DECATUR - The other children were enjoying punch and cookies after opening their presents, but 3-year-old Joselynn "Josie" Kirby had something else on her mind.

She rolled her walker up to the knee of the woman wearing the poinsettia-printed apron and spread her arms for a hug.

"Miss Santa, Miss Santa!" Josie exclaimed. "Thank you!"

After their embrace, Mrs. Claus picked up the gift she had just given the girl - a board book called "Sparkly Fairy" by Dorling Kindersley - and read it to her, just like she promised she would.

Josie and her big brother Hunter, 5, were among more than two dozen children who attended United Cerebral Palsy Land of Lincoln's first-ever Mrs. Claus party Monday evening.

As they arrived, each child had his or her photograph taken with Mrs. Claus, aka Myra Coy of Decatur and mother of the agency's new transition case manager, David Kent Coy.

"Santa is just so busy at the North Pole this time of year," she explained.

Then the children went with their parents from station to station. They made winter rabbit food out of uncooked oatmeal and colored sugar, and smiling snowmen out of felt. They also decorated photo frames made out of tongue depressors with snowflakes to display their pictures with Mrs. Claus.

Born with spina bifida, Josie walks with the help of a walker and leg braces and made several detours.

"Why is the baby black?" she asked a smiling Nicole DePriest of Decatur as she held her sleeping 2-month-old son, Kemari Johnson.

Josie's mother, Sonia Kirby of Farmer City, anticipated the question and supplied the answer: "Because his mom's black, silly."

Mrs. Claus read the children "Snowmen at Christmas" by Caralyn Buehner before presenting each child with a book of their own, thanks to a recent donation of 400 books by FirstBook Book Bank to United Cerebral Palsy Land of Lincoln.

"With Josie's disability, we could end up keeping her at home," Sonia Kirby said, "but it's good for her and Hunter to be around a diverse group. They just like coming here and playing with the other kids."

Theresa Churchill can be reached at tchurchill@ herald-review.com or 421-7978.