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It's the most awaited holiday of the year and we all would love to spend it with friends and family.
The upside of this holiday is the gifts, dinners, shopping, fun, themed events, togetherness, and so on. The downside though is the travel distance, and connectivity.
If only it was that easy to erase those distances to be with our loved ones, we all would write many letters to Santa as Annalisse did.
Seven-year-old Annalisse Hocking picked out a pen and a piece of paper, determined to write a letter to Santa. She gathered her limited vocabulary for this annual holiday ritual of writing a letter to Santa. Unlike her previous years, when she wrote about toys and games, she had a unique request to make.
Her letter read:
"Dear Santa, for Christmas I would like it to be a surprise. Please tell Nyla that I miss her. I have not forgotten about her, and please tell her my address and everything she needs to know to mail me a letter also. Please tell me everything I need to know to mail a letter to her".
The Hocking family moved from Dover to Farmington, and Annalisse made a best friend out of Nyla. But the two didn't know that they would be separated soon, as Nyla had to move out of Farmington a few months after. It wasn't easy for the parents to keep up with the play dates now that the distance grew between them.
"I really wanted to see Nyla, so I wrote down if he could make that happen, that's what I wanted," said Annalisse in an interview with Foster's Daily Democrat. She added that she misses the funny stories her friend Nyla tells her, and the time they spend in the playground.
"I had just moved to that school, and she moved away. So, it was hard because we had just become friends and I moved there and she moved away," Annalisse continued talking about why she wished hard for this and wrote the letter.
Santa found Nyla on Facebook. Or was it his elves? Or was it someone else?
Leslie Hocking, the 7-year-old's mother was the Santa who made her daughter's wish come true. She found the note and went straight to the internet to find her daughter's best friend.
Leslie posted the whole letter on Facebook. She also shared it in communities that could find people who are familiar with the school her daughter goes to. She asked people in the community to help her find Nyla. Social media proved to be a boon when Leslie found Nyla's mother, Sarah Hodgon. The moms of the two kids connected and arranged for a surprise dinner for the girls.
Nyla and Annalisse were " speechless" when they saw each other at the restaurant. "It was so cute," Sarah said. They shared the best hug and were all smiles throughout the dinner.
"I just held back the tears trying to be like, 'This is a great joy.' I can't even describe it- you get choked up inside and it's all happy," said Sarah. She added that this was a special gift for Nyla too as it was hard for her to make friends at her new school online.
The two girls have since been in constant contact with each other video chatting. Nyla's "personality has been brighter," adds her mother Sarah. Both Leslie and Sarah, the moms of the two girls are thankful to the community for making this happen.
"I can't believe how many people stepped forward and were trying to help two little girls who were in school together for less than a year and grew a good bond," said Lesley Hocking. Santa is in all of us and is in the kindness of people.
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