A Swiss Miss No Longer

This holiday season Mickey and I were proud to announce our engagement to all of our family members and friends. I've told the story of how it all happened so many times, but it is special to us and I believe it deserves some attention in this blog.

The Google holiday party is in some ways the biggest night of the year for Mickey and me. I take great pleasure in choosing a gown (never a repeat :) and getting all prettied up. For the 2004 holiday party, my cousin generously lent me her Bob Mackie prom dress. Anyway, this was the fourth year that Mickey invited me to be his date and we had a fabulous time despite very poor sushi.

During a lull in the party, Mickey and I were sitting on a sofa talking and canoodling. He told me that he loved me and wanted to marry me. Because he didn't drop to one knee or present me with a ring, I didn't think that this was really "it." I recall saying, 'I want to marry you, too!' thinking that this meant that we would look for a ring and eventually he would propose in some elaborate way. Of course, a ring of my choosing would have to be ready in advance of his proposal atop Kilimanjaro with a gospel choir. It was clear that I had seen too many romantic movies and far too many episodes of TLC's Perfect Proposal. Later that night Mickey mentioned the proposal and I told him that he hadn't proposed yet. Where was the knee? the ring? I can live without the mountain top and choreography, but how about the ring in the cake trick? But he had in fact proposed in a sincere, Mickey way and that is what I love. I accepted and that is our story.

We decided not to tell anyone until we had the ring and could tell them in person. This meant that our big news was delivered in a first come, first served manner. My own mother didn't learn of our engagement until it was old news among Googlers. Telling people in person was certainly worth the wait, though, because we got to witness our loved ones' reactions and even capture some of them on video. Though none of the reactions were negative, the positive responses ran the gamut from screams of joy to tears to 'well, it's about time.' The love and support we received from family and friends has made this a very happy time for me.

While we were in Ohio over the holiday break, Mickey's parents hosted an engagement party for us. I met members of Mickey's family who I had never met before and felt incredibly grateful for their blessing.

We plan to wed in the spring or summer of 2008.