Too Scary; Didn't Watch - CHRISTMAS AT THE CATNIP CAFE (LIVE!) w/ Paul F. Tompkins

Episode Date: December 31, 2025

Donate to Neighbors For Refugees here!This audio is edited from our live show which is available on our Patreon.Movie & Guest Intro @ 6:00Recap starts @ 27:56TrailerFollow the show: @TSDWpodcast on Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram.Check out our Patreon for bonus episodes and additional content!Rate Too Scary; Didn’t Watch 5 Stars on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and leave a review for Emily, Henley, and Sammy.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This is a headgum podcast. Hi, everybody. This episode originally aired live on our YouTube on December 22nd. And we were raising money for a charity called Neighbors for Refugees. And we have hit our $5,000 goal. Hooray. You guys are amazing. Thank you to everybody.

who donated. When this episode comes out on December 31st, the fundraiser will still be active. So you can find links to donate on our YouTube, on our Instagram in this episode description. But if the campaign has closed, please just consider donating to neighbors for refugees anyways. It's a really great organization. We'll talk more about it in this episode so you can find out more. And yeah, we love you all very, very much. You had a beautiful, wonderful, perfect holiday season, and we shall see you in 26. This is Emily, Henley, and Sammy, and you're listening to Too Scary Didn't Watch.

Hi, everyone. Welcome to two seasonal Dying the Watch. Oh, rebrand. I'm Emily, and I love watching Christmas movies. I'm Henley, and I also love watching Christmas movies. I'm Sammy, and I formerly did not enjoy watching Christmas movies, and this movie has turned it all around for me, and now I love watching Christmas movies, too. Hot Frosty couldn't do it. I couldn't do it compared to...

Hot Frosty was also pretty good, I mean, hot Frost was pretty good, but significantly fewer cats and Hot Frost. and sorry, just get ahead of myself. Spoiler alert. This movie had a cat. So excited to be here with my friends, the most wonderful time of year, to talk about what is, will now forever be known as the most wonderful movie. And before we get into that, we're here for a great cause. Henley, would you please tell us who we are supporting tonight? Oh, okay.

So I am, first of all, I'm going to get a little serious just for a second. It's just for a little bit. Only for a moment. She's going to get silly again. And then I'll get silly again. But just for a moment, I want to tell you guys about this amazing organization. It's in my community. It's neighbors for refugees.

So this is a small nonprofit. It's made up of volunteers. And 90% of donations go directly to resettling refugees in the Westchester area. and they do so this is literally like boots on the ground like they are helping people you know really just find peace and stability as much as they can in a new place so this can mean that like they're helping locate apartments they're helping to furnish that apartment they're helping to find employment they're helping to provide ESL lessons or organize medical care or transporting people to and from appointments it involves all of that but then

also, more recently within the past year, a lot of the money that they have been fundraising has had to be redirected to legal fees because just, you know, we all know the upsetting reality is that refugees and asylum seekers with valid claims and proper documentation are at risk. Families are being torn apart. It's really scary out there right now. And it can take thousands of dollars, tens of thousands of dollars for these families to navigate the U.S. court system. and they just need help.

So there's a video that I just put on our Instagram that shows you like a good overview of this organization if you're interested in learning more. But I think that, you know, the main thing I want to leave us with is a quote from their website, which I really liked. Hope is the capacity to face reality no matter how difficult and still seek every possible good. So in the spirit of hope and in the spirit of seeking every possible good, We're here to talk about Christmas decorations.

We're here to talk about new beginnings. We're here to talk about cats. We're here to talk about Hallmark movies. And this is the concept. We're here to talk about the power of how three weeks can change everything about your entire life. It's enough time, folks. It's enough time. The power of moving from a big city to a small town.

All those small towns out there that are thriving. Yeah. You're going to talk about it. Anyway, so yeah. Thank you guys for being here. Thank you for helping raise money for this really. really important and great organization in my community. So yeah, that's it. And if you're listening to this, there are links to donate in our Instagram bio. And there's also a link in the YouTube

description. So help us raise some money. It can be very overwhelming to know who to help and where to give and everything's hard. And it's always really, I really appreciate when someone has a direct connection to an organization and it like feels like you know who you're helping and that is a really like I don't know it's just a wonderful feeling it's helpful in these times where everything feels really scary and lonely and you feel lost so I'm so glad you brought this to our attention and I'm glad that we can all have a little fun yeah spread a little hope and send a little send a little money you know tis this season I do know and we we should get to it now that our movie

We should get to it now. We should get to it now The movie that we are going to be talking about is Christmas at the catnip cafe. Joel asked, why did you pick this movie? How'd you pick this movie? I said, because we wanted to do a Christmas movie

and this one has cats. And this one exists. Oh, right. So, and I think we made 100% the right choice. I agree. Have we? I don't think we've ever done a movie that focuses so much on cats.

Have we? Is this the first one? Yes. I feel like we need to do this more. for you guys, just for your souls. I mean, there's the Quiet Place one that pretty heavily features those two cats, but the quantity in this is greater. So many cats.

Yep. Yep. Christmas at the Catnip Cafe was directed by Lucy Guest, written by Tracy, Andrine, and Elena Valdez, starring Aaron Cale, Paul Campbell, Francis Flanagan, and Megan Young, streaming on Hallmark. Who all got a subscription just for this? Three out of three people will get a Hallmark subscription. Just to watch the Christmas Cat.

That is an endorsement. And I actually saw a fourth person raise his hand backstage. And we're bringing him out right now. It is beloved correspondent Paul F. Tompkins. Merry Christmas to us all. Bringing the spirit. Yes, indeed. I signed up for a free trial.

Oh, yeah. will be canceling. As will I. Very soon. Although not before I watch, not before I watch Round and Round Starring my friend Vic Michaelis, which is a Hanukkah Hallmark movie.

Oh. Okay. Okay. Lots of gems out there. And then I'm out. And then you're out. And then you're out. You know what?

Two? Pretty good. Right? I think that's pretty good. I was pretty tempted by the glass blowing holiday movie as well. So, you know, maybe I'm speaking too soon. And I'm safe to say, we can all probably find at least

one other movie in there that we want to watch. This was my first... This might have been my first full Hallmark movie that I ever watched end to end. Wow. I've seen like versions of inspired by, but I think this was my first like... Was Hot Frosty not a Hallmark movie?

I think it was Netflix. Oh, you're right. It was a Netflix movie. I'm getting them confused with the Netflix ones too. Netflix is trying to... Yeah, other people could never, you know? I mean, the Hallmark ones are a really... specific flavor to them. Well, they have commercial breaks, which is a really fun. Oh, yeah. When they like, they fade to black and fade back up. Fade to black fade back up. And I, and it's not like when

you watch a movie on television where it picks back up in like the, you know, it's like we just jump like, I don't know, a day, 45 minutes. Like we don't care. We're just like, well, something else. How many? Who cares? Like sometimes it fades to black. I felt like as the scene was ending. Like we didn't get like a clean finish. It's just like fade out on the scene. And then they're like, And anyway, sometime later, I loved this movie and I can't wait to talk about it. I have to say, I have mad respect for the whole Hallmark thing for the ecosystem that it is. I have seen Hallmark movies before. I've not seen one in quite a while.

And the comfort of it is, like the formula is impeccable. You feel like, even if it's not for you in general, you feel like you're in good hands. you feel like you're in good hands. Do you know what I mean? It's a very relaxing experience. Yes. Yes. Yes.

I noticed this throughout the film. They kept returning to the concept of the cat cafe. Like, no matter what conversation, no matter where they were, no matter who the characters were, no matter the, like, they always came back to the cat cafe. And there's something, you know, reassuring in the predictability around even just the subject matter at hand. Like, we're going to stay. Yes.

With a catnum cap. You know what that reminds me of hen? Do you remember when you were taught to write, like, papers in elementary school? And it was like, well, you write, you start with an introduction paragraph. And then you have three supporting ideas. And each of them at some point, you need to refer back to the idea you put in an introduction paragraph. And then you go, and in conclusion, and then you kind of just reframe the whole thing. Every Hallmark movie, I think, is basically that.

They're like, Christmas at the cafe can change your whole life. And they go, example one, you can, you know, you're going to meet this. guy he loves catnip cafe example two you will be reinvigorated with the holiday spirit example three you'll find a sense of community and a place to call home so in conclusion as you can see from points one two and three christmas at the catnip cafe can really change your life it's like a it's just it's it's a puzzle piece for our brains thanks so much it's good for our brains the world is too complex we need simplicity here give me simplicity yeah have you guys been to a cafe Emily, I know you have

because I was with you. I went for your birthday. I never have. I would love to go to a kid. I never have. I'd go to one, sure. Highly recommend. I would love to go to one.

Yeah. I've actually, I've honestly, I think I've been to like, I think I've actually only been to two, but I think I've been to two. They're great. I know I've been to more than one. Tell us, like, what are your thoughts?

But you're not sure if you've been to three. Exactly. You don't want to make that claim. I'm really not. Just in case. It's definitely more than one, but it could have just been two. Does it cat?

Cafe, does a cat cafe like smell bad? Great question. No. How do they keep a cat cafe smelling good and not like cats? Do you know what I mean? I don't recall it smelling bad. I don't recall it smelling bad. I think, although you know what, I'm talking to two people who live so closely with so many cats. You guys don't even have the smell sensors anymore. I mean, I caught, I hope that's not true. What a nightmare. I think it's probably true. I think it's probably a little true. It might be a little bit True. But, well, I think it's, here's what I think it is. You're also making coffee. You know, and you can use coffee beans to really mask a lot of smells. Yeah. Not at the catnip Cafe. Where the idea, the suggestion of beans is perplexing.

Yeah. We'll guess. Yeah. Yeah. No, that's not. It's not what it's about. It's about cats. I also just want to quickly introduce another special guest. That's very appropriately jointly joining for this. Show us your teeth, bunk. Show us your teeth in your claws. He's really sleepy. He does have really big teeth. My cats aren't allowed in here

because they're really distracting. Yeah, he will be probably pretty distracting. But a catnip, a cat cafe. They're not all the catnip cafe, although they will be in my mind forever. I will say they're pretty fun, but it's real hit or miss. I would say one of the ones I went to,

pretty good. One of the ones I went to, Less good. It really depends on the quality of the cats. In this one, these cats were really like sitting on laps and being really friendly. Yeah. You know? Except for one. Except for one.

And this is, except for one. And we'll go there. They're very big on, which is good, that you need to like, you can't just, like, grab the cats. You know, like, you have to let the cats come to you. Right. You can't terrorize the cats in the cat cafe. And some cats are kind of, like, not wanting to hang out with you. Well, they should get another job.

Yeah. They're being paid to be there. You're in the wrong business, is what I'd say to that cat. Yeah. You know what this movie reminded me of so much are all the books that I've been reading. I've been reading so many books by Lori Gilmore. I'm sure that's her real name. Oh, must be.

Yes. I've read a few. She has written books such as The Pumpkin Spice Cafe, the Cinnamon Bun Bookstore, the Christmas Tree Farm, the Strawberry Patch Pancake Cows, the gingerbread bakery. So these books, I like, I just consume them. They're this movie plus, like, very explicit sex. So, like, mm. Yeah.

It's shocking. Yeah, I was going to say. I love it. Yeah, it's great. It is like if they made a Hallmark movie, like, really fucking horny and explicit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like small, it's all in a small town. They should do that.

What's stopping them? Yeah. Well, I think I thought that G rating and I went, okay. People need this. People, people want this. I think that I feel like Hallmark could pivot if they wanted to. Like, look at the success of heated rivalry. Like, we want yearning.

We want romance, like real romance, romance, like real romance, romance, we want some real romance. We want some real romance. And one, one kiss, I don't know, you guys. I just feel like they could do more. Mel Henley, that kiss felt real. If you could recall. Oh, actually, you know what? I actually cried.

I cried like a few times watching this. A few times. And I feel like you, I know where you cried because I almost did too. I almost like sent, I sent like a, I took a selfie of myself crying and I looked so ugly that I didn't send it to you guys. Yeah. I was like, this would have been funny, but I'm so ugly. I can't. I have to delete it right away.

Oh, God, I'm so ugly. I'm so ugly. I'm so ugly. and send this crying selfie. Wait, I'm way too ugly to send this. Well, quickly, before we get way into it, is Christmas everyone's favorite holiday, yes or no?

