Have you ever had trouble completing a project?

Writers’ block. I could so relate to that. In Christmas Next Door famous writer Eric Redford (played by Jesse Metcalfe, and, as usual, he’s as cute as ever!) is struggling with his next book proposal. He’s an author of bachelor-style books and amidst his writing struggle, he receives an unexpected phone call from his mom. She’s “sick”. She can’t take care of his niece and nephew during Christmas so Eric has to step in and take the youngsters over the holidays.

Eric’s life is so carefree. He’s dating a pretty lady and he’s free to hang out with his buddies. However, Eric needs to get to know himself better and you get the sense that his mom is trying to help him. I think she knows her son is unsettled and she realizes he needs some changes in his life – so she orchestrates the visit with his niece and nephew.

Eric is struggling to take care of the two youngsters, so, he solicits help from April, his attractive violin-playing neighbor. April is used to teaching music to kids and she’s getting ready for a big audition. She gets along with Eric’s niece and nephew and slowly shows Eric that Christmas is not so bad.

However, April is leery of Eric. She’s employed as a violinist at a fancy restaurant and runs into her handsome playboy neighbor. She’s offended by his comments, but, deep down, she knows she’s attracted to him. But, Eric has a girlfriend and he supposedly loves his bachelor lifestyle. He’s obviously not a good match for her….or is he?

I enjoyed hearing April play the violin. I did some research online and discovered that the actress who plays April does not really play the violin. The violin-playing was staged, but, it was still, oh-so lovely.

I thought it was cute when Eric kept finding Christmas decorations in his yard! He mistakenly suspects April is the culprit – secretly leaving decorations in his yard at night. It was sweet when his niece and nephew trick him into purchasing a huge Christmas tree. Eric is a Scrooge when it comes to Christmas, but, his niece and nephew, as well as April, show him that the holiday can be oh-so enjoyable! That turkey he made near the end looked delicious!

What I liked most about this movie is that Eric finds out that bachelorhood is not all it’s cracked up to be. He finally finds the “cure” for his writers’ block – he writes a different kind of story, a story that’s the total opposite of what he’s written in the past.

As stated earlier, I could relate to Eric’s writers’ block. I’ve suffered from that occasionally in the past and it is NOT fun! I could also relate to Eric meeting with his agent. I’ve worked with a literary agent in the past and the process can sometimes involve a meeting of three minds: author – agent – publisher; working together to create a wonderful project that the readership should enjoy!

So, have you ever suffered from writers’ block – or something similar – in the past? What did you do about it?

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Do you like your job?

Both Grace and Ben are both grappling with the issues of their employment. Neither of them have regular office jobs, either. Both of them have occupations that are really neat! Grace is excited about the big Christmas event coming to her town. The local news will be there and Santa, a really great Santa, will be there too!

The news anchor person comes and visits Grace’s Christmas shop, getting some footage before the big event which will occur in a week. Grace inherited her Christmas shop from her parents, who are deceased. She celebrates Christmas every day of the year and she keeps her shop open because it makes people happy…but, what about Grace? Doesn’t she deserve to be happy?

Have you ever done something, long term, to make somebody else happy, sacrificing your own happiness?

When Santa takes a drastic fall, literally, the town is left without a Santa. But, Santa trains other Santas…that’s part of his business and he wants his son, Ben, to return to town – Ben would make the perfect Santa.

So…Grace makes the long-distance journey and is able to finagle Ben to return home. Ben is a writer (to which I can definitely relate)! He writes novels and he has no time to play Santa, but, Grace pleads with him. The town needs the publicity…can’t he return and be Santa?

I loved seeing Grace and Ben interact with each other. When they attempt to return to Ben’s town (so that Grace can get her car) they run into a snowstorm. I thought the snowstorm was SO FABRICATED! Yes, there was snow, but it was not like a blizzard or anything.

Grace and Ben stay with Grace’s friends overnight since they are stranded in the snowstorm. I could even see sunlight spilling through the windows amidst the “big snowstorm”!

I loved how Ben really had to struggle with his decision about being Santa in the parade. He felt he was not able to make all of the choices in his life – he wants to do what makes him happy and he encourages Grace to do the same.

I loved seeing Grace and Ben (Eric Winter was SO CUTE in this movie…perfect Santa and perfect boyfriend material, BTW) decorating the cookies during the Christmas stroll as well as going to the ugly Christmas sweater party.

BTW, do you have an ugly Christmas sweater?

Being an author myself, I simply LOVED THE ENDING! He wrote a children’s book and she did the illustrations! I loved seeing his endearing propsal – he called her the future Mrs. Claus in the dedication! How cute!

So, do you like your job? Have you ever done something daily and you only did it to please somebody else?

Have you ever reconnected with an old boyfriend/love interest?

When Vanessa returns home for Christmas, she’s in for a big surprise. The first surprise occurs when she lands at the airport. The person picking her up is Mitch, her old boyfriend. She’s stunned to see him since she was expecting her dad to pick her up. The meeting between them is awkward since it’s obvious that they’ve not seen each other in years. To me, there appeared to be unresolved feelings between them – this was apparent (at least it was apparent to me) when they first reconnect at the airport.

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Vanessa is stunned to discover that her father is closing the beloved clinic. Well, her dad is getting older and he wants to travel with his wife. The town’s people really depend on his support.

I couldn’t believe that Mitch waited ten years to give Vanessa a gift! Can you imagine waiting for ten years to give somebody a Christmas present? He’d bought it for her initially, but, never had the right opportunity to present it to her. This is just another example of the unresolved feelings between the two of them. Although Mitch has been engaged, well…it’s obvious that he’s never forgotten about Vanessa. After all, they’ve been friends since they were kids – Vanessa made him feel welcome. Mitch was a shy child and he needed help connecting with other kids and Vanessa was right there to help him. They’d developed a deep bond as children and, from what I could gather, that bond was always there, way into adulthood.

But, as luck would have it, they broke up when Vanessa went to college – the long-distance relationship just didn’t work for them.

I really liked how this couple re-connected, even though they’d not seen one another in years. I also liked the side story about Vanessa’s brother falling for the girl from his class. It was sweet when he tried to make her cookies – he really wanted to impress her since he felt bad about spoiling the surprise ending for a book she was reading.

It was nice seeing actor Patrick Duffy. I recall seeing him acting when I was kid/teenager. He was in Man From Atlantis as well as the famous series, Dallas. It’s always nice to re-connect with actors that I’ve “known” from a long time ago.

Have you ever reconnected with an old boyfriend/love interest? What happened? Were you able to make your romance work the second time around?