The Uncertainty of the New Year

Another new year is upon us. I can’t remember another new year in my life that has had so much uncertainty ahead as this one. The new year may be a challenging one for us all.

Of course, we never know what we will face in the future. Nothing is a guarantee. We all have our plans and expectations, but each year also brings it shares of surprises and things that totally take the wind out of us.  

The return of Donald Trump as president also brings much apprehension with the divisiveness that follows him.  I fear that we are in for some rough months ahead with him as the leader of our country.  Regardless on which side you are on, you have to feel uncertain as to what will happen.  

For me I trust in God for what’s ahead. I pray that prayer often. Trusting in God means placing faith in God’s plan for us and believing that He has prepared the way before us. He will guide us through whatever comes even when we don’t understand or see the entire picture. Trusting in God with the future doesn’t mean we will not experience pain or utter disappointment. If you are like me, you don’t want to experience the pain that is coming.  I would like to bypass that part.

As a planner, I like everything to be organized and planned out, but this year is looking like it will be a year of walking blindly ahead. I will be honest that I don’t like it, and it scares me, but I believe that all things will work together for the future even if there are mistakes made along the way.

The new year is going to be a leap of faith. I like the lyrics in Steven Curtis Chapman’s song “Remember to Remember” where it says:

And now I'm looking out at the road that's waiting
But my eyes can only see so far out ahead of me
As sure as the sun will shine there'll be more mountains I will climb
And more deep dark shadowlands where desperate faith is all I have
Until I'm home, I'm resting all my hope and trust
In the only One whose name is: God with us

The year 2025 is ahead of us now. Even if we have uncertainty about it, we can't live the entire year at once, we can only live it one day at a time.  Each day is a step of faith and trusting God to help us with what we face.  I have recently started directing my thoughts that I can only do what I know, I can't do anything about what I don't know.    

Top 10 Hallmark Christmas Movies of 2024

Okay, this is it.  This is my personal Top 10 list of Hallmark Christmas movies this season.  It really seems like there were a lot more this year but I compiled my favorites that I watched.

This year the Hallmark Christmas movie season began on October 18th with the first new movie - "Twas the Date Before Christmas" - and ended with "Happy Howlidays" on December 21st.  Even though I love the Hallmark Christmas movie season, I think it starts WAY too early.  It shouldn't start before Halloween.  It is a bit an over saturation for the Christmas movie season to start in mid-October.

There were some good ones and some not-so-good ones this year. Although this is nothing official, this is my personal observations and opinions about the new movies this season.

1. Twas the Date Before Christmas - (Robert Buckley and Amy Groening) To prevent her family from canceling the "Chamberlain Family Christmas Olympics," Jessie (Groening) lies and says she's inviting a date to the long-standing holiday tradition.  This was the only one I watched multiple times this season and my favorite one.  I like anything Buckley is in because of his wit and humor.  Groening, who has been "the best friend" role in many other movies did really well in being a lead and should get more in the future.  Very well done and enjoyable to watch.
2. The Christmas Charade - (Rachel Skarsten and Corey Sevier). Whitney (Skarsten), a cautious librarian raised by home security experts, finds herself in a real-life adventure when a blind date mix-up leads her into an undercover FBI operation. Forced to pose as the girlfriend of Special Agent Josh (Sevier), she helps him track down an art thief targeting the Heart of Christmas necklace at a Christmas Eve charity ball. As the stakes rise, Whitney must embrace her inner action hero to save the day.  Skarsten and Sevier paired well together and were very funny.
3. Santa Tell Me - (Erin Krakow and Daniel Lissing). When Olivia, a successful interior designer, finds an old letter from Santa promising she'll meet the love of her life by Christmas Eve - and that his name will be Nick - she's stunned to meet not one, but three guys named Nick. As she navigates these holiday romances, Olivia also finds herself drawn to her charming co-worker, Chris, throwing her magical Christmas quest into question. With the clock ticking toward Christmas Eve, Olivia embarks on a heartwarming and humorous journey to uncover her true soulmate.  This movie reunited "When Calls the Heart" stars Krakow and Lissing and they still had their connection in this move too.  Good story and very funny.
4. The Santa Class - (Kimberley Sustad and Benjamin Ayres). Kate North, the owner of a struggling Santa School, and her instructor, Dan, must help an amnesia-stricken Santa Claus regain his memories to save Christmas and hopefully her school as well.  Sustad and Ayres were a perfect comedy match.  So funny.  We also loved that Paul Campbell starred as himself in the movie.  Easily a favorite.
5. Holidazed - Followed five families in Oak Bay, Oregon, who live on the same cul de sac, as they deal with the joys and stress of coming home for the holidays. This one was a miniseries of eight episodes which followed the different families.  It was good but I'm not sure I liked having the last episode tying everything up on each story.  It worked but I think each story should have had its own finale episode.
6. Our Holiday Story - (Nikki Deloach and Warren Christie) A couple recounts their Christmas love story to their daughter's boyfriend.  Very good storyline and plot.  Enjoyed the flashbacks.
7. Holiday Mismatch - (Caroline Rhea and Beth Broderick). New retiree Barb joins a Holiday Committee but clashes with long standing member Kath. When they realize their kids have started dating, they conspire to break up the happy couple.  This one was much better than I expected.  The trailers really didn't make me excited to watch it but it was a good plot and story to follow. 
8. Happy Howlidays - (Jessica Lowndes and Eza Moreland). Mia (Lowndes), a meticulous webpage editor for the Seattle Tourism Board, finds herself unexpectedly navigating the holidays alone. As the only one working, she's drawn into an unusual encounter when she encounters a stray dog. To be honest I didn't expect much from this one which featured the winner of "Finding Mr. Christmas" but Ezra was pretty good and I hope to see more movies from him. Story was a little weak but it worked.
9. Hannukah on the Rocks - (Stacey Farber and Daren Kagasoff). A recently unemployed lawyer Tory embarks on a journey to find Hanukkah candles, leading her to a Chicago bar where she transforms the holiday spirit, and finds the courage to pursue a new path in life. This was another one that was better than I expected.  Good story.
10. A 90s Christmas - (Eva Bourne and Chandler Massey). While celebrating her promotion alone on Christmas Eve, a workaholic lawyer is transported back to 1999 via a mysterious rideshare experience. Always love a time-travel, ghosts of Christmas past-type movies.  This one was a good one.

