Mom came home for Christmas.
Gabriella Trujillo was singing “Deck the Halls” when her mother, Cpl. Glendy Trujillo, surprised her at Shakopee Area Catholic School Tuesday.
Trujillo, who has been stationed in Qatar, Kuwait, with the Army Reserves 354th Medical Logistics Co. since March, appeared at the school’s Christmas sing-a-long much to the delight of her first-grade daughter.
Gabriella squeezed her mother tightly in a half-minute embrace before Trujillo carried her out. (Watch video of the surprise.)
“When I asked her what she wanted [for Christmas], she said ‘I want you,’” Trujillo said before the surprise. “I thought this would be a great gift.”
SACS teachers found out about the surprise Tuesday morning when Trujillo e-mailed her daughter’s teacher Mandy Carlson with news of her arrival. All day school officials were calling it code name “Christmas” to keep the secret from the students.
Glendy Trujillo hugs her daughter, Gabriella.Trujillo waited anxiously in a conference room minutes before the surprise. She wondered how tall Gabriella had become.
Trujillo has not been home since leaving in January to train in Dallas. Gabriella lived with Trujillo’s father and a cousin in Shakopee during the absence. Gabriella had no idea her mother was arriving today.
“It’s just perfect for us,” Principal Scott Breimhorst said about the surprise which came at the end of the school day as SACS students sang Christmas songs in the gym. “To be able to cap it off with her coming home is kind of neat.”
After the reunion, Gabriella clung to her mother with a smile stretched across her face.
“This is the best Christmas present ever,” said Trujillo’s sister, Amariliz Javier of Shakopee.
Kristin Holtz can be reached at (952) 345-6678 or [email protected].
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