Ep. 26 - There Will Be Flyers

This week the team takes on Great American’s “A Merry Christmas Wish” starring a couple of favorites. There will be chaste romance, fake snow, and flyers. And something called ‘scoop chat.’

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
This is the FCB Podcast Network.Hey, everybody, Merry Christmas. Welcome
to another episode of a Very MerryPodcast. I'm Kie Davis and I'm here

(00:24):
with me Very Mary Colos, AmeliaHamilton. Hi, Amelia, how are
you doing today? Hi? Doingwell? How are you today? I'm
doing well? Are you? Isit still Christmas e weather out there?
Is it snowy out there? No, it's like it's in the sixties.
That's probably Christmas to you. That'scolder here. It's colder here as we

(00:45):
record as like fifty degrees here inCalifornia. Yeah, and it's been raining,
which is the closest thing we'll getin southern California to like wintry weather.
So today is one of the firstsunny days that we've had. I
had to go I had to gobail out my flower pots because they were
just drenched with all the rain.Yeah, we don't know what to do

(01:07):
with all this rain. Anyway,we are talking this week about a great
American Family Channel movie, A VeryMerry Christmas wish and Amelia, when we
you chose this one, and whenI sat down and watch it, I
realized, Oh, I've already watchedthis movie. I didn't know what it

(01:30):
was called, but it was oneof those one of the first movies I
watched over at Great American one ofthem and before I got up the guts
to tell you that, I wascheating on Hallmark, so I watched this
one. It was one of thosethings where I was like flipping through the
channels and it was on and Iwas like, oh, yeah, I
love Jill Wagner and so I waslike, oh, I like her.

(01:53):
I'm gonna stop and watch for acouple of minutes, and then it ended
up watching almost the whole thing.So I watched it again for our podcast,
just to refresh. But yeah,I had already seen this, so
I was already a fan. It'sactually the first Great American movie that I
had watched too, and I lovedit. So I was like, Kara
needs to see it. So itturns out we've both seen it twice now.

(02:15):
But I also love Wagner and Ilove Cameron Matheson. So when I
was like in high school, probablyI started. I went through a phase
where I was watching the soap operaAll My Children and kath Karen mat So
my tandom goes back a long time. Yeah, he unfortunately had to.

(02:35):
Yeah, he had to leave allmy children because he didn't want to do
the COVID vaccine unfortunately. So yeah, yeah, I don't know if they've
rehired him now that we're all talkinga bit more sense about that whole thing,
but yeah, he didn't. There'sstill some up and down here in
La Hollywood area about that whole thing. But he didn't want to take it,

(02:59):
and they were like, well,you can't film with us, and
I was like what, Like hewas like, og all my children,
like thirty years or something at thatpoint. You know, I remember him,
yeah, as like a young manon that show and how handsome he.
I mean, he's still very handsomeand um, but yeah, I

(03:19):
think of him too. And Ibelieve Jill Wagner is she's a soap opera
royalty as well. Am I right? I think that's where she comes from,
as a soap opera land And itmay have even been all my children.
I'm not sure. I'll have tolook at up later, but I
think it's hilarious that we both werelike, yeah, stopped to watch this

(03:40):
movie completely independent of one another,like, yeah, we love this movie.
So I enjoyed watching it the secondtime as well. I didn't think
so. Wikipedia says that all mychildren went off the air in twenty eleven.
Oh okay, I don't know heknow it was him. I think
it was him. He must beon another soap opera them, different show.
Yeah, must have been. Yeah, it was him. Kiera wouldn't

(04:02):
lie to us, you guys,I wouldn't lie to you. And of
course I already know everything. Sodon't even check the internet to see it
happened on General Hospital. There wego, Oh we went to dinner Hospital.
Okay, anyway, but this isnot a soap opera show. No,
no, you're a soap opera talkwith Kia and Amelia. Well,

(04:26):
Amelia set this movie up for us. It's a classic, it's a classic
format, had everything I wanted.Yep, yep, and that was that
was how I felt when I watchedit. I was like, you know,
we've said this before, but GreatAmerican. Their motto was welcome home,
and that's what it felt like.I turned this on and I was
like, this is the movie,this is what that's what we've been looking
for. So Jill Wagner, weopen she is the busy businesswoman trope she's

(04:47):
in a meeting. It's a salespitch. She works in some kind of
marketing, and she is just nailingthis meeting. The client loves her,
she's got the best ideas, andnow we know she has it all because
her boyfriend comes striding in right anda little strange in the middle of a
meeting. But sure I did too, I've never had I don't. I

(05:09):
don't even think like, well,I work for myself now like you do.
When I work in my house.Your boyfriend comes all the time.
I know he does, and itannoys me when he does that during the
day because I'm working and I'm like, um, I don't want you to
be home. You're gonna use upthe internet. You're gonna like But I've
never had a man like pop inyeah and say yeah, let's go to

(05:30):
lunch. But I do want tosay that, of course the um the
marketing job is one of the mostpopular careers in Christmas Land. Absolutely absolutely
yeah um. And her boyfriend hasone of the classic bad boyfriend big city
jobs, which is he is infinance. He's like an investment advisor or

(05:51):
something, and he basically we findout that he basically stopped by. He
says he stopped by to take outto lunch, but he is always wanting
to meet her clients so that hecan pitch them on being their investment guy.
And also he's a liar because hewas talking about I think he was
like, he was talking it's anenergy drink. It's called Dinosaur Energy.

(06:15):
That there was this client and he'slike, oh, Janey drinks a Dinosaur
Energy every day before she goes tospin class. Blah blah blah blah blah
blah. And then they leave inthe bosses like, do you drink dinosaur
before you go to spin class?She's like no, And I don't even
go to spin class. I don'thave time to work out, which made
me hate her a little bit becauseshe's beautiful, tiny, But that's okay.
This is Christmas Land and they eatall the cookies and never work out,

(06:36):
and that's what happens. Yeah,but I didn't like the boyfriend.
He lied, well, I don'tknow, and we're I don't think we're
supposed to like the boyfriend. He'sdefinitely he's definitely driven, he's motivated,
and he wanted really badly to meether client Bill Yeah, who Yeah,
And in this movie, we didn'tget a black mirror, but we did

(06:58):
get important and uh like black businessman, which I think is sort of like
a stand in for the black mare, as we said. And then also
we will meet yeah another um,another black man in authority when we get
to the stay. Yes, yeah, so as as we as we.
I came to the conclusion in theLindsay Lohan Christmas Special all mayors and Christmas

(07:20):
land are black. But I thinkin in in the stead of a mayor,
if you don't have a mayor inyour script, then the the businessman
or the boss will be. Anyway, he wanted to come in court.
Bill's really he's really all about Bill, um, And I guess he did
the job. He impressed Bill andhe did the way boyfriend is named Charles,

(07:46):
right um. All right, Soso Janie isn't a meeting with her
boss. And Janie was shocked,but I wasn't shocked, and I know
Kia wasn't shocked that she is goingto take point on the dinosaur campaign because
Bill loved her so much. AndJaney's like, well, I can't at
this exact moment because my great uncleRandall just died and I have to go
upstate to Woodland Falls to deal withthe estate. And then it's like Christmas.

