Miranda woke on Christmas morning to her niece and nephew crawling into Ariel’s guest bed with her.

“Wake up, Auntie Mira. Uncle Adi says he’s going to drink all the grown-up drinks by himself if you don’t come down soon.” Her nephew Finlay was seven, and an alarming conversational sponge.

“Mom said she’d make him shovel the whole backyard all by hisself if he did that,” Finlay’s little sister Elodie was almost six and took everyone at face value.

“Merry Christmas, sweet beans.” Miranda hugged t...