"Love is the greatest gift of all."
Hello everyone!
I'll admit, I was debating giving up blogging, at least for a while, but somehow or other this has gotten under my skin and I can't just let it go without some sort of a really good reason, of which I have none at the moment.
Besides, it kind of feels weird to think I wouldn't be typing this up twice a week, I'll admit.
I've gotten used to it!
But anyway, I digress.
On New Year's Eve, because I'd been kind of busy over Christmas, I finally sat down and watched the movie I knew would bring me to tears. How could it not, when viewers around the globe are still hissing at Hallmark for what happened with Jack Thornton?
When Calls the Heart: The Greatest Christmas Blessing was only a small consolation.
As the show and Hallmark have aired specials before, and since I've seen and/or reviewed most of them, you'll be able to find the links to those at the bottom of this blog post, as is usual when it comes to me giving callbacks to some of my earlier works.
But back to the story at hand - or stories, really.
Because there were several interlacing together in the hour and a half we were given.
Of course we have the main one, with Elizabeth, heavily pregnant and waiting to give birth to her and Jack's (Daniel Lissing) baby; but there were other side-stories, like Rosemary trying to corral everything and everyone to help Abigail with the Christmas dinner; Abigail and Christmas dinner, obviously, which was an adventure all on its own; Jesse getting tickets for Clara to go see the Nutcracker together; Lee getting the guys together so they assembled an outfit for Jesse without him having to pay a penny for it (and I'm still wondering how come nobody told Rosemary, she'd have finished it much quicker!); a group of orphans led by two sisters on their way to start an orphanage in their owld family home finding themselves in Hope Valley for the season; the mystery of a girl with them who was supposed to be in a different orphanage, and Sheriff Bill putting his spurs on; Henry Gowen melting all our hearts and then some; and to top it all off, Bill was making his mother's Christmas pudding throughout the hour and a half, and it was HILARIOUS.
Probably the only hilarious thing really, but let's tick them off one by one, shall we?
So Abigail (Lori Loughlin), trying to organise the Christmas dinner, has sort of bitten off more than she can chew, but with the help of Rosemary (Pascale Hutton) things ARE looking somewhat up, even to the point where unfortunately the Christmas roast sort of ... er, gets too crispy, and they have to go grab another turkey from a town over, only to find there's been a misunderstanding and they bring back ... the Christmas salami.
It's crazy, I know, but the women have all these adventures!
Meanwhile, the guys have other problems.
Jesse didn't know he was getting tickets for a ballet when he got them for Clara, so now he needs an outfit, which forces Lee (Kavan Smith) to drum the guys of Hope Valley together. He ends up with the shirt of Dr. Shepherd (Paul Greene), pants from our very own Sheriff (Jack Wagner), shoes from Lee himself, and a coat from Gowen (Martin Cummins). I mean, it's good to see the team work!
While this is all going on, Jesse also did another good deed previously, by bringing a group of orphans and the two young women in charge of them to Hope Valley after their wagon breaks down. Since they can't get it fixed until after Christmas, they're forced to stay in town, during which time Bill sniffs out something's not right.
There were supposed to be seven kids, but they have eight. And it turns out the eighth is going to be a problem.
Why?
Well because her sister, one of the original seven, took her from the other orphanage and hid her, after attempts by the two women to take the girl and bring the sisters together had fallen through. Why are they so passionate about it? Well they, too, were orphans, and separated, and they want to make sure it doesn't happen again.
Bill might try and be the Grinch but he's got a heart of gold and he allows for the fact that the sisters can stay together over Christmas, inventing random stalling tactics when the director of the original orphanage comes to collect her.
And he has time to do all this while trying to get his mother's pudding recipe right!
While he's busy with all that though, Henry Gowen gets shadowed by a little girl who doesn't speak, with a book she borrowed from Elizabeth after prompting from Rosemary, and he ends up reading to the child every little while during the hour and a half. And he melts our hearts while doing so, knowing his character arc the way we do. But why does the girl follow him around?
Her sister, the one who took her away, explains: Gowen looks like their deceased father.
Cue waterworks.
After saying goodbye to Jack and being heavily pregnant, Elizabeth is in a bit of a rut. The baby's coming soon, but she can't bring herself to finish the baby's room, because it was meant to be done with Jack, together, lovingly, and she tries hiding the fact from her friends for a while, until she breaks down to Abigail one time. Abigail, being the Mayor and friend extraordinaire that she is, drums up some of the biggest gossips in town, and coincidentally also some of Elizabeth's staunchest supporters, who don't take no for an answer and pop in to help her get the nursery ready. And it is, with a portrait of Jack to complete it.
But she still needs a stroller so during the Christmas salami adventure, she tags along with Rosemary and Abigail, and on the way back the women get into a car accident, and that's not all. Elizabeth's baby is coming!
They make it to a small cottage nearby even as the men of the town band together once they don't come back in time for the Christmas dinner, and ride out to find them.
As is so often the case with men in these shows, however, they're a little late.
By the time Bill, Carson and Lee stumble over the cottage, Elizabeth has already given birth to baby Jack.
And to top it all off, the mute girl finally speaks, reading the book back to Gowen after he explains it was his Christmas wish (awwww!), the orphanage's director signs the papers to transfer the child over to the two sisters, and all's well that ends well - even Bill's pudding!
The missing ingredient he kept on insisting was needed?
A little bit of team work, and a whole lot of love.
I think I cried throughout most of the hour and a half, or at least sniffled like a maniac. That's just how I roll though, because I LOVE this show and I was HEARTBROKEN when Jack died. So I knew going into this it was going to be something else entirely, but I never actually expected it to be quite as bad as it was, meaning with my tears and all.
But it's done and over with, and maybe now, when season six starts, I won't tear up every time I see baby Jack.
Oh who am I kidding, of course I will.
xx
*images and video not mine
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