This Time Each Year (Hallmark Mystery - 2024)

The movie kicks off with a montage of a couple taking Christmas card pictures together over the years. It’s the McCaul family, and they are loving each other until 2023, when Kevin shows up late, and it’s clear his wife Lauren is very annoyed.

Cut to the present day, and Kevin and Lauren are separated. You hate to see it; you also hate to see sober Kevin get fired from his bar job. That’s right…bar job. Apparently his sobriety was a liability. 

After that, they all meet up at Kevin’s family’s house. Kevin and Lauren talk about working together to make sure that their son Charlie still has a great Christmas. When Lauren asks Kevin how work is going, he says, “Good!” but doesn’t tell her he was fired. That secret doesn’t last long, though, as his mom spills the beans. Lauren is upset and goes to leave. Kevin tries to stop her, and it becomes clear that part of their problems stem from the financial hardship of buying their dream home, which ended up being a money pit.

Lauren is eating cookies in bed (which spoke to me), when she gets a call from her mom, who tells her she’s coming to visit for Christmas. Uh oh – she doesn’t know about the separation.

So Lauren goes to ask Kevin if he’d be willing to help keep it a secret from her mom, and he agrees to a fake Christmas in exchange for them going back to couples therapy and going on their annual Christmas date together.

Kevin shows up, says hi to Lauren’s mom, and uses the opportunity to kiss Lauren.

They go to therapy, where Lauren shares how her mother’s judgment affected her growing up as “Little Miss Mess” because she never finished what she started. This is why she doesn’t want her mom to know about the separation or that the dream house isn’t working out.

Lauren’s mom, Janet, was only supposed to be there for one day because she had a Christmas cruise planned – but it turns out the cruise was fake!

They decide to keep going with the lie, but it doesn’t last long. At the ice skating rink, Kevin is late and is acting sketchy. Overwhelmed with emotion, Lauren ends up telling Janet the truth.

They all go to a community center gingerbread house competition – montage time! At the contest, Kevin finds out that Lauren is in the process of getting the house ready to sell.

But when Kevin meets Jason, the real estate agent Lauren is considering, he gets a little jealous and jumps headfirst into helping with the house that that Lauren doesn’t have alone time with Jason.

Later, Kevin’s dad has to go to the hospital, and Kevin uses the moment to get serious, promising his dad that he’ll help out more because he wants to be “Helper of the Week.”

Kevin gets a job at a counselor’s office. His goal is to become a counselor because, again, he wants that “Helper of the Week” status, but for now, he’ll just be working in the office.

Kevin forgets about their Christmas date, so he quickly sets up a projector in the “dream home” and decorates it for Christmas. He plays Lauren’s favorite movie, they laugh, eat Chinese food, and slow dance to some Frank Sinatra. It’s the kind of moment that brings two people together – until Lauren’s mother’s angel ornament breaks. Lauren is devastated because she feels she’ll always be seen as a “Little Miss Messy” daughter, but she comes clean to her mom.

Just then, the handsome real estate agent shows up to tell Lauren about an offer on the house and asks her out for dinner. Kevin assumes it’s a date and tells Janet how being called “Little Miss Mess” affected Lauren.

Janet apologizes to Lauren for the “Little Miss Mess” nickname, explaining she only called her that because her room was always a mess. She then shows her that she fixed the angel ornament. Lauren remarks that it’s even better than before. Janet says, “Instead of hiding imperfections, you use them to add to the beauty.”

Lauren rushes to find Kevin at the church, but he’s just left to do some deliveries. So, she teams up with his family, and after church, they drop him off at the dream house, where she tells him she no longer wants to just “fix things” but to work on growing together. They share a big kiss.

Cut to Christmas morning, and they’re all together, happy and content.

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