Where Are You, Mrs. C.?: 2005

At a church party, after we had entered and Santa had presented his little program, we were led to a room where we could greet the children and pictures could be taken. Santa led the way out of the larger room and I was on my way to follow him when suddenly I was surrounded by a group of little girls who latched on to me immediately. Two took my hands and the others joined hands with them until we had quite a line of people trying to get down the hallway. They were full of questions, which I attempted to answer while I was also paying attention to others in the hallway who were calling out to me. Wow, I wasn't used to this kind of attention.

I had lost sight of Santa. As we were halfway up the hallway I could see him come to the doorway of the room, looking for me. He asked people if they had seen Mrs. C. When I got to him he was glad to see me, was a little surprised at the attention I was receiving, and looked lost. He said he couldn't start without me. I reassured him that I was there. We sat down and greeted the children.

During the evening it was clear that some of the little children were waving at me. And as we got ready to leave some of them came back to say good-bye to me and hug me. It made me very happy that I could add to their holiday cheer. While I remain basically a shy person, I could not help but go out of myself to communicate with their sweet spirits. And I had a ring side seat to the wondrous looks on their faces as they talked with Santa. What a night to remember.

Mrs. Claus