Happy holidays!

We are very lucky to have gotten to spend a White Almost-Christmas together this year, as the sky dumped a bunch of snow on us in Arlington on Dec. 24th. That day, Tamara drove down to Blanco to be with her folks, but we got to see the snow falling together.

Also, we have the DJ in place now and are working on the photographer!

Our next step is to put together the Save the Date info and get them sent out right after New Years!!

The venue is set, the date is switched!

We can now officially get married. Sure, we had the church reserved, the priest in place, the wedding party ready -- but until we had that reception site, things were still up in the air, don't ya know...

As of this weekend, though, we are locked in. We will be having our reception at a lovely place called The Ashton Depot in Fort Worth. This is an old train depot that has been renovated and restored into a beautiful banquet hall complete with marble floor, tin roof, and stained glass windows.

The depot was already booked on Saturday, July 3rd, so we have moved the wedding date to that Friday, July 2nd. This date is now solid.

One of the best perks of the Ashton Depot is that the bride and groom apparently have a personal butler that attends to the couple's whim all evening. John will most likely be calling this butler "Alfred" all night, while Tamara (not getting the Batman reference) will just think it's funny to hear the name "Alfred" all night.

The Proposal (sans Ryan and Bullock)

When we first announced that we had gotten engaged, a lot of our friends on Facebook asked for, nay, DEMANDED that we spill all the sordid details of the engagement night and the proposal. Being the smartass that I (John) am, here was my story:

I took Tamara out to my favorite restaurant last night -- McDonalds -- and slipped the ring into the bottom of her McFlurry. When she discovered the ring, her shrieks of joy almost made Grimace wet himself!

OK, perhaps not the greatest mental image there, but I (John) thought it was pretty darn funny.

As they say at the end of the movie Clue, though, "But here's how it REALLY happened..."

I had told Tamara that we would be going out to dinner that night (11/11) but not where. I picked her up and took her to Blue Goose, a Tex-Mex restaraunt, which just happens to be where we ate on our first date. After that, we walked across the street to Hurricane's and a had a drink out on the patio, which we also did on our first date.

I should mention that the weather that night was still fantastic, in the 60s I'd say, so sitting on the patio was no problem.

I should also mention that the ring box was tucked into my sock the whole time. I found that the bulge in my pocket was way too obvious!

I was going to tell Tamara that some friends had texted me and asked if we wanted to meet them downtown for drinks at a new place. This would be a safe way to get her down to my predetermined site without raising her suspicions.

When the time was right, I reached into my pocket to pull out my phone and make the small fib about our friends. However, I soon realized that I had left my phone at Tamara's house!! Being the quick thinker that I am, though, I didn't let this deter me. I excused myself and went to use the restroom. Returning a few minutes later, I told Tamara that I had gotten a phone CALL from our friends, and the game was afoot once again.

I took her downtown to a site called Fountain Place. If you're not familiar with this, check out the virtual site tour here.

It's a business park in downtown, but there are fountains galore, and it's a beautiful place. As we got to the prime place that I had scouted out, I told Tamara that our friends should be there and that we should sit down on a nearby bench and wait for them.

I think at that point, she was just a wee bit suspicious, but by then it was pretty much done deal. When we sat down, I told her that our friends weren't really coming but that I had taken her there for another reason, and watermelon, watermelon, watermelon, watermelon. *

*Replace "watermelon" with some mushy lovey-dovey stuff that I said.

I then got down on one knee, pulled the ring (in a box) from my sock and popped the question. She didn't leave me hanging, which was nice, and we were officially engaged!

So you see Jimmy, that's how a Bill becomes a Law! No, I mean, that's the story of how John and Tamara got engaged!