| View Blog
|
| Going to the chapel and we're going to get married
|
|
|
It was a cold Minnesota winter day where the air nips at your nose and snow crunches around your feet. The entire landscape is piled high with white snow, daring you to mess up it's beautiful mark on the earth. Outside lights twinkle through the panes of windows and there is just this sense of calm and quiet as Christmas Day is just around the corner. This evening is Christmas Eve and it reminds me much of many other Christmas Eves past where mom and dad bustle around the house cleaning and mom is getting all of her cooking done. The family is coming over and there is much more to be done, the tree is full of decorations but it lays empty underneath, as all of the presents still need to be wrapped.
B tells me my Christmas present will come tonight, at 6pm, so be ready to be outside for an hour. I shudder at the thought of being outside in the bitter cold air and my throat is scratchy and sore from a cold that hit a couple days before. Family starts piling into the house around 4pm and soon it is full with the hum of family coming together for one of the most joyful times of the year. Cousins who I have known since they were born are all together again. The traditional Swedish Christmas dinner reminds me of my grandmother who always insisted on it and even with her passing, her presence seems close, on a day like such. Swedish sausage, swedish meatballs, potatoes, salad, and of course lutefisk all meld together and remind me of many Christmases past.
Everyone eats and soon it is almost 6pm. Close friends arrive, M & N, seem to know what's going on but they are elusive. We step into the bitter cold night and drive several miles to the city. Downtown is empty, a ghost town, a few neon flickering lights of bars or restaurants. Otherwise it is quiet, a peaceful calm rarely present there. Suddenly we are in front of a beautiful inn, one with a horse and carriage in front. We are going on a cold wintry ride through the streets of downtown in an old fashioned horse and carriage. The ride is cold, quiet, but at the same time comforting and exhilarating. The steady "clip, clop" of the horse's feet are staccato and almost put me in a sleep as I look into the dark night.
The driver asks us if we would like to stop on the Stone Arch Bridge for a beautiful skyline site. I've seen it before, not that long ago either, but I agree excitedly nonetheless. We get out from under our warm heavy blankets and clamber down from the carriage onto the icy bridge. Suddenly B hands me a card. It says "Merry Christmas C" on it. I don't suspect anything, it was a wonderful Christmas present. I pull out the card, a soft furry kitten is on the front, but wait, there's more. It's got a paper diamond ring in it's mouth. Hmmm...
I open up the card. "Will you marry B?"
I gasp. My heart races. Is it happening? Really? I think, "Well he is fumbling around inside his inner coat pocket". He's laughing because he can't get it out and the zipper is stuck. Finally he manages to get it. He gives me the box and helps me open it. And there it is...the real thing. I quickly say "Yes" and in an instant life changes...
The Christmas Eve I will never forget...
|
|
Posted by throughmyeyes on 2008-01-11 01:11:06 | Rating: | Views: 118
|
| |
|
|
