This last December there was a nasty virus going around, not pandemic level, but it was pretty miserable. I had the bug and felt like I had been sick for weeks. Unbeknownst to me, Andrew had a proposal plan brewing! We had a busy holiday scheduled with family in town for Christmas and friends right after for New Years, so he had a small window to work with. He slyly mentioned that we should open our Christmas presents to each other privately before company arrived. The 22nd was going to be the magic date! I attempted to go back to work on the 22nd, but came home regretting the decision. With me sick in bed, Andrew let our families know that he didn't think the proposal was going to work out as planned. Luckily, my sister Kalli called and woke me up from my NyQuil daze. After a quick chat, I told Andrew that I thought I could open our presents- I was feeling better! Andrew quickly send a "We're on!" to family and got his presents to our dining room table. I opened my gifts, laughing at Andrew because he forgot to take off the price tags. He had to grab one more that he forgot to wrap- I thought nothing of this...he did forget to take the tags off the others after all! He told me to close my eyes and hold out my hands and after what seemed to be an eternity, I asked if I could open them. Andrew was down on one knee and he had a ring I recognized in hand. Before he could even propose, I said "Is that THE ring?!" To which he said, "Well, will you marry me?" Yes, yes, best Christmas ever. Plan not thwarted; we were engaged in our home with all of the fur babies and our tabletop Christmas tree. It was perfect.

*Update* Well it looks like winter will not bring a more controlled situation after-all. After many hours of deliberation, we have decided to have a family only celebration. This was the most difficult decision to make especially since we have all been apart for so long now. However in the end, the health and safety of our guests and ourselves is too important to ignore. This will be Take 1 for our wedding, but there will most definitely be a Take 2 when it is safe for us all to get together in person again. Thank you to everyone near and far who wanted to celebrate with us. We are looking into Zoom options and will post here with updates. Love you. We are keeping a close eye on all Covid developments- unfortunately Texas is not where we'd like it to be at the moment. However, we are hopeful that come the winter, the threat will be under control. We have seen how quickly things can change, so we will keep in touch here if there are any additional changes to the plan. We love each and every one of you and want to keep us all as safe as possible.