A Little Mike and Sissy Christmas Story.

In Little Mike's opinion there were two kinds of candy; chocolate and not-chocolate.

While chocolate meant the whole world to him, he felt that not-chocolate wasn't worth bothering with. Most of it tasted like eating sugar straight from the sugar bowl.

Too sweet.

Oh, he would nibble a piece of not-chocolate here and there, now and then. Like if it happened to have a pretty color, or tasted like soda pop, or something.

But most of it he left alone.

A lot of people thought that he was weird because of this, but Little Mike didn't really care. People were always thinking he was weird about something.

At ten years old he had already made his peace with it.

The real problem was, what do you do with all the leftover candy that wasn't chocolate?

Every holiday when someone comes to visit, most usually they bring a bag or box or basket with all different kinds of candy in it mixed up together. But once you get the chocolate out, what are you supposed to do with the rest of it?

Sometimes Little Mike would take the leftovers to school to give to the pretty girls, to make them feel important, and sometimes he would give some to the not so pretty girls, to make sure they felt important, too.

But sometimes giving away good candy seemed kind of a waste, somehow. After it was all gone, their was nothing to show for all your hard work.

On Christmas Eve Little Mike figured out the answer. Instead of giving the candy away when he went back to school, what if he were to sell it?

Little Mike was smart. He knew right away how important presentation was for making a sale. So he figured he could wrap each piece of not-chocolate up like a Christmas present.

It would be easy. All he had to do was sneak some scraps of cloth from Grandma's good scrap box, and sneak some ribbons from Grandma's good ribbons box. Then he could borrow Grandma's scissors to curl up the ribbon, like he had learned to do in school.

Candy wrapped up like a present with a curly ribbon tying it up together.

Who could turn down presentation like that?

So when on Christmas Eve the neighbors came over to visit Grandma and Grandpa, and they brought their gift baskets of plastic wrapped candy with them, Little Mike put his plan to work.

He managed to get his supplies without getting caught, cause everyone was so busy visiting and laughing. They were all in the kitchen, so he took his supplies and the mixed candy to the front room, and poured it all in the floor behind the Christmas tree to hide, and set down next to it all and went to work. He would leave each piece of candy wrapped in plastic, and he would wrap the cloth and ribbons around it.

But wouldn't you know it? Before he could get the first piece wrapped up pretty, in came Sissy, his little sister.

Sissy was seven years old and a girl besides, so that made her nosey about everything. Whenever Little Mike had a project working Sissy would always come mooching over to investigate.

This time wasn't so bad, though. When he thought about it for a minute, Little Mike figured a second opinion might be a good idea. So he told Sissy his plan, and finished with a demonstration on how he would wrap his little candy presents and how he would curl the ribbon with the scissors to wrap it all together.

"Now isn't that pretty?" Little Mike asked when he was finished.

"Can I buy one?" Sissy asked.

Little Mike was surprised. "Why? You have your own candy."

"But mine isn't wrapped up like that." Sissy answered.

"That's called 'presentation'. Like a present. That's what makes my candy better than the competition. So if you want a candy present it's going to cost you a quarter, cause that's what they cost. Do you have a quarter?"

"I can get one, wait right here," Sissy answered as she quickly scampered to the kitchen.

"Grandpa, can I have a quarter?" Little Mike heard her ask.

In a moment she was back in the Christmas tree area of the project with a quarter in her hand.

Little Mike took the quarter, then instructed Sissy to choose her candy, cloth, and ribbon. Anything she wanted except for the chocolate. Once she had finished choosing he went to work.

When he was done he gave the candy present to her. She inspected it for a second, then unwrapped it and ate it. "Can I buy another one?" Sissy asked when she was done eating.

"Do you have another quarter?" Little Mike asked.

"Wait here, I will be right back," Sissy answered, and scampered off to the kitchen again. "Grandpa, can I have another quarter," he heard her ask, then a moment later she returned, another quarter in her hand.

Again Little Mike took the quarter, and again instructed Sissy to choose her candy, cloth, and ribbon. Anything but the chocolate. When she had made her choices he made her another pretty candy present.

When he handed it to her she inspected it for a second, then opened it up and ate the candy inside. "Can I buy another one?"

"Do you have another quarter?"

"Wait right here. I'll be back." Again she scampered off to the kitchen.

But wouldn't you know it? This time Grandpa wanted to know what the quarters were for.

Next thing Little Mike knew Sissy was leading Grandma and Grandpa into the front room, and boy did they look mad!

"What the heck is going on in here?" Grandpa demanded to know.

"Is that my good scrap cloth and ribbons?" Grandma asked.

Little Mike showed them the first piece of candy that he had wrapped. "I was going to sell them at school, but Sissy wanted some first, so I sold them to her."

"No, sir! You don't sell candy that someone gives you," Grandpa angrily told him. "And you especially don't sell it to your little sister."

"That's right," Grandma agreed. "Now you give Sissy her money back, and give her the rest of the candy, since you don't want any of it."

"But I wasn't going to sell the chocolate!" Little Mike quickly tried to explain, but Grandpa cut him off by saying "That's right, and your not going to sell any of it now."

"But I like the chocolate! I was going to eat it, and sell the rest!"

"Well, now you're not going to eat it or sell it," Grandpa told him, and Grandma added "Little Mike, I just don't know what gets into you sometimes. This is Christmas Eve, and we have company. How do you think this makes us look?"

Little Mike knew when there wasn't any use talking back or trying to explain. Reluctantly he picked up all the candy from the floor in front of the Christmas tree, and placed it all into Sissy's open palms.

"Quarters too," Grandpa added.

Reluctantly Little Mike took the two quarters that he had earned out of his pocket and placed them in Sissy's palms on top of the candy.

"That's better," Grandma told him. "Now put my good scrap and ribbons back to where they belong, and don't touch them again."

"Come on, Sissy," Grandpa said, "bring your candy and eat it in the kitchen with us."

Grandpa and Grandma went back to the kitchen, with Sissy following close behind.

But before Sissy was out of the room, she turned back to Little Mike, popped a piece of the chocolate into her mouth, and smiled.