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Hang A String Of Lights
Hang a string of lights
Watch 'em light up and light up
Shining and hanging across with the real Benson bulbs
On the tree on the house on the side of the door.
The Christmas season hasn't been kind to Santana, it was the same every year at work, but at least she had her wife at home to take some of the slack and sort out everything Christmas related. That meant that she didn't have to buy any presents, except Rachel's of course. She didn't have to fret about dinner plans or scheduling family visits. Rachel took care of everything and all Santana had to do was turn up and put a smile on her face. It was the way she liked things, the less stress at Christmas, the better.
"Hey babe, how was your meeting?" Santana greets as Rachel enters the kitchen.
"It was good. I don't understand why you won't come with me."
"I can't think of anything worse than a neighborhood watch meeting."
"It's not just a neighborhood watch meeting; we discuss things and bring up issues. We also plan get togethers, which reminds me the Johnsons are having a dinner party next weekend. We have to RSVP as soon as possible" Rachel explains.
"As I said, I couldn't think of anything worse. I just don't want to be stuck in anther boring meeting after doing it all day at work."
"I know and that's why I don't force you to come, even though I'm the only one whose partner doesn't join them. Anyway, I haven't told you the best new yet! The neighborhood is having a Christmas lights competition!"
"Christmas lights competition?" Santana asks.
"It's pretty self explanatory Santana. The mayor is going to visit all the houses that enter and he's going to choose the winner."
"What does the winner get?"
"You mean other than the chance to brag to the neighbors? A thousand dollars. We don't really need the money, but I thought we could donate it to a charity or something."
"So you're going to enter this competition?"
"Of course. It's been a while since I have been able to unleash my competitiveness" Rachel says.
"Are you serious? Just last week you sped through a parking lot just to get the last space."
"That was only fair, the other car came in after me" Rachel argues, causing Santana to roll her eyes.
"Just so you know I'm not going to be involved in this. Please just don't go overboard."
"I won't, I promise. Amelia called today, she'll be home tomorrow evening I'm going to prepare a special dinner to commemorate her return."
"You know that she won't want any fuss."
"It's just dinner Santana and I'm sure she'll appreciate the gesture."
"Alright. So what are we doing for dinner tonight, do you want to go out?" Santana asks.
"I can't, I have my book club. I just came home to get my book" Rachel replies as she grabs the book from the table top.
"I already made you some dinner, it's in the refrigerator. You just need to heat it up. I'll be home in an hour or so, love you."
Rachel kisses Santana on the lips before exiting the room, leaving Santana to reheat her own dinner for the second time this week.
It's dark as Santana turns into her street, most of the houses lining the road are lit with lights, her own house included. At first she was unsure about Rachel's decision to enter the Christmas lights competition, as she knows first hand how competitive Rachel can get, but she has to admit, her house looks pretty nice.
The entire roof outline was lit by alternate blue and white lights that were shining bright against the night's sky. It was simple but elegant. The exact opposite she thought Rachel would go for.
Santana enters her house and looks for her wife who she eventually finds sitting at the dining room table with a young man, looking at some pieces of paper.
"Hey, the house is looking good" Santana says leaning down to give her wife a kiss.
"Who's this guy?"
"This is Jason. He put the lights up for us and what a wonderful job he's done too" Rachel explains.
"What are you doing now?"
"We're making a sketch of the house so we can plan where we want the other lights to go."
"Other lights?" Santana questions.
"Yes. The one we have up are just the first installment. We're trying to work out where we can fit more."
"Do we really need more?"
"Have you seen Mrs. Burke's house Santana? She has lights on her house and on her lawn; she has 5ft candy canes and reindeer! If we want to win this competition then we have to go bigger and better" Rachel says.
"I just don't want you to go overboard and make the house look tacky."
"It won't be tacky I promise. That's why I have Jason here, he's done this type of thing before, and he's even designed a few store fronts."
"I promise that I will make you the best display on the street" Jason says with a smile.
"You're pretty confidant to be making promises like that."
"Santana leave him alone, he's helping me think of ideas, which is more than what you would do."
"I tried to give you ideas" Santana argues.
"Yes but most of them involved me wearing a sexy Mrs. Claus outfit which isn't really appropriate."
Santana opens her mouth to argue, but then she spots the young man sitting next to her wife at the table with a slight blush on his cheeks.
"Hey John, whatever images of my wife you have in your head, you better get rid of them."
"Santana, his name is Jason and I doubt he was having such thoughts. I don't mind if you don't want to help, but if you don't can you please leave Jason and I to finish."
"Fine. Is Amelia home?" Santana asks.
"Yes she's upstairs unpacking."
"I'm going to say hello to her then, but I have my eye on you Jason" Santana says looking the boy deep in the eyes. He gulps slightly and it's nice for Santana to know that she still has that element of fear that she used to have over all her fellow students in high school.
