Congratulations Beth and James!

We have wonderful news, Beth is engaged or as Noah puts it "You are proposed Beth."
It happened on Christmas day but she asked me not to blog immediately as she wanted a chance to tell people rather than have them find out through my blog as has happened with news before!
It was all very romantic, with James formally asking Paul and I on Christmas Eve if he could propose to Beth next day. He had been planning it for ages, with the help of Sam and Anika - he had got a friend of his to make the ring using info from a supposedly secret file of Beth's wedding wishes -he hid all the emails and texts about it in his draft folders so that Beth wouldn't come across them. He had kept it all secret from Beth for months and Paul and I only had to manage a few hours but it was very hard for me!
On Christmas day Beth drove to pick up James to bring him here for lunch. While she was away, I told Hannah what was about to happen and she started jumping around in glee. We made place cards for everyone for lunch and did two extra saying "bride to be" and "groom to be"
We opened the champagne and Lily stood ready with her new flip video camera.
I haven;t got the video to post as Beth was so crying with joy that she didn't want to be filmed - (and also Lily has deleted everything she recorded on Christmas day so that she can film the TV instead!)
James had proposed to her in the rose garden of the esplanade saying "I've just got a little Christmas present for you"
What a special Christmas day!

Since then we have bought three bridal magazines and I am beginning to realise how expensive weddings can be! We have also informed James of how truly enormous my immediate family is and Beth has worked out a wedding party of about twenty!!
Hannah has made invitations for an engagement party next Sunday afternoon. Strangely in the time between showing me the wording and getting it printed the word "Champagne" appeared - as in "Champagne afternoon tea" We are hoping this means Hannah intends to pay for the champagne.
They are still discussing dates rather vaguely but first guess is for the week before Easter in 2011 so April 16th (Paul's dad's 88th birthday)