Honorable Mention:
Finding Mr. Christmas

This was Hallmark's reality show competition to find a new Hallmark Christmas movie leading man.  Jonathan Bennet and Melissa Peterman were entertaining as the hosts in this competition.  Ezra Moreland won the competition and starred in "Happy Howlidays".  The word is that they expect to have another competition next season.  I think I would like to see them do a Mr. and Ms. Christmas competition with the winners in their own movie together.  Maybe the storyline of being on a holiday dating show?  Hmmm.

Disappointments:
Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs' Love Story

With all the hype and over-promotion this movie received, it was the most disappointing movie of the season.  The casting was awful and the storyline was about a lucky hat?  I think the only people who would like this movie are Kansas City Chiefs' fans.  Hallmark went too far to cash in on the Chiefs, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce popularity.  Tyler Hines - the male lead - is usually one of my favorites but he had a hard time pulling this one off.

Three Wiser Men and a Boy

Hallmark is terrible with sequels and it happened again with this one.  This was the sequel to the previous hit movie "Three Wise Men and a Baby".  It just did not work.  Writers also never gave us the answer to why Tyler Hines' character was with another girlfriend.  Strange. 

My All-Time Favorites
The movies below are always my must-see movies every year:

Unexpected Christmas
Five Star Christmas
Haul Out the Holly
Christmas Melody
Mistletoe Promise
Norwegian Christmas

It's The Thought That Counts?

I’m sure you’ve heard that saying "it’s the thought that counts" but sometimes you have to wonder. There are times that I have. I’m sure we have all opened Christmas presents and wondered about the gifters’ thought process in the gift they wrapped up for us.

Here are some odd, funny and unusual gifts I have received over the years:

Ice Scraper for Windshield - I immediately think back to this one whenever this subject comes up. A co-worker gifted me this one year. A few things to note here. I was living in Macon, Georgia at the time which was not really big on ice problems and I parked in a garage. Not sure what the thought process was on that one.

Jumbo Box of Dolphin-shaped Goldfish crackers - Yeah, this happened. I love dolphins and somehow I was getting lots of dolphin-themed things at the time. This one bottomed it out. The awkward part was when I was unwrapping it and the gifter was watching in anticipation of my reaction. I had to immediately put on the best fake happy face I could.

Book on how to deal with difficult co-workers - At the time, I was part of a small group of IT people in the office. The four of us decided to have our own Christmas party and gift exchange. One of our co-workers gifted us all with the same book about how to deal with difficult co-workers. The ironic thing was that SHE was the difficult co-worker.

Christmas letter - One co-worker thought it was a good idea to give each of us a copy of her annual family Christmas letter which detailed the highlights of what they had accomplished over the past year. Most of us "filed" it away after the gift exchange.

Mannequin hands - One year at an office Christmas party I received a trash bag full of mannequin hands from a local department store. Why you might ask? At the time I was an assistant to an office of eight investigators. During times when they were all demanding something from me at the same time, I would often say that "I only have two hands." One of the investigators was funny with his gift of more "hands" for me.

Strange right? And the gifts I described above were not "white elephant" or gag gifts.

I have also had some very nice gifts over the years and very thoughtful gifts. Unfortunately, I have somehow become one of those people which are difficult to buy for. I wish that wasn't the case. Just don't get me an ice scraper or floor mats from Weather Tech. As one former pastor used to say, "You can never go wrong with money. It's always the right size and right color." Some are hesitant about gifting gift cards too but I am never offended by that. I'd rather get a gift card than a jumbo box of dolphin shaped goldfish crackers.