(08:11):
So I'm going to Los Angeles withCharles for a little vacation. But
okay, stop right there. Thisis where I was like, you're going
to Los Angeles for vacation, Like, I don't know. I know people
who come to LA for work.I know people who come to LA to
visit their relatives. But in twentytwenty three, everyone do not come to

(08:35):
Los Angeles for vacation. You willget robbed. Like there's nothing, there's
nothing to do. There's nothing todo in Los Angeles anymore. Like I
think he said something about like,yeah, we're gonna well like relax by
the beach, and I'm like,what beach. I'm like, what beach?
Go vacation in Los Angeles. Theonly thing I could think of was

(08:56):
Santa Monica. But even like thisweek alone in Santa Monica, there's been
like an artist. We have,like a rogue artist who goes around LA
and it puts up all kinds ofcontroversial virtual stuff. He's been putting up
billboards in San Francisco that that's saySan Francisco or excuse me, um in
Santa Monica. Let's say Santa Monicais not safe, and he puts some

(09:20):
on street corners that are populated byten cities and homeless encampments and which is
basically all of Santa Monica these days. So I was like that whole time,
I was like, why is hetaking her to take her to Santa
Barbara? Take her to you know, Laguna Beach or yeah, I don't
know, just Los Angeles, whichis we're going to Los Angeles, Los

(09:41):
Angeles for Christmas. But yeah,yeah, but she's saying that when they
get back, if they don't getrobbed and murdered while they're there. Um,
when she well, she's gonna bringher laptop with her to do some
work, because that's how she is. And then when she gets back,
she's like, I'll get working onthe Dinosaur campaign. It's gonna be fine.
Um. And then so she askedCharles to go with her to Woodland

(10:03):
Falls and then they'll go to Lafrom there, and he doesn't really want
to go. He's got work,and he goes, how long can it
take to pack up a farmhouse?Which I know that this man has never
seen a farmhouse, because you know, there's a hundred years worth of junk
there. Yeah. M what doeshe think is in a farmhouse? Right?
Yeah? Like, and it's ahouse. Also, I forget about

(10:24):
being a farmhouse. It's a house. It's not a New York City apartment.
Right, it's a house. Right. Every house takes a long time
to pack up, you know,especially if you're on your own. She
wasn't going with anybody. Yeah,she wasn't going with anybody. She was
going by herself. He wasn't evengoing to help her. She was going
by herself to pack up a wholehouse. Okay, Charles, and he'd

(10:46):
lived there for like fifty years.You accumulate a lot of stuff. Oh
so, Charles, you need toYou need to get with it. You
need to understand how other people live. Um. All right, So Jamie,
she drives up to Woodland Falls,and she's driving up in the snow.
And I really appreciated that throughout thismovie they played actual Christmas carols,
not just like the you that was. I noticed that. I that was

(11:07):
one of the things I noticed onmy second watch around was she was driving
up and they were playing like traditionalChristmas carols, like hymns, and I
was like, oh, this isvery refreshing. Yeah, so they and
they did that throughout the movie.I really, I really appreciated it.
Um. So the first thing shedoes when she gets to Woodland Falls is

(11:28):
she meets with the lawyer, theestate lawyer Sydney, who is the black
man in authority in Woodland Falls.Yeah, and not the mayor, but
prob the next best thing. AndI'm going to assume that his brother is
the mayor probably probably yeah, maybehis sister Kia. Oh sorry, yeah,

(11:48):
who you get some points detected forthat? Oh man, I'm sorry,
I'm still stuck in twenty twenty one. Well, it turns out that
Jamie is not just the executor ofthe estate, she's also the sole air
well. He left a few oddsand ends to other people, but basically

(12:09):
she has been left the farm andalmost everything. And he gives her a
letter that Randall left explaining why everythingwas left to her, so she puts
it in her purse to read.Later heads out to the farm and here
is Cameron Matheson on a tractor andshe's trying to get his attention, but
she can't hear him over the tractor. You can't hear her over the tractor,
I mean, and so she throwsa snowball at him to get his

(12:31):
attention. So checkmark right there forsnowball. Not exactly a snowball fight,
but I appreciate it. No,I really appreciated it too, because it
was clear that they shot the movieoff season, and they because there's no
snow available, they just put alittle tiny pile of snow in the middle
of the fake snow, so shehad to like reach down to this one

(12:54):
singular pile of snow and make thesnowball. And I thought I appreciated the
effort. I don't know that theyneeded we needed to see her forming the
snow, but I think we wouldhave understood it if she had just reached
down out of frame, pulled itup and was kind of molding it.
But I thought it was hilarious becauseit definitely looked way out of place,

(13:15):
um, sitting on top of likethe felt snow or whatever it is.
I liked it. I was allfor it. Hey, we're all for
everything, by the way, wherethese are not insults. We are we
are loving it. We love allthat. So um so obviously it gets
his attention, and um he saysthat he's on his way to get some

(13:37):
eggs. And I was thinking thismovie came out a few months too early,
because now if they've got if they'reyou know, got hensling eggs on
the farm, this is a thisis a game changer. They are rolling
in money now. Yeah, foranybody who's listening to this episode years in
the future when perhaps you have easyaccess to eggs, are the American econ

(14:00):
to me is crashing right now Anda huge sign of it is eggs are
more expensive than ever, so peopleare having to make a lot of sacrifices
to get eggs. It's like areally weird time where where eggs are just
like like we're literally limited. Idon't know, is it like this where
you are. I went to thegrocery store the other day and they have
a sign you can only take twodozen eggs at a time. Wow,

(14:22):
I have not seen that at mygrocery store. But no, I'll have
to look. But I'm trying tothink when last time. I might not
have bought eggs for a couple ofweeks, and I feel like it's been
building. Yeah. Yeah, no, we in California at the grocery store,
like there's signs there you want twoYou're limited to two dozen eggs at
one time. Everybody, we're strictlyif forcing this. I'm like, what

(14:46):
is going on? I get myeggs from the farmer's market though, and
they never ran out, see,and that's how it is in Woodland Falls.
They have fresh eggs. They're gonnabe fine. But he recognizes her
and she's like, he's like Janey, and she's like, what, I
don't know who you are. Soshe finally figures out he is her childhood
best friend, Nicole's brother Dylan.So we've got Janie and Dylan and he

(15:07):
has been basically running the farm umfor Randall and Nelson's Randall has passed.
He is definitely running the farm andhe lives in the guesthouse, so we
can check off another half. Yeah. I was like, oh, Amelia
is gonna like this. There's aguest house, guest house. Um the
house. So she walks into thisfarmhouse where Randall lived and um, it

(15:31):
is fully decorated for Christmas. SoI don't know if Randall like decorated died.
I just liked did Randall? Did? Uncle Randall vomit Christmas all over
the farmhouse right before day. That'smaybe why he died. He maybe had
a heart attack from all of theeffort of and there was no one there

(15:52):
to catch him. Romantically. Therewasn't a single door that didn't have garland,
you know, it was it wasfully decorated. So whoever, Yeah,
that's a good job. So Charlesis not the only one who has
never seen a farmhouse because this waslike it had wood paneling on the walls

(16:15):
and things, which was like cozycabin. Cabin and farmhouse are not the
same aesthetic, you guys, Sothat's true too. And I I also
was, um as somebody who grewup in farm country and spent a lot
of time on farms with my friendsand also briefly lived on a farm as

(16:37):
a child. We rented a homethat was sort of on the property.
You never yeah, I guess howthey actually it was. That's what it
was really because they built the farmersvery successful. They built like a really
nice, beautiful, bigger house rightacross the like not just kind of next

(16:57):
door, and they were like,oh, we'll rent this house. We'll
rent this small bungalow out that's wherewe live. But anyways, um,
I mean there. I've never meta farm family where ever ever where you
have to take your shoes off whenyou come in the house. Everybody had
shoes on in the house, andI was like freaking out because I'm like

(17:18):
the step you drag in from thefarm. Yeah, everybody has a bootroom,
right, and you take your shoesoff in the bootroom. So I
was really distressed about that. Noone. I did notice that too.
I did notice that too. Idon't even like shoes in my house,
and I live I live in asmall town. Yeah. But no,
So she gets in the house andreads the letter and it just says that

(17:41):
he knows the farm made her happy. She hasn't been there for thirty years,
and I have some questions about thatmath. No, I think she
hasn't been there for twenty years andshe was ten when she was there,
which makes her thirty, which sure, let's go with it, kind of
like kind of like the Christmas atthe drive in twenty but really thirty years
ago. Yeah, but she didn'tsay that she was ten when she was

(18:02):
there. She said she was tenwhen she was best friends with his sister.
So I just assumed that they movedon, you know, you go
to high school, you get intodifferent clicks, and so I didn't assume
that she meant I left town whenI was ten, because Randall did say
that you always loved the farm,and she grew up on the farm.