I think it might be. I think it might be. Yeah. You are wearing a Santa Blazer and a big wreath on your head. It's true. I have to take off my wreath because making my head itch like... Oh, no. I did not anticipate that. It's also giving like Jesus crown of thorns you're really no it's tough well for a lot of people christmas does give jesus oh well yeah right

of course for a lot of people oh right not all of them there's a significant number of people who associate christ with jesus christ a significant number but again not all of them paul why do you like christmas tell us you know it's it is the um it's the coziness of it's the um honestly the thing for me is like the the lighting of christmas of christmas Christmas is unmatched. You just cannot, nobody beats it. And it's really, it makes me so happy. Like I put my Christmas lights up on the house and we put our tree up early because I was

going to be gone for the first half of the month. And so I wanted like as much as I could have. And when I came back from the road and it was night and the lights were on and the tree was lit up. It made me so, it just gets right into my heart. I love it so much. Yeah. It is so, it's so nice. I have my, my tree on a timer. Yes. And this morning I woke up earlier than I, normally the tree is on, like before I come out of the bedroom, but today I had to get up early to go to work early so I could come do this. And I was up before the tree and I, as I was at my desk getting ready next to the tree and the clock came and it turned on.

I truly was like, like, my heart fluttered. Like that it came to life and it was like, oh. It's almost like you were like, Jesus, give me a sign. Give me a sign. No, Jesus is not with Christmas for me. Everything. Not for me. Wait, Paul, behind you right now, though, currently, is that real?

Those candles? Yeah. Yes. It's gorgeous. Thank you. I rushed to make this happen. It's really like beautiful. I was late to the street.

It's really, really worth it. Absolutely beautiful. I'm very much in the spirit and a little elf dropped off some booze for me and I'm having some egg gnaug commence spiking. Wait, that's maple syrup, Paul. There we go. What is it? I thought it was alcohol.

Let's see what happens. There is alcohol, but that's maple syrup. I was wondering why it was shaped like a maple syrup bottle. There is alcohol in that bottle, though. That's going to be crazy. I'll see on the other side, I guess. Oh, yeah, I want to see what this is going to be like. Okay, so the reason?

No difference. It just is like, I'm going to. I think you have to put more in. You got to do more. Okay, so that, so Paul, the elf, the elf, I don't know who they are, brought you the ingredients for a whisker sour. So cute. Which is bourbon and maple syrup and some lemons and some cinnamon, which is what I'm drinking. I grab the wrong.

bottle. You know what, though? Honestly, they look basically exactly the same. And so I actually, I do, they look exactly the same. Wait, I'm confused. Do you have maple syrup? So are you drinking just eggnog and maple syrup? Yeah, I'm drinking eggnog and maple syrup as I do every Christmas. That's my tradition. So festive. I love it. Yeah, it's very, it's not just for pancakes. Why not put it in in your sugary drinks? Yeah. Um, what are everyone's thoughts on eggnog? Unspiked. You know what? I've never had it before. I've never had it before. No. Wow. What? I don't know why. I witnessed somebody having it for the first time last night and they loved it. I was very excited to see that. Wow. It's specific, but it's... It is. I really like it this time of year, like one time. I get really excited to have it like one time. And then I'm sort of like, I did it. Yeah. I mean, it's like full of protein. So it's kind of like... It's so good for you. It's actually not healthy to not.

drink it. Like after the gym, you're just like pounding eggnog. Absolutely. I'll drink it during a workout. You got to replenish the protein. Yeah, yeah. Heavy cream. Absolutely. Yeah. I got a squeeze bottle with eggnog. Wow. Wow. Okay. So how does everyone else feel about Christmas? I was, I was really thinking about that. And I think my favorite holiday changes depending on when I have the energy to like get really into it. Like some years it can be Halloween. And if I have.

a lot of like free time in October I can go all out for Halloween I can have a great time but if I'm like stressed in any month leading up to the holiday it's not going to be my favorite holiday that that year unfortunately sure it's always changing love that but I'm doing I am very Christmasy this year and I'm having a great time yeah that's nice to hear yeah Halloween is my vice president of holidays oh it's got to be in the conversation sure you're your speaker of the house. Yeah, there you go. That's a question. It's a great question. St. Paddy's Day. You know what? You don't want St. Patty's Day to be speaker in the house. Is it?

Patrick Day, yeah. Next in line, succession. Are you sure this wasn't bur? This syrup is making me slur. I really, I really got so, you're going to be totally fine. Like, you are fine, but I experienced such a fear when I saw you starting to pour that maple syrup into your cup. I really was like not like I want I but you're fine but I really that really freaked that really freaked me out

I'm sorry I didn't mean to cause I didn't mean to I didn't mean to that was on me anyway I love Christmas I love Christmas for the vibes I love it for the vibes Yeah. Speaking of vibes, can you show us a little bit more of what you're wearing? Just a little bit more of what you're wearing? Oh, I can. I can't. It is a full robe of cats. Just cat faces. Incredible. It's a fleece robe with pink ruffles and cats all over. And I did not make it. This was a gift. And they didn't even make it for me. It was my boss, who is a wonderful person. A friend of hers, it's an archival trashy laundry piece and found it was like, do you want this? And she was like, no, but I know this is like, this is like,

literally made for someone I know and gave it to me. Wow. That's so special. An incredible kindness and truly it's like the spirit of the season you know. The spirit of the season and it's it's like it's 100% perfect for me in every way. It looks like I thought you

I assumed you made it because it's so specific to you. I know. It's pretty wild stuff. Yeah. Pretty wild stuff. Life can really surprise you. All right. Are we ready to get into this movie. Do we want to watch a trailer? I mean, yeah. By all means. Yeah, I do. It's only 30

seconds. The movie itself is only like 82 minutes, which is another thing you got to love about these movies. Yes. I was really laughing, imagining this movie being two and a half hours long, just like what if Hallmark just at some point did like a Scorsese length Hallmark movie. Be really funny. They can make it fucking, they can make it horny. Just put an hour of sex in there, and then it's a perfect movie. I know. That's perfect. There's got to be some Hallmark actors who have the chemistry that could support this, you know?

This is another fascinating thing. Sorry, we do need to get into it. We are going to watch Taylor, but this is another thing I'm really fascinated by about the Hallmark conglomerate, that it's like, it's the same rotation of stars that just, like, pair up differently with each other. It's, like, really fascinating. It's like a rep company. Yes. Yeah. Fascinating. And it's like if you get in with that, I mean, congratulations. I love that. There's, it's like an ecosystem for these actors. And, you know, I think new people can get in there. But it's like, it's nice. It's almost like soaps in a way. You know, that there's soaps. It's like soaps. It's room for people. And then you can stay in that world and you can always have a job. And it's like, it's a great thing. And I bet they have a lot of fun. It's like a predictable income. I bet the hours are great. Yeah. Exactly. And the thing I learned from Tim, my husband, one of his, like, people and his, like, priest, I don't know.

I don't know. He has, like, a priest club. He has, like, a priest club. I don't know. Priests group. Um, was, was telling him that, um, him and his wife go to these Hallmark conventions. They're huge Hallmark movie fans. Oh, right.

Of course there's a convention. And they, like, do a convention circuit and they're fans. They're fans who will go to these conventions. You meet the actors. Like, it's a whole... Hyper-specific fame is really fascinating to me. A whole world. Yeah.

Wow. And I'm sure that the, the parasyciality of it is very intense. And also confusing, because, like, who are these people actually at the end of the day? Only what? Well, I mean, like, you're getting just, like, the Hallmark version of them. Like, you mean, like, all actors? No, but I mean... Who are these people, really?

Show me something real. If you were an actor. and you're in a gazillion Hallmark movies and all the Hallmark movies are very specific and very similar and very much the same. If you're having a parissocial relationship with that person, I'm just saying it could get like a little complicated. People probably think they're like remarkably wholesome.

And you know what? I wonder if they kind of contractually have to be. Like K-pop stars. Is this Hallmark a little Christian? Probably. Oh, I feel like it might be, right? It might be. No idea.

You know what? A lot of things are. But it does feel like it's like if you're a hallmark movie star you can't be seen you know making a muck oh right because christian christian capitalism but there's the prosperity gospels and they can

just say we make all the money we want and God loves us for it that that syrup hit in your heart you can't be seen making a muck you can't

if you're at the supermarket if you're at the the library. You can't, you can't be seen making a muck there. I don't think they can. I bet they can't. It's a really, really strict life for the Hallmark actors. Neither a muck or a month. Really strict contracts. Yeah. Let's watch this trailer. It's like Disney kids, you know. Yeah. Exactly. Hallmark adults. Okay, let's take a look. Welcome to the Catnip Cafe

Hi The Catnip Cafe has a new partner I want to sell Now he has three weeks to sell her on keeping it That's all we got, Matt and cute cats to disarm her Are you wearing a onesie? Better believe it You signed up for Catnip Christmas

And it's meow time You will see the error of your ways In selling the cafe I didn't anticipate getting so attached But it's hard not to Christmas at the Catnip Cafe on Hallmark Channel. Perfect trailer.

Short and sweet. I love it. Short and sweet. It's all you need. I feel like I get it. I get it. Yeah. Should we, before we get into it, take a little peek at how much money we have raised.

Yes. Oh, my goodness. You guys, we've already raised $1,500. Oh, wow. We've got a goal of $5,000. We're going to keep checking in throughout the movie, see if we can get there. We're off to a really great start, so congratulations, everybody. It's a really great start.

Thank you all very much. Wow, we, wow. Probably hearing about this movie is going to get everybody in a pretty generous spirit. I think so. I think so. Should we just get, should I'm just right into it? Let's do it. Just right in.

Hi, I'm Beck Bennett. I thought I was Beck Bennett. No, no, no, no. I'm Kyle Mooney. Sorry about that. Exactly. No, all good. All good.

Thanks, buddy. Yeah, and we host the show, what's our podcast here on HeadGum. But we want to make sure you heard about a very special episode with a very special guest that we just released in the feed. Yeah, it's in the feed. It was sponsored by Squarespace because they were appalled. We didn't have a website for our show yet. They were like... You don't have a website?

What are you guys? Like kindergartners? They wanted to do something about that. So we built a flawless, beautiful, perfectly designed website live on the pod with our very special guests and very web savvy guests. Should we tell them who it was? Let's believe we could play 20 questions. I don't think we have time for that. Is it person?

No, it's not. It's Finn Wolfhard, but Finn had a bunch of great ideas for the website. Beck, you had some amazing ideas for the website, too. Thank you, you had some amazing ideas for the thing. I was sort of like clicking and... And I was like, let's put a little... Let's put some widgets in there. I was talking about widgets.

You kept on using that phrase widgets. Yeah, there's all sorts of stuff there. And you might want to check out the hippo. Just go check out the website. Just know that there's a hippo video and know that you're going to want to watch that. We had a lot of fun making this episode. We had a lot of fun making this website. We had a lot of fun time listening to it.

maybe watching it. Think of it as our little Christmas present to you. Yeah, yeah, this is a gift for you, okay? It's just like, it's a selfless thing we did for you. Thanks to Squarespace for making us build a website, sponsoring the episode, and for supporting creators across the HeadGum Network. Go check out the bonus episode. What's our website from What's Our Podcasts on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts?

Go to Squarespace.com slash Beck and Kyle for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, use offer code, Beck and Kyle. Yes, sir. To save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. Get it, Kyle. I mean, it feels important to note that the opening credits are entirely cats playing with Christmas decorations. It was absolutely giddy. It was such a strong start.

I truly was like, to talk about relaxed. I was so at ease. I was like, this can only be good what's about to happen. It really gave you the feeling of, well, of course, how else could they open this? What choice did they have? Of course, this is how it should open. Yes. It was great.

I will say they did show a kitten playing with tinsel, which is really dangerous for cats. That was the one moment that I was like, don't do that. Obviously, the cat was supervised, but to other people, just don't do that because it's really, they'll eat it and it fucks them up. So, other than that, though, other than that, it was really good. Shout out to the Devin Rex, who we see in the intro, who we will see later in the movie. If you don't know what a Devin Rex is, there's one behind Sammy. They're really cute and really weird looking, and I was thrilled to see them. You guys know, like, the names of cat breeds.

Some of them. You know the brands. You know the brands. Various makes and models of cats. Exactly. We've been known to go to a cat show or two. Or three. We've learned over the years.

That one, I'm sure, Paul, I've been to three. Okay. Or four, more than two. Oh. I will say one thing I enjoyed in the movie is, all of the covers of classic Christmas songs, so many. The one that opens the movie is like a jaunty, country version of Santa Claus's come into town.

