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"Happy Howlidays"

Christmas is the often referred to as the most magical time of the year. It is the one time of year most associate with joy and thoughtfulness. It is a time where family reconnects with each other, each having an excuse to see each other for a single day out of the year. It, of course, all starts in childhood. The wonder and mystery that leads you to counting down the days until that beautiful prize beneath the tree is yours. But as joyful as the day can be, it can just as easily become the opposite.

Here it was, the morning of Christmas. My stomach swelled with excitement as I raced down the stairs to be greeted by the smell of cinnamon floating through the air. My heart raced when I saw my mom sitting on the floor beside my presents that awaited my unwrapping. 
"Merry Christmas!" my mom greeted me before turning to the gifts to sort through them some. I slid down beside her. She knew I was anxious to open them. "Now hold on there bud, you gotta wait for your dad to come back in here. He's making breakfast right now."
"But mom," I replied with a pouty face. "I wanna open them now."
She looked at me with a stern expression before standing up and rubbing the top of my head. She headed off to the kitchen to see what my dad was up to.
I knew I should wait for her to come back, but what would be the harm in picking up one single gift and shaking it to figure out its contents? I picked up the box closest to me. It was the biggest of the bunch. There had to be a big and expensive toy inside. I couldn't wait to play with it.
As I went to pick it up I realized the weight of it was almost too much for me. And when I tried rotating it to get a good grip, I felt the weight shifting around inside. Is it some kind of a heavy ball or something? I tried hitting the box, not hard enough to break the wrapping but just hard enough to get the ball to move around some.
When I hit the box, the sound I heard was an animal growling. What did they have in here? Whatever it was had to be freed. Poor animal.
I peeled off the wrapping paper, just quiet enough so my parents couldn't hear. I tossed the paper aside and was greeted with a big, white, cardboard box with a removable cover that overlapped the top of the box. I took it off as quietly as I could. As I removed it, the beast leaped out and pounced on me.
The animal then began lapping at my face. I opened my eyes from the slobber to realize it was a dog. It must've been happy to see me. I took it off my face and pet the cute thing. It was a small black and tan dog that almost looked like a rat. I'd be able to tell you what breed it is, but I'm unfamiliar with what this cute boy is.
I stood up and grabbed a tennis ball that was sitting on the couch. It must've been left over from a tennis match my dad had gone to a while back. He wasn't exactly one for cleaning up messes, but I didn't care.
I waved the ball in front of the dog's face and acted like I was going to throw it. The dog wasn't fooled. It instead continued looking up at me. It began to growl as I looked at it in confusion.
The dog then let out a vicious growl before leaping at my face and sinking its teeth into my flesh. I screamed.

My husband and I raced into the living room when we heard our son screaming. What could be wrong? Did he open a present early?
I pushed open the kitchen door and saw there was wrapping paper strewn about the floor. There sat a dog in the middle of the living room. My husband and I looked at each other in confusion. Neither of us agreed to get him a dog. Where'd he come from?
I walked around the coffee table beside the tree and staggered back. My son's face had been torn clean off. He lay unmoving in a pool of his own blood. We looked over to the dog. There was red around his mouth.

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