I have a new plot for a Hallmark movie. Daughter flies home from glamorous London, England to hick hometown Calgary, Alberta to surprise her family as a Christmas present. The parents are gobsmacked and cry the ugly tears of relief and love and surprise and gratefulness. The brother is dumbfounded because he’s asleep and he’s wondering what kind of dream he is having. The family canine gets the zoomies and the velcros for his long lost favorite person. She had arranged with good family friends that they keep this a secret and pick her up from the airport. Mom and Dad were invited to said friends home for dinner Saturday night as a ruse to make sure they didn’t have any other plans. But then ….since they didn’t have any supper made because they thought they were going out, said friends brought over a delicious dinner.
The daughter is not going to get hung up on her long lost highschool sweetheart that has a law degree but moved back to hicktown to do good, fix cars and host charity events, because there wasn’t one. She is the protagonist in this plot. There is no antagonist. There was no meet cute. She is not going to be convinced to move back home…just yet.. She IS going back to London – in 3 days. But for now, the family has her. Christmas is now. December 9th. She had four days off and found a miraculously cheap airfare and decided to go for it. And we are better off for it.
We did the Christmas morning breakfast. We watched five of our favorite Christmas movies. And no, one of them was not DieHard. We went Christmas shopping at her favorite mall. We decorated well over 150 sugar cookies. She was able to squeeze in visits with 2 dear friends. Yes, I actually let her spend time with others. She took doggie to dog park twice. She got to drive on the ‘right’ side of the road. She saw Grandma. We sat by the tree and reminisced. She had a Blizzard. They don’t have those in London. Speaking of blizzards, Mother nature had the decency to snow for her. We had a wee hours of the morning crisis with the dog in which she played the lead role. A puppy bath was involved.
Starbucks was had. Dad went out and picked up some eggnog for the guest of honor (they don’t have that in London either). at least, not the commercialized stuff. She only brought the clothes on her back because she knew she and we had plenty here for her to wear. She filled her carry on with special little gifts and Christmas stuff she didn’t need in London. She cut dads hair and gave puppy a trim. Made cookies for her work friends and took back a stash of butter tarts. Once she unloaded all her London treasures – one bag was repacked with Christmas baking and the other with some favorite clothes she left at home and was pining for.
There was no community tree lighting. No time capsule. No snickerdoodles. No long lost relative entering the scene. Both parents were still alive. I was going to say ‘no struggling business’ but really, the jury is still out on that. Nobody overheard anybody say anything that was misinterpreted and caused hurt and anger and disillusionment.
Just a good old fashioned, heart-stopping, joy filled surprise that unfolded beautifully. Her Christmas present to us. Best Christmas present ever.
Published by geriraedean
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