Let It Snow! 2009

The Same but Different: Thursday 11/19/2009 Trish, Alyssa, Karen, Bryce, Alan, Scott After finally asking Mary (Alyssa) out on a date to the Holiday Parade, Chet (Alan) gets conflicting advice from his friends Max (Bryce) and Carl (Dave) on how to treat women. Meanwhile Mary takes advice from her cougar mother (Karen) and octogenarian surfer father (Bryce). Watch your step in Vero Beach, FL (pop. 16,939) where the old folks still have lots of pep!

Not So Secret Spots: Friday 11/20/2009 Merrill, Lisa, Jodi, Michael, Christian, Clay Brothers Jack (Clay) and Christopher (Christian) work for their father Edward (Michael) at the family gas station/apple orchard, but Jack hardly works. Instead he chases the love of Susan (Lisa) who's really in love with Christopher who's too busy working to notice. Throw in a crazy poet (Jodi) who's in love with both of them and the junk shop/moonshine still owner Agnes (Merrill) who's in love with Edward, and you've got trouble in Paradise, CA (pop 26, 408).

Blinking Red, Blinking Yellow: Friday 11/27/2009 Susan, Alyssa, Merrill, Christian, Scott, Alan After Cletus (Christian) breaks his leg playing the angel in the mortuary's Angel Pageant, Marcia (Susan) takes a shot at winning his heart. When she misses, she uses the Saturday night Blinking Light Social as an opportunity to make him jealous by kissing another boy. Only she ends up the jealous one when Cletus dances too close to Sara (Merrill). There's more to life than being dead in Leaksville, MS (pop 1,026).

Life is Not a Game: Saturday Matinee 11/28/2009 Trish, Lisa, Merrill, Christian, Scott, Mandy Twins Jeff (Christian) and Judy (Mandy) share a deeply uncool secret in Mercer Island, WA (pop 22,650). Neither of them are in the 400-person-strong high school marching band. Instead, they trade off being inside gorilla suit, the Marching Islanders' mascot. Their tech-geek parents (Scott & Trish) can't understand why their kids aren't happy in spite of all the technology-based hoops they make them jump through everyday to keep them sharp. Can the holidays save this family, or will they crash like the blue screen of death?

Barbs of the Heart: Saturday Evening 11/28/2009 Mandy, Karen, Alyssa, Bryce, Michael, Alan Generations clash in DeKalb, IL (pop 39,000) when the new NIU agriculture students show up for their first day of work on a real farm. Meanwhile Luke (Michael) gives his family's stockpile of barbed wire to Sally (Mandy), but he can't bring himself to tell her he loves her. When Luke's brother Peter (Bryce) returns on break from rival school U of I, he threatens to steal away Sally's heart. Love is a thorny issue in the birthplace of barbed wire.

M-E-R C-M-A-S Spells Merry Christmas: Thursday 12/03/2009 Mandy, Jodi, Trish, Michael, Scott, Bryce Teenager Darla (Trish) is on a mission to shake up Goble, OR (pop 2,744). After growing up in a town so cute that the town holiday signs are missing letters, the kindergarten teacher (Mandy) tap dances at the Goble Tavern, and the elementary school Santa is really the janitor (Michael), she's itching for some danger. She gets her wish when tap-dancing teacher Tabitha (Jodi) storms in from rival town Clatskanie. Tap-off in the Tavern! Darla soon learns it doesn't matter how you spell "Merry Christmas," as long as you believe it.

You've Gotta Be Smart: Friday 12/04/2009 Alyssa, Merrill, Lisa, Alan, Christian, Dave  Carly (Merrill) is tired of being poor and living with her extended family in Espanola, NM (pop 9,688). On the other side of the tracks, Derek (Christian) spends all his time in the family mansion working on his low-riders with his younger sister Elizabeth (Lisa). When the two meet at the town bowling alley/casino, Carly hopes she's hit the jackpot, while Derek just hopes he can avoid a gutter ball. 

East De Pere is Right Here: Saturday Matinee 12/05/2009 Mandy, Karen, Alyssa, Clay, Alan, Scott  Pete (Alan) and Shirley (Mandy) have been best friends in East De Pere, WI (pop 20,000) since they were yea high, but when a picture shows up in the town paper of the two of them ice skiing from the same tow handle, all the town assumes they're an item. To prove they're not, Pete dates another girl, and Shirley gets arrested storming West De Pere as part of the French Explorers Historical Reenactment Society. Soon they both learn their heart's desire was right here all along in East De Pere. 

Practical Marge: Saturday Evening 12/05/2009 Susan, Trish, Lisa, Bryce, Dave, Clay  The whole town of Hornitos, CA (pop 64) knows Marge Ballard (Trish) as "Practical Marge." She runs the town bar, raises her daughter Jenny (Susan), and shovels manure on the family ranch under the watchful eye of her demanding father (Bryce). One day she just snaps and builds her own hut out in the desert, and her father and Jenny learn they can't live without her, except that Jenny's been making a lot of money scaring out-of-towners on ghost town tours. It's a Christmas Eve to remember for the Ballards. 

