December 8, 2023 • 69 mins
The gals kick off the season with Christmasland favs Paul Greene and Jill Wagner in Bringing Christmas Home from GAF. What do secret WWII codes, Santa Claus and strange little girls all have in common? There’s only one way to find out. All aboard! Next Stop - Christmasland!
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Episode Transcript
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(00:01):
This is the FCB Podcast Network.Hey everybody, Merry Christmas. Welcome back
to another episode of a very Merrypodcast. I'm your host Kara Davis,
(00:24):
and I am here with my lovelyand very mary co host Amelia Hamilton.
Amelia, how are you doing today? Doing well? Well? We are
in it. We are in theheat of Christmas viewing the movie we did
today. I made my whole familysit down to watch it the other night,
(00:44):
so we have fun watching it andlet's just get right into it.
But before we get started, Ido want to say that making a movie
is hard, and whether it's acheesy Christmas movie or Christopher Nolan production,
there's a lot of work goes intoit. So we always recognize that the
people who make these films work hardand there's so much that goes into it.
(01:06):
And so when we, you know, do these podcasts, it's all
in love. It's all in goodfun. So congratulations on creating a feature
film and completing it, and thanksfor letting us have fun with it.
All right, Amelia, let's getgoing. What's our movie this week?
We watched this week Great Americans BringingChristmas Home. It was a new one
(01:29):
for this year. Our first newone this season, starring Paul Green and
Jill Wagner, a couple of favoritesof ours, and when it first started,
I was I was all in,like right from the beginning, because
it was Silent Night was playing ratedG popped up on the screen. Great
American was like Great American, Welcomehome, and I was like, heck,
(01:52):
yeah, we are. We arehomes. Love it when they start
out with a traditional religious out thesong. I think that's so. I
mean, it shouldn't be that notableanymore, but it is. That was
one of the first things we noticedwhen we kind of made the switch to
Great American. We were like,they played Christmas songs, not holiday songs,
and not just sort of generic justmusic, but they played Christmas songs.
(02:15):
So they started playing Silent Night,and I was like, I snuggled
a little extra into my blanket andI was like, let's go. The
only thing I don't like about isthat sometimes in these movies on Great American,
they they like the ring characters willslow dance to a Christmas song,
and I think that's kind of weird. You don't need to get romantic about
it. But they didn't. Idon't remember all right, so we started
(02:40):
out, that's right to interrupt,but we do love these two. We
love Jill Wagner. She's a favoriteof ours absolutely, and some of you
might remember Jill from wipe Out.She used to host Wipeout on ABC,
so if that helps you get amental picture. But yeah, we love
these are these guys are veterans.Absolutely, we love them. All right,
(03:04):
So we start. We meet Russell, who is our male lead.
Right at the beginning, he isover at a friend's house and you know,
kind of older woman, I meanolder than him, not like an
older woman, and she is cleaningout her aunt, Sarah's barn. She
basically she just has to clean outall this junk and she is just selling
(03:25):
it by the box, get ridof this stuff. So we get,
you know, we get kind ofa little bit of background on him.
You know, he just he's andhe's going to resell it. Okay,
So then we need to meet thefemale lead, and they start by showing
her diplomas on the wall. Sheis Caroline uped In. She's got a
master's in military history and a doctorateof history. She is a military veteran
(03:46):
and she is grading papers talking toa student. So we know that she
is a history teacher, a teacherof military history, and she has as
on a believe she is because she'salso a busy businesswoman. Yes she's wearing
so we know she's a very serious, busy businesswoman. Which where's the hole?
(04:08):
I know? And I think thatRussell was wearing flannel, so he
is the hometown, small town avest like a jacket, yeah exactly.
So we also find out that sheis waiting to hear about a fellowship in
England, so we already know whatthe conflict's going to be. And I
(04:30):
wonder when she'll have to have theanswer by to right go there, right,
And I was also thinking to myself, I bet she's going to be
really upfront with the guy and justlet him know from the beginning that she's
got this potential job in England.She's just going to let him know right
away. Yeahs total sense. Andobviously, and obviously she's got to do
(04:54):
this right before Christmas because, asyou know, most brand new jobs begin
on Christmas Eve, right, especiallysomething in education, because that's when the
school year works. Yeah, yeah, yeah exactly. So he owns an
antique store called Past Presence, whichI actually thought was a cute pun,
(05:14):
so I enjoyed that it was good. So he is at the antique store
with his sister and they're going throughit and they find an old World War
Two uniform with a love letter insidefrom Alice to Orin, and he's immediately
like, well, we got tofind them and return it to them by
(05:34):
Christmas, arbitrary deadline. I likedit. I mean, now we have
two arbitrary deadlines right right. Wehave this job offer and we have this
letter the owner needs to be found, which my daughter found hilarious. She
was like, surely he's dead.I mean we're getting to the point where
(05:55):
World War two veterans, I meanhe might be alive. So yeah,
well she thinks that I was alivein nineteen fifties. Then that was an
interesting conclusion for her to draw.So you remember when she was like six
years old and she met our friendWendy, who is like the tallest woman
I know, And she thought Wendywas sixty five because she was so tall.
(06:21):
Yeah, obviously, like obviously youyou you grow keep getting taller.
Well, you are not very tall, so now you've even more confused that
she thinks you're one hundred and twentyone, Amelia, I thought you knew
this. I'm just saying there area lot of conflicting conflicting there's a lot
of conflicting data going into her calculationshere. So so Russell decides that he
(06:46):
has to find Orin and so whathe does. He has a first and
last name from Slutter, so hetypes it into one online search and then
he's like, well, that didn'twork. So he goes immediately to a
military form that he just knows exists, and he's like, does anyone know
how to find this guy? Theend, it was so funny because he
was like, with his that washis sister, right, yeah, it's
(07:10):
with his sister. And he's like, we've got to do research. So
his big research was the Google searchand then he's like, let's go on
a military forum type type type.He literally, I would have to research
the military forum first. Yeah,you'd have to google where the forum is.
He did one search just of theguy's name, and then he went
to the straight to this military forum. Knew exactly where to post I was.
(07:34):
There was this register. He didn'tdo anything and he really didn't have
to confirm his email. Nope,he knew exactly what to do. One
military one search, and he waslike, well be for him. I
mean at that point I would havejust gone straight to the forum, Like
why bother searching the guy's name ifthat's what you were going to do.
But obviously, but that line,but that is what because I know how
(07:57):
I'm pretty sure how your commentary isgoing to go. But that is what
is substituted for action in this movie. Yeah. So Caroline obviously is on
the is in the same military forum, and she lives in the same town.
So she's like, listen, here'sthe thing. I can tell a
few things, you know, fromthe insignia and the different you know,
(08:20):
a war, you know, metalsand things that he has, so I
can help a little bit. Youhave to understand that it's very possible he
did not come home. But wecan, we can, you know,
I can have a look. I'mlocal, so let's meet up and if
you can bring the uniform, wecan grab a cup of coffee and look.
So they do meet up and havea cup of coffee and she's like,
(08:46):
okay, oh before this, sorry, we see her house the night
before, super sparse, no Christmasspirit, lack of Christmas spirit, and
we find out when she so,you know, busy business, no Christmas
spirit. It's important, that's veryimportant. And you know, we're going
(09:07):
to find out a little bit moreof course about that down the road,
because you know, who do hasChristmas spirit? Who does have a Christmas
spirit? Russell obviously. So afterthey have coffee, he we find out
that she has just retired as anintelligence officer in the military, and he's
just like, why, why'd youretire? What happened? She's like,
(09:31):
and she just says something like notevery injury requires stitches, and he's like,
what happened alde she? Obviously?This is one thing I did appreciate
about this movie. It definitely wasa Christmas Land attempt at you know,
just talking about PTSD in the lightestof terms that you can't and I appreciated
(09:56):
the I actually appreciated the approach tothe subject matter because it didn't wasn't hitting
you over the head with victimhood,but it was sort of no, I
just a surface level look of whatpeople might have to deal with. So
but yeah, I I gave Russella pass because he's a history buff and
(10:16):
so I was thinking like, well, he just wants to know like the
military intelligence and intelligent. Yeah,people, it's really it's actually you shouldn't
press veterans about their experiences because alot of their experiences are very private and
very traumatizing. And she just saidmove on. She didn't want to talk
about it. But anyway, soall right, now we get to see
(10:41):
Russell's house or apartment, which isin the back of the antique store.
Now, this man has all theChristmas spirit. I wrote down a couple
of little notes about it. Hehas a wrath on his fridge, yes,
I said to Ruby. I waslike, he has a recon he
(11:03):
has garland under his cabinets. Goodjob, Russell. Way to bring the
Christmas spirit to your kitchen. Itpuked all over the apartment. I mean
there wasn't one inch of that apartment. I actually said to my family when
my husband and daughter when we werewatching, I was like, you know
(11:24):
what my dream job would be setdecorator for Christmas Land movies. It's easy.
It's got to be easy. Youjust get all of the Christmas stuff
you can find and then put itup everywhere. Yeah, yeah, absolutely
everywhere. All right. Caroline meanwhilehas this guy who used to who used
(11:46):
to work for her, he doesnot anymore. He's still in the military.
His name is Alton, and sohe's helping her look through some more
official channels and he found that Ornwas captured on Christmas Eve, the year
that this letter was written. Ithink it was nineteen forty one, and
that's as far as he's found.But he is still researching too, So
keep Alton in mind as we gothrough this movie, and Caroline and Russell
(12:11):
are going to continue their research.By the way, at the library.
The library, Okay, they werelooking at books, at books. So
while they're at the library, theyrealize that he has a foreign medal from
France. He's done something heroic inFrance and that's rare. So it's a
lead good for them. And asthey are enjoying this lead, they look
(12:35):
at each other. Their eyes meetacross a book that's on paper in a
public library, and there does notcompute. I guess you have to do
it that way because it's really hardto have an eye lock moment over a
laptop screen. And I love theidea of them sitting down together at a
(12:56):
table and opening books, like actuallylooking. You could literally just I mean,
we are. We've already seen thatRussell is a master at computer research.
You know, he could put beforein two seconds, so they could
literally just type in the phrase they'relooking for. But but no better.
He's got his autumn winter vest on. She's got her blazer on. Yeah,
(13:22):
they're looking at traditional books during atraditional Christmas time. They did get
it? Where are we? Oh? Caroline goes to his house for dinner
that night, and she is callingAlton to help her pick out an outfit,
which seemed like an interesting choice tome, but that where I was
(13:43):
like, Amelia, Okay, So, first of all, I want to
say about Alton cutie pie, socute he was actually, let's get him
in a leading man role next Christmas. Yeah, I he was very easy
on the eyes. The second ofall, when she called him over to
help her pick up an outfit outan outfit, my husband Mark was like,
(14:05):
oh, is that her gay friend? And I'm like, I don't
think so, because this is greatAmerican. Yeah, I think it's just
my friend, but I wasn't sure, so I was kind of like waiting
for the other shoot to drop.And then later on there's a development.
Yeah, we're like, no,that's not the gay BFF. I was
like, I don't think Great Americais going to do a gay BFF.
So that made it even odd moreodd that he would come over to her.
(14:26):
Yeah, and then I was like, is he like like a brother,
but like not that I call mybrothers for outfit advice. Like,
the whole thing was very confusing.Yeah, I didn't understand that. And
he's all like, oh, you'vegot a date. Like the whole thing
was very and she's like, isthat a date? And I just want
to look nice? It was.It was very strange. I thought the
relationship was very strange. Maybe maybethat character was a woman at one point
(14:48):
and then they decided it was toomuch female energy. I have no idea,
but yeah, I was like,this feels odd. They at least
they didn't need to bring him overfor the outfit picking. Without that,
it was I think a pretty normalrelationship. Like they were just close.
You know, they had served togetherand they were close. I mean,
(15:09):
I don't recall anything else being weirdat the moment, but no, that
was a notable moment. I didnotice it in the movie. I'm like,
oh, here we go. Yeah, all right, So Russell tells
Caroline later that he and Jewels that'shis sister, had been foster kids together,
so I also kind of liked thatlittle mention. And they were adopted,
(15:33):
you know, by their foster parents, and she talks about being deployed
at Christmas and how that can behard. So they kind of share a
little bit about their history, butpretty much whenever he tries to ask her
about her past, she sort ofturns it around and wants to hear about
his, so she doesn't really wantto talk about it. And the next
(15:56):
day they do get a little bitof a lead from Alton and they find
a guy who served with him,so they go meet with him and he
lives ten hours away, which myfamily was like so tickled this whole movie,
how everything was one hour or twohours or a two hour drive or
one hour drive from where they were. Every time somebody said let's go get
(16:18):
something. My daughter was like,it's only a two hour drive. Right
in like eighty years, nobody's reallymoved. So he doesn't really know what
happened to Orrin. They lost touch, but he does have an old photo
of the of him and he sayshis friend, what's his name Simon.