And I was like, this is the right choice. I don't know where this is coming from, but this helps. I like it. So, but then we immediately flash backwards. 30 years ago. Yeah. 30 years ago. I love to start at 30 years ago with no idea of.

where we're at in the present. Yeah. I really, really enjoy just being like 30 years ago. 30 years before these quats were playing on this tree. This happened. This happened. Yep. Now, I was, we don't know who these two people are yet. Nope. It's a young girl and an older lady. And they're just getting ready for something. It's a very vague scene. It's so vague and really short.

Really short. It establishes nothing. No, they're walking from presumably a car to the front door, but we don't see either. There's honestly a lot that happens in this driveway specifically with her flashback. That's true. That's true. A lot of driveway memories. A lot of driveway memories. And we're walking in and we learn the girl's mom and dad are in London. She's going to spend Christmas here. The girl hears a cat meow says, did you hear that? The lady says, hear what? That's the end of the scene. Setting us up perfectly. Present day.

It did give me the feeling that are there going to be magical cats in this? Now that would have been fun. See, I thought this too. I thought maybe a cat is going to be a matchmaker. There are a couple moments in this where you think, oh, this is significant and it turns out it's not.

So don't ever get hung up on any of these moments. You don't need to use critical thinking for this movie. Turn that off Turn that right off And enjoy it And enjoy turning it off Okay, now we're in the present day We meet, obviously this is our heroine

She is being shown This beautiful condo We know that she's a sort of type A person Because she talks about seeing this apartment On her vision board And we find out very quickly She runs a marketing company Oh my God

This is all Mark She has been house hunting for three years. Yeah. Because it has to be perfect. Yeah. I do want to say that this is propaganda

for being a woman in the corporate world. I was a little bit triggered by the way that she was having this conversation on the phone as though as though there was no angst. As though there was no

anxiety. She's in person with this real estate agent who we later learn is like a close personal friend yeah but in this moment I was like really really strange dynamic between you and your real estate agent like it was not a relationship I'd seen in the world right well they be sorry they become best friends I think I'm thinking of the next scene when she's like on the phone yeah there's a lot of moments where she really shares details about her life in a way that is so assuming people want to hear it and so free of any

it takes so long for me to tell like a co-worker I've worked with for a year like what I actually did on the weekend. You know what I mean? When it's like, how was your weekend? And you go like, I was good. It was like, you know, it's pretty chill. How was your? And she's like, it's the condo of my dreams and it's been on my vision board and I don't have

enough for the down payment. And if I got to just, she's just coming right out with it. She tells absolutely everybody she meets about this condo. Just like, basically the first thing she said. as to any new person she meets. Like, hi, I just meet you. I've found a dream condo. I don't have quite enough for the down payment.

Something about it being a condo, too. It's like, obviously, that's great. You're buying a condo. But even just being like, I found my dream home. I found my dream home. Just like, well, I got the dream condo. Got to get the condo. Yeah.

It felt like, well, it just felt strange. When you say dream condo, it makes you think perhaps there are other dream structures that she has. Exactly. It's too specific. Yeah. And the real estate agent, also the way they talk about money, is very like, she's like, you work in marketing. You have money. You make a lot of money. And she's like, I know. I do make so much money. Not whispering hills money. And the real estate agent is like, well, just get more then. Yeah. What is this relationship? I mean, we'll later learn best of friends. But I was like, okay. Very strange. very strange

well we found out her name is Olivia that went by very quickly by the way and I I tried to just not rewind I was under the gun time wise and I was like they'll say it again Olivia gets a text from her lawyer about

her aunt's estate her aunt has passed away and has left and as she reads the text out loud she finds out that she has been named in this estate and it turns out she's the half owner

of a cat cafe in Felicity, New York. She's the half owner with a man named Ben King. She's thinking this is perfect. I'll sell this cat cafe to make money for my dream condo. Again, sorry. The speed at which she imagines

this is going to turn into cash in hand is like really wild stuff. Yeah. I don't know much about how these things work, but that seems unreasonable. I am with her to a certain extent because... Can you like trade them? How much money is the cat cafe really bringing in?

Do you know what I mean? Right. Sure. In Felicity, New York? Is Felicity New York a real place? Yes or no? I don't think so. I meant to Google it.

We're getting like Hudson Valley vibes. Wait, did you goog? I never googed. But I think one thing that's like tricky about this content is that unfortunately these like small towns are now really relocated for like the most wealthy enclaves available. Sure. Which actually is like doesn't equal community. So it's kind of like confusing to see these like thriving small towns that are so like robust with community.

It's like I don't know, you guys. I don't know. Henley, we're turning that part of our brain off. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Anyway, Felicity New York. Imagine the world you most want to see. It lives in my dreams

And I think that it's possible to create Exactly Yes Dream small town I dream of a small town Yeah I do Then we see a vet He is walking a dog

He's walking a person And a dog with a broken leg Very cute dog Out of the hospital I bet this is Ben King is what I said to myself Yeah This has got to be him

We find out very quickly We find out very quickly. This is Ben King. He walks this lady out. She promises to make some cookies that obviously everyone despises. And there's so many messed up animals in the waiting room. And the receptionist turns around like, Ben King, what's going on? You said no more messed up animals after 4 p.m.

And he's like, I know, but I care so much. All these animals, they need me. Then some old lady comes in is like, can you fix my gutters? and he's like, of course I can. So he cares too much about everything. This man needs boundaries. He does. His heart is too big.

Giving away seemingly veterinary surgeries for free. Which seems like a bad way to run a business. Yeah, he's, he needs some boundaries. Especially if you're the only game in town. Yeah. I don't imagine there's another veterinarian in Felicity, New York. Yeah, probably not. And there are a lot of pets.

the freaking pet per capita here is unbelievable. Every single person has a pet and yet we will find out they're desperately trying to get people to adopt these cats. Because of the catnip cafe. Yeah. That's actually, you know what? That's true. It's kind of like an inside business.

He's like, give more people cats. It gives my veterinarian business more business. Right. Very sinister. All right. So then Olivia, our friend, she's making Christmas decorations with the real. this is when we discovered that they were actually friends and a very adorable daughter who is

painting things with them a turtle they all laugh now okay I had no idea what she said what are you making it she sounded me as she said a drill that would be funnier than turtle that would be funnier but I could not rewind it so we learned that Olivia has missed the funeral of the Cat Cafe aunt because she works too much. She works too much. She was in Fiji at a conference. Yeah.

A conference. You know how you're always at a conference in Fiji? Missing funerals left and right. Conferences are killing there. Same. So now Victoria, she says she's going to go to Felicity. She's going to talk this Ben King

into selling this property. Of course he'll want to do it. And then she gets the dream condo. She's walking through Felicity. It's quaint. Nice town. She sees this hot dude through a window. It's Ben King.

She's going to find out later. And then she gets assaulted by someone carrying a Christmas tree. She gets absolutely bulldozed into her face. Like, which would hurt? Those are so spiky. Oh, my God. Yes. Every part of it is bad to hit you in the face.

It's not a good part. It's not a good part. And she, Ben King sees and she sees him see, but she's still trying to play it, really. Oh, my. me. She goes into the cat cafe. She's charmed by it. She looks around like this is very nice.

This cafe is huge. It's gigantic. It really feels worth noting this is the biggest cafe you've ever seen. Yeah. Multiple stories, I think. It's huge. I feel like there were stairs to more levels. Small town, biggest cafe you've ever seen.

Well, the upstairs could have been just their offices, perhaps. still sure still pretty big the corporate suite yeah she is taken by one of those real mean looking fancy cats

this is the that's a Persian my friend the sort of mascot of the entire movie and you can see he's like a little grumpy but she's like playing with them a little bit

like I'm going to win you over and it seems to be working a little bit and with that we're going to do a quick little check in because every time gingerbread does a growl, here's... Very good. Very good. We're going to look and check how much money we've raised for neighbors for refugees.

1568 now. Should we do a dance break to motivate it? Yeah, we should do a dance break. Does somebody please donate one more dollar? I mean, come on. Oh, yeah, we got it. Oh, yeah. That's important.

Nice. Nice. Okay, let's have a little dance break. Oh. Oh, what's, like... What's this one called? Streamyard has an incredible library of music. This one's called acoustic, cinematic.

Oh, yeah. I'm discovering new world. This has to be getting us a dollar, right? Please, please. It's got to. God, it really goes on. Yeah, I mean, I think it's just a loop. Oh, yeah.

Short loop. Okay, let's get back into it. Yes, this is gingerbread. This is gingerbread, the cat. Gingerbread is a Persian cat. Just for anybody wondering. It's a gorgeous orange cat with a pushed in face. Yeah, they got a squashed face, flat face.

It's really, they can't do anything. They're really stupid. They can't eat. It's really like... They can't eat? It's really hard for them. They're the... They're like more fucked up,

genetically than like a pug. Oh, that's why they can only eat out of a crystal goblet. Oh, exactly. That's why they're very fancy feasts. They need the food like literally. It needs to be like in their face and in a way that's like, like in a high pile.

Yeah. So they can just eat it off the top. Imagine it's all, it's flat. It's all flat. There's no. So anyway. Bless them. Bless those cats.

They're gorgeous. Gingerbread is, is a really wonderful cat. A real star, even though he's a real star. Real star, real star. Now, because of Olivia is a high-powered business lady, of course she wants coffee. The waiter is like, what do you mean by beans? He doesn't even understand which coffee.

She orders a coffee. She orders coffee and he says, okay, great, I'll go get it. And she says, wait, what beans do you use? And he goes, beans. And she says, you know what? I'll take it. I'll grade tea. Bitch.

Like, he was going to make her an instant coffee? What does she think? It's a strange exchange. It's a really. I will say at the cat cafe that we went to, not the best coffee. I feel like people aren't going there for the... But it's really wild if that's what you're expecting. Yeah, if you're going there for like a specific reserve blend beans, yeah, you're probably

going to be disappointed. How often are you ever asked, look, granted, we live in L.A., there's good coffee shops, but how often are you going to? Are you ordering a, like, if you go to a diner and you order a coffee, you're like, and sorry, what beans do you use? You just get the coffee. Yeah. You got to trust them. Bitch.

We got to. I don't know why I'm doing that. I'm not, I don't know why I'm doing that to her. She's just fine. It's rude. She's just fine. It's rude and she deserves it. What you're doing.

Her vibe is a little rude. This is Feliski, lady. Yeah. Yeah. Come on. Welcome to Small Town. You're not in whispering. Heights.

So she wants to meet the owner. That would be me, says a voice. It's Ben King, the hot vet from the window before the tree incident. Now, but while they're talking, she's like stroking another cat. And I like that they did not make her hate cats, which could easily be a thing that they would do in one of these. But they did not. They're like, let's, let's dispense with that nonsense.

She likes cats, of course. Exactly. She likes cats. Yeah. Yeah. She explains to Ben about wanting to sell the cat cafe before she can do her full pitch. There's an interruption from a very beautiful white, blue-eyed cat on the floor. And I'm thinking, this is a magical cat. We're going to see more of this cat. Right, right.

We don't. We never see this cat again. This is just like a product placement for this cat. It is a stunning. It's a really good looking. Gorgeous cat. And that's definitely a special. specific breed. That one's name I don't know. But that, it was a gorgeous cat. Yeah. So as she's explaining, yeah, I want to sell this, get my dream condo. You can't like this, right?

He's holding a cat. He hands the cat off to someone else. Just a patron in the cafe. Excuse me, could you take this? This guy could go on the floor, right? Do I not know what I'm? They could go on the floor, yeah. You can just set it down.

You could put it on the floor. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, the floor isn't like lava to cats. What a presume. It's just a floor. That's right. So he doesn't want to sell what he, the waiter comes back over as he hears her saying that she wants to sell the cat cafe. And he puts a drink in front of Ben, but takes the other drink away.

I love it. He's like, you don't get your tea now. Incredible move. And again, she deserves it. Yeah. Yeah. So they're at an impasse and we fade to black. yes commercial break we fade back up it is frustrating how kind of oblivious she is to why this man

would want yeah she's like no she's like you don't understand i've never met you i've never been here i know nothing about this cafe i but i want a condo did you hear me say the thing about how i found my dream condo because yeah that should kind of clear things up for you right exactly it's like Now, you see, this is a matter of urgency. Exactly. Obviously. It is a funny. I do find that trope very amusing of somebody that just cannot conceive of somebody wanting something that they don't care about.

