The Christmas Stocking

Synopsis:

Kathleen is an architect whose passion is remodeling homes for wounded vets. She hasn’t returned to her own home in years due to a strained relationship with her mother, but when a phone call summons her to Sadie’s bedside, Kathleen’s husband Mike insists she take a break from her business to heal old wounds before it’s too late. Besides, it’s Christmas time, and he’s always hoped that Kathleen could overcome her aversion to the holiday from a tragic event before they married.

Meanwhile, spunky Sadie wriggles with guilt in her hospital bed, haunted by a secret she kept for too long. When her estranged daughter, Kathleen, arrives, Sadie wrestles with telling the truth that may ruin whatever prickly relationship the two have left. Sadie knows too well why Kathleen has never enjoyed Christmas ever since a fatal accident claimed her infant’s life on Christmas Eve years ago. Or so she thought.

Sadie’s nurse, the young, intelligent, and no-nonsense Val, sees the two women struggle to get along and wants to make it through the first Christmas without her adoptive parents.

Then one day, while hurrying to work, she accidentally drops a cherished stocking in hunky Nathan's lap, and their meet-cute becomes a challenge to the newly licensed Private Investigator to cheer her out of her slump. When Nathan learns mysterious details, Val's curiosity, along with her attraction to him, grows. Nathan’s anxious to prove that despite physical limitations, he can solve this mystery that just “fell in his lap.” And to bring joy back to Val's Christmas.

To avoid facing her mother, Kathleen throws herself into remodeling the local church for ADA compliance in time for the Christmas pageant and the county inspection. But even that diversion doesn’t keep her from reliving the tragedy that’s haunted her. Mike tries to keep things light, and they invite the young Nathan and Val to ice skating for a fun evening, proving that Christmas is still in the air despite the tension.

The truth comes full circle on Christmas Eve when Sadie asks forgiveness for her past transgressions.

Kathleen is shocked to learn that Sadie had taken her baby and found an adoptive couple, thinking she was permanently disabled. Afraid Kathleen would never recover from the coma, Sadie had made a life-changing decision that affected three generations of women.

Nathan fits the puzzle together and reveals that Val, adopted on Valentine's Day, is the baby Kathleen had on Christmas Eve so long ago. Val can't believe the coincidence until the only memento of her birth, a Christmas stocking, matches the one Sadie made for Kathleen so many years ago. And that she'd dropped in Nathan's lap, beginning the investigation into its origin.

Kathleen begins a new relationship with the daughter she’d never hoped to see and forgiveness for Sadie, who thought she'd done the right thing for all of them but now has peace. Val and Nathan spark a new romance, and Mike looks forward to pulling out all the stops to celebrate long last; all their wishes for a Merry Christmas have come true.