Bryan and I decided to start putting up the Christmas decorations this
week.  Sunday, we got the tree out of the closet and set that up in the
living room.  Our plan was to do a little bit every night.  By
Thanksgiving, we would have a beautifully decorated house.  On Monday,
Bryan put the lights on the tree.  Then I started unwrapping some of the
ornaments.... just to look at them.  Well, after I unwrapped *all* of the
ornaments, we decided to finish trimming the tree.  Bryan was hanging back
and letting me do most of the decorating.  Though I did notice that one of
the first ornaments that he put on the tree was my heart shaped Nicole
ornament.  After we finished, we sat in the glow of the big bulb lights and
admired our tree.  That was when Bryan informed me that I did not find my
NEW ornament.  He had put something new on one of the trees.  (we have a
charlie brown tree in the bedroom and the big tree in the living room.)  I
could not find anything new on the charlie brown tree so I moved to the big
tree.

After surveying the big tree for a few moments, the little girl in me said,
"Look for a ring, look for a ring".  But the practical side of me said,
"Find the ornament".  Well, just about then I found a beautiful diamond
ring hanging from the heart shaped Nicole ornament.  My engagement ring had
been on the tree the entire time.  I was so focused on the decorating that
I never saw it.  Bryan has since been teasing me that any other woman would
have known right away that there was a diamond ring on the tree.

I am very happy and excited to tell everyone that Bryan and I are engaged
to be married.  We do not have a date, time, place or even a ctiy yet.  I
just couldn't wait to tell everyone.  I know that I will be wearing a big
smile for a long, long time!

Happy Holidays, Nicole