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Kristen Bell he did something so sweet, so calm that he completely melted Dax Shepardin his mind and heart.
On his new program An armchair expert podcast, Kristen and Dax describe how their impromptu proposal went down on Christmas Eve 2009.
With her Nobody wants this co-stars, Kristen explains Adam Brody, Justine Lupinand Timothy Simmons the romantic holiday story, and how it was especially meaningful because Dax had been a big ol’ Grinch when it came to the idea of marriage.
Related: A Blind Thing, A Christmas To Remember
Read below to see how he went back down those hills!
Dax: But I had planned the thing. There was a restaurant we went to once the first time I said ‘I love you’ to you.
Christina: [It was] Stanley is in the valley.
Dax: And I think mostly it was going to be around some anniversary. I don’t know why I was months out with it because I had the ring forever.
Kristen: Did you?!
Dax: Yes.
Kristen: I had surrendered [to the idea Dax was never going to propose]. Because you told me you didn’t believe in marriage. Pageantry. I was like, I love that tradition. And he said because a piece of paper filed at a courthouse somewhere in California is not going to dictate how I treat you. Not exactly. And so I’m going to treat you well and be your partner for the rest of your life. but it has nothing to do with that piece of paper. So, these are very different things that we are talking about. And I was like, well, that’s kind of a very reasonable point.
Dax: There was an anarchist attitude like, I don’t need to ask the state of California if we can be together and then ask them that we can’t be together. If I can treat you as my wife, we are both children of the same kind of divorce between the two of us. We got like eight divorces between the two of us. I was like, what does this mean? This thing means nothing.
Kristen: So, I was like, okay, well, he’s treating me like his wife. Like I guess who cares. And then it was Christmas Eve. Eve. Yes. And me [had flown] back from Detroit. I had flown to Detroit by myself. He raised his parents and went back to California with them. And so we had been on a plane. It was a very quick trip. I was tired. We went to bed and…
Dax: What happened to me is that we had this beautiful Christmas Eve with my family and um we were in bed that night and you were giving thanks for this little family we were making and I was like, ‘Oh, this is the moment I’m going to try to recreate in a month at Stanley’s over a salad, but it happens.’ I was like, ‘F**k it. I’m just going to get the ring now.’ And then I went into the closet. I had it in my jacket pocket.
Kristen: It was rusting in the closet sand somehow I noticed it right away. I’m like there’s nothing else he could be doing with this level of priority right now that would seem so important. And so I knew and so as my spine started to beat and as I just started like heavy breathing and it came out.
Dax: Yes. She was already crying before I got back to bed.
Christina: And he got down on one knee and said, ‘Will you marry me?’ And then I started dating really hard because that was really good for something I didn’t think was coming. Yes. For about I don’t know maybe 45 minutes. We fall asleep. The next morning I get up to go make coffee and his mother comes to me in the kitchen and says, ‘Are you all right, baby? I heard you cry last night. Did you have a fight?’ And I was like, [shows the ring] ‘No, I’m engaged!'”
But!!
So at some point Dax’s heart had already warmed to the idea of marriage since he planned to propose months later, but it was wife Kristen’s decision to bring his family to town for Christmas that made him feel like he couldn’t wait any longer.
A story of great praise!
Check out the full program of the An armchair expert podcast below:
[Image via YouTube/Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard]
