Someday

Chapter 37 - Christmas Competition

"And the second thing is..."

Alex's POV:
"It's time for me to host our annual Christmas Competition!" While everyone else cheered I slumped down and pouted. I had no idea what that meant.

John must've noticed my uneasiness because he explained. "The Christmas Competition is a tradition in this family. We always do the same three events; Gingerbread House Decorating, Disney Song Challenge, and Dessert Baking. The other two spend a lot of the year preparing for this because there's a big prize at the end." He gave me a mischievous grin. "But I guess it isn't gonna be yours this year, since you're new." Both my eyebrows raised to the ceiling at that. John clearly doesn't know how competitive I can get. He's about to find out.

He led us into the living room and in there sat three plain gingerbread houses, an assortment of candies, and Tyler. He offered me a small smile when he saw me and came up to stand behind me. He wrapped his arms around my waist and placed his chin on my shoulder, planting a quick kiss on my neck. It was enough to make me smile like an idiot.

"What is all of this?" I asked, gesturing to the gingerbread houses.

John grinned at me. "This is the first event!" He then turned to all of us and started counting down. "5...4..."

I turned to Rache, who was at my left. "What's going on?"

She laughed at me. "When Dad says go, run to the gingerbread house farthest to the right and start decorating. You'll have fifteen minutes."

"1... Go!" Tyler let go of me and I ran to the gingerbread house to the right, like Rache said to do. The other two siblings ran to the other two gingerbread houses and began decorating. I didn't dare look at the others' houses because I know that I would subconsciously copy them.

I picked up the frosting on my left and began putting dots on the top of the house, that is, until the entire packet burst and the rest of the icing came gushing out. I quickly got up and retrieved a knife from the kitchen and began smoothing the icing along the sides of the house. It would be the snow. I then proceeded to add gumdrops to the top in perfect color sequence while I waited for the icing to harden. Once the icing hardened I added a design in red using to each side of the roof.

Throughout this entire process, I could feel Tyler's gaze analyzing every addition to the house. But as he did it, there was a smile on his face. "So are you gonna be a judge?" I asked while working, breaking him out of his daze.

He shook his head a bit before answering. "No, John thinks, and I quote, 'my judgement won't be impartial since I'm in love with you.'" He scoffed before remembering that John was in the room and was now sending him a murderous look. Tyler whimpered a bit in fear, he was seriously afraid of John.

I was already finished by the time John's timer started beeping, signaling that the fifteen minutes were over. Now that the time was up, I took a look at my siblings' gingerbread houses.

Hunter's house was a bit of a disaster. It looked like he had just dumped a bunch of candies on the house and called it a day. Rachel's house was another story. Her house was very neat, but it didn't feel complete. It had a few light shaped hard candies attached to the front and some curtains added to the windows, but nothing else was done beyond that.

My house had a roof covered in white icing, which acted as the snow. On top of the snow was red icing which was made to look like strings of lights. I added curtains on the windows with green icing. At this point I had about 3 minutes left and I decided to add a pathway and garden near the doorway of the house. In my opinion, my house made the other two look like absolute garbage, which made me smirk. They didn't stand a chance.