1
“Aunt Winnie, do you already know what your present is?” Annabelle asked.
Dr. Winifred Parsons’s six-year-old grandniece held out a wrapped Christmas gift to Winnie.
“I don’t,” Winnie said. “Do you?”
“Uh-huh, I helped pick it out. But Mom said you’ll probably guess before you open it. You know everything.”
Winnie laughed. “Everything? That’s quite a claim.”
“Well,” said Annabelle, “most things.”
There were only four of them gathered for Christmas breakfast this year: Winnie, her niece Rose, Rose’s husband Matthew, and their daughter Annabelle.
Or really, there were five of them.
Clover, Winnie’s yellow Labrador, lay on her plush green dog bed near the fireplace, patiently wearing a pair of reindeer antlers that Winnie put on her before the guests arrived.
Annabelle sat on the d
