When I started to watch this I thought, "this must be a fan-favorite series, since this was number 5". I hadn't seen or heard about it's predecessors, but I would like to assume they continued the saga due to popular choice. It is daring to tackle the subject of marital-strife, and especially, its damaging effects on the security of children, especially centered around a Christmastime theme. This is definitely a more serious tone than a vast majority of Hallmark's holiday movies, and it may have been heartwarming (with better execution) if it didn't devote almost three-fourths of its time to the bickering, misunderstanding, and pettiness between the parents, Rebecca and Enrique. The redemptive moral is the wonderful mother-in-law, Camilla, who Rebecca, somehow, mostly fails to recognize . Of the three of them, Camilla is the only selfless one, who truly exemplifies the spirit of giving. Only when the children (pure of heart) contribute to Rebecca's book, does Rebecca affirm the extra-efforts that Camilla had undergone to lighten the heavy hearts of the children attributable to her and Enrique's separation. Camilla also illuminates Rebecca of Enrique's selfless investment, and personal sacrifice to save their family restaurant business. This is, unfortunately, a fact in many marital disputes - that the spouses are blinded by resentment, and only a bystander can illuminate the problem. Unfortunately, by the time Rebecca and Enrique resolve their differences, it's so late in the movie, that you're deprived of any deep emotion or gratification.