I think was it Simon or wasit Silas? Anyway, at the VFW
(16:41):
can probably help because he can justfind anything. He doesn't really explain what
this guy's skill set is, buthe's like, he can help is he
has a certain skill set. Christmaslands Lea Mason. So I thought it
was hilarious because this actor was likesixty five years old. I thought so
(17:03):
too. I'm like, wait,what this guy was probably in Vietnam right
right? I was like, couldn'tI have at least found someone who's old,
Like I know, they can't,maybe get somebody who's old enough to
have served for World War Two?But come on, anyway, So it's
kind of cute. They go tothe VFW and they're having like a forties
theme fundraiser, so everybody's sort ofdressed for World War two era and they
(17:29):
have a little dance in another littlemoment, and she's still She's still in
a friggin blazer. She is stillshe is dressed. Problem with Jill Wagner's
wardrobe in this movie because she's oneof my We were texting back and forth
while we were watching, and Iwas saying, she's one of my favorites
me too, especially I think asI get older, like I really appreciate
(17:52):
like how gorgeous she is maturing.Yeah, And I don't know, I
think she's a beautiful woman. AndI just I under seeing that they wanted
to make her you know, she'smilitary, she's not necessarily very feminine,
but I just I didn't care forthe wardrobe. She was too gorgeous for
Yeah, and they could have toldher story a little bit through the wardrobe,
(18:15):
like had her loosen up a littlebit, but oh, yeah,
you're absolutely right, and they andthey never did. And I think also
it was at this point in themovie where I noticed that her hair changed
all of a sudden, it gotreally blonde and it looked really fake.
And then I was like, whatis going on with her hair? But
you were like, oh, sheprobably had to wear a wig because she
(18:36):
was filming another film. Probably somewherein the middle of all that she had
short hair, she had a cover. But it's a job that I noticed.
I'm like, wait, what justhappened that they changed wigs or whatever
whatever they did. But so Silasappears and they have to go talk to
him, they need to get theirlead whatever his skill is. They need
to find it. So they showSilas the photo that they got from the
(18:59):
guy that he served with. Andso I thought it was kind of interesting
because the photo was dated nineteen fortyone, which means it was probably before
Pearl Harbor because that wasn't until theend of nineteen forty one. So,
I mean, I know, wewere Americans were still doing stuff, you
know, to help before we officiallyentered. But I thought that was sort
of an interesting choice. Anyway,Amelia Hamilton, history expert. Everybody y'all
(19:23):
thought you were just tuning in fora little Christmas fun, but we're giving
you historical lessons. Americans were doingstuff, were ninety stuff. You're a
welcome, you're welcome, warners,we were doing well. I just think
that that's cute. That's such anAmelia thing to notice, right the date
on that, Like, I'm notsure. Actually I paused and I was
(19:47):
like, I went back. Iwas like, did they say nineteen forty
one? They just say nineteen Ididn't even notice, but now I'm educated.
I was like, that is aninteresting choice all about it. So
he is looking at the weapons they'reholding, and the weapon is a clue
and it sends them onto another youknow, trail. So he sends them
(20:12):
to a guy he knows named PeterKitchen Master. I was like, really
preach 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
(20:33):
low on oxygen. Join me KiraDavis on Just Listen to Yourself every week
as we reason through issues big andsmall, critique our own ideas, and
learn to draw our talking points allthe way out to their logical conclusions.
Subscribe to Just Listen to Yourself withKira Davis and FCB Radio podcast on Apple,
on Spotify, iHeart, or whereveryou get your podcasts. Who knows
(20:57):
a lot of He knows a lotabout m i As. That's that's the
That's all you need to know.That's it. I don't know what Silas
has a certain set of skills atthe VFW, and Peter knows a lot
about missing an action potus and allyou need to know about the Christmas Land
(21:21):
details of a mister And we doknow, we do know that Orrin had
been captured with that other, withthe guy that they had gone to visit.
They had been captured together and that'swhen they were separated and they kind
of had lost touch, all right, So now we need to find Peter
kitchen master. Next day, Russell, Caroline, and Russell's sister Jules go
(21:45):
to some you know, diner forbreakfast and they meet up with Peter,
who was dressed as Santa just becausejust because, well you need a Santa's
Christmas movie, Yeah, And hehas found an address for Orrin and Alice's
grandchildren, and so Jules is like, why don't you call first instead of
(22:15):
just going And they're like, well, there's no two. And they're like,
well there's no number. And Iwas like, well again, with
your incredible research skills, you couldlook it up. And if you're talking
about the grandchildren, they could again, you know, look it up or
scoop chatter. They're probably on scoopchatter. If this is the grandchildren,
(22:37):
I can't believe that no one eventried scoop seems weird. It seems weird
to me. So but they decidethat it's not going to be weird to
show up because they'll just bring agift. And I thought, exactly,
they're bringing this uniform, they bringa piece of family history. No,
what they mean is they're going togo to the antique store and bring a
(23:00):
different gift. Right, because intwenty twenty three, people love it when
strangers just stop by their house withoutit so much as a text or a
phone call. Yeah, but Imean, if somebody I would have thought
that the uniform was the gift.I didn't think that you needed to go
get a gift to present a giftto someone. Okay, here me out.
(23:25):
It's Christmas lamp okay, and soyou know, gifts upon gifts feel
pretty normal. That's not a gift. That's like returning something. They're not
giving it to them, right,but you you don't want to go empty
handed, so you have another Christmasgift. That's how I watched it all
Right. On the way they stopfor a stolen stolen however, and he
(23:52):
asks her about her favorite Christmas confection. Well, she's not going to get
that personal either, so so pleasedon't. Yeah, it was just I
mean, and obviously the answer ishot chocolate and Christmas Land. It couldn't
have been that hard for her.She should have just done that. Like
I understand not wanting to talk aboutChristmas when she was deployed and stuff.
(24:15):
But she did not want to talkabout Christmas cookies either. Please. She
really didn't want to get personal atall. Now here's what I have to
say about this. These two actors, they have a lot of chemistry,
and I don't know what the relationshipis like in real life, if they're
like good friends, because they've donea lot of work together over the years.
But you can tell that they're verycomfortable with each other on screen.
(24:38):
And so I just I felt likethey didn't tap into that heat enough.
And I used the term heat verylightly, great American heat, like they
had a peck on the cheek beforethe end of the movie, that kind
of heat. Yeah. So theyfinally get to the house and those people
(25:03):
don't live there anymore, the grandchildren. So the owner's like, I think
I do have a forwarding address orsome kind of information. So so the
owner woman goes to find like herold file of house junk from when they
bought it. This little girl popsout of nowhere who looks like Greta Thunberg.
She's just got two braids in herhair and like these overalls on or
(25:29):
she looks like a where she couldbe a character in the Conjuring universe.
I thought she looked like Greta Tumber, so maybe she was like a little
haunted environmental. I don't know whatshe was. She freaked me out,
she was I was not okay withthis child. She scared me. I
(25:52):
didn't like her. No, shelike me. And Ruby were like,
oh, she looks like she shouldbe in the Conjuring Yeah, okay,
Well, Ruby, you your teenageris a lot braver than I am.
I do not watch horror movies,so so my brain went somewhere else entirely.
But you know how we do.You know how, we're a big
horror movie. But at least wecan all agree she was. We were
(26:15):
all it's a no from all ofus. It was jarring. Her presence
was very jarring. Yes, sothey do not have a phone number or
anything from this the previous owner.But she does have the previous owner's son's
email. Do you have the previousowner's son's email from your house or you
(26:37):
know? No? And the otherthing I don't have is printed emails.
Right. She took a piece ofpaper out. She's like, oh,
I still have this email. Iwas like, wow, wow, Okay,
she printed out her emails. Maybepeople do that. Yeah, so
I don't know. Yeah, andChristmas lean but no, I do not,
(27:00):
No girl, I couldn't even tellyou who my last doctor was.
Yeah, but I just thought ofall the stuff to have, like in
your mortgage paperwork, even if theprevious owner's email, there might be a
reason for that to be in there. I don't know why. But his
son why. I guess maybe ifyou passed away, then maybe the sun
was doing the pa. I don'tknow, maybe it's about it, but
(27:22):
it was Weirdjali with the estate forwhatever reason. She's got the owner son's
email and she has it on aprinting on paper. His name is Griffin,
by the way, if anybody's curious, right, and then and then
she keeps in a very special place. Yeah, and the little haunted Greta
Dunberg wants the gift, by theway, right naturally, because she's weird.
(27:45):
She's weird. So Alton is callingher and she later that night,
so she's talking to Alton again becausehe's her bestie. And oh so Jewels,
sorry Jewels and Alton back up yesterdaywhen they met Santa Peter Kitchen Master,
(28:10):
Jewels and Alton had a little momentbecause Caroline was facetiming Jewels saw him
on the FaceTime screen Love at FirstFaceTime. So Alton and Jewels are already
talking on the phone, and sobackstory or b plotline, they're already there's
some chemistry there. So we're kindof getting this like this sort of like
(28:38):
two ways of doing things where wesee Caroline moving really slowly, she won't
share anything, and then meanwhile theseother two are like, let's just jump
in. Jewels is like love iscannonballs and belly flops. Is that's what
she's saying. You know what?That's fine because Alton was like real kittie,
So yeah, I didn't even madat her. Yeah, and at
(28:59):
the same time time, so nowand then, but then Caroline talks to
him later and she's saying that shealmost had a panic attack in front of
Russell the other day when she wastelling him about what happened that Christmas.
So she had been talking to himabout a Christmas that they were deployed,
and they all sat around and weretelling stories about you know, their favorite
Christmas is at home or yeah,when they had been at home and she
(29:23):
almost had a panic attack, andshe's like, you know, I didn't
tell him what happened, you know, later that night, so we know
that something happened on a Christmas thatshe was deployed. Alton is like,
why why, you know, justbe honest with him, tell him what
happened. She's not ready to dothat. She's not ready to do that.
And it's too bad because Russell seemslike a real nice guy, and
he seems like the kind of guythat wants to hear that kind of stuff
(29:45):
and would really just be totally understanding. But you know what, love is
scary, Amelia. So it wasjust so I kind of I liked how
they did that with Jewels and Carolineboth talking to Alton and just like the
difference in the way they interact withhim, kind of showing you know,
(30:07):
I like that. I think that'sa very a very clever observation. I
think you're right, Yeah, itis like the and Alton also was her
you know, her conscience, right, her just saying that he was the
you know, the the ps PTSDsort of post child saying there's a way
(30:29):
forward here. Yeah, we don'thave to feel stuck in mock all the
time, it's still a part ofyou, but you can still invite other
people into your life. And Ithink that was a nice message. Yeah,
but we have some bad news.The email to Griffin has bounced back.
It is no longer an email address. I don't know what we're gonna
(30:49):
do. Are they going to findthis family before Christmas? I don't know.
One thing that they could do isthe very first time he showed Caroline
the uniform, she's like, youknow where we should start? Is this
patch right here that has this giantsymbol on it. And then they never
(31:10):
talked about it again. They couldhave done that, but they didn't.
So now Russell is just looking throughjunk at his antique start not junk,
I'm sorry, treasures, and hefinds this. I'm reeling from your insult
of the antique store. It's notlike this was the cob web factory of
(31:34):
the Ghosts of Christmas Past movie.It's got actual items in an amelia.
It does, and it has adoor that sings a Christmas song every time
you open it. And no onecommented on how utterly annoying I think Caroline
did with her face. That woulddrive me crazy. Ruby worked at one
(32:00):
of those spirit Halloween stores this phone, and she would come home at night
and she would be like, Idon't want to hear another like ghost story.
It's just like constant all day.Yeah, yep. So he's going
through the Absolute Treasure at his storeand he finds this this picture of a
(32:25):
like an illustration of a hobo withthe same symbol. So he calls Caroline.
He's like, you have to comelook at this, because he can't
like text her a picture, soshe has to drop everything and come down
there. And it turns out thatit's hobo code, which is a thing
for hold your tongue. It's hobocode. I missed that part he said
(32:47):
it's hobo code for hold your tongue. Hobo code is is that that's how
the homeless people in La the codeexactly them exactly. So so she's like,
she's like, so she goes,well, that tells us or she
goes, well, that tells usOran's unit, which is what she said
they were going to start with.So I was that, okay, fine,
(33:10):
yeah, but it couldn't be atthe beginning of the movie. It
wasn't time for that reveal. Iknow, they could have been like searching
for it the whole time. Idon't know that bugged me. It's fine,
it's fine, I'm fine, Fine, it's fine. And by the
way, Pearl Harbor happened at theend of nineteen forty one. I know,
but I'm just not until reminding thelisteners. Oh there is lessons.
