It was a few days past Christmas in 2017 and my sister, Kim, was still in town enjoying an extended vacation in Denver. We had dinner plans for the evening and were out enjoying a few pre-party cocktails with one of my closest friends, Autumn. Meanwhile, Scott (my roommate, and the unlikeliest of match-makers), mentioned he was bringing a plus one to dinner. Us girls showed up a few minutes late and with a good head-start, and were surprised to see that Scott hadn't brought a new girlfriend, but instead, there was Lee. Apparently he'd been telling Lee for a year that we should meet....meanwhile, I'd never heard of this guy. Lots of laughing, good food, and many more cocktails later, sparks were flying all over the place. At some point in the evening - forgotten as soon as it was said - I invited Lee to come back for caesar the next morning when he picked up his car. (That's the Canadian version of a bloody mary, for all the non-Canadians reading this, and will be on the menu at our Sunday Open House...). My phone rang at 7:15am, and in my PJs with bedhead pulled into a ponytail, I crafted this concoction for all of us. What can I say....they're THAT good. We've been inseparable ever since.
We had just arrived at our beachfront hotel room in the early evening in Providenciales, Turks & Caicos. We had dinner plans for the evening, so I was trying to get ready and missing a beautiful sunset over the ocean. Lee kept calling me out to the balcony to enjoy it, and I kept telling him that I'd be out in a minute... He got more insistent, and I eventually put down whatever I was doing and went out there....little did I know....he pulled out a little box and got down on one knee. I was so stunned it took me a couple agonizing (for him) seconds to answer. Of course I said yes. He'd been planning it for months, his whole office and family was in on it, and I had absolutely no idea. We spent the next 3 days scuba diving, and enjoying more of those sunsets.