Can 14 Kids Keep a Secret? The Amazing Christmas Gift that Sent Us to Italy

Florence, Italy

Julie and I had dreamed of going to Italy for a very long time. We wanted to go for our 25th wedding anniversary but didn't have the money. It was like that every year.

Something always came up. Someone needs braces, or unexpected medical costs, or just life in a big family.

We held onto the dream. Italy enchanted us. The history and places like the Colosseum or the Leaning Tower of Pisa, or the Sistine Chapel. The culture, Tuscany, the art, the architectural wonders like the Duomo in Florence or San Marco Square in Venice. The home of da Vinci and Michelangelo. Those colorful coastal villages clinging to hills. The tasty amazing Mediterranean food. Its connection to Christianity. The place where the Apostle Paul walked and was imprisoned.

The Colosseum

The place that always just seemed out of reach.

Then on Christmas Day, 2018, with all 14 kids and two daughters-in-law and one grandson stuffed into our living room with wads of crumpled Christmas wrapping and toys and clothes and assorted other gifts decorating the floor and every other nook and cranny, Julie and I were handed a paper bag.

It was one of those little brown bags you pack a lunch in. It was well-worn, like a third- or fourth-hand paper bag. A shabby chic paper bag that was soft and rumpled from being stuffed full of something -- baloney sandwiches maybe? -- repeatedly and saved to be used over and over.

Venice, Italy

We peeked in the bag. I looked at Julie. Looked at the kids. Then reached inside and pulled out ... a huge wad of cash. I was stunned. The kids were laughing. Giggling. Julie was in shock.

We counted it out: $1,300. The kids told us we were going to Italy.

Our oldest eight kids had started a fund and put money into it each month for the whole year. Evie had been the taskmaster, sending out monthly texts and cajoling her brothers and sisters into contributing. There may have been some feigned bitterness about it.

Here's the crazy part: How did 14 kids, two daughters-in-law, and a 1-year-old grandson* keep that a secret from us? For a whole year!

It was an amazing, humbling gift. I may have cried.

Parmigiano Reggiano cheese from Italy

A couple of weeks later I started checking airfares. I was expecting tickets for something in the $1,000 range, or $800 maybe if we could score a mega-deal. I started looking at flights from Dulles in Washington D.C. to Rome. The cost of a ticket was about what I was expecting.

I was searching for after summer in September, thinking the airfares might be cheaper because demand would lessen. Plus the summer heat would be dissipated. And it would be our 29th anniversary on Sept. 1.

Then I expanded the search to include JFK in New York City. It's not a bad ride up there, only seven hours, and maybe flights would be cheaper.

Riomaggiore, Italy, in Cinque Terre

A number popped up that seemed really out of whack. I refreshed the screen and tried again. Same unbelievable number.

Four hundred dollars. That's $400, roundtrip from JFK to Rome in mid-September.

"Babe," I said to Julie. "We're going to Italy."

The Leaning Tower of Pisa

*Editor's Note: Maybe at 1 years old James wasn't in on the secret. I'm pretty sure if he had known he would've told me. ;-)