I miss my big chest already.

My flowered hat, too. And my oversized hoop dress.

They’re all part of the personality for “Mother Ginger,” a travesty character in “The Nutcracker” — the famous holiday ballet.

Some people know I’ve been playing the role in Northeast Ballet’s presentation of the show since 1997. That was the year director Darlene Myers and her people contacted the old Gazette and asked if a male reporter would be willing to make a cameo appearance as “Mother,” and perhaps write a story about the experience.

I accepted the challenge, and believe I acquitted myself with honor. I rolled my big padded self — that’s where the fake chest comes in — on stage with my big padded skirt and happily spilled 10 small children in front of the audience. The kids, the “gingerbreads,” are always the youngest performers in the Northeast show. They always get rousing applause.

On the page is a photo of me masquerading as the Joker’s grandmother. My friend Anita Burock seems to enjoy the gag!

Click HERE to see another photo of the Ginger man - courtesy of Joe Mulone Photography, Scotia. Thanks, Joe!

Ms. Myers has been nice enough to invite me back to her December show every year since. And I think she would have asked me again this year, but I contacted her first: During late summer, I learned the Northeast shows would be held over Thanksgiving weekend, Nov. 28 and 29. Because I have a longer-running role as planner and host of my family’s annual Christmas party in Rochester over Thanksgiving weekend, I had to tell Ms. Myers I would not be available for this year’s Nutcrackers.

She understood my situation, and I even tried to line up a replacement — someone from the media world. I talked with The Gazette’s Justin Mason about the gig, and contacted some friends at Capital News 9. I thought Julie Chapman would have been a great choice for the part, but we never really got into discussions with Julie. Darlene really likes a guy in the role.

I should have suggested WGDJ talk show king Paul Vandenburgh for the spot, but Mother is not a speaking role. None of the ballet characters get dialogue. So I fear Paul would have been out of his element.

Ms. Myers found someone on her own. Bruce Williams, who lives in New Hampshire and is returning to the ballet troupe for the first time in many years, will be wearing my magenta, silver and purple threads.

That should be the end of the story, but it’s not. Wendy Liberatore, the newspaper’s dance writer and expert on all things Nutcracker, left the newspaper for another job this past summer. Because I have some experience with the show and know all about the assorted party girls, dancing snowflakes and warrior mice, I was persuaded — told, really — to write our annual roundup of Nutcracker shows.

I thought it might be interesting to profile a member from each cast. We’ll have Malta, Berkshire, Saratoga City and Adirondack ballets represented in the piece, along with Northeast. And that’s what brought me to the Northeast rehearsal last Friday night.

It seemed strange being on the main floor of Northeast’s headquarters on State Street without my black ballet slippers. I said hello to Jane Havis, whose daughter Jenna danced with the show until she graduated from Niskayuna High School in 2007. Jane has been pressed into service as Mother for some Northeast functions.

I recognized and nodded to others who were practicing steps for the elaborate first-act party scene. Ms. Myers saw me lurking in the background and called out “Hello, Mother Ginger!” and I responded the way I always do: “Hello, Professor!”

I interviewed Brian Bayly, Northeast’s “Uncle Drosselmeyer” for the past five years and a longtime show veteran, about getting into character and other fun parts of the magic-heavy role. After 15 minutes, Brian got to go back to rehearsal and I got to leave.

I’m going to miss not being part of this year’s production. It’s kind of like one of my holiday traditions has ended.

“We miss you, but the show must go on,” Ms. Myers told me in an e-mail. It’s true, I will not miss application of the garish make-up, but I will miss the wide-eyed stares I used to get from small kids as I walked backstage, in purple turtleneck and white sweatpants — with lacy frills sewn to the bottoms of each leg.

And I’ll miss sitting in darkened Proctors for the first-act dress rehearsal, just me and a couple Sunkist orange sodas. I’ll miss the shot of adrenalin all performers get when it’s just seconds before show time. And shooting the breeze with other, longtime cast performers I see once a year.

I can take heart. Sean Connery came back to James Bond. I’m hoping Northeast Ballet will consider signing me up for the 2010 Christmas season and a return to December shows. While it’s true I have incorporated bits of Bill Murray, Jack Benny and Jackie Gleason into my three-minute interpretation of Mother, I still haven’t been able to sneak Boris Karloff, George Reeves and Frank Sinatra into the portrayal. So there is some unfinished business.

“Tell this Williams guy not to get too comfortable,” I said to the Professor as I left her rehearsal Friday night.

Ms. Myers laughed. “I’ll tell him that,” she said.

With my luck, this Williams guy will turn out to be the Sir Laurence Olivier of Mother Gingers.

And I’ll never get my chest back!