First comes love...

Then comes marriage...

A few weeks ago my nephew Dan called to swear me to secrecy. His girlfriend Alicia is joining him here in Massachusetts in January, leaving her life in Indiana so they can be together. Dan wanted to make sure she knew he meant it for keeps. And he asked for my help with planning a romantic night at an inn so he could pop the question in style.

OK so after I got all teary about how incredibly sweet he is and how his heart and his thinking were all in the right places, we got down to work.

We found a place called The Deerfield Inn that seemed perfect and made the plans. Then we constructed an elaborate, ummm...lie...to get Alicia to the inn without raising suspicions. Since it was Bob's birthday on Sept. 2, we told her that I had planned this romantic getaway but at the last minute Bob had to fly to California, so we couldn't go, but the room was non-refundable. Would they like to go in our place? We even had reservations for dinner at the inn. Sounds very believeable, doesn't it? It's scary how easily we concocted the story!

For best effect, you have to hear Dan tell you the story in person. But suffice to say, the entire inn knew of the big plan. He stood up and asked for everyone's attention in the dining room at dinner and then got down on one knee and asked Alicia to make him the happiest man on earth.

She said yes.
And they are glowing.

OK everyone, all at once...AWWWWW!!!!