Like many Americans of European-mutt descent, I'm enamored with Ireland. While I'm peripherally aware that it is a high functioning nation with a robust tech sector, there is a part of me that continues to believe that Ireland is ruled by a fairy king and everyone who lives there is a poet-farmer descended from leprechauns who subsists on Guinness, potatoes, and British tears. My husband and I visited in 2021, and the week we spent there did nothing to dispel this fantasy. Everyone we met was incredibly friendly, every stone was infused with history, and it was exactly as green as expected. Take a look at this terrible picture I took out of a bus window because I was so thrilled by the reality of cows and hedgerows:

In Christmas With the Campbells, Jesse (Brittany Snow) is preparing to go back to her boyfriend Shawn's (Alex Moffat) house for Christmas when he unexpectedly breaks up with her. "We kept the fights clean and the sex dirty" he says through a smarmy grin, but now he needs his freedom because he's about to interview for a big deal finance job that will promote him from douchebro to King Douche. Jesse is upset, but mostly because now she's missing Christmas with his family. When she talks to his parents (Julia Duffy and George Wendt), they tell her to join them for Christmas anyway, and Jesse agrees. After all, Shawn has cancelled his trip home to prepare for his interview, and she can spend one last Christmas decorating cookies and antiquing with the family she wished she had. When Shawn's cousin David (Justin Long) unexpectedly arrives for the holiday, Jesse finds herself connecting with him in a way that she never did with Shawn. But when Shawn decides to come home for Christmas after all, she'll have to choose between the man she thought she wanted and the one who can give her what she needs.

One of my very favorite things in the world is the How Did This Get Made podcast. It's a podcast where three comedians and their friends talk about bad movies, and they cover everything from obscure 80s sci-fi to the new Fast and the Furious movie. Every year, they cover at least one Christmas movie, and this year they picked a real doozy.

When Last Christmas came out back in 2019, I was torn. On the one hand, it was a Christmas romance starring Emilia Clarke and Henry Golding, and it looked silly and cute. But it also looked sad, and I don't like rom-drams nearly as much as rom-coms. And there was something about the preview that told me these two weren't actually going to get a happy ending. I knew there was a twist, and I thought Henry Golding was going to turn out to be Emilia Clarke's therapist and he was trying out some sort of innovative treatment where he takes her on dates and makes her fall in love with him and it turns out he's been lying and manipulating her the whole time. When they ended up together I'd have to forget everything I know about appropriate doctor-patient relationships in order to enjoy it. Well I will tell you, there is in fact a twist, but boy o boy did I not see it coming.

Sometimes I think that if I ever get tired of writing romance novels (not likely 😉) I would write mystery novels instead. I love a well-crafted mystery that perfectly paces the clues so the reader figures out the solution right along with the detective. I particularly love a cozy mystery set in a charming small community, and if you give me fall vibes I'm sold. So I was excited to start this year's Holiday Movie Extravaganza with something new from Hallmark--a Christmas romance that is ALSO A MYSTERY! Ground-breaking!