(18:23):
So yeah, she hasn't been therefor a long time. But she hasn't
been there for a long time.But I just assumed like maybe she's gone
back after college or after you know, maybe the last time she was there
was just the last time she hada break from her busy businesswoman jobs.
Probably yet I'll go there. Idon't think she was saying I'm thirty years

(18:45):
old, because she did say atlater on, we'll probably get to this.
She did talk a little bit abouther age later on. She does
the ability to create family. Yes, well, Randall has an another little
something in the letter. Not onlydid he leave her the farm, but
he says that so the town ofWoodland Falls always had a Winter Wonderland festival

(19:08):
that was hosted in Randall's barn,and he wants her to do one last
Winter Wonderland for the town. Andshe's like deadline. What Christmas deadline?
Christmas deadline, some kind of contest, Christmas deadline yes, Well, she's
trying to decide if she's going todo it or not, because it says

(19:29):
like whatever you decide, I'll understand. And she doesn't know what she's going
to do. And then Charles callsand he is like he's calling from her
house. He has gone into herhouse and he's leaving her a postmodern Christmas
trainey, which just told me everythingyou need to know about Charles. I
love it when Christmas Land does thisright where they're like, this is one

(19:52):
of my favorite things about these moviesis like we don't need to spend a
lot of time setting up the personalitiesof people. It's a set piece,
it's a prop, you know,it's one thing that tells us this person
doesn't get it. And in thiscase, it was the postmodern Christmas tree,
which was cute. But when youlook around her apartment, it's like

(20:14):
clear that she's really into Christmas,and you know, it does it doesn't
really, it's not her thing.It's clear Charles doesn't really know her.
He doesn't know her, and shetells him that she is going to be
gone longer than she expected. There'sjust there's more work to do and everything,
and Charles is like, just putit on the market and get out
of there. And she's like,all right, slow down. She's she's

(20:34):
like still planning to sell it,but she's you know, she's got some
work to do. It's gonna takesome time and she doesn't know what she's
gonna do. Um. Plus,the festival goes through Christmas Eve, so
she's saying that she'll miss the LosAngeles trip and he's like, whatever,
we both know you're not actually goingto do all this. Get through it
in your head, see you inLos Angeles, because you're not really right.
We have we have homeless people toavoid. We've got to get to

(20:59):
Lost seven camps to get through.Yeah, American culture is at a crossroads.
I'm Kira Davison. In my newbook, Drawing Lines, why conservatives
must begin to battle fiercely in thearena of ideas. I challenge conservative Americans
to stop retreating from the culture.I help you think critically through the pressing

(21:19):
cultural issues of our day and offerpractical advice and solutions. It's time for
conservatives to make themselves uncomfortable and getengaged, get inspired, get moving,
and get winning. Pick up acopy of my book Drawing Lines available on
Amazon, at faithful text dot Com, or wherever books are sold. So

(21:47):
then as the phone call ends,she says okay, I love you,
and he goes talk to you soon. He didn't say it back. Yeah,
I did notice that. He waslike, okay, I'll talk to
you soon. I was like,does she love him? You know?
Um? I yeah, obviously shedoesn't, so the way I'm and I'm

(22:07):
like, okay, I know she'sgonna fall in love in the next few
days, but she's just told thisguy she loved him, So in my
mind, I just decided, well, Janey doesn't know, you know what.
She she's convincing herself that she's inlove with him. Yeah, probably
probably yea. Um. She isnow back with Dylan. They're hanging out.

(22:30):
They're gonna go get lunch at alittle diner in town, and they're
really enjoying the conversation and she's like, we're talking like old friends here.
So we get a little bit ofum, you know, we know obviously
we know they're gonna fall in love. So it's kind of like but it's
not super fashion boilers because they kneweach other as kids and now they're talking

(22:52):
like old friends. So just rememberthere's some history here. Okay, there's
some death. But she wants hisadvice on Winter Wonderland because he's been around
for it all these years and he'sand he's like, listen, it means
a lot to the local economy,you know, the local people really count
on it as well as it justbeing a lot of fun, and people
count counting on it in that sense. But people aren't expecting it this year

(23:15):
because Randall has passed away. Soif you don't throw a Winter Wonderland,
no one's going to be surprised.But if you do throw a Winter Wonderland,
people will be really happy and Iwill help you. But there's only
one week left. Oh my gosh. That's a that's a tight timeline,

(23:36):
a tight timeline, and it's alsoit's a tight timeline to put the event
together. But it's also a verytight timeline because he made it clear that
a lot of the money from itcomes from tourism, and people book the
ends and they eaton restaurants, andpeople not already have plans for next weekend.
Maybe not, maybe they're like,no Winter Wonderland, I'm staying at
home. Well, this is ChristmasLand where people get their Christmas trees on

(23:57):
Christmas Eve, where they old workevents on Christmas Eve, where they hold
work. You know, work callson Christmas morning, you know. So
I guess I'll buy it. Inthe context of the Christmas universe, Yeah,
nobody has plans. So nobody hasplans. We saw this, by
the way, we saw this inthe Lindsay Lohan movie where you know,

(24:19):
she wants her presses went viral.Everybody was like, oh, I gotta
stay at the end. I've beenholding onto my Christmas reservations this whole time,
hoping that this inspiring story would comeand show me where I should vacations.
We know what happens. It's agood point. It's a good point.
Um and oh. So she goesback to the farmhouse and leaves Charles

(24:41):
a message saying that she is goingto do Winter Wonderland. She's going to
stay, and she hopes he understandsbla blah blah blah, Winter Wonderland,
Green Light. But he calls herback mad and he wants her. He's
like, you can still have WinterWonderland, But basically he wants to delegate
it and just let somebody else runthe whole thing. He doesn't understand what

(25:02):
it means to her. He doesn'tunderstand the town, and so she says,
why don't you just come to WinterWonderland and we'll be here instead of
LA. I know it's not whatwe planned, but we'll be together and
it'll be nice. Turns out,here's why he wanted to go on vacation
in Los Angeles. He has meetingsset ups out there the whole time.
Oh gosh, that's business guy goto LA for business. And that's right,

(25:26):
okay, yeah, because there hewas certainly not going there to relax
on vacation, not in twenty twentythree, maybe sometime in the future.
Future listener, when you're listening tothis, LA is a great place to
go, but right now it's anabsolute disaster area right now. So but
but lots of business does get downethere. So another you know, check

(25:49):
for Charles, check Mark in theThis guy isn't right for you, Janey
Bucks. And then he says toher, but if you come to your
senses, there will be a roomwaiting for you, separate rooms. I
appreciated that they worked it in.They worked it in just so nobody thought
they were going on vacation together,like a bunch of you know what's yeah,

(26:15):
No, Amelia, what like abunch of what Harlot's yes, harlessless
people, people of loose morals.No, they're they're going to go to
separate rooms. Thank you. GreatAmericans love this. Cheered when he said

(26:37):
that, we love this through atthe beginning that they didn't live together because
they're hanging out her apartment. He'slike, I'm gonna go home now,
and then I love that. Yeah, but then they also made it super
clear separate rooms. They're going tovacation together, but don't think anything's going
on, Thank goodness, you knowwhat. I am like, let's normalize

(26:59):
this again, let's bring this back. I feel so subversive these days,
and it's like, I think evena lot of Christians would be like,
no, that's really not how thisis working out for us. But but
I love it. I can't getenough of it. Thank you, thank
you, And we don't again.Why is it like that? Because it
adds to the wholesomeness of the ofthe story, of the romance of the

(27:25):
film. This isn't real life.We're not watching it so that it would
be real life. Yeah, it'swhat we want life to be. We
love it, we love that everything'swonderful and Christmasland. And then, just
to kind of juxtapost Charles Dylan,she goes outside and he's out there in
the snows splitting wood with his axe, looking hot, and she likes it.

