It's Melissa Claire Egan's 10th anniversary at Y&R!

It's Melissa Claire Egan's 10th anniversary at Y&R!

The Young and the Restless has been featuring Melissa Claire Egan (Chelsea Lawson) in front burner stories for a full decade, which makes her upcoming return from maternity leave all the more special.

The daytime community is sending lots of love to Melissa Claire Egan, who is celebrating her tenth anniversary in the role of The Young and the Restless' Chelsea Lawson. The beloved actress made her Genoa City debut on November 11, 2011, and she couldn't be more thrilled about having spent the last decade playing such a fun character with an incredible cast and crew.

"Believe me, I don't take that for granted," the actress enthuses to Soap Opera Digest about how she's been a Y&R mainstay these past ten years. "There have been so many fun experiences that Chelsea has gone through. I've been at a party and someone asks what do I do? After I tell them I'm an actress on a soap opera, their next question is what has my character been up to? It's so fun to tell them, 'Oh, I've been in a mental institution, and years ago, I lied about the paternity of my baby, and I got mad at my best friend for killing my husband.' So outlandish but so fun. It's been a wild and very satisfying ride."

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Fortunately, Egan's wild and satisfying ride as Chelsea is about to enter its next chapter. The actress has been off the canvas since late summer, when she took maternity leave to welcome her first child, Caden Robert Katrosar. But she returned to work in October, and SOD reports that Chelsea will be back on TV screens beginning Tuesday, December 14.

There's no telling what kind of trouble Chelsea will find herself in when she returns to the canvas next month, but fans are guessing that the character will definitely have opinions about all that has happened in her absence -- including her baby daddy, Adam (Mark Grossman), cozying up to Sally Spectra (Courtney Hope)! What do you think the writers have in store for Chelsea when she returns? Let us know in the Comments section below!

What are your favorite memories from Melissa Claire Egan's ten years as Chelsea Lawson? What would you like to see happen to Chelsea when the character returns to Genoa City this December? We want to hear from you -- so drop your comments in the Comments section below, tweet about it on Twitter, share it on Facebook, or chat about it on our Message Boards.

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