We successfully surprised my daughter... again. I am beginning to think she is pretty gullible :). We shocked Jacob as well. Erin and Sam were fooled, but they seem to take it all in stride. My parents left for Florida a few weeks before Thanksgiving. They always spend Thanksgiving with my brother and sister and then come home for Christmas. For my kids, the only Christmas they have ever known is one with my parents. They love the excitement that goes along with it. For them, it is a very special time with my Mom and Dad. It means a lot to both my kids and my parents. BUt this year, my oldest neice is graduating from college today! My parents decided to stay in Florida so that they could see her graduate. Before they went, they had a talk with us and shared with us that they would not be coming back until April. It was quite a shock to my kids; but mostly to Emily. She LOVES everything about Christmas with my parents. I think it is such a precious time for my kids to really get to enjoy my mom. Mom becomes a totally different person around Christmas and it is A LOT of fun for them. But for the first time ever, they would not be here. That meant that the kids would not have Christmas. Jacob and Emily were devastated. They love all the decorations and the excitement and the fun of the season. Mark and I came up with lots of different ideas, but all were rejected. To them, it just wasn't Christmas unless it was with Grandma and Grandpa. On top of all that, they realized that if Grandma and Grandpa weren't here, then their cousins wouldn't be either. For as long as I can remember, my brother and his family have traveled to Ohio to be with us during the Christmas holiday. It has been one of the ways that we have been able to keep a close relationship with the kids. They come here at Christmas and we go there during the summer. So it was a double whammy. And for Emily, that meant that she would not see her grandparents for nearly 9 months. She was very, very sad... and spending a lot of time pouting about Christmas. She refused to even think about it. What noone knew was that Grandma and Grandpa had decided before they left for Florida, that they would come home for CHristmas and surprise the kids. We decided to keep it a secret and have a lot of fun with it. As the weeks went by, my brother and his wife begin seeing if their kids could come back with Grandma and Grandpa and surprise the kids too. They arranged a plane trip home for them on Christmas Eve. So... I have been keeping it a secret for a very long time. They were suppose to arrive on MOnday and would fly out Thursday. But... mom starting getting sick and Dad started thinking about the holiday traffic and there were some initial problems with getting tickets to see my neice graduate; before we knew it, the plans began changing and my parents headed back Thursday morning. We are thankful because they would have hit the horrible snow storm on their way home had they waited to leave today.

Despite not having my parents home for Christmas, Jacob was determined to somehow enjoy the holiday anyway. It took me quite a bit, but I convinced him to decorate my parents house (to surprise my mom; though Jacob had no clue that was what I was doing). Emily was mad we did it. She refused to consider doing anything at all that would be Christmas related. She pouted and then Jacob pouted because Emily was being so difficult. I just giggled to myself because I knew that by the evening they would completely forget their saddness. Emily even gave my brother a horrible time for not coming to Ohio this Christmas. I just laughed at her.

Oh - I almost forgot. Wednesday night, Sam was on facebook and I hear "Mom..... can you come here?". I got up and walked in to see Sam with a smile on his face. He says "come here and read this". I figured a friend wrote something he wanted me to read. So I walk over to the computer and Sam points to my nephew's status which says "leaving for ohio tomorrow!". Then he smiles and says "Am I suppose to know this?". I stared at the screen and thought a few moments and then responded with "if you tell any of your siblings, your dead"... of course, I was smiling when I said it! I laughed. I realized that my nephew was so excited about coming that he completely forgot that Sam and Emily are his friends on facebook! Needless to say, Sam was thrilled and couldn't wait to see his cousins!

When my parents arrived, Emily had just walked into a concert. SHe had about 1/2 hour before the concert began so I tried to get her to come pick Sam up at my parents house (so she would discover her grandparents and her cousins). But NO!! She wouldn't come and had a good excuse. I tried everything I could think of, but with little success. I finally gave up and told her to just hurry up when the concert ended. I had told her that Elizabeth really wanted her, but she still didn't come. When my parents arrived, I took my neice and nephew to the concert. We texted Em and told her to come out because Elizabeth really wanted her. She came out and was blown away to discover her cousins standing there! We then convinced her that i had gone to the airport to get them. She was a little baffled because she had seen me just 2 hours earlier, but she never put 2 and 2 together. I told her I had left Jacob with the kids at Grandmas and I would just meet her there. She kept my neice with her (who never gave the surprise away). When she FINALLY pulled into the drive, we hid Grandma and Grandpa in the bedroom. I told Em that I was ready to leave. So I called for Jacob. He never responded (intentionally). I finally sent Emily into the room to get him. She walked into the room and called for Jacob. Then Emily saw Grandpa and screamed and jumped backwards. It was hilarious! She was so EXCITED to see them!

As for Jacob, I had successfully shocked him as well. He was at the house when they all came in. I yelled for him to come out of the bedroom because I had a surprise for him. He walked in and saw Grandpa and about fell over. He was so surprised! After hugs and many shocked comments, he grabbed me and dragged me outside. HE then proceeded to tell me that I had done this to him twice in one year. I wasn't allowed to do it again!

Too funny!!

Since the great surprise, we have been enjoying every minute of having my neice and nephew! We were so blessed to have snow when we woke up today. They long to have snow when they are here at Christmas. God provided the perfect day!!! The snow was great packing snow and the temperature couldn't have been better. We spent nearly the entire day playing outside. What fun we had. Jacob and Eli built the largest snowman we have ever built before! IT was incredible! FAith and Erin joined in at the end for the dressing of him. Then Sam joined us later and built the most incredible deer ever. My dad arrived at the end of the sculpting of the deer and decided to run back into town for paint. He came out and we finished the deer. It was incredible!!! Sam did an amazing job. Then we added the Santa and bag in honor of our cousins. Santa does not EVER visit our home; but it was fun to create him for Eli and Faith. Grandpa had so much fun. HE stayed and helped for all of it. It was fun!!