Lilac Colored Glasses

My family arrived on Friday and we had no trouble getting them and their luggage from the airport to Gent.  CB took Scooter to the house to settle him in while I waited with my parents at the B&B until their room was ready.  Afterwards we went to Het Pand, the university “club” building for a lovely dinner, dropped my parents off at their place and went out for some drinks and late night fries with my brother.  I can’t decide if he was more impressed by the alcohol content in Duvel or the huts on the side of the road for guys to pee in.  Either way we had a fun time before turning in for the evening, aside from the air mattress for my brother deflating (the lack of comfortable sleeping arrangments and his allergies ended in us finding him a few rooms at different B&B’s around Gent so that he could sleep on an actual bed).

CB’s parents picked my mom up on Saturday morning and took her to their house to make Thanksgiving dinner.  My mom is a real trooper, offering to make a meal for 7 people after travelling across the Atlantic the day before, but she was determined to have Thanksgiving with both of our families and it was so wonderful for me to have a traditional Thanksgiving dinner this year.  While Mom was in Lochristi cooking, dad and I took a walk around some parts of the city center and had a cup of coffee (he has a new found love of koffie verkeerd, which is simply espresso and a whole lot of steamed milk).  CB hung out with my brother for a few hours before coming to pick up dad and I in Cabanadad’s car.  We went to CB’s parents’ house in Lochristi and had a delicious dinner: roast turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole, cranberry chutney, salad, pumpkin pie, chocolate cake and homemade ice cream from CB’s mom and CB finally told his parents the big news.

We’ve been engaged for 2 weeks.

Yes, CB proposed to me two weeks ago on Saturday and I said yes and we are officially engaged!!!!!!
I have been wanting to tell you all SO BAD but I had to wait until CB told his parents and sister first because they read this blog and well, yeah, you understand I hope.

Yesterday was also the end of my Lilacspec’s Mama’s Birthday Giveaway.  My mama will be telling me her favorite comment tomorrow and later tonight I will be tallying who commented the most as well as throwing all the commentor’s names into the random number generator so that I can contact the winners before our trip to Antwerp on Wednesday.  tomorrow we’re going to Bruges for the day and Tuesday we’ll spend in Gent.  My mom is taking plenty of pictures so I’ll try to post some good ones in the next few days.