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The Heart of Christmas: Review & Giveaway

I am a huge fan of Thanksgiving.
So much so that I feel it should really get more alone time than it does.
You know, not rush from Halloween to Christmas & sort of gloss over Thanksgiving.

Although I feel like that I do love Christmas & an opportunity to review "The Heart of Christmas" came to me (along with a giveaway...more on that later)

This movie...premiering of GMC in December is wonderful and heartwarming.
It's based on a true story (which I am always a sucker for).

Here's the story:

The Heart of Christmas
Dax Ryan Locke, born to Julie and Austin Locke on June 26, 2007, was diagnosed with AML M7, a rare form of leukemia, when he was 13 months old.


The Heart of Christmas is set in Washington, Illinois and at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, one of the world's premier centers for the research and treatment of pediatric cancer and other deadly diseases in children. Told in flashback from the perspective of Megan (Candace Cameron Bure), a successful businesswoman, wife and mother of two, the storyline unfolds when her commitment to faith and family is renewed after reading the blog of Julie Locke, (http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/daxlocke), the online journal that Julie kept after Dax was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML).

In The Heart of Christmas, Megan, who has been struggling with finding time for her husband Walt (Burgess Jenkins) and hasn't made it to one of her daughter Emma's (Brooke Bryan) soccer games all year, has forgotten that it is Halloween until her son Jackson (Christian Nelson, Hayden Nelson) is standing in front of her in costume, ready to go trick-or-treating. After bargaining with Emma to take her brother door to door in a nearby neighborhood for a few hours so she can finish a business proposal, they race out of the house, only to find hundreds of homes lit up for Christmas on Halloween. Confused by this scene, Megan asks neighbors Mark (Matthew West) and Trish (Erin Bethea), who have rallied the community to bring Christmas holiday cheer to the Locke family upon Dax's (Chris Shone, Nick Shone) final return home from St. Jude, to explain the scene before them. Trish hands Megan a card with Julie Locke's (Jeanne Neilson) blog information on it and encourages Megan to read it. Before Megan is able to react, Trish sends her away with a heartfelt warning, stating, "it will change your life."

Through Megan's narrative, we are introduced to Dax's father Austin (Eric Beck), who is deeply concerned about Dax's prognosis; the type of cancer has poor survival rates in children Dax's age. Austin is committed to being open to new forms of treatment and to staying hopeful for Dax, for his wife Julie, her sister Melissa (Kelsey Marie Kingsbury) and Dax's grandmother Theresa (Anita Renfroe). During their hospital stay at St. Jude, Julie Locke meets Michelle (Dendrie Taylor), whose daughter Elizabeth (Kaya Millar) is also being treated there. Michelle introduces Julie to a support system of other moms, who encourage Julie to blog about Dax's progress and her journey as a way to keep friends and family informed. Days after initial treatment begins, we meet the team of incredible doctors at St. Jude: Nurse Lisa (Sophia Sinise), Dr. Sandler (George Newbern) and Dr. Benson (Karl T. Wright), who is charged with telling Julie and Austin that, after months of treatment and a rollercoaster of emotional highs and lows, the experimental, last chance effort was unsuccessful in curing Dax's cancer. Determined to give Dax one last Christmas, Austin Locke surprises Julie and Dax with a Christmas tree- even though it's October. The neighbors quickly catch on and surprise the Locke's by showing up at their home to give Dax, his family and the community a magical night to remember.

(source: http://www.theheartofchristmasmovie.com/story.php)

I am a big fan of Candace Cameron Bure...she's such a cutie.  Plus her character & I share the same name...although it's spelled wrong for her character...always remember the "h"!
Not to mention any movie with children in it always catches my interest.

I have a 13 year old and this movie really hit home for my family.
We all watched it from the 41yo Bobster to the 6yo Cheeks and we totally loved it.

This is definitely a movie for the collection.
I fell is a movie for the collection so much so that I am able to giveaway one dvd of "The Heart of Christmas"

Say it isn't so Meghan? you say.

Oh it's so.

Now don't just sit there typing away, go enter!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Comments

ronchetto said…
decorating for christmas and them eating cookies and watching xmas movies.
~Cyndi~ said…
sounds like a very heartwarming movie I should and would love to watch. I too, am a sucker for true stories!
I LOVE the Christmas tree... I can't even wait for it to get dark out to have the lights on!

Lanaya
www.raising-reagan.com
debijackson said…
the tree lights and family
debbie jackson
djackson1958 at hotmail dot com
suelittle said…
I love EVERYTHING about CHRISTmas.. :)
Anonymous said…
The thing I like most about Christmas is having our adult children back home with their childen. Thank you.

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