Deck The Halls or Nah?

Christmas Gone Wrong

This is an entry for the Christmas Gone Wrong contest! It's just under 1000 words sooo ENJOY! :) 

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THIS STORY WON SECOND PLACE FOR THE CHRISTMAS GONE WRONG CONTEST! YAY! OK ... HAPPY READING! :)

Ahh Christmas, everyone's favorite time of the year, eh? Tis the season to be jolly or at least it would be if Eli didn't lose the Christmas decorations for his team's door. 

"Care to explain how you lost the decorations, oh dear brother?" His sister drawls, ever so sarcastically. 

"Not now Em!" He grunts.  

It's the annual Malandro family door decorating competition. It's a really big deal in his family. All of Eli's aunts, uncles, and cousins visit for it. Everyone in the family normally split off into teams of two and picks a particular door in the house to decorate. The prize is usually a hundred bucks which may not seem like much but it's something, at least to Eli. Once doors are completely decked out, Grandma Rose judges them and Grams is a sucker for detail, Eli knows this and that's why he made sure to buy new awesome, Christmas-tastic things for his door this year. However, he's lost the freaking box with all of his decorating goodies in it and he and his sister are now in a panicked state because time is almost up. 

Emily stands there looking annoyed as ever, arms crossed, sighing relentlessly, tapping her foot profusely. "You're such a scattered brain," she says not making eye contact with him. "We're gunna lose." 

"We're not gunna lose." He throws things around in his room in search of the giant red box containing his decorations. "We're gunna win, Em. We're gunna freakin' win for once." 

"Not like it really matters," she says resting her hands on her hips and observing him trash his room. 

He glances up at her with an arched brow, "Y'know, I could use a little help."  

Emily sighs while glancing over her nails. "Where else could you have left it?" 

Eli taps his chin and tries to remember. "Maybe . . . in my car? Yes! In my car!" As if a light bulb went off in his head, he jumps up and out the door heading toward his car. Down the hall he passes his twin cousins, Luke and Duke decorating their door. He must admit that he's a little jealous of what he sees. The twins' door is like a gingerbread house; it looks scrumptious, almost good enough to eat. It is brown with what looks to be white frosting outlining it. They have a makeshift roof over the door with various knick knacks and candies glued on. Eli is almost tempted to nab a piece of candy from the door, but he ignores this urge and marches onward toward the front door. 

In continuing his stride he passes his parents who are hard at work on their door. They have chosen an all white theme. Their door looks somewhat elegant with fake snow everywhere, simple yet interesting. Eli shakes it off and struts toward the front door, out of it and to his car. He pops the trunk and low and behold it's the great red box! He jumps up and down with excitement before grabbing the box and rushing back into the house. 

"I found it!" He yells to Emily. 

She rolls her eyes. "Finally." Eli places the box carefully on the floor in front of their door and begins to pull out its contents. Emily's eyes widen at the sight of what's in the box. 

"We're totally gunna win." She beams. 

"Yep," he replies matter-of-factly. 

*** 

Grandma Rose is what most people would describe as anal retentive. Every little detail matters and although Eli is confident in his door, Gram's preciseness still worries him. She paces the house slowly surveying each door delicately grazing over each intricate aspect. She literally made the twins cry when she said that their door was sloppy and unoriginal, ouch, Eli thinks. She's easing up towards his door now. He swallows hard and fiddles with the collar of his shirt nervously. 

"Relax," his sister whispers as Grandma inches closer. "We got this." 

"Hmmm." Grandma rubs her chin as she goes over every inch of the door. Eli has to admit that he's pretty freaking proud of his door. This has to be the best door that he's done since they've started this competition years ago. His door is decorated finely with real bricks all over as if it's the outside of a house. He's put in a fake window which happens to have a candle light shinning from the inside of it. At the top arch of his door is a snowy rooftop with Santa Claus sitting in a sleigh atop it. See, this isn't a poster or a cut out of Santa taped to the wall, oh no, but a doll and a real wooden sleigh(that Eli built) which makes it looks all the more real. All of Santa's reindeer are standing on the roof ready for takeoff. Rudolph is sitting pretty at the front of the line with an actual light as his nose. Eli even went so far to have a recording of Santa saying ho ho ho Merry Christmas, playing repeatedly. 

Grandma claps her hands together slowly and loudly. "Magnificent," she says still clapping. "It's simply breathtaking, beautiful, original, and . . ." she runs her old, wrinkly finger along the rough bricks at the base of the door. "Is that real brick? Wow. I'm impressed. I think we have a winner!" she announces loudly throughout the house. Eli can hear all of the sudden groans and moans from the losers and because of this an awesomely gigantic smile is painted on his lips. 

"We won!" Emily yelps. 

"Luke and Duke!" Grandma torts and Eli feels like he's been punched in the chest.  

Luke and Duke? Bullshit.