So my girlfriend and I decided a couple of months ago to surprise my parents with a trip home. The folks knew my brother was coming in, but I had told them that the flights were too expensive, especially since we had just seen them in August out in California for a cousin's wedding. But I changed my mind and bought the tickets soon after, and then continued to tell repeated lies about our plans for the holiday .

I knew this would be an especially meaningful Thanksgiving given that last year at this time, my dad had a heart attack and underwent major bypass surgery that almost killed him with a lung complication known as Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS). Then, a couple of weeks ago, my dad got laid off from his job. My mom told me several times how excited they were that my brother was coming home so they had something to look forward to. It was not easy to keep silent but I did

Anyway, we arrived on Tuesday. My brother had come in earlier in the day after almost missing his flight, which ended up being a good thing because his luggage was put on a later plane, conveniently giving him a legitimate excuse to come back to the airport to pick us up when we got in that evening. We decided on the way home that my brother would drop us off a bit up the street from our house, and then go home alone and tell mom and dad that by the time he got to the airport, the luggage was already on route and being delivered to the house by the airline.

A few minutes later, my girlfriend and I arrived at the door with my brother's luggage and we captured the moment on my Flip video camera. (The one mistake I made was not telling my brother to go to the bathroom so that one of my folks would be forced to open the door!!). Here's what happened ...