I’m not a very hard person to surprise because #1) I’m generally rather skeptical and #2) I don’t like to spoil surprises so I don’t believe what I hear or I purposely forget clues that I see. So if someone had said to me on December 8, 2010, “Nate’s going to propose to you tonight,” I would not have believed them. During 3 roller-coaster months of dating, Nate and I had talked about our plans a lot, but I wasn’t expecting a ring on my finger until after Christmas, for various reasons.

Our church-wide white elephant Christmas party started out very normally. We walked in, started saying hi and hanging out with the people we loved. Our friend Mary Ellen showed us her package right away and said, “You guys should pick my gift. It’s the best.” To which we both replied sarcastically, “Oh, yeah, I’m sure. Whatever.” (There’s generally only one reason people tell you to pick their gift at a white elephant party, and that’s because it’s the lamest one possible.) Well, then we drew our numbers and Nate got #1. He whined about it dramatically. He joked about trading it, etc. So everything was normal.

Once we started exchanging gifts, Nate made sure that everyone in the room knew he was picking his gift. (He had asked me just before, “Do you think I should pick Mary Ellen’s?” Her continual bugging us convinced me she was actually serious, so I said, “Yeah, I think you’d better.”) Nate is 6’8″ and when he makes an announcement with his hands in the air most people don’t miss it. So he sat down with Mary Ellen’s gift and started unwrapping it. It was a box inside of a box, inside of a box. We were all laughing and it still seemed incredibly normal.

Then he pulled out a ring box. My initial shocked thought was “What a horrible joke!” Nate got down on his knee in front of me and I thought, “And Nate’s going along with it! In front of the whole church.”

“Stop, Nate,” I begged him, laughing from both hilarity and terror. But then he opened the box. I saw three things: It was a Kay box. It was a real ring. It was just the kind of ring I sort-of specified to him. I immediately knew it was real.

Everyone was really laughing and cheering by that point. Then Nate started talking and I didn’t hear anything else.

“Liz, you got me. I never expected to be in this place with you, but here we are. You’ve helped me go from being a kid to being a man. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?”

I could barely gasp out “YES!”

And the rest is history. Best White Elephant gift ever.