(33:32):
Fine, Fine, You're always goingto get the accurate history from Amelia because
that's actually what, yes, especiallywhat I do. Caroline gets a call
from England and they called to tellher that she is getting an interview in
England. M hmm, yeah,wow. I can't believe that she actually
(34:00):
thought that. Yeah, just theinterview though, So don't get too excited.
Why it's just the interview in Oh, it's just the interview. Yeah,
don't get too excited. Why Istill, I totally didn't see it
coming. And now she's developing thisrelationship with Russell, and she's got a
mystery to solve exactly a lot,a lot, and Christmas is almost here.
(34:22):
She's in a real pickle. Idon't know how she gets out of
it. I don't know. Idon't know for which Blazers she wears,
so now all four of them,Russell Caroline, Alton and Jewels head down
to the base. They're going todo some more research. Now they know
what unit he was in. Theyhaven't they have new places to search,
(34:43):
but they need the military stuff,so Alton's going to get them on base.
Here they go. We find outOran wasn't actually captured. He was
on a secret mission. Oh,now it's getting intriguing. The hold your
tongue thing shows that he was wearinga super publicly visible badge that he was
(35:07):
in a secret unit. Oh interesting, you can talk about except for wearing
the badge that everybody could see,right exactly. So Alton and Jewels go
to grab some food for everybody,and Russell bumps his head on the filing
(35:29):
cabinet and then kisses Caroline just likebam bam. Ruby was very disturbed by
that. She was like, Mom, what's going on. I'm like,
well, honey, sometimes when aman and a woman love each other.
I was like, why is shedistorted? She watches a bachelor, She's
(35:49):
seen people kiss weirder than that.Oh, I know, but all the
rules are different in Christmas Land.Oh, it's too early in the movie.
What's that? It was too earlyin the movie. For her.
She knows the rules, Amelia,She's well aware. She knows exactly what
the rules are here. You don'thave a kiss before the end of the
movie. So we were rightfully shocked, and tonight when we're watching Bachelor in
(36:17):
Paradise this week, I'm going tobe talking to her about the inappropriate nature
of what we saw in the Inthe Christmas landlady, that's fair. He
was allowed to lean in like hewas going to kiss her and then they
could be interrupted. That was allowed. That's allowed. That's preferable. But
a great American directors, are youlistening, No kiss before the last frame?
(36:40):
That's it. Yeah, these thesearen't sluts. These are respectable Christmas
Land residents. And Caroline does geta little spooked by that. She's like,
well, what just happened? Whatit was that? So as they're
sitting having dinner together their Caroline opensup and she tells everyone the rest of
(37:02):
the Christmas story, which is thatthey were on a patrol that Christmas that
Christmas Eve and they were in aconvoy that was attacked and she saved Alton
and got the Silver Star. Oh, and Jewels is absolutely shocked if they
(37:25):
had to work on Christmas Eve.I know. That bar blew my mind.
She was like, you have towork on Christmas like you are patrolling
on Christmas Eve? Yes, yeah, I don't think war doesn't stop.
I mean, well, I startedto say that, but then I was
(37:45):
like, well, I'll quiet onthe Western Front, but really, war
doesn't stop on Christmas Eve. Andactually, Amelia like a lot of people
who aren't even in the military,in the military or on a battle front
work on Christmas Eve. Yeah.Yeah, but you know what, let's
be fair, probably not on Christmasland maybe, but I feel like,
(38:08):
maybe, you know, that's notTRUELYI there is it, because every damn
ball is on Christmas even someone's workingthose things. That's true, that's true.
True, all right. Yeah,so but she was, she was
very she was like utterly appalled thatthe military, anyone in the military works
on Christmas Eve. She was shewas stunned. Or care about Christmas Eve?
(38:31):
Jewels hmm, I said, terroristsdon't care about Christmas Eve. They
don't, they don't, they don'tcare. So later that evening, as
they're all kind of wrapping things up, Alton and Russell have a little minute
alone and Alton says you know,just be patient with her kind of like
you know, the the undercurrent is, you know, she kind of just
(38:52):
opened up to you and now yousort of know what's going on, so
just be patient. Yeah, andRussell is a wonderful stand up man and
he's like, I will, She'sworth it, you know, good guy.
It's a good guy. Now.Major news. Being in the Indeb's
barn where this whole thing started,she has found a huge, like big
(39:16):
black garbage leaf bag of more letters, a huge and they're all between Allison
Orn all these letters. It waslike a thousands. There was so many
letters. Letters, And look,I can understand no internet people. That's
(39:37):
how peop I don't know if manyof you in the audience know, but
that's how people use to communicate.We used to write letters and send them
to the nail. But thousands ofletters is a lot of writing. But
I'm not I do believe during wartime that that can happen. What I
don't believe is that they all gotto deliver right to somewhere because I can't
(40:00):
even get my mail. It's twentytwenty three and our mailbox has been hit
three times this year. I can'teven get my mail, so and I'm
not at war, I mean alittle bit. Well, do you live
in California? Oh? It isbadly Yeah, there's that the state because
taxation is theft. Sure did PaulRevere really say the British are coming?
(40:25):
And how was George Washington chosen toleave the First American Army. Join us
for the Growing Patriot podcast, aplace for curious kids to ask the big
questions about our nation's history and getkid friendly answers from the country's top experts.
Help your child learn about and cherishAmerica's exceptional history. Subscribe to Growing
Patriots on Apple Podcasts or wherever youget your podcasts today. Let me ask
(40:50):
you this. I realized that theyare in very unique circumstances because they have
to get this uniform to his familyby Christmas. Obviously, but generally speaking,
is it okay to read someone's letters, like historic letters, Like if
you just found a letter in anantique shop or in somebody's barn, is
it okay to read it? Yes? I think about that. It's so
(41:15):
funny you asked that this is whywe're a good friends, because I was
thinking that too when they were readingtheir correspondence I was like, I wonder
because I do that too, andI'm sure you do. When I go
into taking, I love to opena book and see a note in it
or something. But I think thatwhen it comes to history, Yeah,
(41:36):
And I think that's why it isimportant for you to do things like write
in your books, write in yourBible, write notes, because those are
genuine little peaks in a history andit is sort of a violation but that
that person isn't here. Just toget like a little bit serious for a
second. As you know, myfather passed in May, and he kept
(42:00):
everything. He kept all his correspondencewas I had no idea it was like
this. He was epically organized.And every love letter that he ever and
my father was an artist, sohe was very expressive and he was just
so he had such a way withlanguage, and every love letter he kept.
(42:21):
And he had multiple girlfriends. He'salso a player, and he kept
every love letter that he ever wrotea woman that maybe somehow he got back
he kept. Yeah, And everylove letter or a woman wrote him he
kept. And when I tell youthat there was like hundreds of things,
there was hundreds of things. Butit was so interesting to read my sister
(42:44):
and I separately read through a lotof the stuff, and it was it
was a peak into our dad's lifethat I think was much needed and that
we obviously never would have had otherwise. And it does it gives you,
if I could just extend that analogy, it gives you are a deeper appreciation
for that moment in history, youknow, a deeper appreciation for what my
(43:05):
dad was feeling or going through.Now, I'll tell you this, at
a certain point, it did startto feel like a violation. And so
once we read through some we werelike, you know what, we're going
to close the door on this outof respect for the people that also had
you know, are still alive thatwrote those letters. But after a while
it did start to feel like alittle bit of a violation. So then
(43:27):
we just had a little ceremony andwe burned the letters, and you know,
we just were like, we're lettingall this go. I do,
Yes, it's both. It isa violation, but I do think it's
necessary because it is an authentic peakinto how people are feeling at any given
time. Yeah, in I thinkit was if it was long enough ago
and people that I didn't know,I would feel much more comfortable than if
(43:49):
it was if it was people whowere still living or the people that I
knew, I don't know, likeI wouldn't want to I don't know.
Yeah, well, let this bea lesson everybody. Folks going to be
going through your stuff when you die, So making everybody writes letters anymore?
Anyway, what are people going toyou know, a bunch of like texts
that are like wid I know,I know people are going to find like
(44:15):
a lot of loose ammunition rounds andbusiness cards all right back to correspondence.
So she So, Caroline comes overto Russell's house and he has already gone
through all these letters and figured outthat the last one is from Christmas of
nineteen forty four. I don't knowhow he's had time to do all this
(44:35):
in an afternoon, but he has. But he's he he this is what
he does. Amelia talking about Silashas a certain set of skills, Russell
Russell has a certain set of readingpurse of skills. Well so does Caroline,
because as she's looking through now thatwe have more than one letter,
she notices a pattern, and there'ssomething in the flourish of the handwriting and
(45:00):
she thinks it's a code M somaybe then then I was like, oh
wait. I actually at that pointI was like, oh wait, this
is getting I know. Now we'rehaving like a spy movie. So they
call over Jewels and Alton because nowwe need all hands on deck. They
(45:20):
get out there like bored, youknow, they're and they're like drawn all
the letters. It was kind offun. So they figure out that he
was passing information to Alice and shewas passing it on to the government.
And but what they cannot figure outis if they were ever reunited after the
war. So Alton has requested somerecords, but they won't arrive for a
(45:45):
few more days. And at thispoint I was like, explain to me
how they had grandchildren who owned ahouse if they were never reunited after the
war. I didn't even think aboutthem. Explain it to me. Okay,
but were they But did they knowthey were both their grandchildren and they
(46:07):
only knew that they were read Ibacked it on up and Peter kitchen Master
says, I thought where I wroteit down somewhere? Anyway, I have
an address for An and Alis's grandchildren. Okay, great American channel, are
(46:29):
you listening? You need to hireAmelia as a continuity editor. I didn't
even catch that. That's hilarious.That's a continuity your kitchen master said it.
Well again, leave it to historybuff and history investigator Amelia Hamilton to
suss it out. You guys,you guys get so much on this podcast.
(46:51):
You get so much for free.All you have to do is hit
the subscribe button. That's all youneed. You get access to all this
knowledge. I can't believe we don'thave more story diverts. It's a crime
in this episode. It's a work. The next episode, we're recording live
(47:13):
from there. All right, Sonow okay, England calls again. Hi,
this is h So he says,with the time difference, I forgot
(47:36):
how late it would be there,but the time difference goes the other way.
It would be even later in England. It would be the middle of
the night in England. That's whatI was so confused when he said that,
because I was like, wait,where exactly are I guess? I
(48:00):
was like, if she's they've hada late night, it's you know,
so from over Christmas Land a latenight, it's probably like eleven, So
I'm like, it's four o'clock inthe morning. I'm like, isn't it
morning time? In the middle ofthe night? Morning? Right? I
was like, oh, I,okay, Well, you know what,
We'll give him the past because somepeople might call four am late and some
(48:21):
people might call it early. Iguess we'll give them a past. But
why is it calling her at fouro'clock in the morning? Okay, whatever,
he didn't remember the time difference.I'm making business calls at four o'clock
in the morning, but I guesshe is. So he just wants her
to know that she has been offeredthe fellowship, which I was shocked.
I couldn't believe that she had tomake the choice. Yeah, I can't
(48:45):
believe they offered her. I can'tbelieve England offered her. And I couldn't
heard it was called, but Iremember it had a ridiculous name it.
It was something really funny. Soshe tells Alton and she's like, uh,
by the way, don't tell Russellbecause I never told him. And
he's like, what's wrong with you? Why did you never tell? Why
(49:06):
didn't you tell him? And hedeserves better than this, and then he
gives her a little pet talk.Well, no, she says he deserves
better than me, and Alton's like, you are still a wonderful, amazing
woman. You're not broken, You'reyou know, all these wonderful strong things.
And I loved it one speech andHe's like, it was it was
(49:30):
really sweet, he was, andyou said it. That's what he told
her. Yeah, it was amessage obviously to people who have been in
this situation, and we know manypeople who have. And I love that
he told her, you know,you're not broken. We need to start
looking at this as a part ofus. I love that. And to
give Russell a chance to show herthat he's not gonna leave because she has
(49:57):
PTSD, that he will love heranyway and care about her anyway. And
we know that he will. Andthis is how we know he's a foster
kid, right, he knows drama. That was my only explanation for why
they even shoehorned the foster kid inthere, right, because it never came
(50:17):
back. It was never remembered again. Yep. So back at past and
at presence, Alton opens up themrecords that they finally got from Orn's military
service, and we find out thathe was extracted from enemy territory in nineteen
forty four and forced into hiding.He was mia for several months after that,
(50:45):
located in a safe zone in nineteenforty five and worked the remainder of
the war in the United States.But then after the war, zero records
anywhere of Born or Alice. SoCaroline's like, give me those letters again,
and then immediately there's a second code. Oh what wait, it's like
(51:07):
the patch exactly, and she realizesthat they went into hiding all right.