Yeah, different from them. Look, we agree this place is a piece of shit, right? What, I don't understand you. We agree anyone on earth would trade this for a condo, right? This condo fuel for anybody. God, no fuel All right, Victoria goes into her aunt's house And she's looking around

And she's wistful I think her name's Olivia. Olivia, yeah, I got a little confused there Olivia Victoria There's the same vibe of name for sure This is before I heard it again And I took a guess in Victoria So Olivia's

You heard of being Really close Victoria. Really, really close guess. so she's looking all around then she has a flashback guess what the people from the very beginning

that was Olivia and her aunt Esther the dead cat cafe lady they are untangling Christmas lights there's the magic of Christmas is happening Olivia is very wistful thinking about this the phone rings the lawyers quit calling to explain that she does not have any

you know simple way to get the cat cafe sold in time to buy her dream condo. And she says, all right, I got to figure out a way to do this so I can get my dream condo. And, you know, the game is afoot. The game is a foot.

Because there's a developer that wants the land. Yes, yes, yes. There's a developer ready to buy, but she's got to get her co-owner to sell. Ben King. It's like three weeks, it seems. That's the timeline on condos, apparently. I guess the realtor could, her realtor friend could hold off that long before people are like, no, I have to buy this dream condo.

It's my dream as well. Right. Back at the vet's, Ben's assistant turns out is his sister. And she says, Mom wants to know if you're bringing anyone home for Christmas. and Ben's last relationship ended. I think he said seven years ago. That's correct. Yes.

Seven years ago since Amber. Abby, Abby. Abby. Abby. Again, really close, though. So close. A lot of the same letters in there. Later on, Ben gets home.

He sees lights on in the dead aunt's house. He goes over rings of doorbell. And guess who's there? It's Olivia, the high power business lady. Ben, they're talking about. the cat cafe. He talks about the impact the cafe has on the community. Huge. Huge.

It's huge. And this, we've heard it time and time again. A community can't survive without its cat cafe. Yeah. You know? That's the, it's like, you know, in some places it's the barbershop where everybody goes to hang out and. The diner. The local bar. In Felicity, it's the cat cafe. It's a cat cafe. He's just there because he needs the, the famous Christmas binder for the cat cafe. I love this binder. I'm obsessed with this binder.

It's something else. This binder is stuffed to the gills. It's all flyers and zero information. This binder is. They're just pictures of cats. Paper clipped. Paper clipped in nothing written. It's, it's, this binder and it's treated like, well, this is the guidebook to Christmas. And it's like, this is the word.

workings of a lunatic. This has no information. You would see this in seven. Yeah. It's nuts. It's like the final destination, the most recent one like that lady's like, yes, yes, yes.

Fact binder, but for Christmas at the cat cafe. Yeah. Victoria says, look, I tell you what, if you give me time, I will help you with this absolutely unmanageable binder. She really lights up because she's like, there's one thing I can do is throw an event.

this is marketing and this is my This is marketing. Now if by the end of this time I have convinced you to sell this bargain is very weird She's like She's like I'll do all these events She's like you're going to need help

You're going to need help with these events Yeah and he's like what's the catch And she says well if I help you with these events Sell me the cap You have to sell And he says okay deal because he's convinced, well, if she spends three weeks at the cafe, she'll never want to sell.

That's right. It's a very simple deal. You help me improve business, then I will sell it. So he says, all right, you got to work at me at the cafe. Then he tells Ben tells his sister. I'm counting on Olivia being charmed enough by the cafe not to sell. Later, Olivia's phone rings. It's the developer who wants the cafe.

He's got a hard hat on and everything. He's ready to develop. He's like, I'm dying to develop. He's chomping at the bit to develop. Oh, my God. So, uh, she says, don't worry. I'm going to wear this guy down and we'll be developing in no time. Olivia sees a kid petting a big fat cat and she has touched.

There's like a nerdy little kid with glasses. Some lady is showing Ben a picture of a cute dog and tells him, you know, you should adopt this dog. He's not ready. Olivia shows up she's nixing a lot of the famous events at the catnip cafe She's blowing this meeting They do this

By the way If they do these things every single year Why do they need a binder? Great question You know what the binder Kind of reminded me of It kind of reminded me of like the house And the haunting of Hillhouse

Where it was just like the workings of a mad woman That like cannot finish It's like I keep having to add At a room, out of wings. No, the binder's not done. The binder's not done. More to the binder. More to the binder.

So, you know, this businesswoman, Olivia, she's so logical. She's so rational. She's assuming, of course, we're only picking one event from this binder. If you're really going to invest and throw a successful event, you need planning, you need time for RSVPs, you need to create a menu, you need a vibe, you need a whole thing. And he's saying, the first event is tonight, we're doing all these events. She, what? How could you possibly? This isn't how events work I should know.

And it's what she agreed to. This is how we do things at the Cannot Cafe. And the very first event, of course, is the puppet show. This is where the movie I was like, oh, no, this is losing me right now. This is really losing me. I was hooked. Yeah, this is where I doubled down. I locked right in.

I locked right in. Before we get to the puppet show, Olivia goes to a tree farm first. and has another Aunt Cat flashback. Yes. When she's remembering she just has a pleasant flashback about

just a nice, yeah, memory. She's, yeah. She asks, so at the tree farm, she picks out a tree, she asks,

do you deliver the trees? And then this woman, big smile, nods. They can't give this lady a line. You know what I mean? Give her a line. I love when you can tell

that they're just like, don't speak, you can't speak, you're not dead for a line. Come on. Like, they truly, they pulled this background

actor out of a lineup and were like, you stand here and you nod when she talks to you, but you don't say anything. Yeah. And, you know, she was thrilled. She's like, oh, I'm going to get my own shot. And she did.

And she did. She did. Give her a line. Yes. Drives me crazy. Yes, we do. Or her line could have been. No.

That would have been. That's what it is. They couldn't give her a line because they're like, what if she says no? And she derailed in the entire movie. Because. we have to rewrite the whole script Oh my god

We didn't account for that No we already filmed it Now we have to change everything that follows Oh my God We filmed everything backwards We already filmed that part Fuck here's my like central problem With Hallmark movies after scene one

Is this character This is why I'm ready to write them all off experiences a completely frictionless existence outside of the catnip cafe the catnip cafe is the one point of friction in her life it is the one obstacle in her life obviously she has to afford this condo but like besides that

like every other interaction every other facet everything else in her life is just like smooth sailing just competent Here's the thing. Here's the thing. She's the friction. That's the thing. She's her own friction.

So everywhere she goes, people are just doing their thing. Like, yeah, sure. Of course we can do that for you because we're nice people and we're simple folk. And then she's creating this. She's the one complicating things. Right. Oh, she's in a battle with herself. She doesn't even realize.

Whoa. It's basically one battle after another. Kind of. Kind of, yeah. So now it's the first night of the cafe Christmas festivities, and only four people have shown up for the puppet show. Two ladies knitting. Two ladies knitting. I think one child?

One child. I think it's pretty much and one child. It's mostly adults, yeah. Certainly majority adults. Hallmark adults. Now, because Aunt Kat is dead, Olivia is forced to participate in the puppet show. She has to be the co-puppeteer.

Ben is a terrible puppeteer. I mean, there are times where he is talking and the puppet is not moving. It's, this is bad. And they do this every year? He's really doing voices, though. He is really doing voices. David Catenborough.

Yeah. David Catenborough. David Catonboro. David Catonboro. Now that's where we learned that she, an important personality trait of Olivia's, is that she can't ad lib. She can't ad lib.

She doesn't understand why Ben is doing a different voice for the puppet. She doesn't get any of this. This is beyond her. What is happening? She is forced into, you know, coming up with lines. There's no script.

They are romantic comedy bickering in the puppet blind. The puppet show is two minutes long. It's so short. That's the whole script. So short and long enough, though, that the one child left. Yeah.

One child in the audience decided, not for me. Left in the middle. Tell her. Olivia says, okay, I see what happened here. There was not enough marketing for this. And my whole thing is marketing. I know what happened here.

I'm going to market the shit out of the story time event that is coming up. Then there's a very weird scene where a lady comes up to Ben. Oh, my God. And I guess is flirting with him. It's really an interesting scene. So I learned something about this. and this is like a cameo of another Hallmark adult. And so she's like referencing previous Hallmark holiday movies,

but not knowing that it's the craziest scene you could ever imagine. Sammy, I am so glad you provided that context because I thought, it felt as if I was missing something. Oh, yeah. Because this was one of those where it does just like fade to black as the scene is ending in a way that I was like, what? Like, it was so bizarre. We never see her again.

Sammy, how did you discover this? It's in the IMDB trivia. Wow. Was it also in the I&B trivia that the actor playing Ben, his name is Paul Campbell, and his dad is Bruce Campbell, just a man named Bruce Campbell, not that Bruce Campbell.

I was Googling him. I was Googling him, and it was like, parents, Bruce Campbell. And I was like, oh my God, that's crazy. And then I did a little more technique. I was like, just a guy named Bruce. that's wild different that's a guy named bruce who's his dad yeah this is i wish i had dug more into this i'm very curious about the hallmark metaverse yeah like i want to know more that was like an

avengers moment yeah exactly that went over all of our heads i mean it was still even knowing nothing probably one of my favorite moments of the movie because of how absurd and strange it was she's talking about firemen and having a fireman at home and having that must be her And the conversation makes almost no sense at all. It really doesn't. It's really, yep, it makes no sense at all. And he is humoring her like she is an insane person that he's afraid of. He is, he is reading to us that she, ooh, this lady is right?

Yeah, I'm in danger. Which is like, now I'm sort of like, Hallmark, why would you do her like that? Like, why are you making her look like a lunatic? Pretty weird. all right so later Olivia's at the cafe she's getting work done she's putting up posters for the story time of town over town she is working

she's putting in the hours baby we get a montage of all the different seats in which she sits while she does this work yes oh yes this giant cafe she sits in so many places in this cafe and just real quick somewhere in here

uh gingerbread does growl And that means that it's time to check where we're at. Let's take a looksie. Is it the same sound effect every time? Because I swear it is different every time. It's just kind of a long clip. And so I'm playing in at different points.

Oh, perfect. It's like 15 seconds of a cat growling. Okay, I love this. Thank you. Because I was like, I'm hearing something different. And that makes sense. Yes, let's check in. Okay, you guys, huge news.

we are at 2,580, and 54 cents. Oh, 54 cents. Thank you for those 54 cents. So, like a thousand more dollars since last time? Wow, that's like a thousand. Like a thousand more. Oh, and everybody. Okay, one more dance break.

Yeah. This one's chill, mellow. This one's also peaceful. You're choosing really peaceful. Well, this one is called daydreaming. So I guess I could have seen. Oh, here we go. Here's a little something.

Oh, baby. Oh, my God. A little spice on there. Oh, my God. A little funky bunkey. Anyway, thank you, everybody. Thank you, everybody. Thank you, yay.

Now we can continue. Well, now it's time for another cat back. This is when young Olivia discovers a scrawny orange cat in a tree. And she's taking care of it. This cat, the way this cat was discovered inside the tree, I just, I just need, this is a little kitten, and it's sitting in the middle of a very sparse, snowy tree. Yeah. And this, it was just so obviously that like dry cotton, fluffy cotton that is made to look like snow in the middle. This cat was the driest cat I've ever seen in this snow.

And it just really stuck out to me that this cat was just like sitting on a blanket. And they were like, oh, my God, it must be so cold and wet. Get the kitten a little wet for the effect of the film. Come on. Now, Olivia's tree has been delivered. She knocks on Ben's door. She wants help decorating the tree. I can't keep stopping us.

I was obsessed with this to knock on someone's door and go, you got any extra Christmas decorations? I know. The gall in this woman. Is this what it takes to be a business woman in the United States of America? You just assume someone will. have Christmas decorations that you can use? They never give us a date.

They never give us any act. We just know there's three weeks. We're close to Christmas. I don't know what date it is. And I'll never know. Exactly. It took me a while to realize that like, wait, how close are we to actual Christmas? At one point, I think one of the flyers says December 21st.

But even that through me because I was like, it's like, it's Christmas. Natalie, I was like, what? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm happy you set a date because I picked up on that and I was looking at all the posters. I was looking at the flyers. I was feeling like a little detective. I was like, what's the date? What's the date?

And I wasn't seeing a single date a single time. They were not giving it to us. And I guess the townspeople just know, like, they just know when to show up. Close enough that this man will have decorated his house for Christmas and also know that he's got all these extra ones lying around. The fact that he actually did have a ton of extra Christmas tournaments, that was a bold gambit that paid off. And the fact that she's like decorating the whole house is also confusing because as far as I know she's, supposed to be packing it up so that they can settle it. She didn't say she was staying there to pack the house up and she's really settling in. She's planning to leave in a matter of of weeks.

