#299 Gloria.

In December 2004, I was a singer in the concert choir at Jones. On December 7, Ben and I went from being acquaintances to friends. On December 13, he told me he loved me and that he would marry me one day. We were completely head over heels after a day or two, and during that month, the choir had been working on John Rutter’s Christmas masterpiece, Gloria.
Our church choir is singing the Gloria on December 12 this year, and Hope and I have been practicing with them so we can be a part of it. That was the most amazing time in my life, and hearing those notes is just like being there again in some small way. I might even put on a little of the perfume I wore back then—I’ve been saving all I have of it ever since so I can always remember the way it felt to be 19 and falling for the man I would marry someday.
Every year, we’ve celebrated our “love week” from December 7-13. Though I’m sure most of you don’t care, you can hear all about that when the end of this blog year rolls around. I’ve been writing down our story over the years, and I’ll post on each day about what happened 6 years ago. It will be special since this will be the first time the days have coincided with the days we met (i.e., Tuesday Dec. 7, 2010 is when we hung out for the first time, this year we’ll have another Tuesday Dec. 7). I just hope my writing will do the experience justice, because it was really, truly, the most magical time of my life. For now, it’s bedtime sweet readers!

Update: you can read the whole story of the week we met right here, though they’re in reverse chronology.