So from here everything is like fastand furious until the end. So they
find the original They pull out againthe original picture that was in the uniform
pocket. So originally the uniform hada letter and a picture of Orin Alice,
(51:30):
of Orin and Ellis. It wastaken at a place called Swenson's Lodge.
They immediately google it or whatever Google'scalled in Christmas Land, and it
was bought by a family named theWheatons right after the war. They google
the Wheatons or they you know.They click on the thing about the family
on the Swenson's Lodge website. Theoriginal owners have died, but the family
(51:54):
still owns it. They pull upa picture, Oh my goodness, the
original dead Wheaton's are Oris and AllenAlice or Or and Allen, whatever their
names are. That's that sounds likea British so, oh my goodness.
(52:19):
They all get excited. They allhug and then Caroline gets weird because Russell
hugged her. And then she's like, by the way, I'm going to
England. I got a fellowship byeb bye. She's like, by the
way England calls, England calls,I have to go, and England wants
me to come de a fellowship bye. So so she's and she's gonna leave
(52:49):
early because she's like I cannot stickaround for this. I'm just gonna go
now, which, to be fairhonestly, like I probably have done that
too. I actually hate good bye. If you're gonna go, just go,
just go. So the other threehead up to Swinson's Lodge, Wheaton
Lodge. It's only a two hoursdrive. It's only two hour drive.
(53:10):
And they do appear to have calledahead this time, so that's exciting.
And they say that and they're likeso or In an Alice or you know,
whatever you call them, and like, well, we just called him
Nana and Grandpap. Then they're like, you know, Grandpap built this place.
(53:30):
Blah blah blah. No he didn't. He bought it from the Swenson's.
Weren't you listening? He bought itfrom right, Well maybe he bought
the property. No, if theyhad their picture taken at Swinson's Lodge again,
Great American Family Channel, I don'tknow why you're not hiring Amelia Hamilton
(53:51):
as your continuity editor. Was soannoyed. I'm getting mad about nothing.
But I was like, they literallyjust said that their picture taking it's Swinson's
Lodge. There's a picture. I'mstanding outside of it. How did your
grandpa build it? This is sucha This is so Amelia. This is
like typical Amelia annoyance. She isvery annoyed at the historical detail. They
(54:14):
just said it. I'm with you, but I'm just saying I never noticed,
like you're the eagle eye that notices. So they got outside. These
grandkids are way too old to bethe grandkids we had. They're the same
age as the guy that served withhim earlier. They're like, silence,
(54:37):
I don't know what's going on.So now Caroline's here, She like comes
popping out of the back room.She wants to talk to him. So
cool, but the grandkids are standinghere waiting. They want to see the
uniform and like here this whole coolstory. But instead they just start talking
over like on the side by theChristmas tree, and they're all like they're
(55:00):
just talking and they start so theystart talking about like, you know,
I was so scared. You know, I'm sorry to care about you,
but I have this great opportunity inEngland, blah blah blah. And the
grandkids just start like passing this boxaround. I don't know what the boxes.
They're just like standing there passing itamongst them all. You don't know
(55:24):
why scene because the three adults springkids were like clearly and Jewels and Alton,
yeah, And at one point theyjust sort of like slowly inched back
out of the They were like,oh, we're standing in our house and
(55:45):
you're giving us our stuff, butwe're going to give you some price.
We're just going to hold this box. Do you wanna Do you want to
hold the box? Do you wantto hold it? And then Russell was
like, spending this time with youas a gift from God, which I
appreciated. Points for the God mentioned. So they kiss by the Christmas tree
(56:07):
and then not the grandkids, Russelland Caroline, just to clarify, and
then Alton is like, uh,you guys, the grandkids are are just
waiting. So they give them theuniform and then they kiss again and then
the grandkids say thank you, andthen that's the end. Okay, Amelia,
(56:29):
I want you to picture that onChristmas or near Christmas, someone shows
up in your doorstep with a historicalitem. A couple shows up, this
is your grandfather's, we believe itbelongs to you. We'd like to hand
it over to you, and theyimmediately start making out in your living room.
What do you do? Well,I'd want my stuff first. As
(56:50):
long as I had my stuff,I would be like, you guys can
just go that's fine. Yeah no, but you're not going to be like
clapping for them, no kissing.The grand kids were like super happy.
They were really happy. They're like, oh yeah they were. No,
you don't know these are This isweird. These people came to your house
and they're making out in your Imean, I feel like it is a
(57:12):
hotel, which is slightly different becauselike you do just have strangers in there
anyway, and I feel like there'sa different just general air about the place
than strangers making out in your home. Your home is the hotel lobby.
That's different. I guess like inwhat was a Hot Sassafras, now Hot
(57:35):
Sassafras wanted to make out in myhouse, that'd be different. Well,
yeah, that's different. So that'sthat right, Yeah, that was the
end. That's yeah. Uh didwe say the name of this movie?
We did? Bringing Christmas Home?I think we did? Yeah, Bringing
(57:57):
Christmas Home? All right? Amillion and thoughts it Actually it was not
my favorite. I felt like alot of really cool stuff happened, but
it wasn't. It was somehow wasn'tas compelling as it should have been to
watch. I don't know. Iagree, I agree, And it had
(58:19):
a Christmas theme which I appreciated,but I wouldn't have called it a Christmas
movie. It's a movie I thinkthat I would expect to see on Great
American at any other time in theyear. It definitely hits all of their
tone, their tonal points and things, so it seems like a I guess
what I'm saying is it seems likea good fit for a Great American And
(58:43):
I loved that they wanted to tacklethe angle of PTSD and and it wasn't
too self serious. It was stillin Christmas Land, so it wasn't a
lot of too much heaviness. Ithought at least that part was handled very
well in the and there were someactually some really sweet moments. But it
wasn't a fun Christmas jaunt like we'reused to, you know. And we
(59:07):
didn't really get many many tropes.No, so we had like a Christmas
name Caroline, I guess, Iguess. Yeah, we had a Christmas
deadline several Yep. Maybe Santa Peterkitchen Master was dressed as Santa, but
(59:37):
I don't think there was any questionthat he was really Santa. Yeah.
Usually that trope is like there's somekind of magical element to this guy that
maybe or maybe is not Santa.Yeah. So yeah. Was there hot
chocolate or hot Christmas beverages? Idon't think so. Was there? Did
(59:59):
they not go? Oh no,they had some kind of sweet bread or
something and went to a restaurant thing. Did they have hot chocolate when they
went out for breakfast? They mighthave. There was no hot chocolate they
like, I remember, and Ithink it was Christmas at the drive in
with Dana and mckeller. They hada whole hot chocolate stand. Hot Chocolate
(01:00:22):
had a very prominent character in themovie. Yes, and it was like
a big deal because it actually savedthe Drive. That was our big idea
to hot chocolate. Yeah. Anyways, you can go back and listen to
that episode. I don't even rememberwhat it was called, but I think
it was what's that? Oh?The movie was Christmas at the Drive movie?
(01:00:44):
Yeah, I don't remember. Ithink I think the movie the episode
might have just been called Welcome Home, because I think it was our first
jaf Yeah. Okay, was theretree decorating? I don't think so.
Really, what a missed opportunity.Yeah, what a miss opportunity. And
you could have decorated the tree withlike military themed ornaments and had a little
(01:01:05):
tour the history. Yeah, wasthere a precocious child? Hunt? Did
Gretathenburg a dress reveal moment? Andthat's what? You know what? I
didn't like that. Please don't putJill Wagner in a movie and don't have
a glad moment for her. She'sso beautiful. I hate that. Okay,
(01:01:31):
somebody falling, Nope, being caught, No kiss only at the end.
No a misunderstanding that could be clearedup with one simple conversation. That's
kind of because she didn't tell himabout England. But yeah, but it
(01:01:53):
wasn't troupe heavy, was more ofa message movie, had a nice homie,
great American fits right into the channel. No complaints there. Only complaint
is that just didn't really feel likea Christmas Land movie. Yeah, we
need more tropes. We need moretropes. That's the thing that makes that's
the engine that pushes even my familythat doesn't like these movies. My family
(01:02:16):
is still in the stage where theyonly sit down to make fun of them.
Now, what happens is when youdo that enough, you start to
morph into an actual vand so thatpart is coming, but they're still in
the we're making fun of it,and there wasn't enough fun in the movie.
So I I yeah, this wasn'tmy favorite. I think it was
(01:02:38):
well done for what it was.And of course we love those two leads.
They have such great chemistry. There'ssomething really, what's Russell's real name,
there's something so sweet about I agree, like really always it's some guy.
(01:03:00):
Some of our leading men are moresarcastic, you know, that's what
you're gonna get when you see himon screen. And some of them are
more like I'm a home but hereally is just like he's got a really
like such a sweetness to him thatI just enjoy seeing his leading man performances
in these loops. All right,Well, I have a question for the
(01:03:22):
audience, So I want the audienceto send this in. So before I
asked this question, we'll give ourdetails before and we'll give them again afterwards.
So a million, will you telleverybody how they can get in contact
with our show? Yes, weare a very merry podcast at gmail dot
com. We are a very merrypodcast on Facebook at a very merry podcast
(01:03:45):
on Instagram, and a very merrypod on Twitter. Okay, everybody.
Last season, we learned that thesocial media network and Christmas Land a scoop
Chat. What is this? Whatis the search engine in Christmas Land?
It's not can't be Google, Soscoop chat is the social media service in
(01:04:10):
Christmas Land? What is the searchengine? So, Amelia. On our
next episode, I'm going to askyou for your answer, okay, and
then we will see what people havefor us, if anyone has anything for
us and so, and also youcan write to us about anything. If
(01:04:30):
there's a movie you want us todo that we haven't watched, or you
want to chip in on on whatyou know, you want to give your
two cents on what you saw andhow you feel about it, go ahead
and hit us up. Give thoseemails again. Oh, a very Married
podcast at Gmail, at a veryMarried podcast on Instagram, a very Married
(01:04:51):
pod on Twitter, and a veryMarried podcast on Facebook. Have a question
for you, Amelia m hm ourtwo leads Caroline and Russell have to go
on a double date with two otherleads from the Christmas Land universe right now.
(01:05:15):
I haven't asked you this question previously, so I know this is sort
of out of the left field.I'll give you to think about it.
Is there what couple do you thinkthey should go on a date with?
And if you need a second thing, I'm sure it can't be Alton and
Jewels, because I mean it can'tbe a few jewels. Can Jules and
Alden can only go on a datewith a secondary Okay? Maybe, well
(01:05:43):
it has to be. It hasto be the couple from the Navy ship.
I like it right, even thoughthere are two like one's Hallmark one's
Great America. They're all on ChristmasLand, They're all in Christmas Land,
and they can talk about the horrorsof Christmas Land war. So I,
(01:06:06):
oh, I want to say thistoo, because there's really I don't believe
that there's much negativity in Christmas Land, and I really don't believe there's like
real war Christmas even not doubting Caroline'sPTSD. It's Christmas Land PTSD, right,
because there's no real wark in ChristmasLand, and so absolutely, but
(01:06:29):
this is what I was imagining,you know, because earlier in this season
we did our we did the LifetimeChristmas Movie, which is in the adjacent,
more ghettoized version, which is HolidayLand. So I'm imagining that what
where they're really deployed is Holiday Land. Yeah, there's war in Holiday Land
for sure. Well yeah, Imean it's still not terrible, no no,
(01:06:51):
no, no, yeah, butthere's a war to go to.
Sure, that's where I think.I think they should go on the double
date with a couple from the NavyShip movie. Yeah, but they could
also go on a double date withI'm trying to remember, okay, remember
a Christmas card. I don't knowif you've seen this one. It's a
(01:07:14):
super super old one. It's likeone of the original Hallmark movies. It's
probably from the early two thousands,and it's about this woman who writes like
you know the I can't remember whatit's called. But you're the things where
you can just like send a Christmascard to like a random somebody. Have
you seen this one? I seenthis one, so I think that might
be an interesting one too. Ohokay, that's a letter sort of aspect
(01:07:39):
to it. Fair enough, Okay, cool, Well, all right,
Amelia, Well we everybody by nowyou should know our schedule. We did
our episode where we caught you upwith the schedule here what we're doing next.
So make sure that you keep youreye on that episode it, replay
(01:08:00):
it, play it in your sleepso that you memorize it. Also,
don't forget to like and subscribe thispodcast. Yep. That's a very easy
way that you can support us throughthe Christmas holidays. I mean that's actually
the best way. And share doyou have anything else at Just as a
reminder, even though I know thatyou're listening to the season preview on repeat,
(01:08:24):
the next movie will be Christmas Prince. So if you need to watch
it again, Watch it again,watch it again. You do need to
again. Well, Amelia, untilwe meet again, I wish you days
filled with large plastic trash bags fulla very personal, intimate historical letters.
(01:08:48):
Thank you. And I wish youpeople who bring you gifts with a gift
to soften the gift that is sospecial. Well, Merry Christmas, Amelia.
