>Some people have been asking about all the phases of the proposal, so I thought I would provide a “guide” here in the blog so you know what was going on in all those gifts Chris gave me.

So, here we go.

1st gift was a black bag of COAL. “For all the Christmases before this one that I was hiding” from Chris. That’s why I deserved coal.

2nd gift was a female artist’s mannequin to match the male one he gave me last year for Christmas right after we met.

3rd gift was 2 children artists’s mannequins to match the woman and the man.

4th gift was a set of tins (peace, hope and joy) that contained various gift cards, moist towelettes from Friday’s (like the kind you get when you eat messy ribs), 20 cool colored markers, and an AMC theater gift card.

5th gift was a package of calligraphy pens and a handmade card that said, “If I were to get you a diamond ring, would you marry me the first day of spring?” Check “Yes” or “No”

6th gift was a framed photo of one of his students who had used Photoshop to dress himself up as a coal miner. Inside this gift, there was a card with another handmade card with this web site address on it and the explanation of some symbols.

Chris had given me a jeweler’s loupe for my birthday a few weeks before that he had told me to carry with me everywhere in case we decided to go look at nice jewelry. I forgot it. So he gave me his and told me to start looking at the coal.

So, piece by piece, I began to examine the coal with the loupe, and I finally found a piece that was slightly discolored. And I bammed it on the table. Then he took it from me, pried it open and took out my engagement ring, which he had partially designed himself and had made by a jeweler in Dallas. It’s a beauty! He had asked the art/wood shop teacher at his school to hand make the coal pieces. The teacher, David, cut some wood, filed it down to make it look like real coal, then used a router and a lathe to hollow out one piece and cut it so that the two pieces would fit together like a ring box. And inside was . . . you just have to watch the movie to find out!

It was absolutely amazing and so romantic. And we were with my family, which was one of the best parts! He filmed the entire thing, and you can view it on the main web site page by clicking on “Original page with videos.” If you have a Mac, you have to have a little add-on program called “Flip4Mac” to view it because it’s a Windows Media file. I believe you can download that for free at http://www.apple.com. It takes a while to download, but it’s pretty fun!

Happy New Year.