prince A kitty cat (with lots of fun toys) and a stuffed animal of Barney or baby bop (I like them both) From, Lonnie Kaplan "Mommy, mommy I finished my Christmas list!'' shouted Lonnie "Good I'll take it to the Christmas box this afternoon,'' Lonnie's mom Cathy explained. Lonnie was so excited she loved Santa. He had always brought her everything she wanted. Except one year when she threw an enormous temper tantrum because she didn't get a cheetah like she asked for. Lonnie was quite a spoilt little girl and always got what she wanted because her mom didn't like to listen to her whine. At around 12.30 a.m. on the night before Christmas Lonnie awoke from a loud OWWWWWW coming from the chimney. She sneaked down to find a bright fire in the bottom of the chimney. She started to cry and ran outside, when she caught a glimpse of a huge sleigh ringing with bells with reindeer pulling it. She went back inside with red, watering eyes and tears dripping from her chin. She went over to the fire and knelt down to turn it off when a tiny cedar tree caught her view.

Lonnie picked it up and took it up to her room. She was trying to figure out what it was, when that morning about 2.00 a.m. she got so mad that it didn't do anything she threw it down on the ground and stepped on it. When Lonnie went to pick it up again she heard a quite, croaky voice say, "What did you do that for!'' She looked down at the cedar tree and by the looks of it, in the middle of it, there was a small mouth. Lonnie started to say, "Did you say that?'' The cedar tree answered, "Yeah. Why?'' "Can cedar trees really talk?'' Lonnie wondered. "Well, only ones like me. The special ones.'' The cedar tree said in a confident voice. "Do you do anything else?'' asked Lonnie. "Well I can sort of fly. But I can only fly in front of or with the person who touches the button on the bottom of my trunk.'' The cedar tree replied. As soon as Lonnie heard this she flipped him upside down and pressed the button. Suddenly out of nowhere two long beautiful wings appeared. They were a light blue with tints of white, orange, red, yellow and lime green. She was so excited and had so many questions like, "What's your name?'' or "Where did you come from?'' The cedar tree knew what she was thinking and said, "My name is Treedar, and I am one of Santa's SPECIAL helpers.'' "Wow! We are going to have a lot of fun!'' Lonnie explained. But one day Treedar remembered Santa and what had happened to him so he told Lonnie he had to leave. Lonnie was so upset, Treedar was now her best friend in the whole world. So she was dying to come with him. And Treedar couldn't stand her puppy face when she was about to cry. So Treedar couldn't stop her. It was quite a long journey to the North Pole. It took almost an hour and a half. But when they got there it was definitely worth it! It was almost 3.00 a.m. and if you could see Santa you would know nobody was going to get their presents.

Unless... "We've got to help deliver the presents to everyone. Quick we only have a few hours!'' Santa had been burnt too badly to come with us. So we need somebody really, really big that will fit into Santa's suit. So we found someone absolutely perfect for the job. Mrs. Claus! She was perfect! She knew the routes, knew the trick to get down the chimney and she knew how to drive the sleigh. So off they went to all around the world going down chimneys, flying through clouds with a strong, howling wind pushing them forward. It was a lot of fun, but also a lot of hard work. When they eventually got back to the North Pole it was almost 5.00 a.m. Santa was so happy to hear that everyone had gotten their presents. Lonnie told Santa that she really needed to get home before her parents woke up. And since Santa was such a generous man and could see what good friends Lonnie and Treedar had become he told Treedar he could go and stay at Lonnie's house, but only if they came to visit him once in a while. They both said definitely and were off! "Wait!'' Santa bellowed. They all turned around, got out and said what? "Hey Lonnie come here for a second.'' Santa said. "Okay. What?'' Asked Lonnie. "I've got something for you.'' Santa said secretly. "What it is?'' questioned Lonnie, "Oh my gosh! It's the cheetah I asked for two years ago.'' Lonnie shouted.

Lonnie thanked Santa and said goodbye and off we went for good! Lonnie now knew what a real friendship was and that presents aren't as important as she thought. PHOTO Child writer and artist, Caitlin Conyers, depiction of a cedar tree. An artistic rending of Treedar's wings from the story, `A Cedar Tree Can Fly.' by Caitlin Conyers, age 10.