(01:09:15):
This has been a presentation of theFCB podcast Network, where real talk
lives. Visit us online at fcbpodcastsdot com.
This is the FCB Podcast Network.Hey everybody, Merry Christmas. Welcome back
to another episode of a very Merrypodcast. I'm your host Kara Davis,
(00:24):
and I am here with my lovelyand very mary co host Amelia Hamilton.
Amelia, how are you doing today? Doing well? Well? We are
in it. We are in theheat of Christmas viewing the movie we did
today. I made my whole familysit down to watch it the other night,
(00:44):
so we have fun watching it andlet's just get right into it.
But before we get started, Ido want to say that making a movie
is hard, and whether it's acheesy Christmas movie or Christopher Nolan production,
there's a lot of work goes intoit. So we always recognize that the
people who make these films work hardand there's so much that goes into it.
(01:06):
And so when we, you know, do these podcasts, it's all
in love. It's all in goodfun. So congratulations on creating a feature
film and completing it, and thanksfor letting us have fun with it.
All right, Amelia, let's getgoing. What's our movie this week?
We watched this week Great Americans BringingChristmas Home. It was a new one
(01:29):
for this year. Our first newone this season, starring Paul Green and
Jill Wagner, a couple of favoritesof ours, and when it first started,
I was I was all in,like right from the beginning, because
it was Silent Night was playing ratedG popped up on the screen. Great
American was like Great American, Welcomehome, and I was like, heck,
(01:52):
yeah, we are. We arehomes. Love it when they start
out with a traditional religious out thesong. I think that's so. I
mean, it shouldn't be that notableanymore, but it is. That was
one of the first things we noticedwhen we kind of made the switch to
Great American. We were like,they played Christmas songs, not holiday songs,
and not just sort of generic justmusic, but they played Christmas songs.
(02:15):
So they started playing Silent Night,and I was like, I snuggled
a little extra into my blanket andI was like, let's go. The
only thing I don't like about isthat sometimes in these movies on Great American,
they they like the ring characters willslow dance to a Christmas song,
and I think that's kind of weird. You don't need to get romantic about
it. But they didn't. Idon't remember all right, so we started
(02:40):
out, that's right to interrupt,but we do love these two. We
love Jill Wagner. She's a favoriteof ours absolutely, and some of you
might remember Jill from wipe Out.She used to host Wipeout on ABC,
so if that helps you get amental picture. But yeah, we love
these are these guys are veterans.Absolutely, we love them. All right,
(03:04):
So we start. We meet Russell, who is our male lead.
Right at the beginning, he isover at a friend's house and you know,
kind of older woman, I meanolder than him, not like an
older woman, and she is cleaningout her aunt, Sarah's barn. She
basically she just has to clean outall this junk and she is just selling
(03:25):
it by the box, get ridof this stuff. So we get,
you know, we get kind ofa little bit of background on him.
You know, he just he's andhe's going to resell it. Okay,
So then we need to meet thefemale lead, and they start by showing
her diplomas on the wall. Sheis Caroline uped In. She's got a
master's in military history and a doctorateof history. She is a military veteran
(03:46):
and she is grading papers talking toa student. So we know that she
is a history teacher, a teacherof military history, and she has as
on a believe she is because she'salso a busy businesswoman. Yes she's wearing
so we know she's a very serious, busy businesswoman. Which where's the hole?
(04:08):
I know? And I think thatRussell was wearing flannel, so he
is the hometown, small town avest like a jacket, yeah exactly.
So we also find out that sheis waiting to hear about a fellowship in
England, so we already know whatthe conflict's going to be. And I
(04:30):
wonder when she'll have to have theanswer by to right go there, right,
And I was also thinking to myself, I bet she's going to be
really upfront with the guy and justlet him know from the beginning that she's
got this potential job in England.She's just going to let him know right
away. Yeahs total sense. Andobviously, and obviously she's got to do
(04:54):
this right before Christmas because, asyou know, most brand new jobs begin
on Christmas Eve, right, especiallysomething in education, because that's when the
school year works. Yeah, yeah, yeah exactly. So he owns an
antique store called Past Presence, whichI actually thought was a cute pun,
(05:14):
so I enjoyed that it was good. So he is at the antique store
with his sister and they're going throughit and they find an old World War
Two uniform with a love letter insidefrom Alice to Orin, and he's immediately
like, well, we got tofind them and return it to them by
(05:34):
Christmas, arbitrary deadline. I likedit. I mean, now we have
two arbitrary deadlines right right. Wehave this job offer and we have this
letter the owner needs to be found, which my daughter found hilarious. She
was like, surely he's dead.I mean we're getting to the point where
(05:55):
World War two veterans, I meanhe might be alive. So yeah,
well she thinks that I was alivein nineteen fifties. Then that was an
interesting conclusion for her to draw.So you remember when she was like six
years old and she met our friendWendy, who is like the tallest woman
I know, And she thought Wendywas sixty five because she was so tall.
(06:21):
Yeah, obviously, like obviously youyou you grow keep getting taller.
Well, you are not very tall, so now you've even more confused that
she thinks you're one hundred and twentyone, Amelia, I thought you knew
this. I'm just saying there area lot of conflicting conflicting there's a lot
of conflicting data going into her calculationshere. So so Russell decides that he
(06:46):
has to find Orin and so whathe does. He has a first and
last name from Slutter, so hetypes it into one online search and then
he's like, well, that didn'twork. So he goes immediately to a
military form that he just knows exists, and he's like, does anyone know
how to find this guy? Theend, it was so funny because he
was like, with his that washis sister, right, yeah, it's
(07:10):
with his sister. And he's like, we've got to do research. So
his big research was the Google searchand then he's like, let's go on
a military forum type type type.He literally, I would have to research
the military forum first. Yeah,you'd have to google where the forum is.
He did one search just of theguy's name, and then he went
to the straight to this military forum. Knew exactly where to post I was.
(07:34):
There was this register. He didn'tdo anything and he really didn't have
to confirm his email. Nope,he knew exactly what to do. One
military one search, and he waslike, well be for him. I
mean at that point I would havejust gone straight to the forum, Like
why bother searching the guy's name ifthat's what you were going to do.
But obviously, but that line,but that is what because I know how
(07:57):
I'm pretty sure how your commentary isgoing to go. But that is what
is substituted for action in this movie. Yeah. So Caroline obviously is on
the is in the same military forum, and she lives in the same town.
So she's like, listen, here'sthe thing. I can tell a
few things, you know, fromthe insignia and the different you know,
(08:20):
a war, you know, metalsand things that he has, so I
can help a little bit. Youhave to understand that it's very possible he
did not come home. But wecan, we can, you know,
I can have a look. I'mlocal, so let's meet up and if
you can bring the uniform, wecan grab a cup of coffee and look.
So they do meet up and havea cup of coffee and she's like,
(08:46):
okay, oh before this, sorry, we see her house the night
before, super sparse, no Christmasspirit, lack of Christmas spirit, and
we find out when she so,you know, busy business, no Christmas
spirit. It's important, that's veryimportant. And you know, we're going
(09:07):
to find out a little bit moreof course about that down the road,
because you know, who do hasChristmas spirit? Who does have a Christmas
spirit? Russell obviously. So afterthey have coffee, he we find out
that she has just retired as anintelligence officer in the military, and he's
just like, why, why'd youretire? What happened? She's like,
(09:31):
and she just says something like notevery injury requires stitches, and he's like,
what happened alde she? Obviously?This is one thing I did appreciate
about this movie. It definitely wasa Christmas Land attempt at you know,
just talking about PTSD in the lightestof terms that you can't and I appreciated
(09:56):
the I actually appreciated the approach tothe subject matter because it didn't wasn't hitting
you over the head with victimhood,but it was sort of no, I
just a surface level look of whatpeople might have to deal with. So
but yeah, I I gave Russella pass because he's a history buff and
(10:16):
so I was thinking like, well, he just wants to know like the
military intelligence and intelligent. Yeah,people, it's really it's actually you shouldn't
press veterans about their experiences because alot of their experiences are very private and
very traumatizing. And she just saidmove on. She didn't want to talk
about it. But anyway, soall right, now we get to see
(10:41):
Russell's house or apartment, which isin the back of the antique store.
Now, this man has all theChristmas spirit. I wrote down a couple
of little notes about it. Hehas a wrath on his fridge, yes,
I said to Ruby. I waslike, he has a recon he
(11:03):
has garland under his cabinets. Goodjob, Russell. Way to bring the
Christmas spirit to your kitchen. Itpuked all over the apartment. I mean
there wasn't one inch of that apartment. I actually said to my family when
my husband and daughter when we werewatching, I was like, you know
(11:24):
what my dream job would be setdecorator for Christmas Land movies. It's easy.
It's got to be easy. Youjust get all of the Christmas stuff
you can find and then put itup everywhere. Yeah, yeah, absolutely
everywhere. All right. Caroline meanwhilehas this guy who used to who used
(11:46):
to work for her, he doesnot anymore. He's still in the military.
His name is Alton, and sohe's helping her look through some more
official channels and he found that Ornwas captured on Christmas Eve, the year
that this letter was written. Ithink it was nineteen forty one, and
that's as far as he's found.But he is still researching too, So
keep Alton in mind as we gothrough this movie, and Caroline and Russell
(12:11):
are going to continue their research.By the way, at the library.
The library, Okay, they werelooking at books, at books. So
while they're at the library, theyrealize that he has a foreign medal from
France. He's done something heroic inFrance and that's rare. So it's a
lead good for them. And asthey are enjoying this lead, they look
(12:35):
at each other. Their eyes meetacross a book that's on paper in a
public library, and there does notcompute. I guess you have to do
it that way because it's really hardto have an eye lock moment over a
laptop screen. And I love theidea of them sitting down together at a
(12:56):
table and opening books, like actuallylooking. You could literally just I mean,
we are. We've already seen thatRussell is a master at computer research.
You know, he could put beforein two seconds, so they could
literally just type in the phrase they'relooking for. But but no better.
He's got his autumn winter vest on. She's got her blazer on. Yeah,
(13:22):
they're looking at traditional books during atraditional Christmas time. They did get
it? Where are we? Oh? Caroline goes to his house for dinner
that night, and she is callingAlton to help her pick out an outfit,
which seemed like an interesting choice tome, but that where I was
(13:43):
like, Amelia, Okay, So, first of all, I want to
say about Alton cutie pie, socute he was actually, let's get him
in a leading man role next Christmas. Yeah, I he was very easy
on the eyes. The second ofall, when she called him over to
help her pick up an outfit outan outfit, my husband Mark was like,
(14:05):
oh, is that her gay friend? And I'm like, I don't
think so, because this is greatAmerican. Yeah, I think it's just
my friend, but I wasn't sure, so I was kind of like waiting
for the other shoot to drop.And then later on there's a development.
Yeah, we're like, no,that's not the gay BFF. I was
like, I don't think Great Americais going to do a gay BFF.
So that made it even odd moreodd that he would come over to her.
(14:26):
Yeah, and then I was like, is he like like a brother,
but like not that I call mybrothers for outfit advice. Like,
the whole thing was very confusing.Yeah, I didn't understand that. And
he's all like, oh, you'vegot a date. Like the whole thing
was very and she's like, isthat a date? And I just want
to look nice? It was.It was very strange. I thought the
relationship was very strange. Maybe maybethat character was a woman at one point
(14:48):
and then they decided it was toomuch female energy. I have no idea,
but yeah, I was like,this feels odd. They at least
they didn't need to bring him overfor the outfit picking. Without that,
it was I think a pretty normalrelationship. Like they were just close.
You know, they had served togetherand they were close. I mean,
(15:09):
I don't recall anything else being weirdat the moment, but no, that
was a notable moment. I didnotice it in the movie. I'm like,
oh, here we go. Yeah, all right, So Russell tells
Caroline later that he and Jewels that'shis sister, had been foster kids together,
so I also kind of liked thatlittle mention. And they were adopted,
(15:33):
you know, by their foster parents, and she talks about being deployed
at Christmas and how that can behard. So they kind of share a
little bit about their history, butpretty much whenever he tries to ask her
about her past, she sort ofturns it around and wants to hear about
his, so she doesn't really wantto talk about it. And the next
(15:56):
day they do get a little bitof a lead from Alton and they find
a guy who served with him,so they go meet with him and he
lives ten hours away, which myfamily was like so tickled this whole movie,
how everything was one hour or twohours or a two hour drive or
one hour drive from where they were. Every time somebody said let's go get
(16:18):
something. My daughter was like,it's only a two hour drive. Right
in like eighty years, nobody's reallymoved. So he doesn't really know what
happened to Orrin. They lost touch, but he does have an old photo
of the of him and he sayshis friend, what's his name Simon.
