12 Men of Christmas

E.J. Baxter has what she considers the trifecta of New York perfection: the perfect job as a PR executive with Lillah Sherwood's firm where she is the miracle maker; the perfect apartment; and the perfect man in her fiancé and coworker, Noah. E.J.'s life comes crashing down just before Christmas when she is fired from her job, and finds out that Noah is cheating on her, which not only leads to her calling off their engagement but changing what were to be their romantic holiday plans. After a few months of not being able to find a job with a reputable rival PR firm because of no one willing to cross Lillah, E.J. is forced to accept one of the two less than perfect jobs offered to her. The job that she accepts from Mayor Bob Baker is to work in Kalispell, Montana - population 19,000 and located hours from a large city - on a one year contract for its tourist board to encourage corporate retreats to the town. E.J. is a fish out of water in Kalispell, but finds that there are some benefits to the antithesis to New York, most specifically that everyone is so friendly in a small town. Among the townsfolk, she makes a special connection with fly fishing guide, Jason Farrar. The one person who she has a less than positive view of is local sporting goods store owner Will Albrecht, who most of the women of the area consider the biggest catch in Kalispell. E.J.'s view of Will drops even further when she hears through the grapevine that he left his former fiancée at the altar. Conversely, Will considers E.J. to be pushy and arrogant. An incident a few months into her tenure leads to E.J. believing that the biggest thing she can accomplish in her job is to organize a fundraiser to earn money for the volunteer Search & Rescue to purchase a helicopter for their work. Her fundraising plan: a beefcake calendar featuring the men of the Search & Rescue in tasteful partially nude poses. She figures that the calendar not only highlights the important work of Search & Rescue for anyone coming to Kalispell, but works toward her end goals of engaging potential corporate clients and promoting herself so that she can find a better job back in New York to get out of Kalispell. Jason and Will are two of the thirteen men of the volunteer team, Jason the biggest booster and Will the biggest opponent to the calendar. E.J. figures that without Will, she has to convince the other twelve to pose to make the calendar at least a possible reality. E.J. goes through some trials and tribulations with the calendar over the course of her contract, at its end which she may come to some new realizations of what she would like to happen in her life to have a Merry Christmas. —Huggo