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The Proposal:
F's flight arrived in Philly around 4:30 PM on Tuesday 12/23. I met him at the airport, brought him home on the train, and we spent the evening relaxing. At one point, F claims that he needs to go out to my car--he says he hid something there the last time he was in town, which at first I completely don't believe, but he explains that he saw this perfect gift last time he was here and thought I'd find it for sure if he hid it in the house, so he found a secret spot in my car. I am gullible. He goes out to the car, where he secretly calls my parents and asks for their blessing. My mom is totally awesome, and doesn't let on a thing when I talk to her maybe an hour later. Instead, she tells me about how my dad spent like two hours at Home Depot buying this thing for the lawn that he's now assembling. Go Mom.
On Wednesday 12/24, I took the day off, we slept in a little bit, and then did fun holiday things. F had a lot of gifts to wrap, and I went to the grocery store and then baked yet another batch of cookies. In the early afternoon, F mentioned that he had one or two more gifts to pick up in my neighborhood (full of cute little stores and bakeries, FYI) and went for a walk. When he got back, I was finishing up the cookies. F took over in the kitchen for a bit and I tidied up the living room and put away the wrapping things; we had the holiday music on, and F popped into the room for a minute, said "This one broke!" and gave me half a cookie. I was so happy in that moment, just having F there and doing stupid domestic holiday things, that I burst into tears right there in the living room. F was very sweet about it.
A little while later, F told me that there was a poem he really wanted to read to me on Christmas Day, but he needed to check the book out of the library, which he couldn't do without me and my library card, so could we walk up to the library? I thought, You couldn't check out the book from your library before you left California?! But the cookies were done, and we had time before my parents were coming over for dinner, so I said sure. It's only maybe a ten-minute walk to the library in my neighborhood. We get to the library, and F says he doesn't want me to see the book he's getting, so I need to look at something else for a minute. Okay. He comes to get me, holding one hand behind his back, and says there's another book he wants me to look at. I turn to the shelf and I see...
This book.
I turn to the bookmarked page.
I am completely surprised. I turn to the back of the book.
He has hollowed out the book. There is a ring in the book.
I take the ring out and look at it. F goes down on one knee. I sit down on the floor with him. A random woman library patron continues to browse the books in our aisle without even noticing what's going on. We cry and kiss and say how much we love each other about 800 times. Then we walk back to my apartment, and send this picture message to some friends:
Lauren immediately calls me, squealing her face off, but I can't tell her the whole story yet because my parents are due to arrive any minute! F and I get changed out of our lazy day clothes and into nice going-to-church-on-Christmas-Eve clothes. My parents arrive and we tell them and we are so, so excited. My face begins to hurt because I can't stop smiling. My parents have never seen me so happy. We have a nice dinner of shrimp lasagna, and then we go to my church. It's a candlelight service. My ring looks pretty in the candlelight. I introduce F to my church friends and claim my large poinsettia, and then F and I go home and have some champagne. BEST DAY EVER (SO FAR).
Here are a few shots of the ring (taken before the proposal--F didn't want me to post these, he says it looks better on my hand, which is true):
All the stones, including the little diamond chips down the sides, came from a ring that belonged to his grandmother. I think it is the prettiest ring ever.
Regarding the book, I want to say that F spent hours and hours working on it. It's an anthology of romantic poetry, which is perfect. Between the proposal page and the hollowed-out part is a whole section of sweet pictures of us pasted in along with some of our favorite poems. The "Will you marry me" is done in Scrabble stickers, and F did all the pretty scrolly work on the page edges. He went to a scrapbooking store all by himself to get the material, which makes him pretty much the bravest man I know.
Here's a picture of us that my dad took on Christmas morning:
You can't see the ring here, but we're really happy.
F's flight arrived in Philly around 4:30 PM on Tuesday 12/23. I met him at the airport, brought him home on the train, and we spent the evening relaxing. At one point, F claims that he needs to go out to my car--he says he hid something there the last time he was in town, which at first I completely don't believe, but he explains that he saw this perfect gift last time he was here and thought I'd find it for sure if he hid it in the house, so he found a secret spot in my car. I am gullible. He goes out to the car, where he secretly calls my parents and asks for their blessing. My mom is totally awesome, and doesn't let on a thing when I talk to her maybe an hour later. Instead, she tells me about how my dad spent like two hours at Home Depot buying this thing for the lawn that he's now assembling. Go Mom.
On Wednesday 12/24, I took the day off, we slept in a little bit, and then did fun holiday things. F had a lot of gifts to wrap, and I went to the grocery store and then baked yet another batch of cookies. In the early afternoon, F mentioned that he had one or two more gifts to pick up in my neighborhood (full of cute little stores and bakeries, FYI) and went for a walk. When he got back, I was finishing up the cookies. F took over in the kitchen for a bit and I tidied up the living room and put away the wrapping things; we had the holiday music on, and F popped into the room for a minute, said "This one broke!" and gave me half a cookie. I was so happy in that moment, just having F there and doing stupid domestic holiday things, that I burst into tears right there in the living room. F was very sweet about it.