(27:48):
Let me tell you, And shetells him it's on. We're going
to do one to Wonderland and I'mstaying. He tells her the first step
is they need to clear out thebarn so they can die great and set
up, and it is like it'smuch more of a disaster in the barn
than she realized. Um, butI have a feeling they're going to get
it done. I think they'll getit done. It kind of reminded me

(28:10):
of the of the restaurant, thecobweb storage room in the Christmas Pass.
What was that movie called The Ghostof Christmas, The Three Ghosts of Chris.
I don't remember. It was thefirst one we did then. Yeah,
it was like the Dickens take off, but um, but yeah,
it was like, oh, it'sthis old dusty diner and really it was

(28:33):
just a cobweb factory. It's justcobwebs everywhere and that's what I felt like
the barn. It's like, oh, it's a disaster, but it's just
sort of an assortment of random thingsthat can easily be moved aside. Right
right, it's gonna be okay.I think they'll get it done it allay,
No, I think they'll be fine. Yeah. So she talks to
him about wanting to do some likeadvertising around it, which was more than

(28:59):
just handing out flyers, which wealways appreciate. Although there will be flyers,
there will be yes, there willbe flyers. And she's like,
I need some old pictures from wentto Wonderland. He's like, well,
you know who has a bunch ofthose. My sister, your former bestie,
Nicole. I'm having dinner at herhouse tonight. Just come on over.

(29:19):
And she is like shocked that Nicolestill lives here. I was shocked.
She wasn't like, Dylan, goodto see you. How's Nicole?
That's how what I But that's okaybecause she was just thinking about how hot
Dylan is. I mean, ithappens, yeah. Or maybe she's mourning
her the loss of her beloved uncle. Okay, maybe she doesn't seem to

(29:40):
be. I think she's doing great. I mean, she loves Randall,
don't you worry? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, okay yeah, and this
is the first time he's asking aboutNicole. Okay. They get to Nicole's
house that afternoon. They're so excitedto see each other. And it turns
out Nicole is a sheriff's deputy.Now she's got a daughter, Gracie.

(30:00):
Her mom, the grandma in thissituation, has a little art gallery in
town, and I want to knowthe story behind this. We never see
Nicole's husband because she's like, he'son the road for work and we'll be
gone through Christmas. And why Ithought that was the strangest part of this
script. There are no men inthis family except for what's his face?

(30:26):
Except for Dylan, Like, there'sDad's gone, all right, older.
Maybe we'll assume he's passed on,or maybe he left the family at some
point and we don't want to talkabout that. I don't know, but
like this, the whole sun inlaw thing was so weird? Was it
because like, I don't know,maybe the writer or the studio felt like

(30:47):
they needed to explain why the onlyman around was Dylan and they didn't want
it to seem too like single mommy. But I just was like why And
by the way, we never seethe husband. He never comes back,
and we don't see him on Christmasnever, never, never, he never

(31:08):
comes. It was such an oddthing. It just it was a callback
that never came to fruition. Yeah, So what I decided was that the
husband, um, the actor whatgot sick when they're supposed to start filming.
So they were like, just right, fine, you know what,
that actually makes a lot of sense. Maybe that is it, because it
did feel like there's got to besome you know, something that's that's um,

(31:34):
like this is going to because shementioned something about how he's bringing back
a very special Christmas present for myprecocious child. Yeah and um, and
and she was really excited about it. And so you would think that I
had the idea that in the finalmoments he would come in and bring whatever

(31:56):
special gift. That makes sense,So maybe he shows upday. Maybe that
actually makes a lot of sense.And I can imagine two when Great American
was filming this slate that they wereprobably still dealing with a lot of COVID
restrictions. So if someone did haveto drop out last minute, you don't
have enough time to quarantine another actor, you know, And yeah, that

(32:20):
makes sense. All right, I'llbuy that. What we're gonna go with.
I hope, I hope you feelbetter soon, husband actor. Yeah.
Yeah. So she's hanging out,they're having dinner, and Dylan says
to her, so you live inthe Big Apple now, And I was
just thinking, do you think peoplereally say big Apple? I don't.
I've actually never heard anyone called thebig Apple say it almost as a joke.

(32:45):
Yeah, but I don't. Idon't know if the point is it's
the big city, it's the bigcity. She tries to explain to everybody
what she does for a living,and she talks about like she leveraged brands
blah blah blah blah, and theyand they like a bunch of yokel small
towners have no idea what she's talkingabout, which kind of made me laugh.

(33:07):
But then I realized that nobody understandsour jobs either. But I am
a small channel. I guess that'strue. But everybody has the Internet.
Yeah, I mean you kind ofknow what, right, Yeah, she's
an advertising It's fine. It's ait's a big city job for a gal

(33:28):
who's visiting from the big city.It's a big city. But she explained
it in the most like LinkedIn waypossible to Yeah, so they were like
okay, janey um. When Dylandrives them both home that Nike's remember he
lives in the guest house. Ithought it was kind of a cute thing
where he pulled up next to herm to park and he drives a vintage
truck and she drives a brand newBMWSUV, And I just thought it was

(33:51):
kind of a cute little reflection oftheir personalities there with what they drive.
I gotta keep an eye on thevintage trucks and these movies because I'm starting
to develop a theory they're just usingthe same one over and over. He
probably probably yeah, um, andyou know one of our friends, um,
our friend Stephen, like, yeah, out vintage cars for movies.

(34:14):
We should find out if they're his. Yeah maybe, yeah. We do
have a friend who that is whathe does. He's a vintage car collector
and then he leases them out tofilms, and I think he actually got
a part. He leased one outto Babylon, the New Brad Pitt movie,
the film Babylon, and he actuallygot a little tiny role in it,

(34:37):
um alongside his car. So congratulationsStevens. Yeah, I mean it's
no GC. But Brad Pitt isall right, right, it's it's it's
okay, yeah, it's I mean, you know, good, good for
him, I guess, yeah,I mean, but call us when you
get cast in a great America,when you get a great American movie.
Yeah yeah, um, all right, well she right. So she's like

(35:00):
she has to break the news toDylan. So she tells them while they're
sitting there in the car. She'slike, listen, I did ask Sydney
to put the farm on the market. And Dylan's disappointed, but he was
like, you know, that's prettymuch what I expected, and you know
I knew that's what you were goingto do. Blah blah blah. So

(35:20):
kind of a kind of a sournote to end the evening, but he
was understanding. Yeah. In themorning, he shows up bright and early,
and she is still in her jammiesand her face mask is pulled up
on her forehead or sleeping mask thing, and he shows up. He's like,
I brought you some groceries, whichis a love full of produce,
which I think was another thing fromthat Three Ghosts movie. They also like

(35:43):
carried around crates of produce. Ohno, it wasn't. It was from
Robert Barren one because they brought thatis the same movie. It is the
same movie that is because yeah,they were grocers and they carried around these
crates and it's all yeah, andit's like the produce is also like very
strategically slung over the side of thebox, like the rats kicking out the

(36:04):
top. Yeah, right, hangingon the top and there's all kinds of
produce in there and um, andthen the eggs are just in a little
basket. I go to the farmer'smarket every week, and the independent egg
farmers they do put them in eggcartons right where I'm definitely going to smash

(36:25):
them on the way home. Butit was it was an assortid crate of
like these are just like basically allthe vegetables we could think of. A
yeah, very colorful. It wasvery pretty. Um. So she tells
him that she'll help him with hisfarm chores and then he can help her
with Winter Wonderland. So they're goingto spend the whole day together and then

(36:45):
we get one of our favorite things, a montage they're clearing out the barn.
They're getting it ready for winter Wonderland. They're having fun, they're laughing.
It's wonderful. She is making flyers, they're putting them up in town,
and she is posting fire yep.And she is posting on the social
media platform that exists in Christmasland.Snap cheddars scoop Cheddar, wait, I

(37:10):
did not see that. I musthave looked away or gone up to get
a drink or something at that part, Chedter. Scoop chatter. Cheddar,
Oh boy, I don't know aboutthat. We're gonna have to come up
me at the end of this podcast. Let's come up with a different name
for the social media apping Christmas Land. Scoop chatter. That's what I heard,
Cheddar. It was it reminds meof um the rental agency that they

(37:38):
used in the Road to Christmas thatwould last season. We did movie.
I think it was called Road toChristmas, but it was with Rachel what's
her face? Yeah, And itwas a road trip movie. And then
at one point they break down andshe needs to rent a tractor, and
so she goes on to like thiswebsite for that's specifically for renting farm equipment

(38:04):
and ye like, but it's this, this exists in Christmas Land, so
um scoop chatter, all right,all right, fine, well good,
at least she's using social media Christmasat the drive and they didn't seem to
have any concept. She just handit off fires like an hour. But
it worked, it worked, theysaved. It worked, so eventually they

