Christmas in Angel Falls

Gabby, a guardian angel, often gets too involved in her work in that she is not supposed intervene in people's lives directly, which she does, but rather just guide, she warned time and again by her boss, Michael, that those direct interventions inhibit the free will for them to decide their own fates. Deep down, Gabby gets involved in truly wanting to know the human feeling of extreme happiness she often sees in the people she guides, especially wanting to know the human feeling of love. Michael gives her a slightly broader and very special next assignment this Christmas season: to help bring the Christmas spirit back to the town of Angels Falls, which may exhibit the outward accoutrements of Christmas but not have the inherent spirit of the holiday. Michael has a leg up on getting Gabby the position of volunteer coordinator at St. Andrew's United Church in town. On the job, Gabby learns that the town used to be filled with Christmas spirit until the town's paper mill closed leading to a downturn in the local economy and people focusing on their own needs to survive, meaning that people have also stopped volunteering. Ultimately Gabby decides to do for the entire town what she was hired to do for the church, which is to bring back the old Christmas traditions that no longer occur, with the largest piece of the puzzle to reopen what is now the closed community center, which closed solely due to structural issues with the building and no money to fix them. In getting that and other Christmas jobs done, Gabby has to tap into the many personal stories of Angel Falls in discovering how each person lost his or her Christmas spirit. The one person who still does seem to be filled with that spirit is Jack Avery, the volunteer fire department chief, and the owner/operator of the local hardware store. Gabby, however, discovers something about Jack's past which may taint the way she deals with him on this project. Through it all, she still has to discover why this assignment is so special as Michael coined it, which may affect her post assignment life in not wanting to leave Angel Falls and understanding that the feeling she has been having is love for Jack in particular.