Santana makes her way upstairs and knocks on her daughter's door. It had been a few weeks since she had last seen her daughter since she had decided to live on campus at college. It was tough on Rachel when Amelia decided to move out, but Santana knew that it was something her daughter had to do so she can have her own independence.
"Come in" Amelia calls.
"Hey, it's nice to see you in here again" Santana says as she enters the room to find Amelia sat at her desk.
"Why did you miss me?"
"Just a little bit" Santana teases as she hugs her daughter before taking a seat on her bed.
"So what did mom do to convince you to put the lights on the house?"
"Nothing, I love Christmas and I actually quite like the lights. What I don't like is the fact she is currently sketching out a plan to add more, we all know what it means when your mother wants to do things bigger and better."
"Prepare for the worse" Amelia starts.
"And hope for the best!" Santana finishes.
"So how's school?"
"Good, I talk to mom every week so I know you probably get the full report."
"I know but she just talks about your education and how you've settled in. I want to know the fun stuff."
"You're not a normal parent are you?" Amelia teases.
"Look, as long as you study and pass your classes then I find no harm in blowing off steam every once in a while. I did in college and I did alright didn't I?"
"It helped that Mom had all that Broadway money for you to fall back on."
"How rude! That Broadway money also paid for you, so you should be grateful!" Santana argues with a hint of a smirk.
"I am. So is Jason single?"
"I don't know, but your mother will never allow it."
"Why? Is he not good enough for me or something?"
"I don't know but she won't want him distracted by you when she has a competition to win" Santana jokes.
"Okay good point."
"It's good to have you home Amelia."
"It's good to be home."
"Do you want to watch a movie while we spy on your mom and Jason?" Santana suggests.
"Sure why not?" Amelia replies as she closes her laptop and follows her mother downstairs.
Santana didn't think that things at work could get any busier, however, yesterday her boss had told her that she had to go to a conference in Miami and stay overnight. She was counting down the days until Christmas, he had managed to get a full week off so she can spend time with her family.
She is tired and all she wants to do is get home and go to bed. As she turns down her street she is shocked to see her house.
"Holy ..."
The lawn is covered with soft fake snow with small grey stepping stones creating a path around the numerous character lights. There were penguins and small polar bears, some sat on makeshift icebergs. At the back of the scene is a group of mechanical reindeer that are raising and lowering their heads. They are overseen by a large inflatable Santa Claus who is singing out Christmas songs.
There is a large Christmas tree next to the Santa Claus; it towers over the inflatable at nearly ten feet high. It's covered with small twinkling light and topped by a large snowflake. Santana can't believe what she is seeing; Rachel promised not to go overboard.
Santana parks her car in the driveway and rushes into the house, finding Rachel in the kitchen.
"What the hell is that outside?"
"Hello honey. What is what outside?" Rachel asks as she continues to stir the broth she is cooking.
"The decorations, the lights, the giant Christmas tree. I mean Jesus Rachel; you said that you wouldn't go over the top."
"I haven't. Jason and I designed an elegant display" Rachel says putting the wooden spoon down and facing her wife.
"Elegant? You think that is elegant? There is an 8ft inflatable Santa singing "Santa Claus is coming to town."
"Okay so maybe that might have been slightly over the top, but lots of houses have music in there displays and when I saw him, I thought he'd be perfect."
"Our lawn looks like the island of misfit toys. I didn't mind the lights around the house or the occasional reindeer on the lawn, but don't you think you've gone too far?"
"I just wanted to have the best display on the street and people seem to like it. There have been cars slowing down as they drive past and I've had people from the next neighborhood coming to look. I even put a charity donation box outside, yesterday we made nearly $200" Rachel explains.
"Really?"
"Yes. I know that you think it's too much and at first I wanted to win the competition, but now we can do so much more. We can give people the joy of Christmas and raise money for charity at the same time. It's how you would say, win win."
"Okay, fine. Just no more 8ft inflatable's okay?" Santana pleads.
"I promise."
"Oh and just to be clear that means no 7ft inflatable's or 6ft inflatable's and so on and so forth. I'm banning inflatable's altogether so you can't try and be clever to get around it okay?"
"I promise. I want to win this competition, but I also want you to be happy with the display. So I'm willing to comprise."
"Good. We are so winning at this marriage thing" Santana says pulling Rachel in for a kiss.
"Well we've had over twenty years to perfect it. I love you just as much as I did when I said I do"
"Me too" Santana agrees, emphasizing her point with a kiss.
"I'm going to check on the lights and the collection box" Rachel says as she pulls away from Santana's embrace.
