13. Surprise someone out of town with a visit

I like surprises. Always have. I never tried to find my Christmas presents before Christmas Day because I wanted to be surprised. I never like knowing the ending of a movie I'm planning to see before I see it, and I love being able to surprise other people.

A few months back I knew I wanted to make a visit home since I hadn't been since Christmas, so with my brother's help (he lives in the same town as my parents and could make sure they would be around), I went home this past weekend to surprise my parents with a visit.

Some of y'all (that's a hopeful use of the plural there) knew I was planning this surprise and couldn't wait to hear my parents reactions. Well, I'll do you one better and show you their reactions.

First my mom's -- my brother was the videographer (sorry it's a bit dark):



We were going to be celebrating my brother's birthday that night and my dad wasn't going to get home from work for a few more hours, so we waited to surprise him as well. My brother and I were both sitting in the den - you can't see me, but you'll get the idea....and...uhhh I can't figure out how to rotate the video, so hopefully you have a laptop and can rotate it...




I will add that after he put his things down, my dad did come back in the room and give me a proper hug. Although I must say their reactions were hugely insightful as to why I am not overly expressive with my emotions or reactions -- at least I come by it honestly!

It was a great visit at home - I got to cross a few more things off the list which I'll post separately, but mainly it was a good time of hanging out and eating good food, like my favorite barbecue:



And my brother took us to Atlanta on Sunday see Bobby Cox's final home game before retiring. It was a fantastic game as the Braves won and secured their wildcard spot in the playoffs (since the Padres lost).

We had a great view:

A nice break and good time at home -- as usual it just went by too fast! I'm thinking I might like to repeat this lucky number 13 since it worked so well the first time.....hmm I'll think about that.