happy anniversary to me

Today is my wedding anniversary. We have been married 16 years on Dec 18th. I know it is hard to believe that a) Liz agreed to marry me and b) she has stayed married to me. What can I say except that we have far outpaced the general population as far as time served in matrimony? Liz has been a wonderful wife and a tremendous mother. I am truly blessed to have found her.

I thought that I would use this opportunity to tell you how I proposed to Liz. I recalled this event because Liz sent me some candy coal with an anniversary gift which brought back this memory.

I decided on the evening of the 23rd of December 1992 that I would propose to Liz after Christmas mass on the 24th. I had found the ring and was frantically running around to get the best deal and to pool all the money I had to pay for this diamond. So I am literally running out the door the morning of the 24th with like an hour to go before the bank is going to close for the holiday and I have maybe another hour after that to get to the jeweler to get the ring for that night. Liz calls and is quite perturbed with me because she thought we were going to go to Costco to get her mom her bread maker for Christmas. I told her to give me a couple of hours and then we could get it. Well that did not sit well and I got an @#$ chewing about how important it was to get the bread maker right then and how I was being selfish. (Now that I think about it, maybe she was seeing me only for my Costco membership). Anyhow, I covered the phone and whispered to my mom ‘if she only knew what I was trying to do right now’.

So I told her that the bread maker would have to wait. Now I was a little disgruntled that I am spending my life savings on a ring for the woman I plan on asking me to marry me in about 8 hours and all I got for my trouble was the silent treatment. I decided right then to play a joke on my love.

After mass we went to open presents at her house. She opened the box that I had wrapped and when she finally got to the contents she pulled out a piece of coal and gave me a look like I was crazy (which many of you have learned over the years to be an accurate assessment). I told her that I had told Santa about her bad behavior and bad children usually will then receive coal. I further explained that there was an upside because with the proper conditions and with lots of love coal can turn into something special. I then got down on my knee and proposed with ring in hand.

I know that this is not the most amazing proposal story, but it is my story and it was good enough to win us a bottle of champagne on our honeymoon cruise!

Happy Anniversary Love!