The Proposal - Part 2: The Legend of the Pickle Ornament

So, we left off last time at the actual proposal.  Adam had gone ring shopping in November and had been hiding the ring in different locations around this house since then.  Personally, if it was me, I don't think I could have waited for over a month, it would have driven me crazy.  Adam's brother was the only one that knew he was planning to propose, so there wasn't really the issue of anyone spilling the beans (well, almost...more on that later).

Now, I suppose for this story to make sense, we have to take a few steps back.

A few years ago, I was telling Adam about this legend of a pickle ornament.  I had heard about it when I was in high school from some teacher.  The legend goes that a pickle ornament is hidden on the Christmas tree and on Christmas morning whoever finds the ornament first gets a special present or prize or something.  I didn't exactly have all the details.  So I was telling Adam about this tradition a few years back.  He refused to believe that this tradition actually existed.  In fact, in typical Adam fashion, he turned it into a sex joke (Hey Lindsy, find the pickle).  That year for Christmas he made me a pickle ornament.

So this year, as Christmas is approaching, we're trying to make plans with our bazillion relatives.  My Dad works for a particular parcel delivery company and Christmas time is absolutely insane for him.  I found out a few days before that the only time that it was going to work out to go see his parents ended up being on Christmas Eve.  So on Christmas Eve, we left Manhattan around 6 am, drove about 5 hours to visit the grandparents, visited for several hours and made the 5 hour trip back.  I normally take Adam with me when we go to see family, but this time I knew it was going to be a long day and it was one of the few days he was actually going to have off of school and work.  I ended up getting home around midnight that night.  Looking back now, I knew Adam was kind of upset that I was going to be gone the entire Christmas Eve, but it didn't register to me why at the time.

After I got home, Adam asked if I wanted to open presents.  I was absolutely exhausted (I had actually gotten up around 4:30 to do some last minute Christmas shopping), but I said yes.  Then Adam said, "before we open presents, you have to find the pickle ornament."  Now, I'm normally game for Adam's silly requests, but this time, I really didn't care about the pickle ornament.  I gave a half-assed look in the tree but didn't find anything.  I gave Adam a why-are-you-making-me-do-this look and he gave a look in response that said keep looking.  So I finally found the pickle.  On the pickle was a shiny diamond ring.  I thought it was a joke, I honestly didn't think it was real.  I was so shocked that I held it out to him and said, "what is this?"  He just smiled.

Now, I think I would have gotten the message if he had gotten down on one knee or something.  So I headed back over to him on the couch, sat down, and he asked me if I would marry him.  I'm pretty sure that I responded with, "really?"  Looking back now, I laugh at how awkward I must have appeared.  Of course, I said yes, and then I think I kept repeating, "you really want to marry me?"  Hah.

A couple of days later, I realized that I didn't get an I-want-to-spend-the-rest-of-my-life-with-you-and-you-are-super-awesome speech.  I told Adam that I am still waiting for my speech.  He has yet to follow through on that request.

I know Adam put a lot of time and thought into his proposal, but it cracks me up how awful we enacted it.  I find it funny that we are so comfortable with each other and both easy-going people, but put us back into our vulnerable shoes we become sort of shell-shocked strangers.  I'm sure Adam didn't realize what it looked like with him just sitting on the couch, but at the time I bet a ton of things were running through his mind.  I don't think I received the ring in quite the manner that he would have imagined either.  Either way, we can both look back and laugh on our super awkward engagement to each other. I will take being engaged today over the perfect proposal any day.

Side notes:
1.  Adam's brother almost ended up ruining the surprise one evening in December.  We were playing Drunk Jenga (yeah...) and for Never Have I Ever he said, "Never have I ever considered buying someone a $$$$ ring.  Luckily one of our other friends had, so they took the heat off of Adam.  I can just imagine nobody drinking and me looking around at everyone wondering why Adam's brother had said that.  I was clueless at the time though.

2.  My Christmas present to Adam really sucked in comparison.

3.  The Christmas Pickle Legend might actually be a myth.  After starting to write this post, I found an article on about.com that goes into detail.  Doesn't make a bit of difference to be, but it's here for some historical clarification/reference.