"Aunt Florrie always arrived early, and her mouth was going full out even before you opened the front door to her," the narrator tells us. Aunt Florrie is an overwhelming presence; her visit is anticipated with dread whenever the topic of Christmas comes up, year round, and when she arrives, every activity revolves around her. She seems to enjoy being with the narrator's family, and remains oblivious to their profound wish that she would go away and never return.

She is bossy and demanding. For instance, she insists that the family look at her vacation photographs: ". . .

The family, cowed by the sheer magnitude and power of her personality, look at the photographs every year and even try to say something nice about them: "'That's a lovely...