The Noel Diary (2022)

Still on my light and not altogether good romantic comedy adventure while traveling for work across southern Minnesota. Jake Turner is a damaged but likable and successful bestselling author who lives alone and is estranged from his parents. When he gets a call out of the blue that his estranged mother has passed away, he travels back to his childhood home to clean it out. One day while there, Rachel shows up at his door asking about someone who she believes to be her mother used to live in the house with his parents. She was there at the critical moment when Jake's older brother fell from a tree in the yard and died when Jake was four. She was also alone and pregnant with Rachel and Jake's parents took her in and let her live with them until she gave birth, and then gave her baby up for adoption. Thanks to the memories of helpful neighbor Ellie, Jake and Rachel discover that the person she's seeking was Jake's nanny and Rachel's biological mother. The discovery sends Jake and Rachel on a road trip to reconnect with Jake's father and to try to find out more information about Rachel's mother. The trip will force Jake and Rachel both outside their comfort zones in confronting their past and while this has all the elements of a romance, there is also a lot of grief, and the mixture is a good one, because the holidays always have a mixture of each.