A holiday homecoming

He flies. He visits all the houses in one night. He fits his jolly waistline through those chimneys year after year.

When it comes to surprises, Santa's just full of them.

And while children aren't always the most patient demographic, they tend to trust that Father Christmas will show eventually.

So last January, when Savanna Irizarry had to tell her children, twins Maverick, Michelle and their little sister Myla that she'd be gone for most of the year, she didn't say "deployed." Instead, she told them they only had to wait until Santa Claus came back.

She said she hadn't planned a big production when she was first deployed to Central America. It was just something to help the kids understand. But when she found out the date she'd be home, Irizarry teamed up with the children's stepmother, Lauren Ashley Irey, who runs a photography business in Jackson, to help surprise the children when December finally came.

Santa Claus salutes Savanna Irizarry after her surprise homecoming on Dec. 3 in Jackson City Park.Submitted by Lauren Ashley Photography

"This was my first time to even be in the situation for doing something like this," Irizarry said. "Obviously the kids are number one, but it's fun too."

But, she said, it's also more than that. It's something they'll remember for years to come: the year Santa brought Mom back.

"It was super short notice," Irey said. "We knew sometime in December, but we didn't know when exactly."

So when Irizarry called, she had to scramble to find Santa Claus. Luckily, she'd worked with one -- who goes by Todd Beal outside the holidays -- for other photo shoots.

"And Todd said, 'Oh yeah, I'm on board, I'll show up Saturday morning,'" she said.

The twin 4-year-olds Maverick and Michelle were somewhat puzzled when Irey told them they'd be seeing Santa, since they'd already had their pictures done with him the week before, but Irey told them they'd forgotten to ask him to bring home their mom.

On Dec. 3, they went to Jackson's City Park, where Santa Claus was waiting just across the bridge and Irizarry was waiting in a car.

The kids asked for lightsabers first.

"What else?" Irey prompted.

When they said they wanted Santa to bring their mommy home, he asked if they wanted a Christmas present early and told them to turn around.

"It was incredibly overwhelming," Irizarry said of watching them turn and see her on the bridge. "They were just so excited and the looks on their faces were just priceless."

The time away, she said, had been incredibly hard and frustrating, as phone conversations with 4-year-olds sometimes are. Over the phone, it was mostly just "how did your day go," "love you" and "miss you," she recalled.

But their reunion, she said, made up for it all.

"They just said, 'Mom, I love you,'" she said. "They both tell me all the time that they're so glad that I'm home."

tgraef@semissourian.com

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