BEST Christmas surprise!!!!!! I want to hear yours

I would like to hear of your Best Christmas surprise. Whether you gave or received does not matter.

My best was in 1969. I was on active duty in Vietnam. I was wounded five days before Christmas. Not bad just a bullet grazed my left leg. Doc did not want me out in the brush until it had healed. I was able to beg a thirty day R&R leave. You have to remember that a this time it was not easy to communicate back to the states. I could not have gotten a call or letter to home much faster than a few days. I was able to bum flights with Air Force crews that where being rotated back to Hawaii. My unit had picked up a few pilots that had been shot down. So I was able to cash in some good will. I had to buy my own ticket from Hawaii to Chicago. I then caught a bus back to Dubuque, Iowa. I arrived just before dark on Christmas Eve. No one knew I was coming home. I called a buddy and he came out in a snow storm to drive me home. I was able to sneak into the living room of my Grand Father"s house without being seen. The rest of the family was in the kitchen finishing Christmas supper. My luck was good that year. My wife, carrying my oldest son who was just one, was the first to come into the front room. She was going to breast feed him before everyone else came in. I will remember the look on her face when she saw me until the day I die. Now I did have a little bad luck then. SHE fainted. LOL I was able to keep her from falling too hard and catch my son before he hit the floor.
THAT WAS MY BEST Christmas Surprise ever. It also is one of the best Christmas Seasons I have ever lived. We both, my wife and I, where just nineteen. We did not let each other out of the others sight for the next two weeks. I have a copy of a picture taken that Christmas Eve in my billfold right now. It is my wife, holding our son, sitting on my lap. I have carried a copy of that picture everyday since then. I have asked to have the original buried with me in my final resting place.

A funny thing. I was able to get home in four days. It took me ten days to get back.

So lets hear your best Christmas suprise.

Great story. Gave me goosebumps. I couldn't even come close to a surprise of that caliber. Thanks for sharing!

-Henry

All of us here are indebted to guys and gals like you that served then, and now. Thanks and Merry Christmas. A great story.

Gene

Great story! I don't know how anyone could top that.

Merry Christmas!

Your story is the best I have ever herd , God Bless.

I was thinking of a couple of things when I started reading yours, but I think you scooped the pond- pretty hard to come up with something better than that!

Thanks for the heartwarming story.

Thanks. Reminded me of picking my brother up in sub-zero weather and rushing him to the hospital where his new born son was not expected to live. He had flown out of his field location with a firing battery in the 1st Cav Div. He left Viet Nam wearing short sleeve tan shirt and trousers which is what he was wearing on arrival. His son just celebrated his 42d birthday. How time flies. Merry Christmas!

Fascinating story, JD.

I cannot begin to top that.

Dean

Guess the time I walked in on..........

Never mind, you beat me.

Good story.

Dave

Not nearly as touching but in about 1970 when I was a kid 8 or so, my mom went to work. We weren't too poor but not rich by any means. Remeber it was still kinda odd for "moms" to have jobs and on top of it she started in the fall when school started and worked at Montgomery Wards so she was gone most nights when a kid has questions about homework and school and could use his mom. Well, Christmas eve came and of course she had to work and it got real late but she finally got home a couple hours late. Remember, back then, there were no wally's etc open all night. Everything closed on Christmas eve and stayed closed til 26th. What happeded was at 9pm when they closed, a poor lady came in the store. they tried to shoo her out but she told them she had finally gotten paid that night and this was the first money she had gotten and had no presents for her kids. So the staff an mgr kept the store open and let her shop till she had what she wanted, checked her out, and closed up. After my mom told us kids about that I didn't miss my mom so much for working and realized how lucky I was.

What a great Christmas story! Thanks for your service and for sharing a heartwarming Christmas story.

What a story! Thank you for your service! Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Redtom, your story is just as good as mine. There is nothing worth more than a mother"s love for her children. Your story shows TWO such Mothers. I have lived in house holds where money was tight. I have done without so my children could have that something extra. I like any and all stories/memories that show that parent"s love. Thanks for sharing your story.

Great story, kind of makes a person think about the real meaning of Christmas!
I am sorry you had to take one for god & country but yours is a great example of "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade"
Led

what a wonderfull story! Thank you for your service. Well here is mine... This is a "gift" I gave my kids this year. Grandma,(my mother) passed away this year and the kids (me too) were kinda missing her. See at Chrismas time mom loved to dress up as Mrs Clause and go to schools and nursing homes and read to the kids and residence and bring some cheer. A couple of Christmass ago at our family get together mom was in her suit and had all the grandkids gathered around her as she read the Night Before Christmas under the Christmas tree. No one paid much attention as I quietly video recorded it. Tonight before putting the kids to bed I gathered them in the living room (not telling them what was up) and told my little girl to press play. Needless to say it was nice having Grandma to read to them again. Any way MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL.

That story is going to be tough to beat! Merry Christmas to you, and thank you for serving our country. I appreciate you sharing your memories with us this Christmas.

That story would make a good Hallmark movie!

Paul

That is an incredible story. Thanks for your service!

Case E make sure you have many copies of that video. Everyone of her grand kids will love a copy.

I wish we had the ability to record things like that years ago. The only thing left of my Grand Parents and great grand Parents are some pictures an stories that I remember. I am not sure that my kids know all of them.

I agree completely.

Wife watches them all the time but I'd have to catch that.

I served a few years before you, including the Nam years, and it is the proudest time of my life, but I can"t imagine anything topping your story. Thank you for your service- we all waited too many years for the first one. Your dedication to your young family is most impressive, and especially the continuation over the years.