I love surprises. In high school my friends and family threw me a surprise party and I totally had no idea. It was awesome. My favorite Michael-surprise was during the first summer we were dating. He had dropped a friend off at Logan airport in Boston and called me on his drive back to Rhode Island. I was in New York at the time and was missing him something fierce. We chatted and then he casually asked if I had received the package he had sent. Apparently it was supposed to arrive that day.

Excited, I ran down the stairs and threw open the front door. I was momentarily disappointed when I realized there was no package on the doorstep. Until I looked up. And there was Michael, leaning against his truck smiling ear to ear. He had driven nearly four hours to spend the night. Best. Surprise. Ever.

Taking a cue from that wonderful day, I had arranged with my sister to surprise my mom for Mother’s Day. I called her during the week and told her to expect a package to arrive on Friday. Since her birthday and Mother’s Day are so close together, I told her I had sent her a gift.

I arrived in New York with just enough time to settle in before she got home from work. When we heard her opening the front door my sister ran to greet her and tell her that she had left a surprise in her bedroom. When my mom opened the door I was sitting on the bed smiling. She was so surprised! (So surprised, in fact, that for a split second she didn’t even recognize me!)

The weekend was filled with shopping, lounging and eating. It was perfect. We ended Saturday evening with making a potential guest list for my wedding. (Not my idea! Really!) The list from just our side was already huge and will probably have to be cut down after Michael’s mother makes her list. There was something so exciting, yet so terrifying about making that list. Exciting because wedding! I want! Terrifying because I can already see that planning a wedding is stressful.

Now there’s just that pesky matter of getting engaged. And I want more than anything for that to be a surprise, too. As much as I want to know, I really don’t want to know. I want it to come out of nowhere and catch me off guard. Michael knows this. And since he’s so good at surprises I have no doubt that when the time comes, it will be amazing.