A little while later, F told me that there was a poem he really wanted to read to me on Christmas Day, but he needed to check the book out of the library, which he couldn't do without me and my library card, so could we walk up to the library? I thought, You couldn't check out the book from your library before you left California?! But the cookies were done, and we had time before my parents were coming over for dinner, so I said sure. It's only maybe a ten-minute walk to the library in my neighborhood. We get to the library, and F says he doesn't want me to see the book he's getting, so I need to look at something else for a minute. Okay. He comes to get me, holding one hand behind his back, and says there's another book he wants me to look at. I turn to the shelf and I see...
This book.
I turn to the bookmarked page.
I am completely surprised. I turn to the back of the book.
He has hollowed out the book. There is a ring in the book.
I take the ring out and look at it. F goes down on one knee. I sit down on the floor with him. A random woman library patron continues to browse the books in our aisle without even noticing what's going on. We cry and kiss and say how much we love each other about 800 times. Then we walk back to my apartment, and send this picture message to some friends:
Lauren immediately calls me, squealing her face off, but I can't tell her the whole story yet because my parents are due to arrive any minute! F and I get changed out of our lazy day clothes and into nice going-to-church-on-Christmas-Eve clothes. My parents arrive and we tell them and we are so, so excited. My face begins to hurt because I can't stop smiling. My parents have never seen me so happy. We have a nice dinner of shrimp lasagna, and then we go to my church. It's a candlelight service. My ring looks pretty in the candlelight. I introduce F to my church friends and claim my large poinsettia, and then F and I go home and have some champagne. BEST DAY EVER (SO FAR).
Here are a few shots of the ring (taken before the proposal--F didn't want me to post these, he says it looks better on my hand, which is true):
All the stones, including the little diamond chips down the sides, came from a ring that belonged to his grandmother. I think it is the prettiest ring ever.
Regarding the book, I want to say that F spent hours and hours working on it. It's an anthology of romantic poetry, which is perfect. Between the proposal page and the hollowed-out part is a whole section of sweet pictures of us pasted in along with some of our favorite poems. The "Will you marry me" is done in Scrabble stickers, and F did all the pretty scrolly work on the page edges. He went to a scrapbooking store all by himself to get the material, which makes him pretty much the bravest man I know.
Here's a picture of us that my dad took on Christmas morning:
You can't see the ring here, but we're really happy.
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no subject
Date: 2009-01-07 03:45 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2009-01-07 03:57 am (UTC)From:SCRABBLE stickers! That shows he knows you. ;-)
And your ring! My engagement ring is also a modern resetting of TODS' grandmother's! That makes it especially precious to me. Yours is beautiful, too! And you look like a darling couple. :-)
no subject
Date: 2009-01-07 04:04 am (UTC)From:I am totally crying all over the place here! Can't even express how happy & excited I am for you, for you both! *giant huggles*
That proposal is the coolest thing I have ever heard of! The attention to detail just screams "I Love You". What an amazing guy you have there.
Mwah!
ETA: Thanks for the cutie-pie picture of you guys!! It's got a place of honor on my fridge. :)
no subject
Date: 2009-01-07 04:08 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2009-01-07 04:13 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2009-01-07 05:02 am (UTC)From:There's... not much question it wins out over my very romantic proposal, in which I believe my exact words to Gregor were something along the lines of, "What? They're not getting you a visa in time? Uh, am I going to have to marry you? If you get deported, I can't afford to pay for this apartment on my own."
That book! I can't get over THAT BOOK!!
no subject
Date: 2009-01-07 05:06 am (UTC)From:Congratulations!
no subject
Date: 2009-01-07 05:32 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2009-01-07 05:41 am (UTC)From:He wins at knowing you well.
That is so damn sweet.
Yay for happy
endingsbeginnings.no subject
Date: 2009-01-07 12:07 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2009-01-07 01:16 pm (UTC)From:That is such a sweet story. And even more awesome that he proposed to you on a holiday you really like. *hugs* And I love it when people ask the blessing of their sweetie's parents - call me old-fashioned if you must!
Congratulations. I hope you will have many happy years together.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-07 01:21 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2009-01-07 02:32 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2009-01-07 03:04 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2009-01-07 04:20 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2009-01-07 08:23 pm (UTC)From:Sounds like two unique and loving people have found one another. He gave you a beautiful proposal. He is a thoughtful, romantic man who knows he has found a jewel without price in you, his beloved.
Thank you for this post.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-08 04:28 am (UTC)From: