Dr. Zoey (Holly Robinson Peete) was a military doctor for 15 years, but when it was time to move on, a decision perhaps made in part with the loss of a favoured patient in mind, she chooses to keep up with her nomadic lifestyle and becomes a travelling locum doctor, which means she gets assigned to different cities to temporarily fill in for other doctors, either at their hospital or medical practice, typically for a few weeks to a few months at a time. Zoey seems to enjoy it, but she hasn’t spent Christmas with her sister in many years and this one’s not going to be any different. After finishing up a big city job in a big hospital, she’s going to the small town of Willowbrook in upstate New York where she’ll be replacing the town’s only doctor. Dr. Ray (Fred Henderson) is beloved by the community but needs surgery. Zoey is a competent replacement, but the townsfolk need time to warm up to her – and she needs time to adjust to small town doctoring, which means doing a little of everything, including knowing which patients are just lonely, and which ones need a patented Dr. Ray home visit.
While in town, Zoey meets Luke (Adrian Holmes), and repeatedly causes him to bump his noggin on things. She’s not trying to drum up business – it’s just kind of their thing, the thing that precedes their falling in love. Falling in love while learning to make recipes with Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom Soup. Something tells me there MIGHT be a touch of the product placement in this movie. Anyway, the locum goes smoothly, the falling in love goes smoothly, but Zoey will be moving on once again – pretty much right on Christmas day. How can a new love survive such a schedule? Can a rootless doctor develop a sense of home? Have a little faith, guys. Love finds a way, and I will confess that by this movie’s end, even this cynic had tears in her eyes.
ASSHOLES WATCHING MOVIES 
The Hallmark Channel, unlike Netflix, is topped to overflowing with product placements. I use their five-minute ad breaks to get my household chores done 🙂
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I stream the movies rather than watch TV so don’t see the ads, but lots of the movies have ads enough inside them!
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Funny you should mention green bean casserole! (okay, technically you did not but the soup reference is pretty conclusive) After a 50 year hiatus, we did it for Thanksgiving, with the Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup and all, but it did not quite live up to my memories from the early days of my life. However, we took the leftovers, added chopped asparagus and cheese tortelloni and it make a great pasta sauce. Upgrading the recipe by finding one from scratch instead of a soup can might be worth trying. We love food movies with romance!
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You have indeed drawn the correct conclusion!
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It reminds me a little of the movie Doc Hollywood.
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I knew nurses did that, but I had no idea that was a thing that doctors did, too. Interesting.
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Mushroom soup will be served at the bridal shower, closely followed by a mysterious bout of food poisoning that keeps young Zoey in town just long enough for the Wedding Planner (who just graduated from an online -it is 2020 after all- Fairy Godmother School to turn a pumpkin (left over from a horrible accident at Halloween) into a beautiful wedding gown.
Ye gods, I’m getting punchy. How many more of these have we got left?
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Ummmmm
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