Happily NEVER After

The 6th day of HNA Christmas brings you Mingle All the Way! Get your techy hats on y'all because Hallmark takes us into the very complicated - and super hard for your accountant mom to understand - world of (gasp) dating apps. The perky and delightful Jen Lilley plays Molly Hoffman, creator of a professional "dating" app called Mingle All the Way. It's designed for "platonic plus ones" to find that special someone that they can fake date for the holidays. Remember that old Hallmark classic, Hitched for the Holidays with Joey Lawrence and Emily Hampshire? That was actually the first movie we covered!! Aww... Anyway, this movie is basically a techy reboot of the same concept. Brant Daugherty plays Jeff, a ridiculously hot Christmas craft-making advertising guy (not sure those actually exist, but OK) who's feeling the shaft at work because he is without a sig fig. As per the formula, Molly and Jeff meet under some duress and are immediately annoyed with each other but decide to couple up so that Molly can get her app funded and Jeff can get the L.A. office. How could these two gorgeous people that initially hate each other fall in love at Christmas time? Listen and find out! Seriously, go hit play now.

On the 5th day of Christmas, HNA gave to me some flashbacks and CCB...! OK, here we go with A Shoe Addict's Christmas, people. This was a highly anticipated 2018 holiday movie as it features one of the Hallmark queens herself, Candace Cameron-Bure as Noelle (yep, in a Christmas movie), a personally and professionally stuck department store HR manager who finds herself planning the annual firefighter's Christmas gala. She meets Luke Macfarlane, firefighter hottie and new neighbor, who is considering trading fire pole slides for a desk job. You'll get a lot of whiplash as the lovably cooky Jean Smart wrenches Noelle back and forth between the past, present and future versions of her life as she tries to show her the benefit of taking risks and having faith. Shoes are somewhat involved but not at all central to the storyline, so don't be worried or upset when all of that never really ties in. OK, go listen!

On the 4th day of HNA Christmas, Regan and Robyn bring to thee an ice skating royal movieeeee! Bring it on down to Sansanova, y'all where the king is smokin' hot and the ice skating is luke warm, at best. Christmas at the Palace stars Merritt Patterson as Katie, a long since retired figure skater who is on the cusp of owning her very own ice rink in beautiful, crime-free Trenton, NJ with her gal pal Jessica. The only thing standing in their way is Jess's last skating hurrah in the kingdom of Sansanova - you know, any fictional country, EU. Single dad and (super hot) King Alex, Andrew Cooper, is trying to step out of his (dead, obvi) Christmas-loving father's shadow when he meets the feisty Katie on these Sansanova streets. They've got 13 days to plan the Christmas Eve skating pageant which is the exact amount of time it takes Katie to dump her rink-owning dreams, stop skating exclusively in her mind and fall deeply in love with King Alex. We couldn't have laughed harder...take a listen!

For our 3rd day of HNA Christmas, we’re bringing you It’s Christmas, Eve! LeAnn Rimes (yep, same one you’re thinking of) plays the title character, Eve, a no-nonsense temporary school superintendent who’s used to breezing into town, cutting budgets and taking names. Until this latest assignment brings her back to her hometown of Franklin (no state provided) where she meets smokin hot single dad, Liam played by Tyler Hines. Y’all, he is still stunning in these cable knits and henleys, FYI. That said, Liam runs the music program at Franklin High, so he’s onto Eve’s budget cutting designs. His hotness, and dedication to his students, convinces Eve to reroute her budgeting plans and instead helping the town raise funds to save their schools! Do you think LeAnn sings at a Christmas concert before she and Liam fall in love?Listen and find out!!

Our 2nd day of HNA Christmas brings us to Hallmark's Christmas at Pemberley Manor! Jessica Lowndes plays Elizabeth Bennett and Mark Rady is Mr. William Darcy, himself. Don't be fooled, though, people... The actual congruence to anything Jane Austin-related here is completely non-existent. If you were hoping for a nice period piece, prepare for disappointment as you drive up to Pemberley "Manor" which is really just a big house in Lambden, CT. Darcy is a rich NYC business guy who has divorced himself from the whimsy of Christmas due to painful family memories and Elizabeth is an event planner who is getting her first step out from behind the curtain to plan the Lambden town Christmas festival, thanks to her old friend (zoned) George. Liz has to convince Darcy to let her use Pemberley Manor to host it when the town water main breaks leaving the square useless. That never happens in these movies (ahem, When Sparks Fly #Markleseason)! It's not the joy of Christmas, but his own company's reputation that convinces Darcy to let Liz have run of Pemberley for the week, so that's cool, and Liz puts on a festival that is both tasteful and kitchy... Her boss Caroline, however, is none too pleased with the level of elegance nor how close Liz seems to be getting to Darcy. There's some other stuff about George, two assistants falling in love and a weird Santa-like groundskeeper who saves the day. But he's totally par for the course if you watch these movies. Oh, and Liz and Darcy fall in love. OK, that's it! Go listen!