I think was it Simon or wasit Silas? Anyway, at the VFW
(16:41):
can probably help because he can justfind anything. He doesn't really explain what
this guy's skill set is, buthe's like, he can help is he
has a certain skill set. Christmaslands Lea Mason. So I thought it
was hilarious because this actor was likesixty five years old. I thought so
(17:03):
too. I'm like, wait,what this guy was probably in Vietnam right
right? I was like, couldn'tI have at least found someone who's old,
Like I know, they can't,maybe get somebody who's old enough to
have served for World War Two?But come on, anyway, So it's
kind of cute. They go tothe VFW and they're having like a forties
theme fundraiser, so everybody's sort ofdressed for World War two era and they
(17:29):
have a little dance in another littlemoment, and she's still She's still in
a friggin blazer. She is stillshe is dressed. Problem with Jill Wagner's
wardrobe in this movie because she's oneof my We were texting back and forth
while we were watching, and Iwas saying, she's one of my favorites
me too, especially I think asI get older, like I really appreciate
(17:52):
like how gorgeous she is maturing.Yeah, And I don't know, I
think she's a beautiful woman. AndI just I under seeing that they wanted
to make her you know, she'smilitary, she's not necessarily very feminine,
but I just I didn't care forthe wardrobe. She was too gorgeous for
Yeah, and they could have toldher story a little bit through the wardrobe,
(18:15):
like had her loosen up a littlebit, but oh, yeah,
you're absolutely right, and they andthey never did. And I think also
it was at this point in themovie where I noticed that her hair changed
all of a sudden, it gotreally blonde and it looked really fake.
And then I was like, whatis going on with her hair? But
you were like, oh, sheprobably had to wear a wig because she
(18:36):
was filming another film. Probably somewherein the middle of all that she had
short hair, she had a cover. But it's a job that I noticed.
I'm like, wait, what justhappened that they changed wigs or whatever
whatever they did. But so Silasappears and they have to go talk to
him, they need to get theirlead whatever his skill is. They need
to find it. So they showSilas the photo that they got from the
(18:59):
guy that he served with. Andso I thought it was kind of interesting
because the photo was dated nineteen fortyone, which means it was probably before
Pearl Harbor because that wasn't until theend of nineteen forty one. So,
I mean, I know, wewere Americans were still doing stuff, you
know, to help before we officiallyentered. But I thought that was sort
of an interesting choice. Anyway,Amelia Hamilton, history expert. Everybody y'all
(19:23):
thought you were just tuning in fora little Christmas fun, but we're giving
you historical lessons. Americans were doingstuff, were ninety stuff. You're a
welcome, you're welcome, warners,we were doing well. I just think
that that's cute. That's such anAmelia thing to notice, right the date
on that, Like, I'm notsure. Actually I paused and I was
(19:47):
like, I went back. Iwas like, did they say nineteen forty
one? They just say nineteen Ididn't even notice, but now I'm educated.
I was like, that is aninteresting choice all about it. So
he is looking at the weapons they'reholding, and the weapon is a clue
and it sends them onto another youknow, trail. So he sends them
(20:12):
to a guy he knows named PeterKitchen Master. I was like, really
preach 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
(20:33):
low on oxygen. Join me KiraDavis on Just Listen to Yourself every week
as we reason through issues big andsmall, critique our own ideas, and
learn to draw our talking points allthe way out to their logical conclusions.
Subscribe to Just Listen to Yourself withKira Davis and FCB Radio podcast on Apple,
on Spotify, iHeart, or whereveryou get your podcasts. Who knows
(20:57):
a lot of He knows a lotabout m i As. That's that's the
That's all you need to know.That's it. I don't know what Silas
has a certain set of skills atthe VFW, and Peter knows a lot
about missing an action potus and allyou need to know about the Christmas Land
(21:21):
details of a mister And we doknow, we do know that Orrin had
been captured with that other, withthe guy that they had gone to visit.
They had been captured together and that'swhen they were separated and they kind
of had lost touch, all right, So now we need to find Peter
kitchen master. Next day, Russell, Caroline, and Russell's sister Jules go
(21:45):
to some you know, diner forbreakfast and they meet up with Peter,
who was dressed as Santa just becausejust because, well you need a Santa's
Christmas movie, Yeah, And hehas found an address for Orrin and Alice's
grandchildren, and so Jules is like, why don't you call first instead of
(22:15):
just going And they're like, well, there's no two. And they're like,
well there's no number. And Iwas like, well again, with
your incredible research skills, you couldlook it up. And if you're talking
about the grandchildren, they could again, you know, look it up or
scoop chatter. They're probably on scoopchatter. If this is the grandchildren,
(22:37):
I can't believe that no one eventried scoop seems weird. It seems weird
to me. So but they decidethat it's not going to be weird to
show up because they'll just bring agift. And I thought, exactly,
they're bringing this uniform, they bringa piece of family history. No,
what they mean is they're going togo to the antique store and bring a
(23:00):
different gift. Right, because intwenty twenty three, people love it when
strangers just stop by their house withoutit so much as a text or a
phone call. Yeah, but Imean, if somebody I would have thought
that the uniform was the gift.I didn't think that you needed to go
get a gift to present a giftto someone. Okay, here me out.
(23:25):
It's Christmas lamp okay, and soyou know, gifts upon gifts feel
pretty normal. That's not a gift. That's like returning something. They're not
giving it to them, right,but you you don't want to go empty
handed, so you have another Christmasgift. That's how I watched it all
Right. On the way they stopfor a stolen stolen however, and he
(23:52):
asks her about her favorite Christmas confection. Well, she's not going to get
that personal either, so so pleasedon't. Yeah, it was just I
mean, and obviously the answer ishot chocolate and Christmas Land. It couldn't
have been that hard for her.She should have just done that. Like
I understand not wanting to talk aboutChristmas when she was deployed and stuff.
(24:15):
But she did not want to talkabout Christmas cookies either. Please. She
really didn't want to get personal atall. Now here's what I have to
say about this. These two actors, they have a lot of chemistry,
and I don't know what the relationshipis like in real life, if they're
like good friends, because they've donea lot of work together over the years.
But you can tell that they're verycomfortable with each other on screen.
(24:38):
And so I just I felt likethey didn't tap into that heat enough.
And I used the term heat verylightly, great American heat, like they
had a peck on the cheek beforethe end of the movie, that kind
of heat. Yeah. So theyfinally get to the house and those people
(25:03):
don't live there anymore, the grandchildren. So the owner's like, I think
I do have a forwarding address orsome kind of information. So so the
owner woman goes to find like herold file of house junk from when they
bought it. This little girl popsout of nowhere who looks like Greta Thunberg.
She's just got two braids in herhair and like these overalls on or
(25:29):
she looks like a where she couldbe a character in the Conjuring universe.
I thought she looked like Greta Tumber, so maybe she was like a little
haunted environmental. I don't know whatshe was. She freaked me out,
she was I was not okay withthis child. She scared me. I
(25:52):
didn't like her. No, shelike me. And Ruby were like,
oh, she looks like she shouldbe in the Conjuring Yeah, okay,
Well, Ruby, you your teenageris a lot braver than I am.
I do not watch horror movies,so so my brain went somewhere else entirely.
But you know how we do.You know how, we're a big
horror movie. But at least wecan all agree she was. We were
(26:15):
all it's a no from all ofus. It was jarring. Her presence
was very jarring. Yes, sothey do not have a phone number or
anything from this the previous owner.But she does have the previous owner's son's
email. Do you have the previousowner's son's email from your house or you
(26:37):
know? No? And the otherthing I don't have is printed emails.
Right. She took a piece ofpaper out. She's like, oh,
I still have this email. Iwas like, wow, wow, Okay,
she printed out her emails. Maybepeople do that. Yeah, so
I don't know. Yeah, andChristmas lean but no, I do not,
(27:00):
No girl, I couldn't even tellyou who my last doctor was.
Yeah, but I just thought ofall the stuff to have, like in
your mortgage paperwork, even if theprevious owner's email, there might be a
reason for that to be in there. I don't know why. But his
son why. I guess maybe ifyou passed away, then maybe the sun
was doing the pa. I don'tknow, maybe it's about it, but
(27:22):
it was Weirdjali with the estate forwhatever reason. She's got the owner son's
email and she has it on aprinting on paper. His name is Griffin,
by the way, if anybody's curious, right, and then and then
she keeps in a very special place. Yeah, and the little haunted Greta
Dunberg wants the gift, by theway, right naturally, because she's weird.
(27:45):
She's weird. So Alton is callingher and she later that night,
so she's talking to Alton again becausehe's her bestie. And oh so Jewels,
sorry Jewels and Alton back up yesterdaywhen they met Santa Peter Kitchen Master,
(28:10):
Jewels and Alton had a little momentbecause Caroline was facetiming Jewels saw him
on the FaceTime screen Love at FirstFaceTime. So Alton and Jewels are already
talking on the phone, and sobackstory or b plotline, they're already there's
some chemistry there. So we're kindof getting this like this sort of like
(28:38):
two ways of doing things where wesee Caroline moving really slowly, she won't
share anything, and then meanwhile theseother two are like, let's just jump
in. Jewels is like love iscannonballs and belly flops. Is that's what
she's saying. You know what?That's fine because Alton was like real kittie,
So yeah, I didn't even madat her. Yeah, and at
(28:59):
the same time time, so nowand then, but then Caroline talks to
him later and she's saying that shealmost had a panic attack in front of
Russell the other day when she wastelling him about what happened that Christmas.
So she had been talking to himabout a Christmas that they were deployed,
and they all sat around and weretelling stories about you know, their favorite
Christmas is at home or yeah,when they had been at home and she
(29:23):
almost had a panic attack, andshe's like, you know, I didn't
tell him what happened, you know, later that night, so we know
that something happened on a Christmas thatshe was deployed. Alton is like,
why why, you know, justbe honest with him, tell him what
happened. She's not ready to dothat. She's not ready to do that.
And it's too bad because Russell seemslike a real nice guy, and
he seems like the kind of guythat wants to hear that kind of stuff
(29:45):
and would really just be totally understanding. But you know what, love is
scary, Amelia. So it wasjust so I kind of I liked how
they did that with Jewels and Carolineboth talking to Alton and just like the
difference in the way they interact withhim, kind of showing you know,
(30:07):
I like that. I think that'sa very a very clever observation. I
think you're right, Yeah, itis like the and Alton also was her
you know, her conscience, right, her just saying that he was the
you know, the the ps PTSDsort of post child saying there's a way
(30:29):
forward here. Yeah, we don'thave to feel stuck in mock all the
time, it's still a part ofyou, but you can still invite other
people into your life. And Ithink that was a nice message. Yeah,
but we have some bad news.The email to Griffin has bounced back.
It is no longer an email address. I don't know what we're gonna
(30:49):
do. Are they going to findthis family before Christmas? I don't know.
One thing that they could do isthe very first time he showed Caroline
the uniform, she's like, youknow where we should start? Is this
patch right here that has this giantsymbol on it. And then they never
(31:10):
talked about it again. They couldhave done that, but they didn't.
So now Russell is just looking throughjunk at his antique start not junk,
I'm sorry, treasures, and hefinds this. I'm reeling from your insult
of the antique store. It's notlike this was the cob web factory of
(31:34):
the Ghosts of Christmas Past movie.It's got actual items in an amelia.
It does, and it has adoor that sings a Christmas song every time
you open it. And no onecommented on how utterly annoying I think Caroline
did with her face. That woulddrive me crazy. Ruby worked at one
(32:00):
of those spirit Halloween stores this phone, and she would come home at night
and she would be like, Idon't want to hear another like ghost story.
It's just like constant all day.Yeah, yep. So he's going
through the Absolute Treasure at his storeand he finds this this picture of a
(32:25):
like an illustration of a hobo withthe same symbol. So he calls Caroline.
He's like, you have to comelook at this, because he can't
like text her a picture, soshe has to drop everything and come down
there. And it turns out thatit's hobo code, which is a thing
for hold your tongue. It's hobocode. I missed that part he said
(32:47):
it's hobo code for hold your tongue. Hobo code is is that that's how
the homeless people in La the codeexactly them exactly. So so she's like,
she's like, so she goes,well, that tells us or she
goes, well, that tells usOran's unit, which is what she said
they were going to start with.So I was that, okay, fine,
(33:10):
yeah, but it couldn't be atthe beginning of the movie. It
wasn't time for that reveal. Iknow, they could have been like searching
for it the whole time. Idon't know that bugged me. It's fine,
it's fine, I'm fine, Fine, it's fine. And by the
way, Pearl Harbor happened at theend of nineteen forty one. I know,
but I'm just not until reminding thelisteners. Oh there is lessons.
(33:32):
Fine, Fine, You're always goingto get the accurate history from Amelia because
that's actually what, yes, especiallywhat I do. Caroline gets a call
from England and they called to tellher that she is getting an interview in
England. M hmm, yeah,wow. I can't believe that she actually
(34:00):
thought that. Yeah, just theinterview though, So don't get too excited.
