John and I first met when  I started working at the Bonefish Grill in Mandarin. I went home after my first night at work and told Mandy K about him and said "One day I'm going to marry him." It took three years for that to come true, but I'm so glad it did. 

This past Christmas Eve we spent the night at my parents house so we could wake up and open presents together on Christmas morning. As per usual my mom and dad were making coffee, and I was sorting the presents into piles for each person. We went around in turns opening our gifts and were finally at the end of the presents. I had told John I wanted a purse or a puppy for Christmas, I am a freak for dogs--especially Golden Retrievers. My dogs are at my parents house and I miss them so much so I told John I wanted a puppy. He got me the purse. After we were finished John said "Oh, there's one left, it's for you." I picked up the box and started opening it. Inside was a stuffed Golden Retriever puppy, with a shiny red sparkly collar. I immediately noticed that the dog tag was engraved with "Will you marry me?" I screamed, dropped the dog and looked up to see John holding the ring. I covered my face started crying and finally my mom was like "Kristin answer him!" Of course I said yes!! 

Something cute John told me about after the fact was the process of getting the dog and collar. John always likes to put his shopping off until the last minute and do it all in one day. He hates crowds and doesn't really care for the mall. So on the chosen afternoon he was walking in the Town Center (a mall here in Jacksonville) and passed by the mattress store and noticed this cute little puppy on one of the beds in the window. He went in and bought it and walked over to PetSmart to get our cats some food. He said he knew he wanted to ask me on Christmas, but wasn't sure how he wanted to do it yet. So as he walked by the custom ID tag machine he stopped and started staring at it. An employee came up and asked if she could help him since he'd been just staring at the machine for so long and he ran the idea he just had by her. She told him to hold on went and got some other female employees and made him tell them. After a group "awwww" he customized and purchased the tag. 

After John proposed I sent out a mass text to everyone I know announcing the good news, Jennifer (John's sister) called me immediately and said "You didn't accidentally say yes did you?!" To which I replied, "I said yes on purpose!!" 

That was the happiest day of my life (so far!) and "Will you marry me?" is my favorite thing John has ever said :)