As Rachel leaves the room, Santana grabs a bottle of red wine and pours herself a glass. She heads to the living room with her wine and flicks on the TV, finding an old Christmas movie for her to relax too. She only gets a few minutes into the movie before Rachel storms into the living room.
"Have you seen what Mrs. Burke has just put up in her front yard?"
"No."
"A menorah. She put up menorah Santana. A large illuminated menorah" Rachel rants.
"So."
"So? So? She's not even Jewish!"
"It's not like you're a strict Jew" Santana says, as soon as the words leave her mouth she knows that she's in for it.
"How dare you?! My father is Jewish and our daughter is part Jewish and I'm proud of that fact. She has no right to put up a menorah; it's an insult to my religion."
"It's not though is it? Besides you wanted to put up a manger scene."
"Yes I did, I'm also half Catholic. I'm married to a Catholic which means that my daughter is also half Catholic. I wanted to have a manger scene and a menorah to celebrate our multi religion family, but I decided against it. Mrs. Burke just wants to try and be more diverse so she can win."
"Don't you think you are blowing this out of proportion? I'm sure Mrs. Burke didn't mean anything by it."
"Whose side are you on?" Rachel asks.
"Okay, I knew you were crazy when I married you, but this is a whole new level of crazy" Santana says turning off the TV, she's not going to get into the movie now.
"Santana winning this competition is important to me and I'm not going to win if Mrs. Burke keeps trying to out do me. I have to call Jason to see if he can think of something that will definitely set our house apart from the rest. You can sort yourself out for dinner."
Rachel storms out of the room in the same manner she stormed in, Santana isn't concerned she knows that her wife will get over her craziness once the competition is over. Once again she is on her own for dinner and she really doesn't feel like cooking so she decides she might as well go out for something to eat instead.
Santana pulls herself off the couch and heads to the front door. As she opens the door to leave the house she sees Amelia about to enter.
"You don't want to go in there!"
"What? Why?" Amelia asks.
"Mrs. Burke put a light up menorah in her garden."
"Oh god."
"I know. You want to grab a burger and hope your mom cools off?" Santana asks.
"Sure."
Santana grabs her car keys from the sideboard's drawer in the hallway and makes her way to her car.
"You know this is your fault" Santana says as she drives towards the local diner.
"How is it my fault?" Amelia asks.
"Since you left for college and moved out, your mom has been finding other things to occupy her time with."
"Well sorry for wanting to better myself by getting a college education" Amelia teases.
"Apology accepted. Just don't do it again" Santana jokes back.
"Seriously though is mom really struggling with me leaving?"
"I don't think she wants to admit it, but I have noticed that she's trying to fill her time with as much as she can. You have to know that all she's known for the last eighteen years is being a mom. She always loved Broadway, she managed to get there, but then we decided to have a baby. She tried to go back to the stage, but when you got sick one time, she was by your side twenty four seven. Once you recovered she didn't want to return to Broadway, she decided to become a stay at home mother instead" Santana explains.
"So for the past eighteen years, her life has been taking care of you. As you grew up you needed her less and less, but still she was there to cook dinner or to shop for things you needed for school, but now you have your independence. You moved out and now she has no one to look after, I mean I love the extra attention, but sometimes it's too much. She's even joined a book club now, the only problem is that she brings that damn kindle to bed with her when we could be using that time for something more fun."
"You do realize that you are talking to your daughter. I really don't want to know about that stuff" Amelia says.
"Whatever, I'm just saying. She's going through a big change and that might have made her a little crazy" Santana says, gaining her a look from her daughter.
"Okay, so a lot crazy. Don't worry she'll adjust."
"Maybe we can find something to take her mind of it. Do you think she'd go back to Broadway now?" Amelia asks.
"I don't know, but there must be something at the local theatre, maybe a part in a show or maybe she can direct something. She'll love that, we'll have to look into it. What?"
"Nothing, it's just after all these years, you still just want to make mom happy."
"Yeah well I love her and I want her to be happy, if that then results in a quieter life for me then it's win win. Just don't tell her that part, just tell her the part where I love her" Santana says with a mix of humor and seriousness.
"I'm surprised that I'm actually quite normal when I have parents like you two."
"Well be grateful we didn't mess you up. I say that qualifies us as being really great parents actually. Now let's get something to eat while we hide from your mother" Santana says as she parks the car outside the diner.
Santana had a great time at the diner with Amelia. It's not often that she gets to spend some alone time with her daughter. She now just wants to spend the rest of the night cuddling with her crazy wife.
Santana enters the bedroom she shares with Rachel to find her wife already in bed; surprisingly without here kindle.
"Hey what's up?" Santana asks as she slides into bed next to Rachel and noticing a sad look on her face.
"Nothing. You'll think I'm being silly."
"Come on you can tell me" Santana says wrapping her arms around her wife.
