Surprising the ‘rents

Sorry this is coming late.  I need to work on my consistency!!! Here is the promised story of surprising my parents!

Roger and I were supposed to visit his parents this Christmas. BUT sometime before Thanksgiving he found out he had to work on Sunday the 28th, and it turned out we only had a handful of days we could be away from Atlanta.  Now, he’s a youth pastor, so Sundays are sort of big days for him.  And being the newbie at the church….well let’s just say we’re paying dues this year.

All that to say, we decided we’d rather spend money on flights when we can spend more time with his fam.

But I was super bummed.  After not being with my parents for Thanksgiving, and with our Christmas plans falling through, I was on the verge of tears.  Ok, I wasn’t on the verge.  I just plain ole balled my eyes out.

So Roger came up with the brilliant plan to visit my parents since they are in driving range.  And of course, I wanted to tell them immediately, but Roger suggested that we surprise them instead.  He’s a freakin’ genius!

December 23rd, Roger and I got in the car and we drove the 9 hours to Fort Myers, FL.

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My parents live at the end of a secluded street.  You’ve got to be going to see them to get to their house.  It is literally impossible to just drive by.  Knowing this, we killed our headlights before we got to their street.  Then, when we got out of the car, we very gently closed the doors.  They have two dogs, and we didn’t want to tip them off!

The dogs started barking when we accidentally squeaked their screen door.  So Roger and I immediately started singing Christmas carols so that my parents would know the source of the annoyance for the dogs.

We saw figures go back and forth through their foggy glass, but they would NOT open the door.

After about 5 minutes of this, I was like…”Dad! It’s me!!!! Open the door!!!!” And finally, after all of that, my dad opened the door to expose my mom, with hands over her chest exclaiming, “I’ve never been more shocked in my entire life!”

I’ve never smiled so big! (Well, except maybe the day of my wedding, or when I think about Roger…lol.)

It was the BEST surprise ever! We tried to capture it ALL on video, but with all of the text messages I keep on my phone, the storage space struggle IS REAL!

Later, my parents told us what was going on in their minds.  Dad thought they were some of mom’s coworker’s perhaps, but mom didn’t think so.  She was hoping if they didn’t answer the door, we would just go away! And with the way Roger was singing, they thought he was drunk.  They were either about to sic the pit bull mix on us, or call the police.  Glad I intervened!

So definitely a great surprise, and it was so wonderful to spend some family time in my home town! What a great first Christmas memory to have, ya know?! lol

(love this pic, mostly because I’m pretty sure my dad is doing the duckface…)

What’s been your favorite surprise?!