Surprise! I'm home for the holiday!

This Thanksgiving, I am grateful for the invention of the airplane (shout out to the Wright Brothers) and Orbitz.com, where I found a cheap flight and am able to make it home for Thanksgiving!

Originally, I thought I could be brave and make it through my first Turkey Day without my family, but two weeks ago the homesickness set in and I for sure knew I couldn’t make it. I surfed the web just to see if there were any deals, and I found one. Because my trip was so last minute (I got the ticket two weeks ago), I decided to keep it a surprise. My sister, who is picking me up at the airport, is the only one who knows I’m coming home for the holiday.

I’ll be back in two weeks for an extended Christmas visit seeing I don’t have classes, but I always vowed to myself that I would never let money get in the way of memories (in most cases, especially in ones like this). I kept thinking that if anything happened between now and December 10th I would never forgive myself for not taking the cheap ticket, which just seemed meant to be, sitting there amongst the $500 tickets. Besides, the $189 will be worth every penny when I see the look on my parents’ faces. For the first time I can remember, I am more excited to see my family than to eat unhealthy amounts of delicious carbohydrates. It is amazing the things we take for granted when we don’t realize what we have in front of us.

UPDATE: I wrote this post while sitting in the airport. Now that I am home and the surprise has been executed, I feel I should tell you how it all went down"

My sister picked me up at the airport, and after sitting in massive Mass Pike traffic, we finally made it home. My mom had to do something at church at 7, and we got there just in time to surprise both my parents at the same time. She pulled up in the driveway, we counted and slammed our doors at the same time, and I ran up to the front door. Hiding out of sight from the peep hole in the door, I rang the bell. My dad answered and I yelled surprise! holding a bag of Garrett's popcorn. I think he might have been confused and surprised, and in the background my mom heard my voice. She cried, we all hugged. And we lived happily ever after, at least for the next few days :)