Frida smiled at her snow globe, she had gotten it last year for Christmas and out all of the gifts she received this was her favorite. It was a little porcelain kingdom with a large castle surrounded by a porcelain forest and a glass frozen lake. Fake snow fell upon the little winter kingdom which was protected by the fragile glass ball.

"Frida." Her mother Carmela said. "Come along now it's almost time."

"Coming Mom."

Her family was having their annual Christmas party, a fun celebration held every Christmas Eve night in which all their friends and neighbors were invited to. Though Frida didn't really like these parties because she always felt left out and she didn't have anyone to talk to. Her parents would spend the whole evening chatting with their adult friends while her sisters and the other children would just ignore her because they always thought she was so odd.

"Mom do I have to go to this stupid party? Why can't I just stay in my room? Everyone there thinks I'm weird."

"Oh honey that's not true. Look just come down for two hours and if you still feel left out I'll let you go back to your room. I promise."

"Okay."

She slipped on her blue Christmas dress and tied a sash around the waist. She then combed her hair into waves and slipped on some flats. She then joined her parents and sisters downstairs to greet the party guests. Plenty of men, women, and children entered the house. Some were relatives and some were friends and neighbors, they all said Hello and Merry Christmas before being escorted into the living room. Inside the living room was lit up with Christmas candles, ornaments, and the largest Christmas tree ever seen that was loaded with gifts underneath.

After introductions were made all the guests were escorted into the kitchen where they dined on delicious and gourmet food and desserts. Once they had all finished eating they returned to the living room. The adults all just talked and chatted back and forth while all the children excitedly played games with each other however Frida did not participate. She just sat and watched them only play because the other children only made fun of her for being clumsy, loud, and a poor student in school.

Then at seven o'clock just when she was about to go back upstairs to her bedroom the door to her house blew open and bright, colorful, fireworks came flying into the living room. Frida, her family, and the guests all watched in amazement while wondering where they were coming from. When lights faded the one responsible stepped forward. It was Rodolfo Rivera, a great magician, toy maker, and Frida's godfather.

"Mr. Rivera glad that you could make it." Carmela said.

"Yes but you're an hour late." Frida's father Emiliano said. "As usual."

"I apologize for being so late but I had to finish up on a few things." Rodolfo said.

"Well better late than never."

"So Mr. Rivera did you bring your son?" Carmela asked. "I've heard so much about him and I've been wanting to meet him."

"I'm dreadfully sorry but I'm afraid he couldn't make it." Rodolfo answered.

"Rodolfo!" Frida cried excitedly running toward him.

The magician smiled then picked up the young girl and spun her around in a hug. Frida never did get along with most of her adult friends but she adored her godfather Rodolfo. He had been like a second father since she was little.

"And how is my favorite girl?" He asked her.

"I fine thank you."

"Wonderful. Now gather around children, I have a surprise for all of you."

At his word the children all rushed over to him as he held up a huge sack. He then opened up the sack and began handing out toys and candy to every child in the room. Toy soldiers, porcelain dolls, yo-yo's, spinning tops, toy guns, checker boards, wind ups, candy canes, fudge, walnuts, oranges, and many other wonderful things.

"Now I know you girls are too old for toys." Rodolfo said to Frida's older sisters Anita and Nikita. "So my wife picked these out for you."

He pulled two boxes from the sack and handed it to the girls. Opening them they saw that they were two, new, beautiful dresses.

"Oh thank you Mr. Rivera." Anita said.

"Don't I get something?" Frida asked.

"Silly me did I forget to give you something?" Rodolfo said. "Let me take a look in a bag, I must have something for you in here."

He stuck his hand in his bag and began rummaging around for something. As he searched for a gift for her a bundle of rags fell out. Frida picked it up and she unwrapped the bundle to find a nutcracker. She had seen many nutcrackers before but this one looked very different. True he had a large jaw to crack nuts with and a lever to work it but he didn't look like an old man like the others. In fact he didn't even have a beard and he looked like a little solder boy dressed in a navy blue jacket with red pants, black boots, a belt with a sword, and a black soldier cap. He had a pair of deep brown eyes painted onto his face.