Well, you can't have Christmas time without, as we've, you know, mentioned the vibes. Also, what about the decorations we saw in the flashback with your aunt? You know they're in the house somewhere. Also, what about a target? Like, just going to this man who you're like trying to freaking kick him out of his cat cafe but it's because we're trying to flirt. We're trying to flirt. This is part of the winning him over. Can you help me out?

He does talk about a tree without decorations being like in its birthday suit and I found that very off-putting. I don't like that. I really didn't like it. Joky back and forth moments that I was like, I don't, I see what you're doing. I found it to be in poor taste.

Yeah, I don't know. It was unseemly. For Hallmark. If you're going to give me that, Give me some sex. Okay. Exactly. He gives her like eight boxes of Christmas decorations.

She says, oh, the tea waiter doesn't like me. And he goes, because, you know, he doesn't want to lose his job. Valid point. And also, Olivia notices Ben also has quite an extensive

vinyl collection. Ben loves jazz and he wanted to build a music room for himself. But life got in the way. Can't find the time. And she says, I really get it. They're really bonding over like,

you know, how sometimes you get busy. do I ever. They're in love. They have decorated Olivia's tree and it's nice. Although it does have the ribbon thing that I'm not. I personally am not a big fan of. Like the big ribbons that go around the tree.

I just, I kind of don't get it, I guess. Okay. Listen, my mom is watching this right now. Mom, don't let this stop you. You keep doing the ribbon. Wait, actually, actually, no. I really want to know. I want to know. I'm sorry. Henry's mom. I didn't realize. I'm so sorry.

You realize you were watching. What's your, what does your tree look like, Paul? How do you decorate your tree? We do lights and ornaments. Sure. That's it. That's good. Star on top.

Star, okay, so are they white lights or colored lights? They're colored lights. Although we have twinkly lights, that's the brand name, and they're LED lights, and you can make various patterns with them. Oh, but you go with you prefer the colored. Yeah. Yeah. And the ornaments.

Sometimes we do a white just to see what it looks like. The ornaments are all different kinds of things. All different kinds of things. Things from our travels, they are airlooms, they are, you know, whatever. Love it. Yeah. Great. Real tree, fake tree.

We did a fake tree for the first time last year. Yeah. Because we used to always get a real tree. And then there was one year we couldn't do it because of travel or something. And we realized, you know what? If we had the fake tree, we could put it up and not have to worry about it. Yeah. And so we did research and we found one.

It's the, um, oh, well, What's the company? They're like the big. Balsam Hill. Balsam Hill. And we bought it. We bought it in January. Nice.

This is how you do it. That's the trick. This is how you do it. We got a sweet deal on that. Yes. Yes, because it's an investment that tree. Yes, it is. They're pricing.

But it's, you know, then you just have it. Absolutely. Yeah. And we were very, and so this year, because I was gone, we put it up before Thanksgiving. and I was so happy to have it. It really, it's wonderful. And now we can go out of town.

We don't have to worry about it. You know, burning the fucking house down or whatever. I'm worried about that. Yeah. We put in our time with the real tree. You know what I mean? And it was nice. Of course.

Honestly, the sort of ritual of it all is a hassle. It is. I really want to get a real tree. You tell yourself it's a ritual, but it's a pain in the ass. It's just and truly like all of January where like every time you drive up a street in Los Angeles, there's just tree corpses, like everywhere, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're all nude.

They're all, their birthday suits embarrassing, humiliating. Okay, second question, and then we'll continue on. Paul, have you ever had a cat? Yeah, I have. I've had cats a few times in my life, yeah. That was a really lackluster response. Did you hate them or? No, I did not hate them.

I did not hate them. I loved my kitties. I loved my kitties. They were wonderful. But I've not always been in a position. where I could have a pet. Yes, got it. Well, so, you know.

A few steps above a real tree. Yeah. Life gets in the way. That's right. Doesn't it ever? Yeah. So wrapped up in business. You're telling me.

So speaking of having pets, Ben used to have a dog named George Bailey. Every animal in this thing is named after some Christmas item. This is year-round Christmas time. even though they don't explicitly acknowledge that, but all the animals are named after Christmas themed things. They are. You're right about that. That's true. That's true.

He's like, he's too busy to have another dog, but clearly he's too scared to feel again because his last relationship didn't work out. Exactly. Ben assures Olivia, he will want to keep the catnip cafe. She has not won.

He has not won. They're still at their impasse. Now, it's time for Catma Story Hour Simply everyone is showing up There is a horde of people Ready for Catma Story Hour Ben's sister is there Turns out she has a name and it's Meredith

She also has a husband and two children She's got all kinds of stuff going on He's a full character at this point Yeah Ben makes a little opening speech Thanks for everybody being there We see various people holding cats Now I have to ask you cat people

one woman is holding a cat in her arms like a baby but she's also sort of like jogging it like jostling it like a baby as well is that a thing that you do with cats I think it depends on the cat it depends most cats I would say probably not most cats don't like it would not like this yeah

most of our cats don't really like being held generally kind of at all yeah but if I'm holding them I'd say about 50% of the time I'm rocking them but now are you rocking them like this Or are you like doing a little baby, like a little bounce? No, a little bounce. Like a little baby bounce.

Okay. This seemed like an exclusive thing to babies. That's more for me than for them. Yes, yes, yes. Well, of course. Yeah, they probably don't like it. The baby will shut up. Yeah, yeah.

Okay, I want to interject here, like, just to give two examples of holding cats. One, when we lived in Los Angeles, we did not own a cat, but we lived in a little complex where there was a cat that, like, you live in a little complex where there was a cat that, belonged to my neighbor. Long story short, she just constantly let it out of the house. This cat was constantly coming into our house. It was in our house when we moved in, when we were moving our furniture and the cat was in our house. We were like, I guess this is our cat now. He's a really good cat. We just called a cat. And Tim, who is allergic to cats and usually doesn't like cats, Tim would hold this huge fat cat, looked like bunk, like would hold this massive fat black cat

like a baby, like what you're talking about, and he had a song for it. He was, go, little furry baby, little furry baby. And the cat fucking loved it. And then when we had real live human children, Tim continued to do that with the human babies. Little human baby, except you called them like different names, not human baby. So that's one thing. And then another thing is that my family loves cats. Like I grew up with a gazillion cats. My dad loves cats. Everyone fucking loves cats in my family. And my grandfather, obsessed with cats, would hold them like that, like, let them perch on his elbow and his arm, like up on his shoulder and kind of walk them around. Yeah, like they would sit up there?

Yeah, they would sit up here, like little priests, little kings, little kings. Yeah. Like a little king. And, you know, survey their dominion. And lots of pictures of my grandfather doing that. And then my dad would also do that with our cats. like put them up on his it's hard to explain if you're not looking at it but um you can see it yeah so lovely it's so sweet it's some cats they like especially if you're down yeah oh well

especially if you're signaling you're the one in charge yeah i'm not in charge you're in charge and if you get them if you get them as kittens and you and you start doing that too when they're young they're sort of like oh this is safe this is this is this is true that's sweet i'm glad that your dad continued it. I will say this event was anyone expecting this event to be what it was? No. I was floored when this reveal happened.

Absolutely shocked. Because what this is, what Catmas story hour is, everybody chooses a book and chooses a cat and then they read stories to

the cats. Out loud, a bunch of people reading different books out in the same room. It's unbelievable. Like, are you trying to teach the cats how to read? You do this to teach small children how to read. Are you trying to teach the cats out of read? I was certain.

I would have paid you a million dollars that this event was one lady reading a book while everybody sits with cats. That would make a lot more sense. This is everybody, take your own book, go to your own corner with your own cat, and read out loud to the cat. then this this prompts Olivia this is maybe a nod to the idea that this is insane because Olivia says wait I have an idea

how about after you're done reading stories to the cats we tell the stories of the individual cats and maybe that will help with the adoptions and everybody's like huh great idea that wasn't even in the binder And she's like And maybe you can paint a picture of the cats.

I'm like, how long is this fucking event? We're going to take a long time. Do we have surprise for this? Everyone has to paint a picture of the cat? They really thought, I guess the thing that was going to do it was well, I guess if people come in here and they see a bunch of cats they'll want to take one home with them.

And that was not working. But they were saying like, it's just a matter of time. So this is how we learn that the orange fancy cat is named gingerbread and he has been there forever because he's a very particular cat Olivia reads to gingerbread and this is not lost on Ben

he observes this and it stirs something in cat fat young Olivia is now with the scrawny orange kitty she names her Noel like Christmas present day Olivia is petting gingerbread

this is a huge deal and Olivia's on the phone with a realtor the realtor is picking up on Olivia's affections for Ben Olivia swears there's nothing there the next event the mistletoe market we're looking around there's all different stalls

and stuff like that they're selling various things still trying to get these cats adopted where are all these vendors coming from and what do they have to do with the cafe so this is a small town right and basically all these people from this very small town where there's probably one row of stores they're saying let's set up a booth of all of our stores even closer together right right yeah we love that you could walk up and down the block and do this or we could

each bring five things from our businesses and sell them across from each other I also just like when she explained this to her the realtor I loved how she the realtor the tour was like, what's next for you? And she just goes, mistletoe. And the realtor goes, I love mistletoe. And it's like, what, you don't know, you know what that means? What are you talking about? That doesn't mean anything. I think in hallmark parlance, this means romance. Romance. Romance. Romance. So, romance is in the air because the thing that happens to the mistletoe market is they have strategically placed

mistletoes above everyone. And, and, you know, the realtor is that, and the realtor is, and, you know, And if you get caught under a mistletoe, the townspeople will point at you and yell, Missaltoe. And then you either have to kiss whoever is next to you or you have to sing a Christmas carol. This one gentleman is caught unawares, and then he looks around and there's a lady next to him. He doesn't want to do. So he starts singing, deck the halls, and he picks an unfortunate key, I have to say,

because he cannot nail that ending. It's very high. So the little nerd boy is with the fat cat again. He is Josh. He's in foster care. He can't adopt Snowball whom he loves and Snowball loves Josh because he is not adopted himself. It takes too long. And by the time he gets adopted, Snowball could be gone or whatever.

So it's very tragic. This is where we see the flaw in the cat cafe being sold. So Olivia, she's like having a realization this is a very sad thing. Then Ben and Olivia get caught in the mistletoe. There's a moment between them. Then Ben starts singing joy to the world. Not yet, guys. Not yet. Not yet.

The developer shows up. He's coming to the Christmas party. Ben says, oh, you're buying local? Real huge jing on this developer. Wow. It's surprised to see you buying local. Buying local. A developer would never.

A developer would never. Amazon only. Never. It's all right never. Meredith and her husband show up. They invite Olivia to dinner. Ben and Olivia are later at Ben's place. They're making, they're, they're collabing on a dish that they're going to bring to the dinner.

And it's some sort of semi-exotic thing. And so the story behind it is, Olivia's parents were nomads. They traveled all over the place. They didn't like to be tied down to any place. Her mom is a photographer. Her dad worked in finance. It's classic nomads. I was very confused by that.

I was like, do you mean like... I could do finance from anywhere. Is that like importer, exporter vibes? Like drugs, smuggling? She's like, I could do finance. And we had no home going on. My mom was a photographer. My dad worked in finance.

And we moved all over. As though to signal like, don't worry, I'm rich. Not whispering hills rich. I know. But she, uh, the only place that ever felt really like home to her was Aunt Kat's house down the street. they go to dinner, the exotic dish is a hit. Meredith and the husband say Ben Olivia should team up more often.

You know what I'm saying? The slip sets bed so much that he like gets up and changes seats. He's like, oh, so embarrassed that he just like moves to a different seat. He moves away from Olivia to sit by himself on a separate couch. Not only am I not going to do that, I'm getting away. I'm not even teaming up in this. a part of the room. Then, you know,

the husband's like, does anybody want some more wine? And Meredith says, not for me. Olivia knows what's up immediately. That's right. Meredith is pregnant again. Ben takes this news strangely. He takes him a moment

to be happy about it. He does a lot of lip acting in this moment. He goes like, Oh, my God. His lips were moving. We're moving. Really clocked it. Really closhed those lips. Oh my God. Baird and Olivia are walking home. Olivia notices, hey, you had some lip movements going on. What was that hell about? He says one of my favorite lines from

the movie Twilight, which is when someone does a really obvious thing and the character response, oh, you caught that, did you? This happens in Twilight. With Jacob is talking about the quiet ones. And Bell says, what was that you were talking about? And he goes, you caught that. Don't you? It's like the thing that was obvious. And she says, you had a bit of reaction.

