The full proposal story

Obviously (since, I did start this blog), I had some idea that the proposal was coming sometime. When, on Christmas morning, Mr. L gave me a very sweet card, I knew that it was coming soon. He wrote the most beautiful message inside:

I hope this is one of many more Christmas's we'll spend together with your family. I love you so very much, and I still have one more gift to give you! Love, Mr. L

For New Year's Eve, he booked us a room at The Jefferson, and when we got there, there was a bottle of champagne and a dozen roses waiting. We got there pretty early, so we laid around he room for a while before changing for dinner. Once we got changed, Mr. L said he wanted to walk around the hotel and look at everything. He took me down to the grand staircase, and we walked down it to the giant Christmas tree in the rotunda. It was beautiful.

See the little alcove just to the right of the tree, one floor up? That's where it happened!!!

I started to think that this must be it because his hands were shaking, and we were both being kinda quiet, and looking around at the beautiful architecture. We finally started walking back up the grand staircase, and he stopped us on a landing and asked if I wanted to sit down. We sat, and he took my hand. By this point, my heart was pounding! He said nice things, but I have no idea what he said! My heart was racing, and I could barely think. He said something about wanting to "do it right", and got down on one knee, pulled out the ring, and put it on my finger, while asking if I'd marry him!

Us, getting getting ready to go out - right before he proposed.

My poor brain was mush, and the only thing that came to mind was "Thank you". I was pretty sure that that wasn't the right answer, so I just kissed him. He had to ask if that was a "yes", and he finally got his answer. I don't even know how many times I repeated the word, once I remembered how to say it.

After we sat and said nice things to each other, and both stared at the shiny ring for a while, I remembered that I promised my girlfriends that I'd text them a picture of the ring when he proposed, so I sent off a picture message. We still had a little time before we left for dinner, and there was a band playing in the lobby, so we danced a little while we waited. It was wonderful.

Well, the actual camera phone picture I sent was much poorer quality, but this is pretty similar.

Then it was off to Davis & Main for dinner. It is a very Richmond restaurant, and the food was excellent. I was so excited that I was barely able to eat or drink. We hung out most of the night at the restaurant, and then headed out to the local festivities with a little before midnight.

The next morning, we had brunch at Lamaire, the 5 star hotel restaurant. It was actually the last meal that was ever served there - they are now closed for 3 months to renovate and reopen as a seafood restaurant. Again, it was great food, but I could barely eat.

I may have posed my ring on everything at our table and taken lots of pictures while Mr. L was at the buffet. This is the flower on our table at brunch.

It was amazing.