The Christmas Pearl

Still spry at ninety—three, Theodora has lived long enough to see her family grow into an insufferable bunch of truculent knuckleheads. Having finally gathered the whole bickering brood together for the holidays at her South Carolina home, the grand matriarch pines wistfully for those extravagant, homey Christmases of her childhood. How she misses the tables groaning with home—cooked goodies, the over—the—top decorations, those long, lovely fireside chats with Pearl, her grandmother's belov...