He says, you caught that, did you? Yes, I did. Yes, I caught the really obvious thing that happened. Then they have the kid conversation, which is... It's time for that, yeah. A thing you don't see in a lot of romantic comedies, but I guess because it's Hallmark, this is... Maybe this is a thing that people need in these stories?

Yeah, I feel like it's like, um, Well, we got to make sure we're all on board with, like, the Christian ideal of a family, right? Like, it did, if it did feel a little bit like that, you know, like, obviously, I want to be a father, you want to be a mother. Otherwise, we can't possibly have romance here. Yeah. And good news, they both do. Yeah. They both have reasons for why it hasn't happened yet.

And then, time for a cat back. Olivia can't adopt the cat, Noel, because her parents move too much because of photography and finance. So, Aunt Cat takes the cat. And this is news, like the, like the aunt realizing like, what I, I, well, I suppose I, but I guess I could take the cat. I suppose, I suppose I could. Changes her life. Changes her whole fucking life. It changes her life.

Huge. Now, Olivia admits to the realtor friend that she has a crush on Ben. Yes, you got me. Are you happy? But how could it ever work out? Realtor says, you'll find a way. so Olivia happens upon Ben he's doing some construction project she says I'll help you out

and together they make some boards the reveal the one they made was so funny like I was like oh what's this going to be it's just three boards and they're like okay well that's all done man I've been trying to do that for years he was like he was like you reminded me I need to do something for myself. And this is it.

And she was like, that's, that's it. Let me stain them for you. Bords. Up, Ben gets a call. It's never, it's never done for this guy. He has to go because a dog encountered a skunk. And as he says, there goes my whole day. This is not a veterinary problem. It's not. This is a pet have-er problem.

Correct. He does not need to be involved in this, much less his entire day. Yeah. Yeah, that's too much. This man needs boundaries. He needs to say no. And I think it's Meredith's dog, right? No, Meredith is just there because she works at the veterinary. Oh, Meredith was the one who made the call.

But Meredith should also say this isn't a veterinary problem and you need to take some tomato juice and go home and deal with it. You're going to have a bad day, but that's not my problem. These people are taking advantage of Ben in a way that I couldn't even have imagined. So now, of course, it's catnip, pajama party movie night. Wow. Everyone's showing up in their PJs. They're getting ready to watch the movie. Abby is there. The movie, which is Sussie Cat Saves Christmas. Which looks like the absolute shittiest movie in the world. Let it be real.

Yeah. Like they showed like the first frames of it and I was like, is it real? I want to see this. It looks like a 12 year old made it on a computer. Could show, which is a little thing they had their animators make in like 10 minutes. Now, Abby is there. Abby is. Ben's ex, they realized they were better off as friends than as lovers. She's also the one who is telling Ben at the other, the normal cafe, you should adopt a dog and everything. So she's met Olivia and all that. And she's telling him, Ben, you're like, you deserve to be happy.

You of all people. You should go after Olivia. This is great. Every single cat has a Christmas theme name. Saskat saves Christmas begins. It's obviously a rousing success. Olivia and Benner cleaning up after the movie night. People are cheering.

This is absolutely the best Catmas Pajama movie party we've ever had. This event starts and I was like, I turned to Joel and I was like, now this event, like, I'd go to this. This seems really fun. And as I was saying it to him, I looked and Bertie was on his lap,

maybe it was on my lap. We were watching a movie and I was like, we were at it. I was going to say is a cat pajama movie party happens. This is near nightly for me. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. And thank God. So, and thank God. Wouldn't you like to do it somewhere else with cats you don't know? Honestly, yes. Right. An air of mystery around you with unfamiliar cats. That's fun.

I mean, it'd be fun to be in a big room. Of course, with strangers. So Olivia and Ben are cleaning up after movie night. Ben says he never got with anyone after Abby because it's a small town and what are you going to do? It's like flawed logic to me. He says a pretty smooth line where he says, eligible women don't just show up out of the blue, except for

sometimes they do. Yeah, that was good. I mean, I don't know, you guys. If you heard that, wouldn't that, would you feel good about that? Obviously, in the movie you're supposed to, but for me, seven years, like no other encounter, that would be a little bit like red flag, red flag for me. Seven years. It's because he cares so much

about the town, Henley. The biggest red flag for me in this one, it would be that he has half of his onesie tied around his waist. I really hated it. Oh, I kind of like that. Really gross. No, I hated it. I liked it. I hated it.

To each his own. We find out Olivia used to be married. I loved this. Me too. A divorcee? She was a divorcee. All of the, they really just had a relationship of passion and passion fades.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. But he does say he goes. He says a little passion is nice. Yeah, he's like, well, passion's, we have both think passion is pretty good, right? And we both got, passion is pretty fucking awesome. We're talking about the same thing We'll say passion, right?

Passion, passion. Then Olivia at some point says the word Mois and Ben asks if she speaks French. He doesn't ask if she speaks French. He declares, you speak French. He says, oh my God, you speak French. I've always wanted to go to Brussels. This blew Joel's mind

Joel was like He couldn't shut off about it The next five minutes of the movie He was like Brussels They speak Flemish and Brussels He like couldn't handle it He could not handle God it was funny

You speak frazzed She says She says Maud A word you all know And yeah to be like God I've always wanted to go to Brussels I mean Miss Piggy Says Mois

I don't think of primarily is a French speaker. Right, exactly. And she says in response, a petit pu. And he goes, he goes, a petit pupe.

And it's like, that doesn't prove to me either of you know what the fuck is going on. Really exciting stuff. I really loved that a lot. Really loved that a lot. Speaking of what the fuck is going on,

they fucking kiss. It happens. They're both wearing the exact same shade of dark gray Heather's shirt. That's right. It was meant to be. Oh, then it's interrupted by the waiter saying gingerbread, no. And gingerbread is just entering the room.

And nobody can deal with gingerbread because he's too grumpy. I think. Oh my gosh, it's a time for another dance break? I think we might get a little growl in there. So let's take a look at where we're at. Oh, you guys, $3,834. $0.26. We're getting pretty close.

Oh, my gosh. I think that that calls for some dance pop. Oh. Oh. Where am I? Wait, Paul, you're giving me a night at the Roxbury. That's how it feels to me. Yeah.

What's this one called? Party night? What's it called? Dance pop. Party night. Dance. Party night. Okay. Let's get back. Let's get back into it. After that old party night break. Party night. That would be pretty funny if Charlie XX's next album was called Party Night. Olivia picks up gingerbread. This is a huge deal. The gingerbread has allowed himself to be picked up. Well, and honestly, yes, like if you find yourself being able to like pet or pick up a cat that nobody,

It is to speak for cap, it's a huge deal. There's nothing more satisfying than when somebody's pet takes a liking to you. And the person says, oh, she never likes anybody. That is really special. What better experience is there? There's not. None. So she picks up gingerbread.

Everybody's like, whoa. And then she's very coyly says, I'll bring him to the cateo. play on words the next day the waiter tells Olivia they are getting more RSVPs than ever for the Christmas party then we learn that little nerd Josh

is getting adopted finally very sweet moment now he can finally adopt snowball I almost cried yeah who cried? I cried I did almost cry yeah I cried No, unfortunately. And then she's like, she's clearly hearing that for the first time.

And she's trying to keep from crying. I'll be honest. That took me out of it. Him calling her mom. That's fair. You're like, no, really? Is this, it was so like, yeah, thanks. Mom.

Mom. I was like. Doing for the first time in front of people. This is like, it feels. It was like, I didn't like it. Keep it in private. Keep that in private, little boy. Keep that in private.

It took me out of it. Little Joshy. Little Joshy and Snowball finally united legally. Yeah. Ben is now decorating for this is the big adoption event. This closes out. The big Christmas party. Catnip cat mists.

He told Olivia, you've done enough. I'm going to do all the decorating. Oh, we forgot to mention when they were cooking together. for the dinner party she saw ben has an espresso maker and she asked him what kind of beans do you have and he gave a good answer uh remember what it was but it was the right answer oh he named some beans he named beans and she was like yes and so then morning after the kiss he brought her espresso to her door and it was he brings her a literal cup of coffee it's snowing outside that would have cooled down even in just a short walk that's yeah that's going to be cold that's

going to be a coldest person. Ice cold. But he told her, I'm going to decorate for the parties tonight. You've done enough. I want to do my part. So he's doing all the decorating for the Christmas party on his own. She shows up and she's like, uh-uh. Not my St. Ben. A billion people show up with boxes of decorations. It's a wonderful lifestyle. They're going to help set up this other place for the cat adopt. event. Yeah, I was very unclear as to why it couldn't just happen at the cafe, but... I thought it was the cafe

at first, and then I was like, well, wait, they haven't decorated already for Christmas? Also, what business does not already decorated for Christmas? Well, and also, sorry, this woman earlier in the movie said that the place was decorated for Christmas. Like, she did say that. That was a line that happened. And then it's like, but you don't

have a tree. But again, I'm like, is it? What day is it? I don't know you're not telling me. I think it's safe to assume it's after Thanksgiving. 23rd. I think it's like the 23rd. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Anyway. But there's somewhere else. There's somewhere else. Now, in the midst of this,

Olivia gets a Christmas card. Is it from her dead aunt? Yes, it is. Yes, the lawyer sent it. It was in the aunt's paperwork that had taken too long to get to her. But yes, it's from... She opens up the card from this dead lady and enclosed is a Polaroid of young Olivia with

little Noel, the cat. This is when it all comes together. Olivia has the realization through things that Ben is saying. Noel was the reason for the cafe. This was why Aunt Cat gave her half the cafe. Olivia is the reason the cafe exists. Oh my God.

It's huge. Now, despite all this, Olivia still wants the selves fucking wants to say. I know. She shows this to him and he's like, oh my God, wow, this is huge, right? And they basically are saying they really have feelings for each other. And she's like, yeah, so I'm going to still sell the camera. She's like, this is like the Scrooge at the end after the last ghost was like, actually, I think I'm fine. But you know what? I will say, I really appreciated this conversation. I thought it was quite realistic that she was like, well, I'm, yeah, It's been three weeks, so I'm actually not, I need my condo, and I have a whole life out west, wherever the fuck that is. California. And I like you. And it's been, I like have had a really good time. But I'm, I always told you what my plan was. I've not deceived you. Yes. And to his credit, he says, yes, you did. I really thought I was going to change your mind. He said, I thought that kiss was real, which is like, well, what does I have to do with anything? Thing. but okay. And and he doesn't

lash out and get all angry at her, which I was ready to see. I feel like in a lot of rom-coms we see like some pretty toxic behavior that then is like, it's because they love each other. And I was appreciative that that was not what happened here. Yeah. It's always the frustrating thing for me in the rom-com

is the big falling out after they get together and then they have to get together again. There's always a third act breakup. Hanley knows. We read a lot of these books. I agree that in this, it's more real and it's less, it's so much less shitty because it's more like, but I, I can't just turn on a dime. I had this whole. This is what I always told you. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And this was like I had my, this is what I wanted to do with my life. And it's like, I can't just all of a sudden flip everything, like turn all that off these things that I wanted for myself. It's been three weeks. I was like, that's better than you lied to me or whatever. And then, you know, they have to win them over. It's like, they look light, you know.

What happened about that? Because you can't lose something you never had. That's how to lose a guy in 10 days. That's their third act breakup. And I think about it. I think about that line a lot. You want to lose a guy in 10 days? Well, congratulations.

You just lost him. She says, no, I didn't, Ben, because you can't lose something you never had. It's also worth noting that in that movie, Kate Hudson, I think is like 22 years old. Yeah. And who's the guy? Is it Matthew McConaughey? And he's 51 in this movie. Yeah, he's about 51.

But time is a flat circle, baby. Not to be confused with my best friend's wedding in which Cameron Diaz is, I think, literally 21 in Dermott Mulroney, Dylan McDermott. Which one? Tell him. Dermott Mollon. His full name. Dermott Morgon.

It's Dermott. It's Dermott. It's Dermott. My best friend's wedding. McCroney, McRodon. Dermit McRoney. Dylan Macaroni. I've.

Is older. than 21. Seeing how to lose a guy in 10 days a lot of times. Yeah, I, yeah, this is predictable. You knew she was going to say no. You have to have to have a third act breakup. Well, she has to, she has to, like, be, she has to honor her original commitment. You have to see her honor her independence.