(38:27):
had one of their big things theyneed to do is go get a Christmas
tree for Jane. So they're headeddown. So they go down to the
tree lot and Earl the tree guy, is talking about how they also sell
honey. They have a bunch ofother stuff and they are busy. They
are doing major business. So she'slike, maybe you should have a second
location set up at Winter Wonderland becausenobody gets their Christmas tree until like two

(38:50):
days before Christmas in Christmas light.And he thinks that's a good idea,
even though they mostly make their moneyoff of honey. But you know,
Um back at the house, Dyllcarries the tree in for Janey and Um
makes a joke that she would makea good farmer, and they you know,
have a little momentum, and he'slike in their boots and in the

(39:12):
middle of the living room, andso he says that, you know,
obviously this tree is great, butit's not decorated. And she goes,
you know, there are a coupleof boxes in the basement labeled Christmas.
And I was thinking there must bea lot of empty boxes in the basement
labeled Christmas because Christmas is everywhere,And yeah, like, how can there
be a single thing left in thebasements. It has to be ornaments because

(39:37):
everything else has got to be out. There's literally normal in this house.
More surfaces. Randall passes a week. Let's let's be conservative here, like,
let's say he passes two weeks beforeChristmas, loved Christmas but didn't had
every inch of the house decorated,but didn't get a tree in there.

(39:59):
Yeah, I don't buy it.I don't know how that happened. I
don't know did Paul Revere really saythe British are coming? And how is
George Washington chosen to leave the FirstAmerican Army. Join us for the Growing
Patriot Podcast, a place for curiouskids to ask the big questions about our
nation's history and get kid friendly answersfrom the country's top experts. Help your

(40:22):
child learn about and cherish America's exceptionalhistory. Subscribe to Growing Patriots on Apple
Podcasts or wherever you get your podcaststoday. But they got to decorate the
tree. Now they do so andhere, okay, here's where I wrote
it down. Here's where she saidthat she hasn't been here since she was
ten, so it's been twenty years. I'm just saying, maybe I wrote

(40:44):
down wrong. I'm willing to believethat. Okay, But she doesn't know.
She's still talking about how she doesn'tknow why Randall left her this farm,
and he's like, how can younot know? He was so proud
of you, which was nice.It was a sweet little moment. Yeah,
so she always invite the farm,the farm. He was so proud

(41:05):
of her. Um, so atthis. So they're having a nice little
moment and Charles calls. So shelets it go to voice mail, you
guys, because she's having too goodof a time hanging out with Dylan and
decorating the tree. I mean,yeah, Charles can wait. She doesn't
have time for his nonsense. Yeah. Um, he's probably like just calling

(41:30):
her to see if she has anymore leads for him anyway for him to
bug about investment. Yeah, I'mstarting to question the sincerity of his feelings.
Yeah, I don't think. Idon't think he cares about about her
very much at all, except herconnections. Okay, next morning, um
Earl has already opened up a treelot at the Winter Wonderland site. She

(41:51):
absolutely loves it. She's so excitedabout it. And his wife, um
Missus Wyatt, was talking about howshe keeps giving people trees. She gives
Nicole and Greasie, you know,the friend and the daughter a free tree,
and she's like, Missus White,you keep giving away trees. You
can't do that. And she's like, whatever, we make our money off
of the honey anyway. So Ithought that was I also, yeah,
I did love too that she waslike, well, I'm not gonna make

(42:14):
a deputy pay for the trees.So she just like, you know,
pro law enforcements, like we respectour peace officers, like that. You
can have a tree there is let'ssee. So she starts telling Jamie,
starts talking to Nicole about how theslower pace out here has really opened her

(42:35):
eyes to some things that she's beenmissing and it's making her rethink some stuff.
And while she's saying this, Dylanhas taken Gracie, his niece,
over to the petting zoo and isbeing super cute with her and with the
animals, and she's kind of shekind of has an eye on him when
she's talking about stuff that she's rethinking. So I don't know what could possibly
happen there. The petting Zoo hadcamels. It was like I was like,

(43:07):
I mean it's like I got likegoats, sheep, buddies, you
know. Yeah, yeah, likethe like the regular farmland stuff. You
put it in there, and youknow, you bring this farmer John brings
his ponies over. Yeah, thereyou go, reindeer. I mean they're
up north. They're in northern NewYork. I'm sure you come across those

(43:29):
that far north. But yeah,the camels. And they didn't even like
mention them. They were just there. There was like, yeah, they
were just there. They were like, we're not gonna the camels. I
would love to I wonder, Iwonder what the you know, the process
was to get the camels onto set. They're clearly filming in Canada, So

(43:52):
where were those camels? Camel storagecamels are us are usum? All right?
So back and the back in thebarn Jamie and Dylan, and he's
taking her upstairs to the loft ofthe barn. He's got her eyes covered.
He's got a big surprise for her. When she opens her eyes.

(44:13):
He's got it all decorated. There'sa beautiful tree, there are lights,
and it came upon the midnight Clearwas playing, which is an actual Christmas
song about Christmas, and she getsa little emotional because when she was a
kid, she used to dance tothis song with her great uncle Randall and
he always said, this is oursong. So Dylan's like, hey,
I'm no uncle Randall, but wouldyou like to dance? And they have

(44:36):
a nice little let's have a romanticdance. It's kind of romantic. She
rests her head on his shoulder,and then she kind of realizes that they're
having a moment here and she likeputs an end to it. WHOA,
yeah, too close. Yeah,I've got my busy businessman boyfriend. Yeah,
and like, I can't I can'tbe doing this. Um back downstairs

(44:58):
where they're setting up for one toWonder and Gracie has made cookies because she
wants to raise money for her school, so she's going to have a little
booth and sell cookies at Winter Wonderland. But they are gross. Janie's like,
it's impossible for cookies to be gross. Takes a bite, She's like,
those are terrible, but we aregoing to make new cookies together,
which brings us to our second montageand bacon too. Wonderful. Yeah,

(45:24):
they're making they I guess when theywere little these to call them friendship cookies.
They're making friendship cookies together. Everything'swonderful. Um. Dylan comes in
and even though Nicole didn't remember theywere called friendship cookies, he did because,
you know, because they've just gota lie. Well, he remembers
everything about Janie. She clearly madean impression on him in her youth when

(45:47):
she was tend she did. Andit turns out that Nicole and Dylan's mother,
who owns the art gallery, wantsto donate some paintings for Winter Wonderland,
so somebody needs to go help pickthem up. And they just and

(46:07):
they're like, we're having a girl'snight, don't see yuh. Um.
Dylan is thinking about maybe having somecookie dough also while he's making cookies with
his niece, and he's like,what do you think about that, and
Gracie's like, um, mom sayswhat Oh, mom says it gives you

(46:28):
warts. No, no, that'snot what she said. Mom says,
it gives you worms. I couldn'thave if it was worms or warts.
Okay, mom's worms, because that'swhat that's what my mom always told me
to. My mom was always like, lick the spoon, have fun.
No, my mom. My momnever let me have the raw cookie dough
because she was like, it'll giveyou worms. And I'm not quite sure

(46:52):
where that urban legend comes from,but I think it has. It has
something to do with the eggs.So if I was the raw eggs in
it, so if I was,if I caught her, I don't know.
It's my mom would never let meeat standing up either, because she
was like, that's bad for yourdigestion. So I don't know, but

(47:13):
I think that it's an old wivestale. It's I think it's common among
farming communities, and it could justbe yeah, because maybe the eggs they're
so fresh. God only knows whatyou're bringing in and you don't want to
be eating the uncooked. I haveno idea why it is. I know
some people are anti eating the doughbecause it can give you salmonilla fair enough.

