Matthew McConaughey & Camila Alves Are Engaged!

By Alison Schwartz

12/26/2011 at 10:25 AM EST

It was a merry Christmas indeed for Matthew McConaughey. The actor rang in the holidays by putting a ring on the finger of longtime girlfriend Camila Alves.

McConaughey, 42, who opened up about his relationship with the Brazilian model, 28, in 2007, announced his engagement on his WhoSay account.

"Just asked camila to marry me," he wrote in a post accompanying a snapshot of the couple sharing a smooch in front of the Christmas tree. "Merry Christmas."



The couple have two children together – Levi, 3, and Vida, who turns 2 in January – and McConaughey told PEOPLE in 2008 that Alves was the woman he wanted to start a family with.

"I always wanted to be a father," he said. "It just took the right woman and the right time to make it happen."

The actor previously gushed to PEOPLE, "[Alves] is the love of my life. Everything is right."