Cheesy Christmas Movies

If you are a woman, and I know over half of you are, what would be your ideal December day off?

My third daughter Melissa informed me about a month ago that last Wednesday (my day off) she was going to call in sick at the school she teaches social studies at, still drop her kids off at the babysitter, and spend the entire day with me at my house watching cheesy Hallmark Christmas movies. Mom was of course also invited and wouldn't it be nice if we started the day by going out to breakfast/brunch at Anna's House, a fairly new breakfast/lunch restaurant nearby.

In Missy's mind this was going to be just like old times. Her older brother and sisters had moved out of the house, Younger sister Becky was away at college and she could chill out with her dear old dad (and mom).

Eventually, because she was getting so excited about the day, Melissa told her sister Carrie (my second daughter) about her plans and Carrie, thinking that was a great idea, got included. She told James her husband that he needed to take the day off and manage getting their younger kids off to school and back again.

Well, now that Carrie was invited Melissa didn't want her other sisters to feel excluded so she did the right thing. She waited until the day before (ha ha) and left a voice message with Ceci and Becky telling them what the plans were. Becky who lives over an hour away wasn't able to get off of work but Ceci did have a couple of hours open mid day and she said she would swing by.

The big day finally arrived. I had a previous commitment first thing in the morning so I missed the brunch but was here when they came back to the house. Melissa told me that her husband Dan would have loved to also come but he's as honest as the day is long and he didn't quite know how to explain to his boss a day off chilling with with his father-in-law watching Hallmark Christmas movies.

All the necessary ingredients for a good time were there. Jackie got out her best Christmas plates and prepared some goodies to snack on including a spiral sliced ham for lunch. The girls each brought more goodies to snack on plus a variety of breads. We moved a bunch of rocker recliners in front of the big screen TV, each with a blanket to snuggle up in, and proceeded to watch 3 of the batch of Hallmark movies we had recorded.

Ceci came over for a couple of hours as promised. Dan took an extended lunch break and got in most of one movie (maybe he saw the whole thing, I'm not sure how long he was standing outside in the cold looking through the window before he got up the courage to join us).

I've watched a lot of Hallmark Christmas movies just with Jackie but it is a totally different experience when you are watching one with a group of your daughters. I'd glance over at my girls during a sad part and there they were, blankets wrapped up to their necks, tears streaming out of their eyes, even audible words of encouragement for the poor actress who just found out that her true love, whom she just got to know while visiting her little town all decked out for Christmas, complete with the requisite skating rink, wise old Santa Clause and home town bakery run by a chubby faced woman who knows every body's business, has to move back to New York or LA where his snooty ex-girlfriend is waiting to sink her exquisitely manicured nails into his handsome but innocent and naive neck.

And then there was the movie where an Italian Catholic guy tells his hospitalized and dying from heart complications grandmother that he has honored her last wish and now has a girl friend. Not actually having a girl friend he goes online and hooks up for an agreed two week period over the holidays with an only child Jewish girl who needs to show a boyfriend to her folks who want her to find a nice Jewish doctor to marry. Things go better than expected. The girl comes over to visit the Italian family. Grandmother is there because she has made a miraculous recovery, they know the girl is Jewish but don't care and everyone has a great time.

It is a little more dicey when the couple goes to the girl's parent's house to celebrate the first day of Hanukkah. He has to pretend he's Jewish, they insist he light the menorah candle and lead the singing (in Hebrew) but things work out. However, somehow the girl's parents get invited over to the guy's house. The family wants to make a good impression so when the couple walks in with the girl's parents they are greeted by the entire Italian family who, pretending they are Jewish, are each (including grandma) wearing the skull cap and have decorated their home with about 15 Menorah candle sets which it turns out are actually Kwanzaa candles. All the candles are lit, the Christmas tree is still up but the angel on top has now been replaced by a star of David and the family puts on Jewish music and start dancing around in circles with the stunned couple in the center.

At this point my entire family is rolling on the floor in laughter. It calms down a bit when the exuberant dancing causes grandma to have a heart attack but by now the tears will have to wait.

The girls think this was so much fun that we need to make it a new Christmas tradition. The only problem is that everyone of their girl friends they have talked to about this want to come over as well. Don't all dads like to watch cheesy Hallmark Christmas movies with their girls?