It has to be her choice. She has to choose it for her and not for him. Yes. But then does she choose it for God? Well, and for God also. Because that's what was giving. Yeah. To marry and procreate is for God.

Well, and we'll get, well, so let's continue on, but I do think perhaps, Paul, to your earlier point, there is a sort of a magical cat coming. Okay, now, this is great to hear because at this point, I have no more notes. Great. You guys, I haven't had notes since the sock puppet show. I haven't had any notes. I was like, that's when I was like, no more notes for me. I've never taken any notes. I just live and breathe this movie now.

She knows it like the back of her hand. No, Emily, Emily can watch a movie and it's imprinted on her brain. It's good. It's good. It's in there. I envy that. I envy that. Paul, be honest. Did you finish the movie? I listened to the last 10 minutes.

While creating one's laurel crown? Perfect. That came out of a box. That was all ready to go. Nice. Nice. Okay. Well, we have our break up. He does say a thing which I did think was pretty nuts.

He said, I thought that kiss was real. And it's like, well, it was. That has nothing to do. has nothing to do with this, but he's upset and we get it. And he tells her, you know what? You don't actually have to come to the party tomorrow. I've got it from here.

I'll fulfill my end of the bargain. I'll sign the paperwork. You did everything you said you were going to do. And she says, you're right? I think that's for the best. She leaves. And the next day we see her driving to Buffalo, New York,

an eight-hour drive. I was like, my God, okay. Wait, I was confused about this. Like, how much time was spent in the car for her eight hours? She says I'm halfway to Buffalo. Okay, four hours. So four hours. Wait, do we know where Felicity, New York is in relation to Buffalo?

About eight hours from Buffalo. In any direction. Wait, Buffalo's already so north. Is Felicity even more? Like, where does matter? Is she? Where does it matter? What's your New York?

You're at hours from Buffalo no matter where you are. Eight hours from Buffalo. We are eight hours from Buffalo, New York. And she's on the phone with her best friend, the realtor. And she's telling her, I left.

And she's the realtor saying, well, you should go to the party. And she's saying, he doesn't want me there. And she's saying, I'm sure that's not true. But Olivia has stopped at a gas station because she's just killing time before the airport, basically. Wait, first, before when she's talking to her friend,

her friend's like you should go and talk to him and like she's like I don't even know what I would say I'm not a good ad libber I can't ad lib you know I can't which was established in the sock puppet show yes and at one other moment I believe but I can't remember wed but she does bring it up a lot this movie is using the whole buffalo

they're using her every she's confusing ad lib with just talking you could talk just like say what you think and every conversation we've had with her here to four has been written. She can't add lip. She's at this gas station.

Okay, two moments actually that I'm now remembering I want to point out. When Josh gets adopted and they come into the Catnip Cafe and it's Josh and his mom and they say we want to see if Snowball's available for adoption because Josh

has been adopted. This was moment number one where I realized how trained my brain is to horror movies where I was like, Snowball's dead. I was like, I was so ready for like a horrible reveal of like, you're too late. There is no more snowfall. It like really shocked me that it went like the total opposite positive way. I was like not, not prepared.

That was, that was moment one. Moment two is her stopping at this gas station. I was like, fuck, no, get out of there. You don't get out of the gas station in the middle of nowhere, hell no, turn around. Turn around. This is really bad. Go back eight hours to wherever. That person is like, I don't know.

10 minutes, then he's like, you've been to Felicity, New York? Don't go back there. There is no Felicity, New York. You haven't been there at all. But she gets out of her car in the gas station

and she walks into, there's like a mechanics garage attached and she walks into the garage because she's drawn in by the sound of music. She's hearing music come from the garage from a gorgeous speaker that we get real good product placement for. And she walks in

and the mechanic says, oh, the cashier isn't there. She says, sorry, sorry, I came in because of the music. And then she sees he has a cat there. And she says, oh, hi, kitty. And he says, yeah, that's my cat. I adopted it at this great little cafe about four hours away. That's my guy. And she starts crying.

This is God. That's what I'm trying to explain. She starts crying. She can't believe it. And he just totally unperturred by a woman walking into his garage and immediately bursting in tears. He just picks him a bunch of tissues and holds them out to her. She takes one and she says, thank you.

Like this happens all the time. Merry Christmas. And we got to get a box of tissues in here because women keep coming in and crying. I do love a shop cat. A shop cat is great. He asks if she has a cat. And she says, she says, not you.

Yet. Not yet. Not yet. Not yet. As she drives back to the Gaddam Cafe, where we see Well, it's not the Caddney Cafe. It's the other place, but it's the party. Sure, sure, sure. And it's in full swing. And Ben is sad. He's at this party and he's sad. And he tells, he's about to come into some money. And so he tells his sister, I think we can hire another veterinarian. She's thrilled. She says, are you okay?

And he says, yeah, I'm okay. And then the developer arrives. And Ben comes up and he says, Olivia's not here. The developer says, I know I got her call. But hey, let's do it. Let's sign some paperwork. And Ben's like, all right, my faith is sealed.

I'll sign it. A deal's a deal. A deal's a deal. He's a man of his word. Yeah. Sits down with this developer. As they sit down to sign this paperwork. A little Devin Rex just jumps into this developer's lap.

A developer's lap. A developer's lap. This Devin Rex, God, Devin Rexes are so cute. They're very cute and very funny. They're so cute. They're really funny looking. Their fur is all like scraggly. They're like, have huge ears and tiny little alien heads and their fur and the texture

is like scraggly. Like there's no other word for it. It's like, it's like. they're so cute they're so cute and this little Devonarck's kitten jumps in his lap and he in a great moment of comedy

is like is it gonna attack me he's like can't can't deal with this kitten never encountered a kitten before he's a developer he's not a human he doesn't know what to do yeah man like in his 60s

like what is this thing and Ben signs he signs the paperwork hands up back over to the developer and then Olivia walks on the door she runs to Ben Ben runs to her she says

Ben he says she sees the developer she goes oh no he says it's okay I signed it and she's oh no you can't sign it Ben oh god I so much has become clear I was always looking for a home

that's all I wanted it wasn't about the condo it was about a home and I know now that I've found it here with the cat cafe and he says

with me and she says yes I should have included that I was going to say it you cut me off but yes please let me finish with you I was getting there

obviously I was getting there and they don't kiss it no they go to the developer because oh my god we've got to stop this deal and she goes to him and she says i'm so sorry huge mistake i actually this cafe is so important it's so important to me it's so important to the community i've made a huge mistake and i don't want to sell and he says okay he says i came here to to sign paperwork not to does he say? Not to like break, have a fight. I don't know. He's the nicest developer in the world. I think the cat has changed to psychology. I don't want to fight. Who cares? I actually don't even care about this. And he's like and actually like... I'm not that serious about

developing. I'm not that serious. I don't actually care. I do it as a hobby. It's not a money making venture for me. I'm not interested in that. I'm here to buy local and and just kind of hang out. And he rips the contract in half. And he says, while we're at it, I love this cat and my kids, I've really been wanting one, and I'm going to adopt him. Yeah. The magic of the cat cafe. Power of cat cafe. Yeah. Don't sell it short.

And the party ends. Everybody goes home. And I think now we're back at the actual catnip cafe. I think we go back to the catnip cafe. Yes. And we're looking over the big success of the evening, and Olivia tells Ben, it was a huge success. We have

three applications to adopt three foster applications and one adoption and he says one adoption she says me

a gingerbread it had to happen full circle had to happen and he says great I don't know what he says this woman can be a mother

this proves to me he's leaning in he's leaning in He's leaning in? She's leaning in. We're leaning slow. We're leaning real slow. And we hear.

Gingerbread doesn't like them kissing. He doesn't. Okay, let's take a look here. Okay, we're at $3,934. 26 cents. This is really good, you guys. Thank you, everybody. Oh, my God. This is wonderful. And I guess I'll say here now that this fundraiser will be open for the next week or so, I think until December 31st. So for anyone listening after the live show, we still have time to hit this goal. And I feel like we're really close. So we're going to get there. I feel very good about it. I feel like we're going to get there. Good work, everybody. Hold on. I just refreshed my page and I'm at 4,228. Oh, my God. I don't to brag. I think that demands a dance break.

Wait, my page is $10,000. Oh, my God. I saved the best for last. We're doing Feeding the Ducks, if you remember from last time. This song is called Feeding the Ducks. I actually do not remember what it sounds like. No, but it's called Feeding the Ducks and I like that. It's never being a hit. Oh, yeah. Why is this caught beating the duck?

It's so calm. Eating those ducks. Oh, yeah. Oh, there we go. There we go. Lil Wayne is in the house. On that sirs up. Yeah.

Do you get that sirs up? Henley, you're so good at saying that. How do you say? Sir. Serra, sir, sirs up. Sirs up. Sure's up. Wow.

Amazing. Amazing. I got to save that song to my, to my phone so I can listen to it. Yeah, I'm going to listen to that while I drive. Absolutely. While I drive. And if I'm ever feeding ducks, I'm going to be throwing that on. I have a couple final thoughts.

Please. Okay, but we haven't even got to the final kiss. They do kiss. They do kiss again. Oh, I'm so sorry. Yeah, they do kiss. That's fine. When did they kiss?

Like, right after that? I thought they were giving gingerbread the last word. No, they kiss. They kiss. I don't love this kiss. This kiss was strange to me. You're right. I remember it.

No, it's very light. It's like a little light. It's very light. And it's and they go, then they pull back as if to like rub noses. Oh. In a way that I, but then it fades to black and that's the movie.

It ends so abruptly. That's just that. They're like, you get it. You got it. Anyway, that's the end of the movie. Final thoughts. Could she not have just sold her aunts? home to get the money for the condo?

Or it's a great question. Also, I don't think she was bequeathed the home. Yeah, I don't think so. I don't think it. Who was? Who was? Yeah. I feel like there was a little line about it somewhere. There's like still a more, it's, oh, the bank's taking it. The bank's taking it. She didn't think that far ahead. Banks just taking it.

I had this thought too where it's like, why don't you sell your part of it to someone who wants to keep the cafe? Like, why don't you even ask? Is there someone? in the town who would want to with you? Yeah. We got three weeks to get this condo. It's about we need the condo now. But like, wouldn't you ask that though?

Yeah. I mean, if she sold her interest, it still might not have made her whispering hills rich. Exactly. It may have needed to be in the entire thing. How much more did her down payment need to be 5% more? I swear when she first said it. 25% more is crazy. Oh, I thought it was 5% more too.

I thought it was 5% more. I thought she said 25%. I thought she said 25% too, but then later I thought I heard five, but I was like, which one? I thought that was implying it was 5% more than the normal 20%. That's what my brain did, but who knows? Look at you knowing percentages of more down. But also the casual way they were discussing money, the casual way her best friend, her best friend who knows her better than anyone else, who has her financial records, the way her best friend, who has children, she's a responsible person. And her best friend is saying to her, you can afford this.

Just do it. Just do it. Just do it. And the way that Olivia is responding still all smiles, no hint of concern crossing her face. Because the catnip cafe hasn't come in yet. And that's the only friction. And she's still like, yeah, it's possible, you know? Like, you don't see a hint of her being like, it's like, I can't do it, you know?

Yeah, no real stress. She doesn't want to do it. She doesn't want to do it, exactly. Yeah, yeah. Anyway. The other thing was, it was wild to me to see a romantic, like the first kiss romantic scene where it doesn't go any further than a kiss. Yep.

Very G-rated. G-rated. You know, it was really wild that they just kissed one time. And go their separate ways. Right. Even if the only thing you see is the kiss, usually there's an implication that, like, something else happens. It was so.

Christian. They live 40 feet from each other. Like if that were me, I would have been like, I gotta go over there. It's insane. I've been thinking about this all day long. They are two adults. I looked at up their ages. They're both in their mid-40s.

Like these adults can go home to their homes down the street and fuck. Like, what are we doing? Yeah. Wait, do you think they're supposed to be in their mid-40s in the movie? I mean, they are in their mid-40s. There was a line where when they're talking about having kids where Olivia's like, well, you're still young. And he's like, I don't feel young. And I looked it up then. I'm like, he's 46. I did. That's when I did. I was like, oh, yeah, yeah, 46. Yeah. Yeah. That's definitely, mid 40s is definitely when you start to think I'm not young anymore. Right. And also like, I can't have kids now. And also, yeah. Like, should I be? Aaron K. Hill, the actress is 45 years old. Yeah. They're gorgeous. But like.

they're in their mid-40s. Nowadays? With science? It's possible. It's possible. It just does require more of a conversation. It absolutely does. You get medical stuff involved.

