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the kids practical necessities like underwear and sweaters. She managed one frivolous gift for each but that was the extent of her funds for "toy" presents.
    They all woke up early Christmas morning and whizzed through the present opening since the numbers were down a little bit. Her mother made a yummy holiday brunch with a hand-made stöllen and a fancy egg strata.
    Mallory had been acting hostile toward Anna since they woke up. Anna knew it was her daughter’s grief over the family holiday Mike loved. She toned it down, though, whenever her grandmother was within earshot.
    In the afternoon, Mallory fixed herself a snack of some Christmas cookies and a glass of diet Coke, then left the cookies out uncovered and the two-liter bottle of soda without its cap. Anna called her back downstairs to clean up her mess.
    Clomping down the stairs like an elephant on rampage, Mallory had thrown her a long-suffering look and said, "Be real. You could have done it as easy as calling me all the way down from the bedroom. Geez." Then she'd flounced off to clean the mess she'd made.
    Mallory's grandmother had witnessed the entire episode and spoke sharply to her when she came into the kitchen. "Mallory."
    The girl jumped six inches off the floor as she swept her head around, threatening whiplash.
    "Do you always treat your mother like that?" Anna’s mother asked.
    Anna could see the wheels turning as Mallory tried to come up with an answer that would satisfy her grandmother. She didn't think fast enough.
    "I thought so. It's since your father died, isn't it?"
    Mallory nodded mutely, her shame palpable.
    "We all understand that you're going through a difficult time. What you have to realize is that everyone else is hurting, too. Your brother is hurting and more than anyone else, your mother is hurting. She suddenly has responsibility for herself plus you and your brother and she's going to have to go to work and manage a difficult financial situation now that she doesn't have your father's salary. Did you ever think of it like that?"
    "No," Mallory said in a tiny voice.
    "Are you going to apologize to her?"
    Mallory's head drooped to her chest. "I'm sorry, Mom."
    "And you'll try to do better?"
    "Yes, ma'am."
    "Okay, then. Clean up your mess and then you can go on upstairs and relax and listen to the new CDs I got you." Trusting that Mallory felt chastened enough to clean the counter without supervision, Anna and her mother left the kitchen.
    Mallory soon ensconced herself in her bedroom with the iPod she’d brought, and her two new CDs, for hour after hour of ear-splitting "music." After the incident over the mess in the kitchen, Anna let her be for the most part, and didn’t give her the usual lectures on turning the sound down to preserve her eardrums.
    Brian got the Heart of a Samurai from his grandmother for Christmas, and spent most of his time sprawled on her sofa with a book in one hand and a cookie in the other. He avoided his sister and barely talked to anyone.
    After a delicious roast beef dinner, her mother put on a DVD of "It's a Wonderful Life" and Anna noticed that even Mallory wiped a tear from her eye under the guise of straightening her hair.
    They came back home on Boxing Day. When the kids returned to school, Anna didn’t know whether to be relieved because they weren’t around to get on her nerves, or depressed because without them the house was too quiet.
    Rose, wearing her workaday outfit of wool slacks and sweater, came over as Anna was poring over the ‘help wanted’ ads in the newspaper she’d bought at the Stop-N-Go store last night. Anna was still in her bathrobe.
    "You really ought to sign up with one of the employment agencies," Rose said. She helped herself to a cup of coffee and sat down at the table. "The jobs in the paper aren’t the best jobs. You don’t want to bus tables. You want a professional-type job."
    Anna stopped skimming the ads. "Don’t you have to pay them a portion of your salary for a