Page 3 of A South Hill Christmas Keepsake
“Now you be nice.” Aunt Winnie wagged a finger, but the twinkle in her eyes told Hannah Leigh that her aunt didn’t disagree.
Hannah Leigh didn’t so much walk into her aunt’s house as get swept up in it. The pine-scented air, a glitter trail across the floor, and a towering Fraser fir whose angel nearly scraped the ceiling were no surprise; this was Aunt Winnie’s Christmas trifecta.
“This year’s gonna be something special,” Winnie said, eyes sparkling as she thrust a string of lights into Hannah Leigh’shands. “The first annual South Hill Hometown Holiday Festival isn’t only a week of events. It’s going to be the whole heartbeat of Christmas around here from now on.”
Her aunt’s enthusiasm tickled her. “I can see it,” Hannah Leigh teased, raising her arms like a movie director framing a shot. “Lights brighter than Broadway. Cocoa served with mounds of marshmallows. And the finale? Enough sparkle to make an elf blush.”
“You think you’re funny? Girl, this is serious business.” She wagged a finger in Hannah Leigh’s direction. “Mark my words, you’re going to thank your lucky stars you didn’t miss it. We’re even bringing back the Minnie Pearl Pralines,” Aunt Winnie said proudly.
“I guess I’d better make $1.98 price tags on strings to hang from them, like on her hat in her Hee-Haw heyday.”
“I was shooting for two bucks, but you’re right. The $1.98 is the perfect call bag. You know, that price-tag schtick started right here in our town. Not on that show. Back then, she performed at the Colonial Theater,” Aunt Winnie said, her eyes lighting with pride.
“Really?”
“I wouldn’t lie about a thing like that. It was never a gimmick, just a lucky accident. You see, Johnny Ray, the prop fella, forgot to take the tag off Minnie’s hat before she went onstage. In the middle of her performance, the tag swung right down in front of her nose, but Minnie didn’t miss a beat. She simply tipped her head, cracked a joke, and started singing. The crowd roared, and from that point on, that tag became her trademark.”
“Didn’t she fall in love with the high school principal while she was in town? Or was that a rumor?”
“Not a rumor at all,” Aunt Winnie said, eyes twinkling. “She made him her special pralines, and he couldn’t get enough of them, or her. They were the talk of the town back then. Hewas a teacher, older and respectable, supposed to be setting an example, and there he was keeping company with a young up-and-coming performer.” She gave a knowing shake of her head. “This was before her big break, of course, but still…a young actress and a schoolteacher? In the sixties? Mercy, folks didn’t know whether to clutch their pearls or polish them. But that’s another story.”
“Be careful tarnishing an American icon’s image, Auntie,” Hannah Leigh teased.
“They were in love. Nothing wrong with that. And guess what, this isn’t your average praline recipe. I got it straight from her niece’s church cookbook. We’re doing a pop-up booth to sell them during the tree lighting. You’ll help, of course.”
“Of course,” Hannah Leigh echoed again.
For the next hour, they fluffed garlands while Hannah Leigh untangled her thoughts as much as the lights. Thank goodness she’d stay busy enough not to spend too much time thinking about all the time she wasted on you-know-who. Considering that made her queasy.
Outside, Aunt Winnie fussed over things. “Come on out here, Hannah Leigh.”
She walked outside.
At the foot of the steps stood Aunt Winnie, holding an extension cord. “Get down here.”
She hurried to join her aunt. “I’m ready.”
Aunt Winnie’s face brightened like a crazy scientist when she connected the wires.
The whole place turned into a winter-like wonderland, even though some Christmases they never got real snow, just the kind that’s pretty to look at, and gone the next day before you have to drive to work. South Hill might not have Vermont’s icicles, but it had heart.
Hannah Leigh scanned everything, trying to take it all in. “How did you—”
Aunt Winnie squeezed Hannah Leigh into a side hug. “Honey, I’ve been working on it for weeks.”
“Wow.” If Aunt Winnie had her way, there’d be enough light displays to rival Times Square and make everyone forget about snow, or the lack thereof.
“Oh, honey, this is just the warm up,” said Aunt Winnie. “Wait until you see them all lit at once! Help me plug them in.”
It took a few minutes, and a lot of extension cords, but Hannah Leigh was pretty sure astronauts on theInternational Space Stationneeded sunglasses tonight.
“Rudolph is going to need sunglasses,” Hannah Leigh joked. “It’s perfect.”
“Yes, it is.” Her aunt gave it an approving nod. “Now, let’s make the rest of the town get the holiday spirit, too.
CHAPTER THREE
Aunt Winnie pressed a clipboard and a homemade oatmeal raisin cookie into Hannah Leigh’s hands before she could even catch a breath.
