My favorite Christmas gift

This was by far my favorite Christmas gift! "The Romance of Oxford" and no, it is nothing like a Harlequin-- it is much more meaningful, and romantic (at least to me).

Richard and I went out on our first date 4 days before I left for a summer internship at Oxford (our first date was the day AFTER he kissed me the first time). I left him with the understanding that we were not boyfriend and girlfriend, but that my absence would be a good time for us to get to know each other through email. Over the next 6 weeks we wrote each other long emails and chatted every single day, and I couldn't help it, I positively fell in love with Richard (and I think he fell in love with me).

So for Christmas, Richard compiled the entirety of those emails and chats (nearly 350 pages in all) and bound them in a book for me. When I realized what he did, I just cried! As I have told people about this book, they have asked me if Richard needed to edit any emails or withhold some steamy passages from the final product, but in true Rachael/Richard fashion, much of the emails we exchanged we centered around our faith and life experience.

I thought I would include a small passage that always makes me laugh. The last few days of my trip to Oxford were spent in Switzerland and some of the computers I wrote on did not have the letter "Y" on it. In its place was the letter "Z"

"Richard, I onlz have 6 minutes, and I believe its onlz about 4,000 minutes until I see zou...I will talk to you soon from the same countrz. zou may be in school that time on mondaz, but I will leave an exuberant message. zou makes me so happz. I canat wait to see zou." (Saturday July 29, 2006, two days before I came home)

All I can say is that Richard is amazing! My true life partner. I have loved reading through this book and learning about him all over again, and falling in love with him all over again.