This is another Hallmark Christmas movie that they hit out of the park. Nowhere to be found are convenient freak snowstorms, the real Santa pretending to be a fake Santa granting magical wishes, or the all too common notorious wooden male love interest who has zero context. All in all the can of cheese was used sparingly in this movie.This movie is carried by the female lead Kimberly Sustad. She is refreshingly not perfect and does the 'cute girl next door' thing extremely well. This is a change from most Hallmark Christmas movies where the female lead looks and acts like a TV weather lady or infomercial spokeswoman. The male love interest in this movie happily has context - a firehouse team to ask him questions that round out his character. Yes, the firemen seem a little forced but that is OK. What I liked best about this movie is that compared to all other Hallmark Christmas movies this one actually did a fantastic job of truly and accurately portraying what people are like who love each other and live together. It was like this was real world and not some Hallmark la la land. It was like you could know the two leads in your real life.The cat thing was not really necessary but it was nice to see animals that are not horses incorporated into a Hallmark Christmas movie.

The dialog and humor are better than the usual Hallmark Xmas romance. There are some funny one liners. The cats are surprisingly cute too.A firefighter (Brandon Routh) and a veterinary student (Kimberly Sustad) meet. He has an unsuitable bitchy girlfriend played by Chelsea Hobbs who looks great and acts well. There is an interesting message compatibility and personality over superficial things like looks. As the vet, Kimberly Sustad is a tall actress even when next to Brandon Routh.A non irritating, not over cutesy, occasionally laugh worthy Hallmark Xmas movie.

Cute Christmas movie, yet I did catch one technical error early on. When in the grocery store shopping, the main characters meet each other for the first time, and Marilee advises Zachary not to get off brand dry cat food because in male cats, it can be bad for their prostate health... Well male cats actually don't have a prostate! She might need a few extra years of school. Other than that, this is a typical charming Hallmark Christmas movie! I love the animals - and that's what drew me towards the movie. As a Veterinary Technician and also a daughter of a retired Veterinarian, this movie was right up my ally. Just what I needed to put me in the holiday spirit. Love the romantic holiday movies, they are full of charm.

As an animal lover, who is owned by 7 precious cats, I was really, really looking forward to this movie being really good. But once again, I was awfully disappointed by one of Hallmark's new Christmas movies. However, the beautiful, TALENTED cats are what saved this movie from being rated "awful." Alone, I would give the cats an "excellent" rating for their excellent performance!Brandon / "Zach"...and Kimberly / "Marilee"...were a perfectly annoying match with acting like skittish teenagers. They continuously behaved awkward towards each other...as if they were attempting to speak to the opposite sex for the first time at the age of puberty, and didn't know what to say or how to act. The ANNOYING result: two fumbling adults stammering and stuttering like naive teenagers throughout the movie!In several scenes, Kimberly's ANNOYING, immature expression looked like a deer caught in the headlights!...which became tiresome...along with her stammering. Just because of her STUPID expressions alone, I will not watch this movie again! And what was with wearing a black evening dress during the day??Throughout the movie, Brandon was annoyingly portrayed as a highly sought-after, glorified stud...which became tiresome. (Give me a break! He wasn't THAT handsome!) The firemen acted like a bunch of juveniles or old biddies, depending on the scene. The ONLY thing enjoyable about this movie was watching the beautiful, TALENTED cats: 10 Paws Up!