Christmas arrived early for a couple of Glen Oaks' students as their father shocked them with a visit to the school after a nearly year-long deployment to Afghanistan.
Army Specialist Vincenzo Volpe, 29, surprised his two youngest children – Savanah Valadez and Angel Valadez – as he paid them an unannounced visit to their classrooms.
Volpe, of Hickory Hills, was surprising his older son, George, later in the day when the freshman came home from Stagg High School.
Principal Gaylyn Grimm and school psychologist Karen Canning pulled off the ruse with the help of Volpe's wife June.
Volpe, who told his kids he was arriving home after Christmas, returned early and came to school as part of a project that had students using Skype to contact a soldier.
No one knew who the soldier was, and certainly Savanah and Angel had no idea it would be their dad.
But it was. And rather than being stationed overseas to participate, Volpe was actually sitting in front of a computer in Canning's office answering pre-written questions from five students in the school's all-purpose room.
Once the Skype session was completed, the students went back to their respective classrooms.
Volpe and June, along with their niece, Jillian, whom he had surprised earlier in the day at her school, walked down the hallway through a phalanx of waiting and appreciative teachers, administrators and staff welcoming the soldier home.
He first walked into Savanah's classroom, and the little girl broke down in tears of joy for a father she hadn't seen in nearly a year.
Father and daughter enjoyed a long embrace, as daughter's eyes welled up with tears.
With Savanah by his side, Volpe made the short walk down the hallway to surprise Angel, who expressed a similar reaction to his sister.
Angel put his head down on his desk and started sobbing. Volpe put his arms around his son and the two embraced.
The moment proved to be a highly emotional one for staff and classmates as well, as several people in the room reached for the Kleenex.
When it was over, Volpe thanked everyone, and said he just wanted to go home and "spend time with my family."
"I want to relax and recover and spend time with family," he said. "I've been away a long time. I missed everybody. I'm glad to be home."