Christmas time is a great time for M&M’s

I have always associated M&M’s with the holiday season. Even before they started selling bags of just green and red M&M’s my family would stock up on them and put out a bowl for our holiday parties. Living these little candies as much as I did, I wanted to eat them all, but to stand over the bowl would draw too much attention. So I hatched a scheme to get all the M&M’s I wanted without having to gobble them all up in a single binge.

After the bowl was placed on an end table, I would, over the course of the evening, move it behind the lamp, or if someone opened a Christmas present, I would make sure the discarded wrapping paper landed on the bowl.

Then at the end of the night, when we were all cleaning up, I would point out to my Mother how few of them had been eaten. She would then allow me to ration the rest out, mostly by myself, for the next week or two. I thought I was so clever.

But…

As an adult, I learned that my Mother knew what I was up to the whole time, but she thought my attempts at deception were so adorable and poorly conceived that she played along.

Now I still buy M&M’s at Christmas and if I want, I can pick up an extra bag and share them with everyone. They are still delicious, but somehow don’t taste as sweet as the ones I thought I was obtaining through trickery.