Tori Hahlen with cousins and grandparents.Photo:Tori Hahlen
Tori Hahlen
Ohio grandparents Karen and Wayne Gamble welcomed some unexpected visitors into their home for an unforgettable night of family bonding.
To surprise their grandparents this holiday season, Tori Hahlen, 24, and her six adult cousins knocked on their grandparents’ door with overnight bags, pillows, snacks and games — everything they needed for a nostalgic slumber party.
In anow-viral TikTok video, Hahlen captured the Gambles’ reactions to seeing all seven of their grandkids enter their home prepared for a spontaneous overnight.
“This is your sign to surprise your grandparents with a sleepover with all your adult cousins,” Hahlen wrote over the clip, which now has nearly 35 million views.
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“Are you serious?” said Hahlen’s shocked grandmother in the video, adding, “That’s the best Christmas present ever!”
While their grandparents were completely unsuspecting, Hahlen tells PEOPLE that she and her cousins — Luke, 18, Nevin, 19, Brooke, 20, Brant, 22, Matthew, 23, and Taylor, 28 — first came up with the idea around Thanksgiving. The cousins were looking for a chance to spend time together while they were all home in Ohio since several of them live out of town and out of state.
When Brooke pitched the idea in their group chat, Hahlen recalls, “Everyone was immediately all in and started sending ideas of games, snacks and how we would go about doing the big surprise.”
Surprise TikTok sleepover with grandparents.Tori Hahlen
“We have so many childhood memories of sleepovers at our Nana and Grandad’s that we wanted to recreate,” says Hahlen.
To ensure that their grandparents didn’t make other plans for the evening, Hahlen’s mom invited Karen and Wayne over for dinner. When the kids showed up with plenty of pizza and buffalo chicken dip —“Our favorites!” says Hahlen — Karen wondered about their original dinner plans.
“We’re having pizza here,” one of the grandkids can be heard saying in the TikTok, as soft piano plays in the background of the clip. Another cousin reassures, “It’s just us tonight.”
“We all had our predictions of how they each would react,” Hahlen says. “Nana would cry tears of joy and Grandad would chuckle and tease us for making Nana cry. And that’s exactly what happened!”
The family filled their night with quality time and some of their favorite activities. They played games, drank hot chocolate and the girls even brought their grandmother a set of Christmas pajamas to match their own. After watching Wayne’s favorite movie,Home Alone, their perfect night was complete.
“My Nana said she immediately called her cousin who is her best friend,” Hahlen says. “And my Grandad said that he thinks when we go get breakfast at Bob Evans, people are going to ask for their autograph.”
source: people.com
