I have to admit that I started to watch this crapfest during the first week of May this year. I couldn't STAND it. Who would say that a week before Christmas is a HOLIDAY? Yes, folks, a voice emanating from a radio said that it was a beautiful HOLIDAY morning. Moments later it is revealed that it's a week before Christmas. This writer by name of Alison Sweeney must be brain damaged.OK, I'm going to put a season 9 DVD from MARRIED WITH CHILDREN to scrape the sugar off my brain.If you think for a moment that this is Holiday Fare, fuggedabowddit. "IT'S A BUNDYFUL CHRISTMAS" is far better.

The small town of Eden Lake in rural northern Minnesota is rapidly becoming the murder capital of the stat per capita. Fortunately they have an able amateur sleuth in the person of Alison Sweeney bakery proprietor and creator of the region's best baked goods. Other than the film is set at Christmas time and plum pudding has come down to us through Charles Dickens as a Yuletide delicacy and someone urges Sweeney to put it on the menu plum pudding really has nothing to do with the story.But Christmas sure does. Kirby Morrow has opened a seasonal business the Elf's Christmas Yard where he sells Christmas trees. He winds up shot to death and of course it's Alison Sweeney along with town dentist Larry Hogan who finds him. After that no matter how much she's warned no keeping this woman away from a homicide she discovered.As it turns out Morrow was one sleazy conman and a lot of people have reason not to mourn him. He's got a long estranged wife in town who hosts a radio show about romantic advice and a current fiancé who invested heavily in the business. And there are others.I have to say in the end I felt a lot sympathy for the perpetrator. A good lawyer could get the person off.Sweeney has been wavering between Hogan and police detective Cameron Mattison in the various Murder She Baked films. Whomever she marries I see a Lucy/Ricky like relationship with her being constantly warned you can't get into the homicide investigation.And when she does she'll have a lot of 'splainin' to do.

Love this series and was not surprised that it was nominated for an Emmy award at some point. Hannah is so real as is the whole cast. Hope to see a lot more new programs this year. I like that Hannah can't make up her mind if she should keep trying with Mike or give up. I loved the Valentines show where Hannah chooses to spend the holiday with her mother and sister rather then spend it with Mike or Norman.

The title suggested something fluffy and sickly sweet, but I found this and the other MSB entries engaging and interestingly complex. The casting is great and I see Allison Sweeney as a lovely and intelligent actress. I appreciate the fact that she is obviously not a size 2, another believable aspect of her character-as-baker. Her sweet cat with its soft disposition, pretty eyes, and round face mirror the beauty of its owner. Cameron Mathison (sp?) and she have strong chemistry which builds nicely throughout each episode while the character of Norman makes for a suitable romantic alternative waiting in the wings. Throw in Hannah's neurotically romantic mother and slightly competitive but supportive sister and you have a skilled and pitch-perfect ensemble cast. I'm a big fan now and consider the series a new addition to my list of guilty pleasures.