"Oh what a cute nutcracker." She said.

"Oh no! You don't want him." Rodolfo said.

"Why not?"

"Well he's not exactly the most handsome doll."

"I think he's perfect."

"Perfect? That hideous thing." Nikita sneered. "Typical that only our little sister could love such an ugly block of wood."

"He's not ugly." Frida protested.

"He? You talk about that thing like he's an actual person! I mean look at it!" She snatched the nutcracker from Frida's arms. "I mean what's so special about this thing?"

She started to mess with it's jaw when suddenly the nutcracker bit down on her finger.

"Ow! Stupid thing!" She screamed shaking the nutcracker roughly.

"Stop! You'll hurt him!" Frida said desperately trying to get her nutcracker back but Nikita just laughed as her younger sister chased her around. She then threw the nutcracker to Anita but she missed and it fell down breaking it's arm off.

"Oops! Sorry." Nikita said sincerely.

"Oh now look what you've done! You guys always ruin my stuff!"

Frida picked up the nutcracker and went over to a nearby sofa. She sat down, pulled off the ribbon she kept in her hair and used it to bandage the nutcracker's arm.

"Do you think you can fix him?" Frida asked Rodolfo.

"Of course I can but are you really sure you want him?"

"Yes."

"I'm surprised most girls wouldn't want a toy like him because of how he looks but if they took the time to get to know him they'd know how special he is."

"What do you mean?"

"Well it all goes back a long time ago in a kingdom far far away. There once lived a queen called Carmelita who had a lovely daughter called Princess Zoe. Now it just so happened that the kingdom had a huge mouse infestation so they hired nearly every mouse catcher in the world to exterminate all the mice in the kingdom."

"Did they get them all?"

"All but one. The mouse king, their leader was the only one who escaped and he wanted revenge on Queen Carmelita so he cast a wicked spell on Princess Zoe which turned her into an ugly and deformed girl. Devastated and enraged, the ordered that the royal magician do everything in his power to try to reverse the spell. It took the magician one day to find the solution."

"And what was it?"

"The princess had to eat a magic nut. Unfortunately the magic nut was very hard to crack. It could only be cracked by the teeth of a young man with the heart of a prince. Hearing this the queen promised her daughter's hand to any man who could crack the nut. Many young men came to crack the nut but they always ended up breaking their teeth. Luckily however the magician had a handsome young son who always helped him out with his work and the magician being a great judge of character could see thhat he had a heart of gold so he asked him to try to crack the nut."

"Did he?"

"Yes and he not only had a golden heart but strong teeth so when he tried to crack the nut he succeeded without so much as chipping any of his teeth. Zoe ate the nut and she was restored to her pretty self."

"Then she married the boy and he became a prince and they all lived happily ever after?"

Rodolfo sighed. "If it only it were that simple because you see the Mouse King was there when the spell was broken and he was furious. To get revenge he cast one more wicked spell and this time it was on the young prince to be which turned him into a small wooden soldier with a large jaw."

"A nutcracker?"

"Exactly and the only way the spell could be broken was if he defeated the Mouse King and win the love of a beautiful girl. Now naturally the magician hoped the Zoe would kiss him but when she saw her fiancé was now a wooden toy she was disgusted and the ungrateful girl declared that she would never marry such an ugly thing and ordered him to be burned in the fireplace."

"How awful. How can she do that after what he did for her?"

"Some people just don't understand gratitude. So the magician blaming himself for the whole incident vowed to help the nutcracker fight the mouse king and find the right girl to break the spell."

"That's a sad story."

"Well it's not over yet. Who knows? Maybe the magician just found the right girl."

Frida giggled thinking it was a joke then looked back at her nutcracker. For a moment she thought the nutcracker smiled at her but that was impossible. Wasn't it?