(47:35):
Yeah, I know some people.Yeah, Well I've never met a
person who has had salmonella from eatingrock coikie dough. I have never met.
But I just know that this isthis is one thing my mother always
told me, No, you can'teat the rock cookie dough. You're gonna
get worms. When she said that, you know what, it made me
feel the way I felt when thatkidnapping plot was unfolding in the name any

(48:00):
movie. I was like, thisis really dark to think about intestinal worms.
You mom, universe. I waslike, I think, because then
that brings to mind all kinds ofother things about the worms and where they
are in your body and how theycome out of your body. I'm like,
yeah, oh, I just thoughtit was a journey. She really

(48:22):
did. Speaking of journeys, doyou like my segues, They're always so
awkward that it was very good.Thank you. Janey and Nicole head to
the mom's gallery and they pick upthe paintings. They drop them off at
winder Wonderland, and then they decideto go get a cup of coffee and

(48:44):
start talking a little bit about Dylan, and she so Janie doesn't specifically say
about with Dylan, but she saysthat sometimes she thinks it would be nice
to have a Woodland Falls kind oflife with a husband and kids in a
slower pace. Um and she sayshere, she says, I am this

(49:07):
is what I found interesting. Shesays, I AM getting to the age
where the kid's thing is pressing.And it's the first time I can recall
a Christmas Universe woman acknowledging her age. Because this is the thing I'm having
trouble with as our favorite stars agethe way we all are. I mean,

(49:29):
that's that's how it is. There'sstill gorgeous, beautiful, there's still
room for great storylines. But theidea that they're going to have an uh
an organic you've got a natural family, it's like you're your past that.
Even even when I was looking atJill Wagner, I'm like, no,
here, you're past the age ofpressing. You're into the we're going to

(49:49):
adopt our family age now. ButI did appreciate that they that they even
mentioned that, you know, thatthey recognized that and and you know,
admitted to that. Yeah, SoI actually at that point got curious and
looked up our main actors, andJill Mager does have two very young kids.
I think they're like one and two. Oh wow. And Cameron Matheson's

(50:12):
kids, on the other hand,are sixteen and nineteen. Wow. How
about that? Wow? Okay,all right, yeah, but I thought
that was sort of interesting. Butyeah, I like that kind of moment
of um acknowledgement. I guess alittle bit of reality that is, like,
you know, we're not young womenanymore, and so this is the

(50:36):
thing that I need to think about, that we need to think about,
which it was kind of refreshing becausewe see we've seen some movies where people
are like dating for six or sevenyears with no commitment, and we're like
Clock's Chicken lady. So at leastshe knows that I agree. So so
she Nicole's like, well, youneed to talk to Charles about this,
Like do you ever talk to himabout what you actually want? And she

(50:59):
says yeah, but he always changesthe subject to the costumating kids and what
about our careers? And Nicole likeleans in really seriously and it's like,
you deserve to have the life thatyou want, which I thought was beautiful
even though it's a platitude and nottrue. You don't deserve to have the

(51:20):
life that you want, but inthe Christmas Universe you do. Little Joel
ostein for me. Yes, well, they all are like I love.
That's my favorite part of the ChristmasUniverse is when someone's like oh, like
they say something totally generic, andthen someone else is like, Wow,
that's so beautiful. I've never heardit put that way before, like like
Christmas is a time for love.You know, I never really thought about

(51:42):
it that way before. Such abeautiful sentiment. Exactly. Okay, next
morning, Janey, we know she'sloving life out here because she wakes up,
has a big stretch, and shejust has a grin on her face.
She's so happy. Dylan walks intothe house without even knocking. She's

(52:05):
making breakfast, and she's saying she'shad the best sleep of her life,
because when you spend your day doingsomething meaningful, you just sleep better.
She's really taking to the farm life. He loves country life. She loves
it, and yeah, she lovesI think she's starting to have some feelings
for a specific country boy too,But I guess we'll find out. I
guess we'll find out. You winterWonderland, by the way, starts now

(52:30):
it is kicked off. So nowforty days before Christmas, here we go.
It turns out that this is thebest ever attendance for the first day
Land ever. They are doing sowell. People are ever wow. Well
you know what I'm going I'm goingto credit her posts on scoop chatter chatter.

(52:55):
Yeah, yeah, that that reallyspread because the flys are one thing
that you know, you're just passingout the flyers around town. So the
flyers might be good for the Christmasdrive in, but I think you need
you need scoop chatter so you canreach the neighboring towns. So I assume
that those people chists who had noplace, yes, yes, well not

(53:19):
even just the chorist, but thepeople in neighboring towns who are like,
hey, what do you want todo today? Yeah? Oh well,
yeah, I heard Wooden Falls hastheir their winter land thing up again and
running. Let's go over there.Yeah exactly. So it's packed, but
nobody is going to missus Wyatt's honeybooth ghost town. It's crazy. She

(53:43):
thinks maybe it's too early in theday for honey, which Jamie thinks is
ridiculous, and frankly so do Iwho doesn't love their morning tea or on
some toast come on where yeah,we're like what the honey doesn't really have
it. It's not like whiskey orsomething where you're like, no, honey
before eleven or before eleven, likethat's your whiskey rule. Now we all

(54:07):
know when Kia starts drinking. That'sfrom COVID. Left over during COVID when
everybody was home during the when wewere quarantined and my husband was home from
work, and it was like,I mean and you remember, like the
days started just every day was thesame because there was nothing to do and
nowhere to go. And I thinkme and my husband were on day three

(54:29):
of sharing an office space and it'slike nine am and he's like, you
know what, screw it. Itgets out the whiskey anyways, So Janey
is like, I am a marketinggenius. I can fix this. She
gets some bread, it goes overthere, gets some honey, and she

(54:50):
just really loud. It's like this, honey, it's so good? Is
that Rosemary? This is amazing?And everybody hears her and is like,
I'll have what she's having over there. I know you get the honey.
It's delicious. Like this killed mebecause she was like, oh jeez,
we don't know why no one's comingover for honey. And then her big
solution to that was just to beto yell loudly. R She's like,

(55:15):
no one else could think about this. It had to be the busy businesswoman
from the big Apple. She knowsmarketing everybody, and it really involves just
yelling loudly. No one else realizedthe honey was over there until she yelled
loudly. But but the Rosemary honeysounds lovely, by the way, it
does sound good, so they didrealize. They finally realized that this is

(55:37):
why it was over there, sellingthe best honey that has ever existed in
the world apparently, and there's basicallya stampede now everybody wants the honey.
People cannot get over how good itwas because all she had to do was
speak loudly. All she had todo was speak loudly. That's it.
And they're like, tomorrow is goingto be an even better day. It

(55:58):
went her wonderland. This is goingto be incredible. She goes home on
this total winter wonderland high a honeyhigh, maybe even I don't, And
she realizes if there's this weird LosAngeles ornament on her tree, Charles has
just come right into the house,creeper weird ornament on the tree, and

(56:20):
he's like surprised, and she's like, oh, yeah, great to see
you. So he tells her thatwhen he was out in Los Angeles,
of course, because all he ever, he never thinks about Janey except what
money she can make him. Hetells somebody about the farm and all the
land and gets her an offer froma condo developer to raise the farm put

(56:43):
in some generic big city type condos, ruin the mood, and he's like,
I don't understand why you would needto think about this, because she's
like, just let me think aboutit, and he's like, why I
don't. I don't really get it. That's what I said, Well,
that's what I said to myself.Why does she need to think about it?

