EagleTribune.com, North Andover, MA
Merrimack Valley
Methuen soldier's secret Santa surprise homecoming
Methuen sergeant's homecoming leaves family overjoyed
Published: November 21, 2008
SALEM, N.H. — U.S. Army Sgt. Andrew Dixon went to work hiding his fatigues beneath a red velvet Santa suit in a service hallway behind the hustle and bustle of the mall.
The 23-year-old Methuen soldier was waiting for his wife and two young children to arrive for a moment he had been planning since learning more than a year ago that he was being deployed to Afghanistan. It was his second deployment, returning two years ago from an 18-month tour of duty in Iraq.
From the front line halfway around the world, Andrew was scheming and concocting a Santa surprise to end all surprises — he would secretly return home, dress as the big, old elf, and be there waiting in the mall for his 6-year-old son Nathaniel and 3-year-old daughter Teleyah to jump on his lap.
"I couldn't sleep last night waiting for this," he said.
He chose The Mall at Rockingham Park because that is where his wife, Christina Rosario, 23, works and thought it would be an easy place to surprise her.
"I wanted to do something that played off the Christmas spirit," Andrew said. "So she'd be totally surprised."
Surprised she was, albeit a little suspicious, when the ruse used to get her there backfired.
The big ruse and big reward
Christina was not supposed to work at Bare Essentials yesterday, but her manager told her she had to come at 1 p.m. to fill out paperwork. While Andrew waited downstairs thinking the moment was about to come, the phone rang.
Christina came and filled out the paperwork, but then she went home with Teleyah. Andrew called his mother-in-law, Evelyn Rosario, who was already in the mall with Nathaniel.
Evelyn persuaded her daughter to come back, saying how much she wanted to get the kids' pictures taken with Santa. Christina said to her mother when she came back, "I know what you are up to."
But she really didn't know. She said she hoped it was Andrew, but had no idea about the surprise awaiting her in Santa's Workshop, tucked beneath a staircase to the mall's Food Court.
The last year has been tough for her, particularly when she does things with the kids "and I had no one to share those moments with."
Finding Daddy
Bedtime could be a struggle for Christina because the kids regularly asked for their dad. And any movie or show with a military theme always brought questions about, "When is Dad coming home?"
"It was hard and sometimes I cried," Christina said. She said she became a big fan of the TV show "Army Wives" over the past year.
From the children, there was a little bit of timidness after finding their Daddy beneath a curly wig and beard of white. But his son, whom Andrew affectionately calls "Nate Dog," soon grabbed him hard around the stuffing in the costume's belly and squeezed.
"My son is so big now. He's got some football weight on him. He's really filled out," Andrew said.
And Nathaniel was ready to get Daddy out of the mall and get him home to throw the pigskin around. The first-grader from Comprehensive Grammar School was soon eating up the attention of the media snapping his picture and filming him.
How it came together
Andrew got the idea of a surprise homecoming from his wife. She had seen a tear-jerker surprise by a soldier on TV and she talked about how sweet it was.
He had already done the "regular homecoming" after an 18-month deployment in Iraq. So when word came he was going home, Andrew e-mailed the Mall at Ro ckingham Park and explained his idea. He also e-mailed The Eagle-Tribune laying out his homecoming plan.
There was a big hitch: Andrew didn't know how long it would take him to get home and he wouldn't be able to really organize the surprise until he got back to the United States.
Last Saturday, a 20-hour flight took him to North Carolina, where he was kept on the base with little contact to the outside world. After days without contact, he was told Wednesday he was going home in a few hours.
He arrived at 1 a.m. yesterday, beaming from ear to ear despite his flight being delayed. He was nervous and excited and just glad to be eating a Quarter Pounder with extra cheese and drinking a super-sized orange Hi-C.
After his fast-food run, his next destination was a hotel in Methuen, where he would hide until the Santa surprise at the mall. He didn't sleep much, excited to be home and excited to hold a TV remote and watch anything he wanted to — "Varsity Blues," "Monk," and "Law and Order."
"I can't believe I'm in the same town as her. I can't believe I'm here," he said, laughing and smiling. "I can't believe I am here."
The couple met in high school in Lancaster, Pa. Andrew was a senior on the football team and Christina was a junior who, at first, had no interest in him. As a matter of fact, Andrew laughs that Christina hated him.
"I guess I wore her down," he said with a laugh.
The second deployment
The family had been living in Pennsylvania. But when Andrew learned he was going to Afghanistan, Christina and the kids decided to return to Methuen and live with her mom on Elm Street.
Andrew spoke of the high divorce rate among soldiers serving overseas. He said, "It's hard. The wives get tired."
"That's why I appreciate my wife so much. I tell her. She's got the hard job raising our kids," he said.
In Afghanistan, his job wasn't so easy either. He was assigned to a PRT, a provincial reconstruction team, that would talk to local officials and people in the tribes there and ask them what they need in terms of reconstruction.
He also helped many starving children get their share of a peanut butter concoction loaded with vitamins, a treatment for malnutrition now being used worldwide.
Andrew said he often played football with the kids over there, who became like his own children. The kids would run after the military vehicles as soldiers threw candy at them.
Some of the regions he went to hadn't seen American military before and it took some convincing of the locals that they weren't the Soviets the country had been fighting with years before.
He saw his share of firefights, too, and recalled a nearby Toby Keith concert, which had to be canceled because of a mortar attack.
In Iraq, where he previously served for 18 months, Andrew said his team was under attack daily.
"It got old," he said.
Life after the homecoming
Before his family arrived and still standing dressed as half-Santa, half-soldier, people asked him how happy he was about coming home.
He was obviously thrilled for the moment, but knew the homecoming and reuniting with his family wouldn't be as easy as scheming to be a mall Santa.
Because it wasn't his first homecoming, he knew it wouldn't be easy. He said it would mean he would have to remember he was no longer talking with his "battle buddies" and it would take awhile for his children to readjust to having him back in their lives.
He said one of the things Army personnel did at Fort Bragg the past few days was "they teach you how to go home."
Andrew hopes he can skate the next year without being called up again by the Army National Guard.
He's a firefighter who played football at a Division 2 college in Pennsylvania and hopes to try out for an arena team here. He's also looking forward to plenty of pickup games with Nathaniel.
But short-term, Andrew isn't planning much.
"I'm thinking about going to Myrtle Beach with the kids for July 4th," he said. "My wife keeps talking about Rockefeller Center (in New York City) and going skating."
