Merry Halliday is staring down the barrel of her sixtieth birthday on December twenty-sixth, a daunting milestone for a widow of three years. Merry has always loved Christmas, and every year lovingly bakes her grandmother's special sugar cookies for friends and family. But then she learns that the school where she teaches has insurmountable financial problems, and if that's not bad enough, Merry finds out her adult daughter Robin is off to Hawaii with fiancé Elijah. It's looking like a lonely Christmas and birthday, and worse yet, her career is now in jeopardy. Faced with spending Christmas alone with her cat Spookie, Merry accepts an out-of-the-blue invitation to spend Christmas with a handsome man and his friends at a Bed and Breakfast in Indianapolis. With her birthday just two days away, Merry wonders what other surprises are in store. She's about to find out!