(57:04):
The answer is obviously no, LikeUncle Randall left you this firm,
and yes, I know his notesaid that I'll understand whatever you want to
do with it. But does shereally think that Uncle Randall meant burn the
whole thing down and put up abunch of condos in the middle of our
small town. No he did not, No, he did not. And
she had me there. Think abouthow big she was smiling when she woke

(57:27):
up this morning. She likes itthere. Yeah, come on, Janey,
what happens to the guest house.You're just gonna tear that down exactly.
So, now Dylan is homeless andunemployed. Good job, condos don't
have guest houses. No no,So he's like, listen, I'm gonna
stay through the end of the festivalwith you, and then it's time to

(57:49):
get back to our regular lives.And oh, all right. So they're
having this awkward conversation and meanwhile,Janey is being a little sister and kind
of teasing Dylan about how much Chinese'sbeen spending with Janie. Oh um,
the sister Nicole, Nicole, Nicole, so Nicole. Sorry, it's teasing

(58:10):
Dylan about how much Chinese spending withwith Janie and like, you obviously are
having feelings for her, And hesays he's kind of honest. He's like,
listen, I do I enjoy spendingtime with her. I like her
a lot. But the festival isover in two days and then she's leaving,
and like, I get it,that is an insurmountable obstacle. I'm
probably the end of the movie's backwith Charlie. I don't see how they're

(58:34):
working out real life, and it'sjust going to be over for them.
So these days, it seems likeeverybody's talking, but no one is actually
listening to the things they're saying.Critical thinking isn't dead, but it's definitely
low on oxygen. Join me KiaDavis on Jeff Listen to Yourself every week
as we reason through issues big andsmall, critique our own ideas, and

(58:58):
learn to draw our talking points allthe way out to their logical conclusions.
Subscribe to Just Listen to Yourself withKia Davis, an FCB radio podcast on
Apple, on Spotify, iHeart,or wherever you get your podcasts. But
the next day, oh, sheand Dylan, it's here's another one of
these things that we enjoy. Wherethey eat are like I was going to

(59:20):
tell you, No, I havesomething to tell you. So he wants
to tell her that he has feelingsfor her, because Nicole's like, you
might as well just tell her,and she wants to tell him that she
has an offer on the farm.But he's like, I got you a
present. Open your present first.She's holding this present and Charles appears with
hot cider, and I love ahot cider. So I appreciated that it's

(59:43):
the only decent And so at thispoint she tells Dylan about the offer and
he's like, I think that youshould just go home to New York.
I fluff in my hair. Sorry, you should just go home to New
York and I will finish Winter Wonderland. It's just time for you to go

(01:00:05):
home. Mm. So she saysgoodbye to the yep. She signs the
paperwork. She gives them to Sydneyand he's like, I'll hold down to
these for a few days and letyou think. She's like, no,
just mail him. It's none.But then he said yeah, but he
says, conveniently, U, youhave to tell January first. Basically you
change your mind, that's when I'llgive it to the buyers. So,

(01:00:28):
yeah, you know, apropos ofnothing just in case in case. Yeah,
And I also appreciated that business getsdone with paper in the mail.
In Woodland Falls, they weren't gonnalike scan it an email back to the
other people. They're going to putit in the mail. Good for them,
Yeah, I don't think you cando business over scoop chatter, which
I imagine is the only form ofInternet that they really have. And maybe

(01:00:51):
Christmas. Yeah. So she headsback to New York City. She's pretty
sad. She totally misses the pieceand quiet of Woodland Falls. Her boyfriend
was like, it's morning, buthe's there, but he just stepped iied
to bring her breakfast. He donot think he spent the night. And

(01:01:12):
she's no, like, he's great, big farm breakfast with eggs and who
knows what else. And he bringsher like a yogurt smoothie something and she's
like, oh healthy. Yeah.Well, so she's in the city and
Dylan is kind of miserable out inWoodland Falls and he runs into Sydney and

(01:01:34):
Sydney's like, yeah, I'm juston my way to mail the paperwork for
um Janey, and Dylan says,man, I hope she was not regret
doing that. So Sydney then justkind of doesn't know what to think.
He doesn't know what to think,Jane, I don't know, but Sydney
is a wise black man, sohe will come to the right decision.

(01:01:57):
I truly believe this. Yeah,this is his purpose. Yep, Sidneil,
fix everything. You don't know whatto do. Yeah. Back in
the Big City, Janey is distraught, to say the least, because it
turns out that her new product isn'tactually Dinosaur Energy drinks. It's Dinosaur Energy
drinks for kids. It's there becausewhat every kid needs to be more harder,

(01:02:22):
more sugar, more sugar, morecaffeine. That's exactly what every kid
needs. Yeah, exactly what everychild needs. And she's just kind of
like, why am I even inthis business? I'm like pushing junk to
kids? Now, this is thisis not for me. So she doesn't
know, she doesn't know what tothink. Um, But she opens up

(01:02:43):
her gift from Dylan, and itwas a bunch of like Winter Wonderland stuff,
including a framed picture of her withRandall at Winter Wonderland when she was
a child that I guess he stolefrom her house, and and the letter,
which I don't know how he got. It's just around. It was
just sitting around. She just leftthis one last letter from her beloved great

(01:03:05):
uncle sitting there. But he framedit so that was nice. So she
loves her picture or her present.Um it's way better than the post a
postmodern way way better. Um So, now she has to tell Charles that
she's had an epiphany, if youwill, and she tells him that Woodland

(01:03:28):
Falls is what makes her happy,and so he needs to figure out what
makes him happy. She knows that'snot her, but she's like, I
want you to be happy. It'snot us. You want to be in
the city with like a career girl. I want to go be a farm
girl and pop out some babies withDylan. She doesn't say that part,
but very quickly, yeah, veryquickly. Yeah, time's chicken. And

(01:03:52):
um He's like it, can't believeyou're throwing everything away. She goes,
I'm not throwing anything away. I'mrebranding a clever clever He's still the marketing
girl. Um so she so.Now we see her driving back, I'll
say that I'm sorry it is umit was a fairly amicable breakup, like

(01:04:17):
they all are in Christmas Land.And I always appreciate this. This is
the one thing no one ever goesaway with really hard feelings. Ye in
Christmas Land. He's not going togo on scoop chatter and rant about her.
No, no, no, it'sjust we're we're at different places in
our lives. We tried to makeit work. It didn't work out,
but I think the best of you. Yeah, we wish each other all

(01:04:39):
the good things. But yeah,but no, it's not it's just not
us. We're not the right it'snot us. Yeah. Um. So
she's driving back up to Woodland Falls, trying to get up there, listening
to Christmas carols, and she leavesa voicemail for Sydney being like, please
don't mail the papers. Oh mygosh, I hope it's not too late,
And we're just left wondering if Sydney'smailed the papers, we I don't

(01:05:00):
know. It could be over.She could not even have a house to
go back to. She could begoing back for a man who was unemployed
and homeless. Maybe they're all goingto go move in with Nicole because I
don't know if her husband's coming homeand she has some ski now what what
if her husband is the condo developerand he is out the build condos areas,

(01:05:23):
that's why he's traveling. He wasout in La doing deals. No,
he was out in some other Christmasland, small town raising their their Christmas
probably somewhere with Candice camera beret.That's probably his boss exactly. Um so

(01:05:44):
as she's she's just trying to getto Christmasland, to Woodland Falls. She's
in Christmasland, Yeah, because shewants Winter Wonderland. There we go.
What I was trying to say.Yeah, he wants to talk to Dylan,
she wants to talk to Sydney.She needs to get all this figured
out. But she gets pulled over. Oh no, what a bummer.
Worst time ever. Is she gonnaget out of this? I don't know,
but guess what it was Nicole herbhut up, No way it was.

(01:06:10):
It was totally Nicole. And she'slike, I will give you a
police escort to Winter Wonderland because it'sabout to close, you know, last
day, it's almost over police escort, which seems like a misuse of taxpayer
money and of police you know,authority, but I liked it. Well
what else is she doing in thattown? He did take a comment earlier
on like there's no crime here,and she, of course she's like,

(01:06:32):
well there's a reason for that.But they don't quite believe that. Nicole
with her ninety five pounds self islike cleaning up crime and Woodland Hills but
Wooden Falls. But um, anyways, yeah, there's not much. There's
obviously not much crime going on intown, so why not. Everybody's at
Winter Wonderland anyway, so she mightas well be there see if any crime

(01:06:55):
happens. The only crime is thatdelicious honey? Am I right? Hey?
Oh? So back at Winter Wonderland, Gracie is so excited she sold
out of cookies. She's raised somuch money for her school. And what
was she charging for the cookies?Thirty dollars a cookie? It's um,

(01:07:18):
yeah, exactly thirty dollars a cookie. Um, I'm trying to remember.
It was in wasn't it in umthe drive in where they were talking about
how making the little Snowman cake popsit would cost thirty cents, but you
can sell them for two dollars.So yes, yeah, maybe she maybe
she learned something from Danica Um.Dylan, though he Gracie's talking to him,

(01:07:41):
he doesn't He's not hearing anything becausehe is just zoned out, being
miserable that Janey's gone, and Gracienails it. She's like, are you
thinking about Janey and he's like,no, yes, Gracie, I know
I was like mine John business kid. Yes, as we need the precocious
child. Yeah. So they havea nice little hug and he's like,

