Kory and I were not planning to go back to TX or NM for the holidays this year. We made a trip in February for our 5 year college reunion and then did a family trip with Kory's family in July. We just couldn't do 3 trips in one year.
Fast forward to November of 2013 and the twins, Molly and Jude, were born. I create and manage the schedule at our office and I was talking with my manager about the holidays and who was taking what days off, etc. She asked what days I was taking off and I told her I didn't need any time off since we didn't have family here and I could work so other people could be with their families. (I'm not trying to sound like a saint here--it just makes sense for me to do that so that when I do want to go home for the holidays, I can show that I've made sacrifices other years to make this possible.) She reminded me that we all get and have to take one day off during the holiday season, our Governor's Day, so I elected to take that the day after Christmas, since Kory would also have that day off. Christmas was on a Wednesday, so that would mean I would be off Wednesday and Thursday, and be back to work Friday. I was truly ok with that, but when my manager suggested I take Friday off too and enjoy an extra long weekend, the wheels started turning. She was giving me 5 days off work. We've made trips to both TX and NM quicker than that.
When she found out we wouldn't meet the twins for several months (I was hoping we could go meet them in Feb or March maybe?) she insisted that we try to make this work. In fact, she even said, why don't you go ahead and take the following Monday and Tuesday off, since you'll have Wednesday (New Years Day) off as a holiday, and you can be gone a full week. I was so excited at the thought of being able to go home, but didn't want to get anyone's hopes up, so we didn't tell anyone for the first week or so as we tried to work out Kory's time off work, plane tickets. etc.
Things kept falling into place and we decided to book the flights without telling family. At this point, we were just about 6 weeks away from Christmas and the idea of surprising family was just too fun to not consider. Our plane tickets were far too expensive since we waited so long to book them, but we hadn't started our Christmas shopping yet and decided this would be our present to Kory's family--our literal presence.
While we were still in the "working things out" stage, I contacted my parents to see if they could possibly come to Oregon for Thanksgiving. I thought it would be perfect to have Thanksgiving with my family and then fly to Texas to see Kory's family for Christmas. After all, the twins were a huge reason we were considering going back for the holiday. My dad was afraid the harvest time for his pecans would interfere with Thanksgiving, so they just couldn't make that trip. However, he did decide on a whim that they could come up the next weekend! So, with very little notice, my parents flew to Portland and I drove up there to spend a long weekend (Veteran's Day) with my parents and brother, Ty, who lives in Portland. I told them about our Christmas plans and they agreed to try to come see us while we were in Amarillo. Without a car, these trips become much longer when we have to drive the 5 hours (one way) from one parents house to the other, after driving 3 hours to an airport and then flying most of the day already.
I had no idea that this little surprise would mean so much "truth dodging" and "strategic question answering". We decided from the beginning that we would be honest and if that meant our surprise was ruined, that would be ok. After all, there were plenty of concerns with getting all the details worked out, and it really seemed, at times, like it would just be better to tell them we were coming. The day we bought our tickets, I got a text from my sister-in-law, Brynn, (mom of 2 year old Lucy) saying that Lucy, out of the blue, told her "Tory and Many toming", which of course means "Kory and Mandy are coming". I was pretty blown away because I knew Lucy couldn't really know we were coming, but the timing was incredible.
I asked Kory's mom, Jackie, to keep me in the loop with their family Christmas plans because it helps us feel like we're involved and not so far away. This wasn't out of the ordinary, because I like for our families to do this anyway, but this time I needed to know who would be where and when everyone arrived, etc. She is a details-oriented woman like me, so she did a great job of letting me know exactly how their time together would go. I even checked to make sure the family that lives in Dallas would be staying long enough for us to get quality time with them. They didn't know it, but they helped us plan our trip.
You never realize how many questions people ask until you are trying to avoid answering them! Jackie texted me asking what our plans were, Kent (Kory's brother) called Kory to ask the same, Brynn texted me asking how long I had off work, and Ben (Kory's dad) tried to FaceTime us. We were very strategic in our answers: "We will spend Christmas together." "Our friends from church invited us to join them." "My office is only closed Christmas Day." It's exhausting to keep a secret--good lesson learned right there!
We told several of our friends and people from church what our plans were, but with strict instructions not to post anything on Facebook or social media about the trip. I was afraid we would have done all this work to keep it a secret and then the last day someone would write, "Have a great Christmas with your family!" and ruin it all. Everyone we told was just so excited for us though, and that made us get even more pumped for what was to come. I can't tell you how many ladies teared up when we told them about our plans. Even my dental assistant in the orthodontist office was getting choked up as I told her about our plans. The preparation was almost as fun as the real thing!
*This turned into a MUCH longer story than I had planned, so I'm going to have to break it up into a few parts. Remember when I mentioned I'm a details gal? Yeah. It's true. The next part will be the fun part, where we actually surprised and got to spend a week with family!*
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