Surprise!

This week was full of surprises, full of lies and full of fun! My parent’s 25^th wedding anniversary is December 20^th. It’s crazy in this day and age for couples to make it that many years, I am thankful that they did and that they have been wonderful role models! December is an awful time to get together friends, not an awful time but just people leave town, have family to see and are generally really stressed around Christmas. When planning a party I took that into consideration and decided American Thanksgiving Weekend would be a great time to have a party. I have school off and so I could potentially fly home to Canada for the party.

Keeping secrets is generally pretty easy for me, I am a good bullshitter…not my best feature…but in the situation of planning a surprise anniversary party it comes in handy! I hate lying to my parents, I hate having to keep track of my lies and make other people aware of what lie I told. Since July I have been lying and planning a party. Finally this weekend it all came to a sweet end!

First surprise went a little like this…My parents thought I was going to be spending American Thanksgiving with my friend Natalia. We were doing black Friday shopping…leaving at 3am to get to the Mall of America in time! My Dad knew about the surprise party for their anniversary. (I had to tell him because with his work I had to ensure he had it booked off well in advance!). My dad called 2 weeks ago and offered me a flight home for the party. He said mom would be disappointed to see a party I planned and not to have me attend. I told him that although I would love to fly home, I missed a week of school for New York and am super behind in dark room time. I need all the days in the darkroom I can get! He said he understood and appreciates that I take my schooling so serious. Seeing as paying for a plane ticket would show up on my credit card bill, which my parents can see with their online banking I had to borrow a little help. My brother has a credit card, with a small limit and only he ever see’s what is purchased with it. We paid off his entire bill and waited to find flights that were ‘reasonable’. Finally found one, had to leave on a Tuesday late at night but I’ll do anything to be home! Tuesday the 22^nd I landed at midnight, my best friend picked me up and we caught up on old times! Next morning would be surprise #1! My friend went to my door, put my luggage on the step and rang the doorbell. My mother came to the door, was surprised to see Natalya and was confused when Nat said “Sarah sent me her luggage home, I don’t know what to do with it so I am dropping it here before I am off to work”. My mom looked at the luggage and pondered…seriously confused. Just as that was happening I came out from behind the tree and said, just kidding I brought home the luggage myself! My mom started crying, questioning how I got home without her knowledge and every other question that you could think of! It was a grand surprise and I seriously made her week! She suspected nothing of me coming home, just that I was simply home sick! Next my father was coming home that day and he was arriving around 6:30pm. I decided to do a little surprise for him too. When he got in the door my brother went and helped him with his luggage, talked with him in the kitchen…you know…the normal father son catching up. After about 5 minutes of normal conversation I tip toed down stairs and said “Hi Dad, SURPRISE!” He was shocked, happy to see me and said “No wonder mom wanted me to text her right when I got home!” Surprise number 1 check!

The whole 3 days I had before the party I kept lying and saying I was out with friends for dinner or out visiting friends for coffee. Really I was doing last minute things with my brother to make sure the party went smoothly!

Party went great, all the guests brought a dish of food, and it was like a potluck party. It saved us money on food. It was great amounts of fun, my mom was shocked and she was initially upset she didn’t dress up enough cause she thought it was just a “café concert”…luckily her smart daughter packed her a dress a heels. The night went great, they were really happy to have had a party and that the turn out was so good! We had close to 50 people there!

Anyways I am at the airport because I have to fly back to Minnesota. 5 days is not near enough time to hang out with all my friends. I can’t wait for 20 days to pass and I can be home for a few weeks at Christmas!
Back to school for me, oh joy!