A Christmas Reveal

The night before Christmas, in the Alvidrez house, a little boy was stirring because he found out he was going to be a big brother. We told him we had a special surprise. I reminded him of when he was a baby and before that when he was in his mommy's belly by showing him his blog book. Then, we announced that there is another baby in mommy's belly. We went to the doctor the day before and she found a baby in there. He asked questions like: When is the baby coming? Tomorrow? And can I have one? He even said a special prayer for the baby and told the baby, Hey, I'm your big brother. It was the sweetest thing. The best reveal I will ever get to experience I think. We showed him the pictures we had taken earlier of him in a Santa hat - mad face, silly face, smoochy face, I'm going to be a big brother face. And we explained how Grammy and Maecy were going to find out. That as they opened each picture, he could tell them the face he made. It would be his Christmas surprise!

The next morning we had to wake up early for Christmas service and Aldo and I agreed it would be better for each of us to open one present, mom opening the pictures. Luke jumped out of bed immediately - no one complains or plays 'possum when they hear the words It's Christmas! Luke found two presents on his bed from Santa (a ninja turtles sticker book and the new life-like movie). Aldo and I opened up our stockings. Grammy opened up four pictures individually. She vaguely remembered seeing the photos, but didn't know this is what I did - and she was completely surprised! A great reaction. She said there were times when she thought we might be, and then quickly threw the idea out. We spent some time talking and then quickly headed to church together. The first thing Luke does is tell his friends that there's a baby in mommy's tummy. A friend of ours came up to me and said, "You know Luke is telling everyone you're pregnant… Are you?" It's a good thing we had told mom that morning…

When we got back home we opened up most of our presents. Luke couldn't wait. And Ruby re-wrapped the pictures for us. Maecy and Juan ended up arriving a little before lunch, so we decided to let her open them before the rest of the family. As she was opening up the second one, I looked out the window and saw Granddad in the driveway. We had to rush her through it - and she had no idea what was going on - it was kind of chaotic. I wish it wasn't, but she was surprised at the end anyway. I quickly ran the pictures downstairs to re-wrap them AGAIN! 

When everyone showed up it was time for lunch. Luke had been doing a fantastic job at keeping the secret, but near the end of the meal, when everyone was getting dessert, he shouted, My Grammy is having a baby! Whoops! He was on the other side of the room. All I heard was my mom and maybe a few others do the shhh-sound at him. Everyone turns to one another like what's going on? and why is he in trouble… It's actually quite hilarious in retrospect. I explained it to them by saying that Luke was telling everyone what they got for Christmas. It was the honest truth, and they seemed appeased with the answer. Aldo turns to me and says, we have to do it NOW. Granddad would open the presents this time. We gave him the presents and he opened the first one. I don't know why, but he thought the "mad face" was hilarious, to the point where he might have been crying and couldn't stop laughing. We had to move him on to the second one. Not as funny as the first I guess. After the third one he was guessing what could be the fourth - maybe a descent picture… and congratulations. Not too bad. Well worth the wait, just to see all of their different reactions alone.