the best Christmas present I ever got

Saturday (December 6) marked the anniversary of Jason's offer to make a decent woman of me, so I thought I'd share the story with you.

Jason bought a ring at the beginning of December in 2005, intending to propose in a romantic manner at Christmas or on New Year's Eve, after he'd taken me to Massachusetts to meet his family for the first time (this was when he was in the Navy, so we were still living in Virginia then).

After picking up the ring, however, he was too excited to wait that long. He absolutely had to give me the ring when I got home from work that evening. He was waiting anxiously when I walked in the door. He gave me a hug, as always, and said, "There's something for you in the bedroom." I could tell something was up with him because he was acting funny, but I didn't think anything of this "something"--I was expecting junk mail, a dismembered cockroach, or cat vomit--so I went about attending to my after-work business.

After a second encouragement that this something really must have my attention right away, I went to see what it was (and I'm thinking, "holy christ that has got to be a huge pile of hairball"), with Jason (and Jacob and Jasper) following right behind.

There was a little blue box on the nightstand. I knew immediately what it was. I had been dropping not-at-all subtle hints since the fall that I expected a proposal soon--I even went so far as to assure my family at Thanksgiving that I would be engaged by year's end (cocky much? ...a little too much, perhaps).

So I'm standing there in the bedroom holding this little blue box, my hands trembling almost too hard to open it. Jason, seemingly tongue-tied, watched me from the doorway. I finally managed to get it open, and found the most gorgeous ring. Jason was standing next to me by now. "Is this what I think it is?" I said. He squeaked out a "yeah" and I threw my arms around him, squealing gleefully.

Then I remembered that he had forgotten something. I pulled back for a moment and said, "Do you have something to ask me?" He grinned sheepishly and said, "Yeah, I wanted to know if you'll marry me."

I accepted, of course, and we spent the rest of the evening calling our families to share the good news (Jason had Jasper's help in that endeavor).



We ended up eloping thanks to the Navy and stupid family issues. We said our vows to each other (on the beach where we had our first date) on July 4, 2006, exactly a year after we met. We were legally married at the courthouse in Virginia Beach the next day.

I'll write more about our wedding celebration at the end of the month.