Sorry for the extreme lack of updates!
I have had hardly any time to blog the past few weeks, it was Christmas and New Year’s with Matthew’s dad in Morecambe without an internet connection.. and then a week in Spain with Matthew’s mom, who had internet but I would never dare to ask to use it!
This Christmas has been my best one so far. I woke up, turned the TV on and it was my favorite Nickelodeon sponge 
And then Matthew gives me a big silver box to open before we opened all the others in front of his dad and granny. BIG BOX, with a smaller box in it, and another smaller box and then a ring box. And he took it out, got down on one knee and asked me to marry him.
…
I was hysterical. I think we both didn’t know whether to jump around or burst into tears, his hands were so shaky! Like he had anything to be nervous about – of course I’d say yes.
It was very quiet, and it was just us two, but it was so perfect. And the ring was even more perfect! It’s a white gold ring with a solitaire cut diamond in the middle, and it has the word “Forever” engraved on the inside with an extra little diamond where the “O” should be.
After staring at the ring for another hour, we got all dressed up to open all our other presents in the company of his dad and granny (who I LOVE). I had on my new Christmas dress (Edinburgh from the Warehouse sale!) and a shiny gold hair ribbon. We found out that 50-ish years ago, Matthew’s granddad proposed to his granny on Christmas day.
We had a big celebratory lunch at a hotel by the seafront in Morecambe and spent the rest of the day playing with Christmas presents.
This year I got:
- An engagement ring (you knew that was coming first…)
- A SEGA MEGADRIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! with Sonic 2, Ultimate Mortal Kombat and Golden Axe cartridges
- A book
- 3 DVDs inc. Transformers special edition
- Spending money for the boxing day sales!
- A scarf and gloves (from Matthew’s sister)
- Perfume
It was great. I really liked spending time with Matthew’s dad, although I left Morecambe weighing a little more than when I came because of being so well-fed!!
We went to Spain via Birmingham on the 3rd, after a night sleeping in a closed cafe at the airport because our flight was so early in the morning! Spain is such a pretty country and the weather was amazingly good, it was almost always in the 20′s, which is GREAT considering when we left England it had just started to snow.
I liked spending time with Matthew in Spain although unfortunately our post-engagement mood was dampened slightly by his mom’s reaction to it. It could have been worse, of all the people in both of our families combined we only have one person putting up a bit of a fight.
I won’t go into it, but it was pretty horrible while we were there – I think it’s going to continue to be hard for Matthew because it’s his mother and he will continue to hear from her despite us not being in Spain whereas I won’t.
I got an email from a recently-engaged friend who’s going through something similar, so it’s nice to know I’m not alone and that I haven’t done anything wrong.
On to happier news… I HAVE EXAMS! Yay. 
I have four exams and they end on Saturday so on Sunday I’m getting on a plane (you’d think I’d have had enough of all that…) and flying to Loughborough. Matthew will be just starting his exams when I come down though so my role will be to cook, clean and perform similar duties while he focuses on his books. It’ll give me a chance to try out some new recipes though, which is always fun
Photos when I have time to go through and resize. Until then I have to get back to studying unfortunately. Thank you for the kind messages on our engagement if you left comments or emailed or messaged etc. They really mean a lot!
