Soldier Returning From Afghanistan Surprises His Family For Christmas And Mom Has The Greatest Reaction [Video]
For a soldier’s mom, it was much better to receive than to give when her son, Patrick Conwell, surprised her on Christmas with the best gift a mother could ask for. According to Afghanistan News, Conwell had spent the past nine months on a tour of duty in the Middle East and wanted to do something special for the holidays when he returned home to Nashville, Tennessee so he enlisted his brother Matthew for help.
Matthew told his mother, father, and sister that he and his pregnant wife were going to hold a party to reveal the gender of their upcoming child. They set up a giant box next to their Christmas tree which he told his family he would open up and reveal either pink or blue balloons inside. But instead, Conwell was hiding inside, wearing his fatigues and holding a green balloon. In the YouTube video posted by Conwell, Patrick’s brother and sister ask their mother if she thinks it’s a boy or a girl.
“I don’t want to say what I think it’s going to be,” Patrick’s mother said, before predicting that it will be a girl.
“Whatever it is, we’re going to be thrilled,” she added.
As the box opens, a green balloon floats out, and everyone seems a bit perplexed. Then, Conwell pops up and the room momentarily becomes silent. After the family fully grasps what’s going on, they jump off the couch with mom dashing into his arms. His mother’s reaction is priceless and her emotions run the gamut from shock and awe, to happiness as her son is safely returned to her.
Patrick Conwell’s return home from Afghanistan for the holidays coincided with his sister-in-law’s pregnancy, so they masqueraded his surprise visit as a “reveal party” for the baby’s sex.
“My dad said he ‘suspected something’, but I’m 99% sure my mom and sister didn’t know,” Patrick explained as reported by Entertainment Tonight.
“So, a quick bit of background. I was gone for 9 months to Kandahar, Afghanistan. The plan to jump out of the box kinda just started as a joke about a month before I came back when I was talking to my brothers one day. My brother and his wife are having a baby and… the discussion evolved into we should have a cake for when I get back, then that turned into they would do a ‘reveal’ cake for the baby, but instead of pink or blue, it would be green and then I would jump out and surprise mom.
“For whatever reason, my brother scrapped the cake idea and it turned into me jumping out of the box with the green balloon. It really wasn’t something we planned in depth, the plan just sorta came together as we went along. It sounded like it would be funny to surprise my mom, I think that’s why we really did it, just to do it as a gag.
“Oh, and I had been back about 24 hours at that point. Basically I had been back just long enough to shower, eat and get some sleep.”
Watch the entire video or skip ahead to 1:58 for the big “reveal.” The family also learned that his sister-in-law will be giving birth to a baby girl.
There are quite a few videos on You Tube of soldiers returning home and surprising family and pets. As reported by the Inquisitr, watch some funny videos of soldier’s returning home to surprise their cats and capturing some great reactions only a cat could give.