(01:08:04):
well, it's five o'clock or whatevertime it is. Winter Wonderland's over.
I'm just gonna go give a littleclosing speech. So he gets up there
and he starts telling everybody, youknow, thanks for coming, I love
this community, blah blah blah.And then he's about to say that this
is just one last Winter Wonderland becausenext year it's going to be Gondo's and
Janey comes running in and she interrupts, and she gives this big speech about

(01:08:30):
how much she loves the town andhow one person in particular is so special
to her and ps it's Dylan thatshe's referring to, and so they have
this big moment and they talk andshe's like, I got you at Christmas
present too, and they he opensit up and it's mistletoe, and they

(01:08:55):
in front of the whole clown watchinga make out in front of his knees.
It was probably it was a prettythat it was one of the raunchier
kisses I've seen Christmas Universe. Itwas a steamy Christmas kiss. It was
a soap opera kiss, to besure. I was like, at one
point I was looking at the littlegirl, Gracie, and I was like,

(01:09:15):
oh my gosh, she like cuther eyes and then her mom covered
her exactly. But the whole town'swatching, missus. Why the honey lady?
Everybody? Everybody likes it. Andso then as they're walking so they
you know, to hold hands.They're leaving Window Wonderland together and she says,
we've got ourselves a farm. SoI was like, oh, okay.
They're like they're just like officially togetherand they are, you know,

(01:09:40):
partners, and and she says she'sgonna go. She has h as she
told her boyfriend or X. Nowshe has rebranded herself. She wants to
do social media marketing for the localbusinesses to help them, you know,
get into like, you know,the honey people. She you know,

(01:10:02):
she loved the product, but theyjust didn't have enough publicity. So she
wants to use her skill set,um, you know, help promoting local
businesses. So it's she's not reallyabandoning her career, but she is making
an adjustment and I liked it.And you know, give me the crossover

(01:10:23):
movie where she goes and helps thedrive in. Yes, ye, give
me that chatter. Yeah, andyou'll go to I'm assuming it's just the
next town over, go to thedrive in and use your magic there.
They could they could use They didsave the drive in. But I do

(01:10:43):
think they could use her help inthe future. Absolutely absolutely. And but
you know, the two of them, if they go to the drive in,
they're just going to make out inthe car. Yeah, grows in
the same car. I guess it'sbetter than the same room. This is
the other reason why you have tohave a guest house in the Christmas universe.
Do you have to have the peopleclose proximity so they can have lots

(01:11:05):
of interaction, But you definitely don'twant them, you know, in the
same house. No, God forbid, the same bed. I remember there's
one movie we did. I thinkit was the guest House movie where they
were on the couch. They reallylike skirted the rules. They were on
the couch together because of the storm. But he but it was a very

(01:11:27):
very like uh cartoonishly large couch withL shaped so he was on one side,
right, Yeah, yeah, well, they got their happy ending.
They did that. That was theygot their merry Christmas wish. We did.
We got a lot of the tropes. I think there was a couple

(01:11:49):
of so many tropes. Uh,there are a couple of things missing.
We really didn't get somebody falling offsomething and being caught tripping and being hot.
Um Uh does Grace a count asa precocious child? I think she
was supposed to be. She wasa little on the older edge end of

(01:12:11):
precocious child. A yeah, butum, I think she was supposed to
be, especially like when she calledout Dylan for like we know that you're
into Janey. That was m yeah, that's when I's like, okay,
qualify as precocious of misunderstanding that couldbe cleared up with just a simple conversation.
Not really. There wasn't a veryfun baking montage either. Somebody no

(01:12:34):
one got flower on their face.No, you know, on their nose.
But it wasn't. No, itwas like a struggle session stroke kind
right right. But there was youknow, Christmas tree decorating and you know
the Christmas deadline, the busy businesswoman. Honestly, this is this is like

(01:12:56):
classic Christmas Universe movie right here.This is is you know, old school
Hallmark flavor, right down to themnot living together and making sure we know
that they're not living together. Yea, which again the same room. Yeah.
No, I really appreciated it becausewe did the Prince in Paradise movie
and those two were planning on vacationingvacationing together and he ended up taking his

(01:13:25):
Tiffany his girlfriend, and they Imean, I'm assuming they stayed in a
room. It felt they must handloussweet obviously. I think that's the only
way that it works. I thinkit's the only way it can work.
Well, I really, I reallyenjoyed it. Um, well done,
great American, you nailed it.M Can you think of a better name

(01:13:48):
for the social media platform and Christmasin the Christmas Universe? Right? This
one is scoop chatter. I kindof scoop is such a weird. Yeah,
but I actually I think scoop isalmost a better name for it than
scoop chatter. Yeah, Scoop.I had Cozy Cozy Book, Cozy Book.

(01:14:09):
I put this on cozy Book.Yeah. I like that because nobody's
like getting on weird political rants withyour uncle. No, no, nobody
talking about well maybe no, theremight be a bit of controversy about hot
chocolate versus hot cider. True,we might get some of those scream yeah,

(01:14:30):
and that's what's like broken up somefamilies. And you know that um
on cozy book all the husbands andwives sharing account right right, they all
have joint accounts as a show oftrust. Exactly. Absolutely. Um.

(01:14:53):
I was wondering if we have youever seen this? I don't think I've
ever seen this. Would we everget a movie where the small town person
goes to the big city and fallsin love with the big city and decides
to stay in the big city.Okay, so a few years ago,
probably probably like five years ago now, there was a Hallmark one I'm trying
to reb what it was called,where they did one of those house swaps

(01:15:15):
and like a country and a cityperson swap houses and they each film love
with somebody kind of um, likein the Holiday you know where one goes
to London. Yeah, one goesto Los Angeles and ones in like the
country outside of London. Anyway,So there was one like that, But
I'm trying, I'm trying to remember. I feel like he just takes her
home to the country with him,and they, like all four of them

(01:15:39):
just end up in this country.I don't remember. Yeah, it's like,
uh yeah, I don't think I'veseen it, and I don't know
if you can do it. It'sfor the same reason that you just can't
have like a Christmas Universe movie setin Los Angeles really or on the beach.
It's not the same. There's somethingabout the formula that says you've got

(01:16:00):
it's the small town that is anothercharacter. Like you know in Sex in
the City, how there was likeNew York is the fifth characters in Christmas
Universe. The small town is thethird character, third main character. Yea,
all right, well, I thoroughlyenjoyed this movie. And uh yeah,

(01:16:25):
as we say, well done,great American. Let us know what
you think you could write us ata very Merry podcast at gmail dot com,
right, yes, right, Andwhat's our social media's We are a
very Merry podcast on Facebook and Instagramand a very merry pod on Twitter.
And we're really excited because we've justhired a social media manager, so we

(01:16:47):
are going to be able to bea little more up to date with our
social media Right now, Amelia hasbeen doing a great job just updating it
when you can. But we bothhave full time jobs and so it's really
hard after that. And yeah,we're like, yes, we're intended contractors.
So it's uh, there's like fulltime jobs, there's part time jobs,

(01:17:11):
there's side gigs, and then there'spodcasts. Yeah, yeah, it's
it's it's a lot of work andit's really hard. And we don't even
have a scoop Chatter account. Somaybe yeah, we'll we'll see follow us.
We'll really have to get one.Let us know, though, what
you think. You can hit usup on any of those social media accounts
and let us know what you thoughtof of this movie, and particularly some

(01:17:34):
of the things that tickle us themost, like the fact that these people
don't live together and they clearly don'teven really vacation in the same rooms.
We love that, um, tellus what you think about that. And
we're really excited to help grow thispodcast with it by focusing on you the
audience for a minute. So we'relooking forward to bringing on our social media

(01:17:57):
person and having more engagement from you. Guys. Amelia, it's time to
go, yes, But until wemeet again, I wish you days filled
with Rosemary Honey. I wish youmoments where you find the real snow in
the soap bubbles that is so deep. Actually, that's really all right.

(01:18:21):
I'm merry Christmas. I'm merry Christmas. Now. This is the FCB Podcast Network