Long Day's Journey into Christmas: Thursday 12/10/2009 Merrill, Lisa, Karen, Alan, Bryce  When the local high school geometry teacher Crandall "Bernie" Hendrickson (Alan) loses his desire to teach, he becomes a comically alcoholic Scrooge. His wife Margaret (Merrill) clings to her family for support including her Uncle Alfred (Bryce) and niece Dawn (Jodi) who's visiting from Wisconsin. Unexpectedly Dawn's romance with the town cab driver Pete (Lisa) teaches Bernie he still has something to teach his students. There's a lot of promise in Kalamazoo, MI (pop 76,145). 

Your Home is Your Castle: Friday 12/11/2009 Susan, Jodi, Trish, Michael, Clay, Alyssa  Carleton (Dave) returns home to Newcastle, NH (pop 1,010) after 10 years away in the big city of Portsmouth and wants everyone to know he's no longer a womanizer. He's serious about his foot-model girlfriend, Cyndi (Susan). His sister Margaret (Trish), the town schoolteacher, is skeptical as are his friends and exes, but the local Reverend (Clay) helps her to see how people can change. It all ends with a wedding (a surprise to Carlton)...because "your home is your castle in Newcastle." 

30 Minutes to Everything: Saturday Matinee 12/12/2009 Jodi, Lisa, Trish, Clay, Dave, Michael  Sam (Michael) is 34 and wants it all, but he's torn between his love of ice football and his dad's (Dave) insistence on building gingerbread models of famous civil war battles. Then he finds himself at the center of a catfight when his longtime (but non-committal) girlfriend and local junior CIA agent Marcie (Jodi) vie for his affections. Who will be victorious on this ice-strewn battlefield of love in Stafford, VA (pop 124,000)? 

A Doll's Palace: Saturday Evening 12/12/2009 Trish, Karen, Jodi, Scott, Christian, Mandy Charles (Christian) just wants to be a man, but running the Bothell, WA (pop 30,150) Doll Palace museum under the thumbs of his mother (Mandy) and aunt (Karen) has left him emasculated. Then his controlling girlfriend Becky (Trish) leaves him. Could a budding romance with the local tomboy grease monkey Skeeter (Jodi) make him a man? 

For the Birds: Thursday 12/17/2009 Merrill, Karen, Jodi, Bryce, Michael Christian  When a reality film crew led by brothers Chuck & Chester (Christian & Bryce) and their French cinematographer Jaque (Michael) comes to Bodega, CA (pop 571), everyone wants to be a star. Laverne (Jodi) attempts to step into the limelight, but her rise to stardom is complicated by Chuck & Chester both falling in love with her, an angry ghost (Karen) who puts the "Hitchcock curse" on film crew, and a local femme fatale Tiffany (Merrill). Add in the ever-ready and eager firemen (Bryce, Michael & Christian) and the quiet town of Bodega is in for quite a ride.

Why not, Minot?: Friday 12/18/2009 Mandy, Lisa, Karen, Dave, Scott, Clay Inga (Lisa) has always lived in the shadow of her attractive out-going sister Olga (Mandy) in Minot, ND (pop 36,567), but when her friend Bart (Clay) writes her a letter from college signed "Yours Truly", Inga has hopes of love. Will she overcome her shyness to go out with him when he visits for the holidays? Will Bart overcome his meddling mother? Will they get a pheasant for Christmas dinner before the mountain lions get them? Why not? 

A Steak Through the Heart: Saturday Matinee 12/19/2009 Alyssa, Merrill, Jodi, Alan, Dave, Christian  Love-em-and-leave-em Jerry (Christian) makes a bet with his co-worker Pete (Dave) that he can date Pete's ex-girlfriend Ilene (Jodi) for a full 8 months. Somehow he makes it through the August fish fry and Thanksgiving with Ilene's drunken family. He just needs to make it through Christmas to win Pete's car! Then Ilene finds out about the bet, and Jerry learns she meant more to him than his little black book. Nothing that a steak dinner at the Port Hotel in Port Washington, WI (pop 10,467) and a marriage proposal can't fix!

Photo Finish: Saturday Evening 12/19/2009 Susan, Mandy, Trish, Alan, Clay, Michael. Nancy (Trish) runs one of the three bars on the one street in Dayton, NV (pop 5,907). She wishes just once the horse would win the annual race against the Harley. To even the odds, the town decides to hold the race during the holidays on an ice track. Even then, Phyllis (Mandy) is determined to keep her unbeaten streak aboard the Harley alive, while Nancy goes a little crazy rooting for the horse. In the end, they both learn it's just a race, but what a race it was!