A bit of news...

I'm engaged!

These pictures tell the story... The day began with Anne and I preparing our apartment for Christmas. Our tree's name is Donald Ginoblington. Donald for our tree cutter and Ginoblington for Manu and the fact it's a Noble Fir. Yay!

Eric is learning how to cook, so he came over Saturday night and we cooked stromboli. He did a wonderful job! The filling was ham and cheese. He was so excited about it that he decided to make it for a Christmas party/dinner we were hosting later on that week!

We then went driving around looking at Christmas lights. This is perhaps my absolutely favorite thing to do! I knew that our engagement was coming soon; we had already taken the pre-marriage counseling class at church. However, the night before, he'd really discouraged my hopes. So, I wasn't getting my hopes up too much.

After seeing the most amazing neighborhood of lights (complete with the house whose lights are played to music), Eric took me to "another neighborhood." Well, we ended up at the Addison Airport! Still not trying to get my hopes up, though... Eric had arranged for us to go in a TINY airplane (4-seater) around downtown Dallas. It was so cool!

Then, Eric said, "Look, there's my neighborhood!" So I looked down and tried to find his house. He had the pilot circle around his house a few times (kind of felt like a dive bomb in that tiny plane). On the roof of his house, he had spelled out "MARRY ME" in Christmas lights! I looked over and said, "Well, YES! Of course!" before he could even ask me! So, then he had to ask and I, of course, repeated myself.

The ring box had a little light in it so I could already be blinded by the sparkle. It's absolutely perfect! This picture, of course, doesn't do it justice.

We're planning on celebrating Christmas with Eric's family in Chicago. We're flying to San Antonio, though, the 26th to celebrate with my family. Merry Christmas! We'll get married June 22nd on a ranch near Kerrville and Boerne, TX.