I’d like to dedicate this book to the memory of my parents and Christmas 2014.

---

My mom had broken her neck a few months earlier and I had gone to stay with them. We watched a lot of Christmas movies that year—much to my dad’s dismay. He hated that the stories were all the same and that there were no mysteries to solve.

---

My mom, on the other hand, was on pain meds and she thought they WERE all the same movie. Understandable, since the same actors appeared in pretty much all of them.

---

I enjoyed the cheerful, hopeful mood of them, the humor and the warmth. I needed that then, and I’m pretty sure we all still need that now—as much as we ever did.