The Proposal

On December 27th, 2011, Christopher and I met late that morning in the sun room of my mom's house with the books my dad had given us for Christmas in hand.  We read a chapter or two individually, then I decided to get ready for the day.  When I was finished getting ready, Christopher told me that my mom had a good idea to go on a picnic.  Agreeing with excitement, we packed the basket I made in West Virginia, and headed to his mom’s house.  When we got there, we gathered our tarp, quilt, and basket, and went to the old garden.  It had been raining the past few days, but praise the Lord the sun was shining bright.  We let Laura out of the backyard and we set up our extravagance.  Lucky for all, Laura found a deer leg to gnaw on so we weren’t bothered at all and she was happy as could be.  We ate our tuna sandwiches, yogurt, blackberries, and ham, and shared the very last ginger snap Aunt Becky had made us for Christmas that year.  After talking, eating, watching Chris imitate a deer then kick a tree and fall in a hole, we went back up to the house where Nathaniel helped jump off the Camry.  Now having both my car and the Camry, we went shopping a bit in Dogwood.  I got some tights to wear that night on our date, and we also bought a few Christmas puzzles at Hallmark for the years to come.  Around three o’clock, we parted ways to get ready for the date we were going to have that night.  Mr. Michael had given us a fifty dollar gift card to Char for Christmas so we decided to use it on that clear night.  Our reservation was for six thirty.

Christopher picked me up at my house a little before six.  Dressed to a ‘t’, we took a few pictures and drove to Jackson.  On the way, Christopher and I talked and prayed and hoped the night would be so wonderful.  We found a good parking spot out front and prayed for our waitress and experience on the walk to the front door.  We had a beautiful meal.  We started with a crab claw appetizer, then Christopher got the scallops that had a side of grits and sauteed onions with a glass of Souverain red wine, and I got the blackfish and smashed potatoes with a glass of Apothic red wine.  We followed the meal with a cup of coffee.  After a while of relaxing and talking, we left the restaurant, grabbed our jackets from the car, and took a walk in Highland Village.  At first we thought they had already taken the Christmas lights down and we couldn’t quite hear what music they were playing, but when we turned the corner, all of the garland, red bows, Christmas trees, and lights were at our disposal; the song playing was ‘Baby It’s Cold Outside’.  Before I knew it, we were walking toward the gazebo, which seemed to be the perfect place for a proposal.  I began to get excited and nervous as we walked toward it, thinking that this could be it, then Christopher turned and went down the stairs nearby.  I suppose after that I put it behind me and convinced myself that it wasn’t going to happen that night.  We walked around for a long time and it was very nice, especially when we came to a storefront that had a beautiful handmade forest scenery set up in its window.  It was a very warm view of a winter wonderland.  We walked down to look at the whole thing, then Christopher told me he wanted to go look at the first scene again.  When we got there, he grabbed me rather abruptly and told me how much he loved me.  He told me he never wanted to be with anyone else.  We spent a long time forehead to forehead, me just soaking in all he was telling me.  He then proceeded to reach in his pocket, get down on one knee, take my hand and ask me, “Will you please marry me?”.  I was at a loss for words but somehow whispered out a “yes”.  I took Mamaw Dot’s ring off my middle finger and he slipped the engagement ring on my ring finger.  Without even looking at the ring, we hugged and danced to the song that had been playing throughout the proposal, ‘O Holy Night’.  When the song ended we began to make excited conversation and I got my first look at the ring.  It is so beautiful.  He explained to me how everything happened and told me all about the ring.  The center stone is the diamond Grandpa Ed had given Mamaw Dot and then in turn, it was given to my mother.  One of the side diamonds is from Grandmother Joyce’s wedding ring; it happened to be the exact same size as the one that Christopher bought for me, which is on the other side of the center diamond.  It was a perfect night in every way.  Once we decided to tell people, I called my dad and thanked him.  We then called Chris’s dad since he was in Georgia, and went to my house to tell my mom and sister.  After spending some time there, we went to his mom’s house, woke her up, and told her and Nathaniel.  Corey and Mitch Morgan met us there with congratulations.  We then went to Ramsey’s house with Mitch and spent some time there talking and taking some pictures.  Christopher then dropped me off at my house and he went back to his.