If I Never Told You

Three days before Christmas, Penny Bassett has exciting news for her husband, Wooton: her long-lost Aunt Beatrice from Alaska has phoned out of the blue, hoping to reconnect, and Penny has invited her to join the family Christmas at a rented cabin on Trickle Lake. Penny's parents, Frank and Eleanor Wise, are flying in the same day, and Penny decides to keep Beatrice's visit a secret so her mom will be surprised to see her big sister. She is sure it will be the best Christmas ever.

At the airport, Wooton spots a familiar face by the arrivals gate: Trisha DeVue, the most famous stage actress in Bull Moose, Alaska. To everyone's astonishment, the glamorous actress walks right up and greets Penny, because Trisha DeVue is Aunt Beatrice. "And please, call me Trissie," she tells them. Eleanor's reaction to the surprise is icy, and it only gets colder at the cabin, where Penny overhears her parents whispering about renting a separate place to stay. Eleanor flatly refuses to spend Christmas under the same roof as her sister.

The tension keeps bubbling up. While the women string popcorn and jelly beans for the tree, Eleanor needles Trissy with sharp remarks, and she is openly doubtful when Trissy explains that she has become a Christian and even teaches a sixth-grade Sunday school class. Later, at a skating party on the lake, Eleanor sits alone on a bench and lets slip that she and Frank are planning to move to a hotel. Penny presses her mother to explain what is wrong, but before Eleanor can answer, Trissy sweeps in having booked a sleigh ride, since she knows the right people. A snowstorm has closed the roads, so no one can leave anyway. Eleanor stays behind while the others head for the lodge, but on the slippery path Penny falls, Trissy tumbles over her, and Wooton lands on top in what Frank calls a typical three-car pileup. Penny is carried back with a hurt ankle, and the sisters immediately start squabbling over who cares about her more. Penny finally cries out for them to stop, telling them all she wanted was a family Christmas with hot chocolate, sledding, and jelly beans, and instead everyone is arguing about goldfish.

In the kitchen, Penny blames herself for inviting Trissy without warning her mom, but Wooton gently reminds her that whatever is wrong between the sisters started long before this trip. Penny decides they have to get her mom and aunt to talk things out, so she and Wooton stage a Christmas slumber party by the tree, complete with sleeping bags, cookies, and a game called I Remember, where everyone shares a favorite Christmas memory. Wooton goes first with a cheerful story about delivering cookies to strangers and accidentally making friends at the police station. But when Trissy tells about her grand theater debut and mentions tickets that must have gotten lost in the mail, Eleanor fires back with her own memory: the Christmas she turned fifteen, waiting all week at the post office for letters her sister promised to write and never did. The old wounds tear open. Trissy accuses Eleanor of returning the letters she sent to Penny; Eleanor accuses Trissy of skipping her wedding and, worst of all, abandoning her to care for their dying mother alone and missing the funeral. Trissy finally reveals the truth behind it all: "I left because I didn't belong in my own family, Eleanor." Their father, she says, even called to tell her not to spoil the funeral by showing up. Overcome, she rushes out of the cabin into the snow without her coat.

Wooton and Frank hurry after her and find her trudging in entirely the wrong direction. Back inside, Eleanor scolds her sister for running off, then admits something Trissy never knew: she has worried about her every single day since she left, because a person can be mad and still worry at the same time. Trissy offers to fly home in the morning, but Penny begs her to stay, and Wooton adds that God brought her here to help make things right. When Trissy says she isn't brave enough, Penny insists she is; after all, she came all this way. At last Eleanor says the word her sister has been waiting decades to hear: stay. The two finally sit down to talk honestly. Trissy tells Eleanor that growing up, she was her best friend, and apologizes for leaving when she was needed most. Eleanor, fighting tears, forgives her, joking that it's Frank her sister will have to win over, and Frank declares he'll take the razzing if it means Christmas together.

With the air cleared, the slumber party carries on happily. Frank tells about a long-ago Christmas at his Aunt Mildred's, and Trissy shares a memory of young Eleanor's crush on a boy at a Christmas party, a romance ruined when he stole her slice of cheesecake. The boy, it turns out, was Frank, who insists he made up for it with a whole week of cheesecakes. Penny marvels that she has never heard these stories and wonders what else her parents haven't told her. Her dad just grins and asks, "Well, did you know your mom can juggle?"