The Christmas Pearl - Dorothea Benton Frank

Theodora has finally gotten her family together in South Carolina to celebrate Christmas, but the holiday looks nothing like the extravagant, homey holidays of her childhood. Luckily for her, a special someone who hears her plea for help arrives. Includes recipes. \n \nStill 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 beloved housekeeper and closest confidante. These days, where is the love and the joy . . . and the peace?\n \nBut this is, after all, a magical time. Someone very special has heard Theodora's plea--and is about to arrive at her door with pockets full of Gullah magic and enough common sense to transform this Christmas into the miracle it's truly meant to be.\n