The end of the year was coming and I felt that our engagement was still a long ways away. One thing I told myself is that the one day that I KNEW it would never happen would be on Christmas, just because I thought he would do it completely out of the blue!

It was Christmas morning 2022 and we had just finished opening all of our presents. I turned to Chris and jokingly said “Welp Christmas is over now!” And he said “No it isn’t! I still have something else for you…you’ll have to find it on the tree” I was confused for a minute until I reached for this stocking, made by my aunt from one of my grandmom’s old shirts. As soon as I felt the ring I burst into tears!! Chris was sitting under the tree laughing up at me before he got on one knee. He told me that he & our dog Rosie wanted to be a family officially and then he asked me to marry him! We spent the next hour or so calling all our family and friends to share the news!

The best part about my beautiful ring is that the diamond came from his grandma’s engagement ring! Both our grandmothers mean so much to us, so incorporating both of them in our engagement was so special to me! Grandma Eileen & I had waited for this day for so long!

I STILL can’t believe he was able to surprise me and I didn’t have a clue that it was coming!! To this day it was the happiest moment of my life (until our wedding day of course)

- Tara