Enumclaw Mom Starts Traveling 'Merry Christmas' Sign Photo Project to Cheer Navy Daughter

Brenda Seitz joked that she was the 'crazy lady with the camera' when we encountered her near the Kasey Kahne street sign by the library Thursday afternoon. But in fact, we at Patch had already heard chatter about her in town that morning.

A local business owner told us a woman whose daughter was in the U.S. Navy was going around town with a 'Merry Christmas' sign, photographing familiar sights with the sign in the frame, and collecting them for her daughter who can't come home for Christmas this year.

This is one of the awesome things about covering a small town -- we actually found her!

Seitz told us her daughter Carson, is currently based in Great Lakes, Ill. She is 18 this year and it's her first Christmas away from home. In fact, Carson was also away for Thanksgiving, and it broke her mother's heart to hear that her holiday meal then was a can of soup her mother had sent her.

So mom decided to take on this project to send a little bit of home to her. Seitz said she's been so well received by strangers when she tells them what she's doing and asks them to hold her sign for a picture.

"Especially men. They're all tough and they don't want to be in pictures but then I tell them it's for my daughter who is in the Navy and they tell me 'I'd be proud,'" Seitz said, fighting back a welling up of emotion.

But "I'm having a ball" taking pictures for her, she added. The 'Merry Christmas' sign itself is a remnant from Carson's childhood, having been hung in the family home since she was about 7 years-old.

So, if you're out about town and see a lady holding a 'Merry Christmas' sign and a camera, perhaps offer to help her hold her sign.