"I just really wanted to win the Christmas lights competition; I heard that Mrs. Burke was talking about a sleigh complete with reindeer that she was trying to get. I can't compete with that. I know it's silly and I have raised a lot of money for charity so I should be happy, but I just wanted to beat Mrs. Burke too. She's always making snide remarks about me or us and I just wanted to see her face as we won."
"She says stuff about us? Why did I not know?"
"Not directly, but I can tell she's aiming them at me during the neighborhood meetings. I didn't want to trouble you with it, it's nothing really."
"It isn't nothing. I'm going to come to the next meeting and we'll see how snide she is then" Santana says as she plays with Rachel's hair, it's a technique that she's found that helps calm down her wife.
"Please don't say anything, we live in a nice neighborhood and get along with most of our neighbors, I wouldn't want to destroy that over some silly old woman."
"Okay, but if she gets worse you have to tell me."
"I will, I promise."
"Good. So how about I take you for dinner one night next week. We haven't had chance in a while since I've been busy at work" Santana suggests.
"That sounds wonderful."
"I'll book a table somewhere."
"Good night Santana."
"Night babe" Santana replies, placing a kiss on Rachel's forehead.
Rachel had been nervous about the Christmas lights completion that was taking place the next day so Santana had decided that tonight was the best time to take Rachel out for dinner. She was hoping that it would take her mind of tomorrow, plus she had a little surprise up her sleeve.
They had enjoyed a Christmas themed meal at one of their favorite restaurants and were currently on the drive home. As they turn down the road that they live on Santana pulls the car over.
"Santana why have you parked so far away from the house?" Rachel asks.
"I have a surprise for you. Stay there."
Santana exits the car and makes her way over to the passenger side door and opens it.
"Okay, close your eyes and give me your hand."
Rachel does as she's told as Santana guides her out of the car, closing the door behind her. Santana leads her wife down the street towards their house before stopping a few feet away from their front garden.
"Okay you can open your eyes."
"Oh my god it's a sleigh!"
"It's not just any sleigh, it's the sleigh that Mrs. Burke wanted. I know that this competition is important to you and as crazy as it's made you, I still love you. So if we're going to win, we're going to have to out do that bitch Mrs. Burke. I think we've got a good chance with your determination and my devious mind."
"It's amazing. You're amazing. I love you so much" Rachel says wrapping her arms our Santana's shoulders.
"I love you too baby."
"How did you manage to get it?"
"I asked Rita, she told me where old bitch Burke was going to buy it from so I drove there and offered them a generous deal for it and they accepted. I wish I could have seen Burkey's face when she went there and he told her that he had sold it. I also wish I could see her face when she sees it on our lawn."
"Actually, if you turn around now you can see her face."
Santana turns around and sees Mrs. Burke looking out of her living room window across the street. She's not even attempting to seem obvious about staring at the two women so Santana raises an arm and waves at her neighbor with a smug grin on her face.
"Do you have to goad her?" Rachel asks.
"Yes, wanna make out in the sleigh? That'll really piss her off."
"It's too cold out here, I much rather be in our warm comfy bed."
"Then lead the way" Santana says with a smirk.
Santana wasn't sure about the idea of entering a competition to have the best decorated house in the neighborhood. She knows how her wife gets about competitions and she was proved right when her housed ended up looking like an attraction at Disneyworld.
However, she slowly started to change her mind about the idea, especially now as she watches the crowds of adults and children alike wander around her front lawn as they enjoy the lights and take photos. Jason had offered to dress as Santa Claus and was posing for photos on the sleigh and handing out candy canes.
Jason seems like a good guy, that's probably why neither she nor Rachel complained when he had asked their daughter out on a date.
The light competition is being held during the annual neighborhood Christmas gathering, residents had prepared food and drinks that they were sharing amongst each other. Rachel's choir had preformed and now music was being played through a portable large speaker.
The mayor had visited each house in the competition and he was going to reveal the winner in a few minutes. Santana had her arms wrapped around her wife as the mayor made his way to the front of the crowd.
"Good evening ladies and gentlemen, it's a pleasure to be here. I am here because I have been asked to judge each house entered in the Christmas lights competition and choose a winner. First of all I would like to say that everyone that has participated has done a wonderful job, however, I had to choose a winner. So without further ado the winners are...Rachel and Santana Berry-Lopez. Congratulations ladies!"
The crowd claps as Rachel and Santana make their way to the front of the crowd. The mayor shakes their hands and gives them a golden envelope, containing the prize money. Santana can see Mrs. Burke at the front of the crowd with a sour look on her face and it pleases Santana immensely.
She was happy that Rachel had won, they had raised a lot of money for charity, but even better they got to knock Mrs. Burke down a peg or two.
Song: Hang A String Of Lights By Great Lake Swimmers