And yeah, likely a lot of money. Okay, you guys, a lot of money. I just need to tell you, I've looked, I've Googled, and I should have done this before, but I've Googled Aaron Cahill when her just, you know, standard Google page comes up. The movies that are coming up for me. SDP. A timeless Christmas. Autumn at Apple Hill. Hill. Love, fall, and order. Christmas

on Cherry Lane. Random acts of Christmas. What is love fall and order? Yeah, I want to know what that one's about, too. It sounds like to play on a phrase, but I cannot, I cannot put it together. It's law and order, but just include fall. Last Vermont Christmas. Christmas bedtime stories. Deck the halls on Sherry Lane. Slay bells ring. deck the halls Christmas on the range

Christmas at sea Now there's one we need to watch I saw the thumbnail for Christmas at sea And it definitely caught my eye A big vessel in that one I might have to watch Christmas That one looked pretty good A Grand Ole Opry Christmas

Jesus Christ Love on the road to the grand old Opry Christmas Those are two different movies Okay Okay Okay She was in the pursuit of happiness

that 2006 movie with Will Smith and Jaden Smith. She's also in the Beverly Hills Chihuahua franchise. Okay. Now we're talking. I am interested. I knew her a little bit back in the day from The Thrilling Adventure Hour. She's absolute sweetheart. And it was

really fun to watch her in this movie. Oh, that's fun. She was great. They're great. Like, everyone is like really doing their jobs, which is another thing that is so relaxing about these movies. And, And make them, even though it's, like, silly and surface level, like, it is quite enjoyable. Everyone is, like, people are committed.

Doing a good job. Nobody's walking through it. No, and I forgot to mention this. We do meet Meredith's husband. I don't know what it is the character's name is at certain points in the film. Lost a time. A gorgeous man. I just felt the needs.

This man was beautiful. I looked him up to. That's how I watch movies is I look everybody up on IMDB as I'm watching the movie. And it's like, who's this now? I got to see everything I love to do it Everyone's yeah everyone Everyone

Everyone was just doing a great job Um I loved it I loved it I loved it I loved it I love Christmas this year I have the mental capacity This year

And Beautiful stuff I would like to know Before we take off It's December 22nd Which is really wild That we're all the way here Yeah

Before we get out of here I would like to know what everyone's, if you have like a treasured Christmas tradition that you're looking forward to? Well, our tradition is to travel every year. We go to see Janie's mom in South Carolina. So that's where we always spend Christmas. And it really, it really means a lot to me,

especially like at the end of the year to go to a place and just be about, you know, family and not doing anything, you know, just kind of taking things as they come. And we like watch movies every night and stuff like that. And it's really, I love it. Yeah. You flying into the Charleston Airport? Oh, yes indeed. Oh, great little tiny

airport. Great airport. Great airport. Love that for you. Weirdly has a DeSano's pizza. Interesting. I mean, I haven't been to the Charleston airport in many years, but that's Yeah. That's pretty cool. It's really strange. Yeah. There's only two that I know of that one and the one here in L.A.

Yeah. I love DeSanos. Yeah. really good. Wood fire pizza, baby. Yeah, and I love Charleston. Great city. Great town. Great town. Something I always did as a kid was go and see a big action or fantasy movie on Christmas Day. It was Lord of the Rings a lot that those all came out around Christmas time. And this year, I think we're going to be seeing Avatar. Fire and Ash. A three and a half hour film. that I'm half excited for half dreading already. You know, as long as you get those recline, oh my God, I'm not going to get the reclined heated seats because we're seeing in IMAX. Heated seats. That keeps me away from IMAX a lot of the time because I prefer the comfy seats to the.

Paul, this is news to you? Paul, I didn't know this either. Paul, let me tell you, one Christmas I saw a Ferrari by myself at an AMC that I had not been to before. And I didn't know about the heated seats. and there was one on my seat and it's it was on and I I didn't know and so like halfway through the movie I was like something is really wrong I'm like I'm so hot on the yard like something is really wrong they should tell you they should have they should tell you but I love a heated seat and AMC signature recliners have heated seats but they are not in the iMacs when you know it's

happening it's better it's when you know it's happening it's better it's when you know it's thing it's better. Of course. That's like most things I think. In general. I wish that I had a Christmas tradition. I think I'm in the market for traditions. Like I'm open to ideas. Well, you're like, you can create them for your children because you have children. The thing that's tricky is that every Christmas is going to be different depending on whether Tim has to work or not and also whether we're traveling or not. So this Christmas. Tim doesn't have to work, but we're getting on a very early morning flight to San Francisco first thing. Oh, wow. So my children, I think, will experience Christmas on Christmas Eve.

The morning of Christmas Eve, we're going to pretend it's Christmas. I mean, they'll know it's Christmas Eve. We can't fool them that much. They're old enough to have some kind of awareness. But Henley, you started a, you started Chaos Tree this year. And that's a, that's a, that's a tradition. Chaos Tree is a tradition now. And we do have some, like, we have like a. stupid advent calendar that's like really dumb but Tim makes it's so dumb. It's just like broken and like it's broke. It's like broken and like falling apart.

Like it's like a tree. It's supposed to be a tree. It's supposed to be like a big beautiful advent tree. But immediately the second we bought it, it was just like disintegrating. But Tim like holds on to it because he's like, I'm not going to get a new one. So him and Silas are still like putting these things on the advent tree and the branch is just like falling off. so it's not like a doors one it's not like you open up little doors it's like a complex it's a complex it's a complex tree it's a complicated tree and long story short it's not meant for the long term the long haul so we'll have to figure out something new we're workshopping it right now um great Tim's going to have Christmas is like it's a weird it's a weird time for our family because of like church church and then also birthday it's my birthday

and then are like trying to see both sides of the family and like figuring out the family stuff. Christmas can be a lot. But I did really enjoy decorating this year and I did enjoy doing some paper crafts. You know what I fucking love? Emily, you've talked about this so much. Haclugan? Yes. Yeah.

Like that's it for me. Yeah, a haklou gun is so good. The perfect Christmas tradition. It's so good. You're going to do something with that hot glue gun. I do love it. I love it so much. I feel so powerful.

I've been saying to me, I've been saying to South, I've been saying, you guys have broken toys, bring them to me. Yeah. Bring me your broken. That's the thing about hot glue gun. You're like, once it's, once it's revved up, I'm like, what else can I glue? Like, I'm just looking to glue things. Can you fix that broke dick advent calendar?

Yeah. It's in the trash already. Like, it's like we need something new. Oh, yeah. Okay. Fair enough. But that's the spirit. That is the spirit, Paul.

And that is where I'm living. I believe in the hot glue gun. And I believe in Hallmark. I do too. I really do. I guess I do too. It got me. I did do.

I cried. The other part in the movie that I cried, which I will admit to you guys, is when the sister said she was having a third child. Interesting. I know. And then I said, don't tell your friends this. They're going to say, don't do it. So, Henley. Stop thinking those thoughts.

See, look at both of them. They're not making eye contact with the camera. No, I was just going to say that. I really laughed in that scene because of how. Because of the lips. Because of the lips. And also because of how the delivery of it where she's like, no wine for me. No wine for me.

It's like when you're like, you buy something. new and you wear it and you're like, is everybody going to say and I like my new thing? I guess the secrets. I guess the secret's out. I'm not drinking. What do you mean? But don't you, have you had that experience, though, where somebody, you saw somebody

decline alcohol and you realized, oh shit, they're pregnant. Like, they didn't make a big deal out of it. But you're like, this is somebody that normally would absolutely offer to drink. They would have a drink. They're like, no, I'm good. I'm like, I fuck. and know what's going on over there.

It does feel so fun. It's like if you feel like you figured out the end of a detective story, you're like, oh my fucking God, I figured out. One time I saw across a room a couple talking to someone and they were clearly giving information to this other person

and then the other person had like a very excited response and then the woman put her hand on her belly. She was not showing at all and I was like he's fucking pregnant. I don't know I don't know Like well also

You see a woman They were doing like They were doing charades for you If you see a woman Ever touch her stomach Exactly Not not happily She would never do that willingly

It's just not a thing that anyone does at all Unless you have a life picture Only do it if you're if you're trying to like charades act out being very ill That's the only other time you do it But otherwise you're you see like these pictures of women with their hand on their stomach. And so to say, you see a bum, it's, it's a baby.

It's on purpose. I did this on purpose. Otherwise, I'm fit as hell. It's true. I noticed that. And then I was like, I'm not going to do that when I'm pregnant again. Like when I was pregnant with Silas. And then the second I was pregnant with May, I was putting all my hands on my stomach.

I'm not going to lie, you guys. I put my hand on my stomach all the time. I do too. but in pictures though are you like no probably not in pictures but I like I like to rest my hand on my stomach sometimes it's like a little rest it's a pretty soothing it's a good level to have a hand resting but honestly Henley I was going to say it I do always find it funny when pregnant women really like really like frame the belly but I'm trying to picture now a pregnant woman in photos with like her hands just by her side It's really I don't like it at all Well it's weird It's like you don't know what to do

With your hands and now What are your options You have them by your sides Or you like cross them over your belly I'm not just fat right here You know You see the framing I'm not just fat in this one spot

Yeah this is the other option Yeah Emily what about you Do you have A tradition Do I have? Do I have a tradition? Our family always makes a delicious Cuban dinner on Christmas Eve, which, you know, I don't cook, but Joel has taken that upon himself.

Wow. Very nice. Do for us. So we will do that, which I'm very excited about. Do you have a favorite dish? I mean, the whole plate is the dish. It's like you've got to have, it's a roasted pork, so good, beans and rice and plantations. and like so much garlic

like so much garlic and then we have my dad's grandmother's flan recipe which I suppose I had to pick one it would be that and it is very good on cryop you speak fresh

do you speak fresh? Oh the proof that proves it he does he does fluent let's go to Brussels let's go to Brussels Oh, I just had the best time. I just had the best time. Paul, thank you so much for joining us once again. It's so much fun. So much fun to see you guys. And I want to say here at the end of the year,

the three of you bring so much joy into my life all year long. I love the podcast. I'm a fan first. And thank you for doing what you do. And I know that it means a lot to a lot of people. And I'm one of them. So thank you so much. And thank you for letting me be a part of your world. It means a lot to me. Thank you very much. It's really sweet. It's really nice. It's really nice for you to say all those things. We really care about you a lot. And we're really grateful. Thank you. Yeah, we truly... I'm sorry? Take it back. Shut up, Paul, shut up,

yeah. No, that we really, we feel the same way, and we're very lucky and we're very grateful. And it's a beautiful thing. God bless us everyone. God bless us everyone. At the catnip cafe and beyond.

And beyond. Paul, do you have anything going on that you can tell our listeners about any fun? Anything fun. I did my Christmas show Varietopia last night at Loddrum and if you want to stream it you can still stream it. It's

available at variatopia.com and you can find the stream there is a really fun show, great music and really silly comedy. We did some ridiculous stuff and yeah it was a really fun show. So if you want to see that

get in the holiday spirit there's worse things you could do. Great. There's worst things you can do. Yeah, you're going to want to see it, right? It's a very special, it's a very special thing you, you've got going, Paul. It's really, it's really great. It's very delightful. Thank you. Um, what a treat. And are you freaking taken off to Charleston? Christmas Eve. Woo, baby. Yeah, we don't usually leave it out late. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Everybody, safe travels on your, on all your holiday adventures. Be kind to yourselves. Have some fun. Just, you know. We love you. It's just, just have a nice time. Just have a nice time is what I wish for you. all. We love you all. So much. We love you. Happy 2026. And from all of us here at Two Seasonal Dying to Watch. Dying to watch. Miao. Miaoie Christmas. Miaoie Christmas.

We didn't. We made it. Thank you all for listening to another episode of Too Scary Didn't Watch. If you enjoy the show, please remember to subscribe and rate us on Spotify and Apple podcasts. Five stars only, or we will haunt you. And if you simply can't get enough of us, we have good news for you. We have lots of bonus content available on our Patreon at patreon.com slash TSDW podcast. You'll get access to video trailer reactions, two bonus episodes a month, the power to vote for upcoming episodes, and more. And last but not least, you can follow us on social media at TSDW podcast. We'll be back next week with a new episode. We love you. That was a hate gum podcast.