An Engagement to Remember

"She told me she wants to get engaged inside a snow globe," he said matter-of-factly. I smiled one of those melty smiles. My brother Eric is one of those sweet-hearted souls who would go above and beyond to make his love’s dreams come true. "But how does one get engaged in a snow globe?" he wondered. He started thinking of a little German-inspired town called Leavenworth, just a short two hour drive outside of the city. Every year around Christmas the town puts on a festival of lights, complete with a nightly tree lighting. Very magical. When there is snow on the ground, one may dare say it is "snowglobe-esque". I reminded him that that would make having a private engagement impossible, and suggested a river walk just outside of the town that boasted a stunning mountain view at one of the stops along the path. So the plan was in motion, if we could keep it a secret from his girlfriend Lisa.

December 26, the day after Christmas. My immediate family plus Lisa bundled up and headed to Leavenworth to hang out and look at the general splendor. At about 2:30pm we stopped at a restaurant and beer garden for some drinks and appetizers to warm up. All of us were chatting idly, laughing and subtly checking our watches. We needed to get down to the river walk before it got dark, but didn’t want to arouse any suspicions on part of his girlfriend. My brother had taken my idea to go down to the river walk, and had let all of us in on his plan. I was prepared to take their photos and mentally named myself the hired engagement photographer, though I am only equipped with a cell phone. My father also mentally assigned himself the same role, and brought his cannon camera he had picked up at a Costco years ago to document the occasion. All the while, Lisa was still unaware of the plan. I guess we’re better actors than we all thought.

We wandered down to the waterfront in a “spur of the moment” decision, though it was snowy and cold, and the sun was threatening to set on us. Snow covered the walking path, and had turned into this packed down, icy surface that was quite slippery. I had donned my best snow boots, but somehow the traction of the soles proved useless against the slick surface. We were chatting and walking up a small hill leading to a snow-covered bridge when suddenly I found myself slipping from standing to lying on my stomach with my nose in the snow. It was an embarrassing distraction, and my brother told me later that he thought I did it on purpose to throw off any suspicion that something was up.

Upon traversing the bridge, my dad suggested we turn left, because he had a viewpoint he wanted to stop at to take pictures. As we ambled through the uneven snow, looking up at the breathtaking and mysterious canopy of stick-armed trees around us, we rounded the next corner and came upon the intended clearing. The trees seemed to pull back, and all you could see was a beautiful blue sky with wisps of purple and fading pink clouds swirling around a snow dusted mountain top, the river quietly babbling in the foreground. 

We all faded back to give Eric a chance to take Lisa’s hand and look out at the mountain view together, except for my younger brother. He seemed to miss the memo and continued to stand next to them, unaware of the proposal plan. We all hissed and frantically waved our arms at him, and he moon-walked back into the rank with the rest of us.

Eric proceeded to wrestle a sock out of his pocket (what?), and dump a sparkling ring out of the sock (ohh) and into his bare hand. With tears in his eyes, he made his proposal, and Lisa answered with a joyful (and tearful) yes! We all sprang forward, my mom crying, my sister laughing, my younger brother saying congratulations, my dad trying to be a photographer, and me being the competing photographer trying to take a bunch of pictures before I even gave them each a hug.

It truly was magical, and as close to getting engaged inside a snow globe as one could imagine.