finally come! He’s my best friend and I couldn’t imagine spending the rest of my life with anyone else. We had gone to look at rings last Spring but it was my idea so I wasn’t sure if he was ready yet. After we went and looked, and I made sure he knew what I wanted, I stepped back and tried not to ask about it so it could be a good surprise. 

Well, I tend to micro-analyze everything. So in the months of probably August-December I tried to guess in my head every time we’d go out. “Is tonight the night?” I’d say to myself. So when Nick asked if I wanted to go to Del Friscos for dinner the Friday before Christmas, I tried not to get too excited. It’s not going to happen. 

Plus, he had a gift card from his work so I didn’t really think much of it. The steaks were SO delicious (and expennnsive), and we had grilled asparagus and cheesy potatoes as well. After dinner, Nick said he had something fun planned afterwards, so we left the restaurant and got in the car. He had Christmas music playing, which he knew would make me happy. I’m a huge sucker for anything Christmas-y. 

He took me to a local park here in Dallas that’s lit up every holiday season with thousands of lights strung on the trees. There’s a river flowing through and it reflects the lights. SO pretty. We walked half way around and stopped on this grassy hill to admire the lights. Nick’s secret plan this whole time (he told me later) was to try to get someone to take our picture and then do it while they were taking it, to catch me off guard. We lingered on this hill for a while and I got antsy and wanted to continue walking around the lake. 

And to just his luck, a group of three girls walked up behind us and said “You guys look so cute! Can we take your picture?”. Perfect! He handed them his phone and we posed for this cutsie picture. The girls handed back his phone and Nick said “Can you just take a couple more?” At this point I really didn’t want my picture taken any more in front of strangers but alas Nick gave me a smooch and the girls took the pic and handed back the phone. Nick didn’t have time to get the ring out of his pocket because it was stuck (See his hand in his pocket in the picture below?) So he asked the girls for ONE MORE. 

At this point I was like… omg these girls don’t want to keep standing here taking our picture. 

But, surprise to me, he pulls out a ring box and gets down on one knee! I said yes of course. At this point a little crowd was gathering. But I really didn’t care. So happy. 

YAY! I’m so happy he proposed right before Christmas. We had plenty of time to be with our families during the holiday and the celebrate all together. 

OH, and the ring. Oh gosh the ring. I couldn’t possibly imagine any more beautiful of a ring. I fell in love with Verragio rings probably 7 years ago, way before I even met Nick. I had pinned this ring in particular. I remember seeing that Verragio ring and getting goose bumps all over. Verragio rings are amazingly beautiful, but also very expensive. Nick spent almost five months finding a ring designer, showing them that Verragio ring, and designed the whole thing from scratch. 

The effort and care he put into making this ring look exactly like my dream, fantasy ring, means so much to me. But an engagement is so much more than a ring. It’s knowing that you’re going to be spending the rest of your life with that someone. Knowing that he listens to me, knows what I want and takes time and effort into making me happy, is what makes me excited to marry him. 

I am so excited for 2016. There’s going to be lots of changes in my personal and work life, and hope to turn this blog into what I want it to be. I’ll be taking the rest of this week off and hope to be back next week for my regular blogging. It’s always nice to take a vacation :)  I hope you have a safe and exciting holiday. 

Happy (almost) New Year!!