Why it's just the interview in Oh, it's just the interview. Yeah,
don't get too excited. Why Istill, I totally didn't see it
coming. And now she's developing thisrelationship with Russell, and she's got a
mystery to solve exactly a lot,a lot, and Christmas is almost here.
(34:22):
She's in a real pickle. Idon't know how she gets out of
it. I don't know. Idon't know for which Blazers she wears,
so now all four of them,Russell Caroline, Alton and Jewels head down
to the base. They're going todo some more research. Now they know
what unit he was in. Theyhaven't they have new places to search,
(34:43):
but they need the military stuff,so Alton's going to get them on base.
Here they go. We find outOran wasn't actually captured. He was
on a secret mission. Oh,now it's getting intriguing. The hold your
tongue thing shows that he was wearinga super publicly visible badge that he was
(35:07):
in a secret unit. Oh interesting, you can talk about except for wearing
the badge that everybody could see,right exactly. So Alton and Jewels go
to grab some food for everybody,and Russell bumps his head on the filing
(35:29):
cabinet and then kisses Caroline just likebam bam. Ruby was very disturbed by
that. She was like, Mom, what's going on. I'm like,
well, honey, sometimes when aman and a woman love each other.
I was like, why is shedistorted? She watches a bachelor, She's
(35:49):
seen people kiss weirder than that.Oh, I know, but all the
rules are different in Christmas Land.Oh, it's too early in the movie.
What's that? It was too earlyin the movie. For her.
She knows the rules, Amelia,She's well aware. She knows exactly what
the rules are here. You don'thave a kiss before the end of the
movie. So we were rightfully shocked, and tonight when we're watching Bachelor in
(36:17):
Paradise this week, I'm going tobe talking to her about the inappropriate nature
of what we saw in the Inthe Christmas landlady, that's fair. He
was allowed to lean in like hewas going to kiss her and then they
could be interrupted. That was allowed. That's allowed. That's preferable. But
a great American directors, are youlistening, No kiss before the last frame?
(36:40):
That's it. Yeah, these thesearen't sluts. These are respectable Christmas
Land residents. And Caroline does geta little spooked by that. She's like,
well, what just happened? Whatit was that? So as they're
sitting having dinner together their Caroline opensup and she tells everyone the rest of
(37:02):
the Christmas story, which is thatthey were on a patrol that Christmas that
Christmas Eve and they were in aconvoy that was attacked and she saved Alton
and got the Silver Star. Oh, and Jewels is absolutely shocked if they
(37:25):
had to work on Christmas Eve.I know. That bar blew my mind.
She was like, you have towork on Christmas like you are patrolling
on Christmas Eve? Yes, yeah, I don't think war doesn't stop.
I mean, well, I startedto say that, but then I was
(37:45):
like, well, I'll quiet onthe Western Front, but really, war
doesn't stop on Christmas Eve. Andactually, Amelia like a lot of people
who aren't even in the military,in the military or on a battle front
work on Christmas Eve. Yeah.Yeah, but you know what, let's
be fair, probably not on Christmasland maybe, but I feel like,
(38:08):
maybe, you know, that's notTRUELYI there is it, because every damn
ball is on Christmas even someone's workingthose things. That's true, that's true.
True, all right. Yeah,so but she was, she was
very she was like utterly appalled thatthe military, anyone in the military works
on Christmas Eve. She was shewas stunned. Or care about Christmas Eve?
(38:31):
Jewels hmm, I said, terroristsdon't care about Christmas Eve. They
don't, they don't, they don'tcare. So later that evening, as
they're all kind of wrapping things up, Alton and Russell have a little minute
alone and Alton says you know,just be patient with her kind of like
you know, the the undercurrent is, you know, she kind of just
(38:52):
opened up to you and now yousort of know what's going on, so
just be patient. Yeah, andRussell is a wonderful stand up man and
he's like, I will, She'sworth it, you know, good guy.
It's a good guy. Now.Major news. Being in the Indeb's
barn where this whole thing started,she has found a huge, like big
(39:16):
black garbage leaf bag of more letters, a huge and they're all between Allison
Orn all these letters. It waslike a thousands. There was so many
letters. Letters, And look,I can understand no internet people. That's
(39:37):
how peop I don't know if manyof you in the audience know, but
that's how people use to communicate.We used to write letters and send them
to the nail. But thousands ofletters is a lot of writing. But
I'm not I do believe during wartime that that can happen. What I
don't believe is that they all gotto deliver right to somewhere because I can't
(40:00):
even get my mail. It's twentytwenty three and our mailbox has been hit
three times this year. I can'teven get my mail, so and I'm
not at war, I mean alittle bit. Well, do you live
in California? Oh? It isbadly Yeah, there's that the state because
taxation is theft. Sure did PaulRevere really say the British are coming?
(40:25):
And how was George Washington chosen toleave the First American Army. Join us
for the Growing Patriot podcast, aplace for curious kids to ask the big
questions about our nation's history and getkid friendly answers from the country's top experts.
Help your child learn about and cherishAmerica's exceptional history. Subscribe to Growing
Patriots on Apple Podcasts or wherever youget your podcasts today. Let me ask
(40:50):
you this. I realized that theyare in very unique circumstances because they have
to get this uniform to his familyby Christmas. Obviously, but generally speaking,
is it okay to read someone's letters, like historic letters, Like if
you just found a letter in anantique shop or in somebody's barn, is
it okay to read it? Yes? I think about that. It's so
(41:15):
funny you asked that this is whywe're a good friends, because I was
thinking that too when they were readingtheir correspondence I was like, I wonder
because I do that too, andI'm sure you do. When I go
into taking, I love to opena book and see a note in it
or something. But I think thatwhen it comes to history, Yeah,
(41:36):
And I think that's why it isimportant for you to do things like write
in your books, write in yourBible, write notes, because those are
genuine little peaks in a history andit is sort of a violation but that
that person isn't here. Just toget like a little bit serious for a
second. As you know, myfather passed in May, and he kept
(42:00):
everything. He kept all his correspondencewas I had no idea it was like
this. He was epically organized.And every love letter that he ever and
my father was an artist, sohe was very expressive and he was just
so he had such a way withlanguage, and every love letter he kept.
(42:21):
And he had multiple girlfriends. He'salso a player, and he kept
every love letter that he ever wrotea woman that maybe somehow he got back
he kept. Yeah, And everylove letter or a woman wrote him he
kept. And when I tell youthat there was like hundreds of things,
there was hundreds of things. Butit was so interesting to read my sister
(42:44):
and I separately read through a lotof the stuff, and it was it
was a peak into our dad's lifethat I think was much needed and that
we obviously never would have had otherwise. And it does it gives you,
if I could just extend that analogy, it gives you are a deeper appreciation
for that moment in history, youknow, a deeper appreciation for what my
(43:05):
dad was feeling or going through.Now, I'll tell you this, at
a certain point, it did startto feel like a violation. And so
once we read through some we werelike, you know what, we're going
to close the door on this outof respect for the people that also had
you know, are still alive thatwrote those letters. But after a while
it did start to feel like alittle bit of a violation. So then
(43:27):
we just had a little ceremony andwe burned the letters, and you know,
we just were like, we're lettingall this go. I do,
Yes, it's both. It isa violation, but I do think it's
necessary because it is an authentic peakinto how people are feeling at any given
time. Yeah, in I thinkit was if it was long enough ago
and people that I didn't know,I would feel much more comfortable than if
(43:49):
it was if it was people whowere still living or the people that I
knew, I don't know, likeI wouldn't want to I don't know.
Yeah, well, let this bea lesson everybody. Folks going to be
going through your stuff when you die, So making everybody writes letters anymore?
Anyway, what are people going toyou know, a bunch of like texts
that are like wid I know,I know people are going to find like
(44:15):
a lot of loose ammunition rounds andbusiness cards all right back to correspondence.
So she So, Caroline comes overto Russell's house and he has already gone
through all these letters and figured outthat the last one is from Christmas of
nineteen forty four. I don't knowhow he's had time to do all this
(44:35):
in an afternoon, but he has. But he's he he this is what
he does. Amelia talking about Silashas a certain set of skills, Russell
Russell has a certain set of readingpurse of skills. Well so does Caroline,
because as she's looking through now thatwe have more than one letter,
she notices a pattern, and there'ssomething in the flourish of the handwriting and
(45:00):
she thinks it's a code M somaybe then then I was like, oh
wait. I actually at that pointI was like, oh wait, this
is getting I know. Now we'rehaving like a spy movie. So they
call over Jewels and Alton because nowwe need all hands on deck. They
(45:20):
get out there like bored, youknow, they're and they're like drawn all
the letters. It was kind offun. So they figure out that he
was passing information to Alice and shewas passing it on to the government.
And but what they cannot figure outis if they were ever reunited after the
war. So Alton has requested somerecords, but they won't arrive for a
(45:45):
few more days. And at thispoint I was like, explain to me
how they had grandchildren who owned ahouse if they were never reunited after the
war. I didn't even think aboutthem. Explain it to me. Okay,
but were they But did they knowthey were both their grandchildren and they
(46:07):
only knew that they were read Ibacked it on up and Peter kitchen Master
says, I thought where I wroteit down somewhere? Anyway, I have
an address for An and Alis's grandchildren. Okay, great American channel, are
(46:29):
you listening? You need to hireAmelia as a continuity editor. I didn't
even catch that. That's hilarious.That's a continuity your kitchen master said it.
Well again, leave it to historybuff and history investigator Amelia Hamilton to
suss it out. You guys,you guys get so much on this podcast.
(46:51):
You get so much for free.All you have to do is hit
the subscribe button. That's all youneed. You get access to all this
knowledge. I can't believe we don'thave more story diverts. It's a crime
in this episode. It's a work. The next episode, we're recording live
(47:13):
from there. All right, Sonow okay, England calls again. Hi,
this is h So he says,with the time difference, I forgot
(47:36):
how late it would be there,but the time difference goes the other way.
It would be even later in England. It would be the middle of
the night in England. That's whatI was so confused when he said that,
because I was like, wait,where exactly are I guess? I
(48:00):
was like, if she's they've hada late night, it's you know,
so from over Christmas Land a latenight, it's probably like eleven, So
I'm like, it's four o'clock inthe morning. I'm like, isn't it
morning time? In the middle ofthe night? Morning? Right? I
was like, oh, I,okay, Well, you know what,
We'll give him the past because somepeople might call four am late and some
(48:21):
people might call it early. Iguess we'll give them a past. But
why is it calling her at fouro'clock in the morning? Okay, whatever,
he didn't remember the time difference.I'm making business calls at four o'clock
in the morning, but I guesshe is. So he just wants her
to know that she has been offeredthe fellowship, which I was shocked.
I couldn't believe that she had tomake the choice. Yeah, I can't
(48:45):
believe they offered her. I can'tbelieve England offered her. And I couldn't
heard it was called, but Iremember it had a ridiculous name it.
It was something really funny. Soshe tells Alton and she's like, uh,
by the way, don't tell Russellbecause I never told him. And
he's like, what's wrong with you? Why did you never tell? Why
(49:06):
didn't you tell him? And hedeserves better than this, and then he
gives her a little pet talk.Well, no, she says he deserves
better than me, and Alton's like, you are still a wonderful, amazing
woman. You're not broken, You'reyou know, all these wonderful strong things.
And I loved it one speech andHe's like, it was it was
(49:30):
really sweet, he was, andyou said it. That's what he told
her. Yeah, it was amessage obviously to people who have been in
this situation, and we know manypeople who have. And I love that
he told her, you know,you're not broken. We need to start
looking at this as a part ofus. I love that. And to
give Russell a chance to show herthat he's not gonna leave because she has
(49:57):
PTSD, that he will love heranyway and care about her anyway. And
we know that he will. Andthis is how we know he's a foster
kid, right, he knows drama. That was my only explanation for why
they even shoehorned the foster kid inthere, right, because it never came
(50:17):
back. It was never remembered again. Yep. So back at past and
at presence, Alton opens up themrecords that they finally got from Orn's military
service, and we find out thathe was extracted from enemy territory in nineteen
forty four and forced into hiding.He was mia for several months after that,
(50:45):
located in a safe zone in nineteenforty five and worked the remainder of
the war in the United States.But then after the war, zero records
anywhere of Born or Alice. SoCaroline's like, give me those letters again,
and then immediately there's a second code. Oh what wait, it's like
(51:07):
the patch exactly, and she realizesthat they went into hiding all right.
So from here everything is like fastand furious until the end. So they
find the original They pull out againthe original picture that was in the uniform
pocket. So originally the uniform hada letter and a picture of Orin Alice,
(51:30):
of Orin and Ellis. It wastaken at a place called Swenson's Lodge.