Our 2nd day of HNA Christmas brings us to Hallmark's Christmas at Pemberley Manor! Jessica Lowndes plays Elizabeth Bennett and Mark Rady is Mr. William Darcy, himself. Don't be fooled, though, people... The actual congruence to anything Jane Austin-related here is completely non-existent. If you were hoping for a nice period piece, prepare for disappointment as you drive up to Pemberley "Manor" which is really just a big house in Lambden, CT. Darcy is a rich NYC business guy who has divorced himself from the whimsy of Christmas due to painful family memories and Elizabeth is an event planner who is getting her first step out from behind the curtain to plan the Lambden town Christmas festival, thanks to her old friend (zoned) George. Liz has to convince Darcy to let her use Pemberley Manor to host it when the town water main breaks leaving the square useless. That never happens in these movies (ahem, When Sparks Fly #Markleseason)! It's not the joy of Christmas, but his own company's reputation that convinces Darcy to let Liz have run of Pemberley for the week, so that's cool, and Liz puts on a festival that is both tasteful and kitchy... Her boss Caroline, however, is none too pleased with the level of elegance nor how close Liz seems to be getting to Darcy. There's some other stuff about George, two assistants falling in love and a weird Santa-like groundskeeper who saves the day. But he's totally par for the course if you watch these movies. Oh, and Liz and Darcy fall in love. OK, that's it! Go listen!

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Welcome to Memphis, y'all, where it's Christmas and the CGI snow is brimming! Episode 28 is LIVE and our first Hallmark Christmas episode of our 12 Days of Christmas! Our first pick is Christmas at Graceland with Kellie Pickler and Wes Brown. You guys remember Kellie from American Idol, right? From the super sad season that Taylor Hicks won?? No? Anyway, Kellie is Chicago financial shark and single mom, Laurel who heads back to her home town of Memphis to close a bank deal with a bank owner who could care less to actually sell his bank. Wes is Clay - damn good Southern name, too - the old hometown bf and singing partner (naturally) that's got a one way ticket to NYC with his name on it if, and only if, he can promo the hell out of this year's Christmas concert. If you think Kellie ends up singing at the concert, you've got these movies nailed! They take us to the actual Graceland, beat us over the head with too many renditions of Silent Night and pawn Kellie's fake daughter off on her old childhood friend enough times to rekindle that old spark between Laurel and Clay. Add a panty drop moment at Elvis's piano and Kellie is waving bye to Chicago and staying put in Memphis. Of course, the business deal and Laurel's VP hopes go right down the tubes and Clay dumps the Big Apple and chance to go full legit concert promoter to stay in Memphis...you know, for love. Take a listen!

Why do we do what we do? How did this thing get started? What is important to us about watching these crazy movies and sharing our views? How are we the same and what makes us different than other podcasts that deliver similar content? All of these questions and more will be answered when you listen to this super fun (and, of course, hilarious) bonus episode of HNA! We also shout out some other really fun and generous folks at other pods - what up to Lifetime Uncorked and The Bubbly Sesh - for sharing the love and some of their spotlight this past year. A year in and we've got new, legit music and a spring in our holiday step! Have a listen!

Have you ever lived in a small town that had it's own radio station? Did you ever need to save that radio station by having a bachelor bake-off? Did you then happen upon a new-in-town bachelor that couldn't bake but who was also willing to enter that bake-off with an excitingly delicious vanilla cake? If you have, then you had better watch Falling For You with Taylor Cole and Tyler Hines! And if you don't feel like watching the movie, in this bonus ep, @happilyneverafterpod gives you all the highlights of how Lacey and Zack tackle painfully simple budgets, a slew of unnecessary Fall foliage and small town IT in order to realize they are in love. OK, go listen!

Episode 25 is out! Y’all... the doc and I are so tired right now in our lives for so many reasons, and one of them most certainly has to do with getting behind 3 of these movies to spit out one (albeit fab) pod episode. The All of My Heart series is most def a #Hallmarkie fave and so we could not let Fall Harvest pass without giving our unforgiving take on these crazy lovers, Jenny and Brian, and their goat-infested inn. AOMH features Hallmark queen Lacey Chabert and the effervescent Brennan Elliott as two NY city slicker strangers who inherit an inn and spend the first movie arguing about whether to sell it or make it a BnB. With what money? We still don’t know, even after seeing this exact same plot carried out in Truly, Madly, Sweetly the week prior. Somewhere along the way, though, they fall in love and because of that, Brian spends the next 2 movies combating Jenny’s endless sighing by working hard for the money in various ways to keep the inn afloat amidst bankruptcy and family takeovers. That be it. Oh and Jenny and Brian get married. Ed Asner gives her away - major highlight. OK go listen!!!