Our engagement wasn’t exactly a surprise, because we’re terrible at keeping secrets from each other. I knew when he picked up the ring, and we both agreed we wanted to do it before Christmas Eve. We even had a funny plan for how to tell my parents. So, when December 23rd rolled around, I had a feeling that was the day. Dec 23rd is a very special day for Norwegians. Known as Lille Julaften “Mini Christmas Eve”. We planned a full day of festive activities, starting with a big pancake breakfast and mimosas, baking gingerbread men, heading out to lunch, making a gingerbread house, and sipping peppermint schnapps. By the time we’d made an elaborate pasta dinner and were sitting down to a candlelit meal with wine, I was beginning to wonder when he’d finally pop the question. After dinner, we cozied up on the couch to watch a Christmas movie, and he asked if he could open one of his presents. Quick backstory—he’d accidentally seen that I got him a Keurig coffee machine, and I had wrapped the coffee maker along with a little reusable coffee pod. So, when he said he wanted to open the coffee maker to use it the next morning, I thought nothing of it. He opened the Keurig, and then reached for the little box with the reusable coffee pod. As he started to unwrap it, his face turned beet red, and he started giggling. I was so confused, thinking, "Why is he laughing at a coffee pod?” Then, everything became a blur as I realized he had switched out the box! It wasn’t the coffee pod inside—it was the ring! He had secretly swapped the boxes two days earlier, and they just so happened to be the exact same size. Here’s the funny part: the day before, my parents came over, and I told him I wanted to hide the coffee pod because it looked way too much like a ring box, and I didn’t want my parents getting suspicious. I unknowingly moved the real ring box and didn’t even notice the weight difference! So there he was, already down on one knee, trying to tell me how much he loved me, but he was so nervous that he forgot most of what he wanted to say. As he went to slip the ring on my finger, I stopped him and said, “Wait! You have to say the words—I only get to hear this once!” He laughed, asked me to marry him, and of course, I said yes. But the surprises didn’t end there! All day, he’d been telling me he was tracking a gift that was supposed to arrive from Amazon. After he proposed, not even five minutes later, the doorbell rang. I answered it to find his entire family, nieces and nephew included, standing there with balloons, champagne, and desserts to celebrate with us. Even though I knew the proposal was happening that day, he still managed to surprise me—twice!