Mrs. Claus visits...

---

It’s not every day that Mrs. Claus comes for a visit, let alone a visit to Kosovo! When she walked into the helicopter hanger you could feel every soldier turn and smile as the inner child in all of us got that twinge of excitement and nearly ran up to her just like children when they see Santa in the malls.

They say in poetic folklore that Mrs. Claus was create back in the 1860’s and her main purpose was to help Santa with his list of how’s been naughty and whose been nice. As time passed she eventually talked Santa into letting her go on a Christmas run with him and she would steady the reindeer while Santa went about his work descending chimneys to deliver gifts. Eventually she begged Santa long enough that he allowed her to go down a chimney to mend a poor child’s tattered stocking and filled it with gifts. The end of Katherine Lee Bates poem Mrs. Claus remarks that she is the "gladdest of the glad" because she has had her "own sweet will".

Thank goodness for fun history because our Mrs. Claus from Camp Bondsteel was wonderful. She laughed with us, she hugged us, she grinned for the many photos and she brought with her a spirit of peace. She came into our lives today for a special reason and that was to bring soldiers a little happiness on Christmas morning.

Mrs. Claus not only stopped by the helicopter hanger that morning but she helped to serve the holiday meal to hundreds of soldiers and civilians, from many countries and no matter what the language spoken. The message was always the same:

Happy Holidays!...

---