Carrie and I got home late on the 23rd, so it was early xmas eve morning. We'd been having a great time as always and things have been fantastic to be sure. But it's late and I'm tired and being the designated driver is a tough job. She says 'Let's have another drink' and I say 'okay' and prepare them, cuz that's the way... We light up my christmas branch (yes, it's a branch, not a tree) and flick on the fireplace dvd (sure i have a real fireplace, but it was late) for some nice holiday ambience. I slouch into the couch and enjoy a couple of sips on my toddy. Good times.

She sits next to me and looks stunning, really. I start to talk about how great she is and say something like... 'thank you so much for being here, for making this place so much more of a home...' and so on. Very festive close talk kind of stuff. Nice. She gets a little teary and tells me to 'Sit up.'

Of course I oblige and she somehow produces a vase full of roses and places it on the coffee table. At this point I'm feeling good too and this is incredibly sweet. Then she moves towards me and produces a little black box. (I am scared now, could be anything), but in fact it is a wedding band, and she asks me to marry her.

We kiss for a moment, and I look at the ring on my finger while doing so and she pulls away and asks 'is that a yes?' and i choke out a 'yes' as my heartbeat drives on so fast that it hurts. I say a few flustered things and grab for the shopping bag behind the couch. Somehow I come up with a thermos that I had gotten her for christmas and hand it over.

She gives me a ring, I give her a thermos. Nice guy.

So that's my story. I'm getting married to Carrie Szlasa on July 21st. We are incredibly happy and I've never felt better in my life. We'll be working out all of the details in the coming months and you'll all see us around and about looking cute and smiling.

Hope that you all had as wonderful a holiday as I and that this next year proves as wonderous as proposed.

Cheers!,
Colby