Nora wanted every light turned on at once.

Sophie tried to hang her repaired rabbit from a branch, and Lucas insisted on choosing the star.

On Christmas Eve, Anna came to visit for the first time.

We had prepared the children for her arrival with photos and calls.

She stood in the doorway holding a covered dish and looking strangely like the girl in the photograph on my mantel, only with gray beginning at her temples.

‘Mason,’ she said.