If you ask Lydia when they met, she will say on the banks of the Flume Falls in Lake Placid during the CanAms Rugby Tournament. She spotted Christian lounging on a rock in the sun. If you ask Christian, he will say the night before the river, at her team's rental house while Lydia was doing homework for grad school on the screened-in porch. After getting to know each other at a party on the last night of the tournament, Lydia ended up at a bar called The Pickled Pig, but Christian was nowhere to be seen. Just as she was losing hope for the evening he appeared in the doorway of the bar. Lydia told herself that if Christian looked at her and smiled-- it was on. Christian looked around the bar, caught Lydia's eye, smiled, and took the empty seat next to her. The rest is history.

During a New Year's Eve party at our home with as many of our Lancaster friends gathered as possible Christian made the uncharacteristic request of having a toast before the ball dropped. It was then, 3 minutes until midnight, with so many close friends there to bear witness that Christian proposed. And Lydia said yes, before saying, "It's about time." And she was right.