They immediately google it or whatever Google'scalled in Christmas Land, and it
was bought by a family named theWheatons right after the war. They google
the Wheatons or they you know.They click on the thing about the family
on the Swenson's Lodge website. Theoriginal owners have died, but the family
(51:54):
still owns it. They pull upa picture, Oh my goodness, the
original dead Wheaton's are Oris and AllenAlice or Or and Allen, whatever their
names are. That's that sounds likea British so, oh my goodness.
(52:19):
They all get excited. They allhug and then Caroline gets weird because Russell
hugged her. And then she's like, by the way, I'm going to
England. I got a fellowship byeb bye. She's like, by the
way England calls, England calls,I have to go, and England wants
me to come de a fellowship bye. So so she's and she's gonna leave
(52:49):
early because she's like I cannot stickaround for this. I'm just gonna go
now, which, to be fairhonestly, like I probably have done that
too. I actually hate good bye. If you're gonna go, just go,
just go. So the other threehead up to Swinson's Lodge, Wheaton
Lodge. It's only a two hoursdrive. It's only two hour drive.
(53:10):
And they do appear to have calledahead this time, so that's exciting.
And they say that and they're likeso or In an Alice or you know,
whatever you call them, and like, well, we just called him
Nana and Grandpap. Then they're like, you know, Grandpap built this place.
(53:30):
Blah blah blah. No he didn't. He bought it from the Swenson's.
Weren't you listening? He bought itfrom right, Well maybe he bought
the property. No, if theyhad their picture taken at Swinson's Lodge again,
Great American Family Channel, I don'tknow why you're not hiring Amelia Hamilton
(53:51):
as your continuity editor. Was soannoyed. I'm getting mad about nothing.
But I was like, they literallyjust said that their picture taking it's Swinson's
Lodge. There's a picture. I'mstanding outside of it. How did your
grandpa build it? This is sucha This is so Amelia. This is
like typical Amelia annoyance. She isvery annoyed at the historical detail. They
(54:14):
just said it. I'm with you, but I'm just saying I never noticed,
like you're the eagle eye that notices. So they got outside. These
grandkids are way too old to bethe grandkids we had. They're the same
age as the guy that served withhim earlier. They're like, silence,
(54:37):
I don't know what's going on.So now Caroline's here, She like comes
popping out of the back room.She wants to talk to him. So
cool, but the grandkids are standinghere waiting. They want to see the
uniform and like here this whole coolstory. But instead they just start talking
over like on the side by theChristmas tree, and they're all like they're
(55:00):
just talking and they start so theystart talking about like, you know,
I was so scared. You know, I'm sorry to care about you,
but I have this great opportunity inEngland, blah blah blah. And the
grandkids just start like passing this boxaround. I don't know what the boxes.
They're just like standing there passing itamongst them all. You don't know
(55:24):
why scene because the three adults springkids were like clearly and Jewels and Alton,
yeah, And at one point theyjust sort of like slowly inched back
out of the They were like,oh, we're standing in our house and
(55:45):
you're giving us our stuff, butwe're going to give you some price.
We're just going to hold this box. Do you wanna Do you want to
hold the box? Do you wantto hold it? And then Russell was
like, spending this time with youas a gift from God, which I
appreciated. Points for the God mentioned. So they kiss by the Christmas tree
(56:07):
and then not the grandkids, Russelland Caroline, just to clarify, and
then Alton is like, uh,you guys, the grandkids are are just
waiting. So they give them theuniform and then they kiss again and then
the grandkids say thank you, andthen that's the end. Okay, Amelia,
(56:29):
I want you to picture that onChristmas or near Christmas, someone shows
up in your doorstep with a historicalitem. A couple shows up, this
is your grandfather's, we believe itbelongs to you. We'd like to hand
it over to you, and theyimmediately start making out in your living room.
What do you do? Well,I'd want my stuff first. As
(56:50):
long as I had my stuff,I would be like, you guys can
just go that's fine. Yeah no, but you're not going to be like
clapping for them, no kissing.The grand kids were like super happy.
They were really happy. They're like, oh yeah they were. No,
you don't know these are This isweird. These people came to your house
and they're making out in your Imean, I feel like it is a
(57:12):
hotel, which is slightly different becauselike you do just have strangers in there
anyway, and I feel like there'sa different just general air about the place
than strangers making out in your home. Your home is the hotel lobby.
That's different. I guess like inwhat was a Hot Sassafras, now Hot
(57:35):
Sassafras wanted to make out in myhouse, that'd be different. Well,
yeah, that's different. So that'sthat right, Yeah, that was the
end. That's yeah. Uh didwe say the name of this movie?
We did? Bringing Christmas Home?I think we did? Yeah, Bringing
(57:57):
Christmas Home? All right? Amillion and thoughts it Actually it was not
my favorite. I felt like alot of really cool stuff happened, but
it wasn't. It was somehow wasn'tas compelling as it should have been to
watch. I don't know. Iagree, I agree, And it had
(58:19):
a Christmas theme which I appreciated,but I wouldn't have called it a Christmas
movie. It's a movie I thinkthat I would expect to see on Great
American at any other time in theyear. It definitely hits all of their
tone, their tonal points and things, so it seems like a I guess
what I'm saying is it seems likea good fit for a Great American And
(58:43):
I loved that they wanted to tacklethe angle of PTSD and and it wasn't
too self serious. It was stillin Christmas Land, so it wasn't a
lot of too much heaviness. Ithought at least that part was handled very
well in the and there were someactually some really sweet moments. But it
wasn't a fun Christmas jaunt like we'reused to, you know. And we
(59:07):
didn't really get many many tropes.No, so we had like a Christmas
name Caroline, I guess, Iguess. Yeah, we had a Christmas
deadline several Yep. Maybe Santa Peterkitchen Master was dressed as Santa, but
(59:37):
I don't think there was any questionthat he was really Santa. Yeah.
Usually that trope is like there's somekind of magical element to this guy that
maybe or maybe is not Santa.Yeah. So yeah. Was there hot
chocolate or hot Christmas beverages? Idon't think so. Was there? Did
(59:59):
they not go? Oh no,they had some kind of sweet bread or
something and went to a restaurant thing. Did they have hot chocolate when they
went out for breakfast? They mighthave. There was no hot chocolate they
like, I remember, and Ithink it was Christmas at the drive in
with Dana and mckeller. They hada whole hot chocolate stand. Hot Chocolate
(01:00:22):
had a very prominent character in themovie. Yes, and it was like
a big deal because it actually savedthe Drive. That was our big idea
to hot chocolate. Yeah. Anyways, you can go back and listen to
that episode. I don't even rememberwhat it was called, but I think
it was what's that? Oh?The movie was Christmas at the Drive movie?
(01:00:44):
Yeah, I don't remember. Ithink I think the movie the episode
might have just been called Welcome Home, because I think it was our first
jaf Yeah. Okay, was theretree decorating? I don't think so.
Really, what a missed opportunity.Yeah, what a miss opportunity. And
you could have decorated the tree withlike military themed ornaments and had a little
(01:01:05):
tour the history. Yeah, wasthere a precocious child? Hunt? Did
Gretathenburg a dress reveal moment? Andthat's what? You know what? I
didn't like that. Please don't putJill Wagner in a movie and don't have
a glad moment for her. She'sso beautiful. I hate that. Okay,
(01:01:31):
somebody falling, Nope, being caught, No kiss only at the end.
No a misunderstanding that could be clearedup with one simple conversation. That's
kind of because she didn't tell himabout England. But yeah, but it
(01:01:53):
wasn't troupe heavy, was more ofa message movie, had a nice homie,
great American fits right into the channel. No complaints there. Only complaint
is that just didn't really feel likea Christmas Land movie. Yeah, we
need more tropes. We need moretropes. That's the thing that makes that's
the engine that pushes even my familythat doesn't like these movies. My family
(01:02:16):
is still in the stage where theyonly sit down to make fun of them.
Now, what happens is when youdo that enough, you start to
morph into an actual vand so thatpart is coming, but they're still in
the we're making fun of it,and there wasn't enough fun in the movie.
So I I yeah, this wasn'tmy favorite. I think it was
(01:02:38):
well done for what it was.And of course we love those two leads.
They have such great chemistry. There'ssomething really, what's Russell's real name,
there's something so sweet about I agree, like really always it's some guy.
(01:03:00):
Some of our leading men are moresarcastic, you know, that's what
you're gonna get when you see himon screen. And some of them are
more like I'm a home but hereally is just like he's got a really
like such a sweetness to him thatI just enjoy seeing his leading man performances
in these loops. All right,Well, I have a question for the
(01:03:22):
audience, So I want the audienceto send this in. So before I
asked this question, we'll give ourdetails before and we'll give them again afterwards.
So a million, will you telleverybody how they can get in contact
with our show? Yes, weare a very merry podcast at gmail dot
com. We are a very merrypodcast on Facebook at a very merry podcast
(01:03:45):
on Instagram, and a very merrypod on Twitter. Okay, everybody.
Last season, we learned that thesocial media network and Christmas Land a scoop
Chat. What is this? Whatis the search engine in Christmas Land?
It's not can't be Google, Soscoop chat is the social media service in
(01:04:10):
Christmas Land? What is the searchengine? So, Amelia. On our
next episode, I'm going to askyou for your answer, okay, and
then we will see what people havefor us, if anyone has anything for
us and so, and also youcan write to us about anything. If
(01:04:30):
there's a movie you want us todo that we haven't watched, or you
want to chip in on on whatyou know, you want to give your
two cents on what you saw andhow you feel about it, go ahead
and hit us up. Give thoseemails again. Oh, a very Married
podcast at Gmail, at a veryMarried podcast on Instagram, a very Married
(01:04:51):
pod on Twitter, and a veryMarried podcast on Facebook. Have a question
for you, Amelia m hm ourtwo leads Caroline and Russell have to go
on a double date with two otherleads from the Christmas Land universe right now.
(01:05:15):
I haven't asked you this question previously, so I know this is sort
of out of the left field.I'll give you to think about it.
Is there what couple do you thinkthey should go on a date with?
And if you need a second thing, I'm sure it can't be Alton and
Jewels, because I mean it can'tbe a few jewels. Can Jules and
Alden can only go on a datewith a secondary Okay? Maybe, well
(01:05:43):
it has to be. It hasto be the couple from the Navy ship.
I like it right, even thoughthere are two like one's Hallmark one's
Great America. They're all on ChristmasLand, They're all in Christmas Land,
and they can talk about the horrorsof Christmas Land war. So I,
(01:06:06):
oh, I want to say thistoo, because there's really I don't believe
that there's much negativity in Christmas Land, and I really don't believe there's like
real war Christmas even not doubting Caroline'sPTSD. It's Christmas Land PTSD, right,
because there's no real wark in ChristmasLand, and so absolutely, but
(01:06:29):
this is what I was imagining,you know, because earlier in this season
we did our we did the LifetimeChristmas Movie, which is in the adjacent,
more ghettoized version, which is HolidayLand. So I'm imagining that what
where they're really deployed is Holiday Land. Yeah, there's war in Holiday Land
for sure. Well yeah, Imean it's still not terrible, no no,
(01:06:51):
no, no, yeah, butthere's a war to go to.
Sure, that's where I think.I think they should go on the double
date with a couple from the NavyShip movie. Yeah, but they could
also go on a double date withI'm trying to remember, okay, remember
a Christmas card. I don't knowif you've seen this one. It's a
(01:07:14):
super super old one. It's likeone of the original Hallmark movies. It's
probably from the early two thousands,and it's about this woman who writes like
you know the I can't remember whatit's called. But you're the things where
you can just like send a Christmascard to like a random somebody. Have
you seen this one? I seenthis one, so I think that might
be an interesting one too. Ohokay, that's a letter sort of aspect
(01:07:39):
to it. Fair enough, Okay, cool, Well, all right,
Amelia, Well we everybody by nowyou should know our schedule. We did
our episode where we caught you upwith the schedule here what we're doing next.
So make sure that you keep youreye on that episode it, replay
(01:08:00):
it, play it in your sleepso that you memorize it. Also,
don't forget to like and subscribe thispodcast. Yep. That's a very easy
way that you can support us throughthe Christmas holidays. I mean that's actually
the best way. And share doyou have anything else at Just as a
reminder, even though I know thatyou're listening to the season preview on repeat,
(01:08:24):
the next movie will be Christmas Prince. So if you need to watch
it again, Watch it again,watch it again. You do need to
again. Well, Amelia, untilwe meet again, I wish you days
filled with large plastic trash bags fulla very personal, intimate historical letters.
(01:08:48):
Thank you. And I wish youpeople who bring you gifts with a gift
to soften the gift that is sospecial. Well, Merry Christmas, Amelia.
(01:09:15):
This has been a presentation of theFCB podcast Network, where real talk
lives. Visit us online at fcbpodcastsdot com.
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