“The thing about memories is: they’re not always what happened. They’re what we remember; what we hang on to. I don't just take pictures. I preserve memories.” ALEX WENDELL, 30s, is a photographer interviewing for a position at a new magazine. JACK, 30s, an old friend from college is the newest partner at the magazine. Jack asks about her upcoming plans for Christmas. Alex is going home to Alaska. For a workaholic like her, it’s going to be her Christmas with family in five years. And the breezy Californian December quickly becomes the dark, stiff cold of Fairbanks, Alaska...

At her parents house, we find Alex’s dad, WAYNE, 60, a sterling mix of the Brawny Paper Towel Guy and Luke from Gilmore Girls - behind the stove, trying to fix it. He is an Electrician. His wife CAROL, 58, Jennifer-Beals-kind-of-luminous, can’t be without a stove on Christmas. STEPHEN, their adopted son, 25, Athabaskan (a tribe of Native Alaska) pops his head in the kitchen, looking for a snack. Alex arrives. The banter is warm, loving. Until Stephen’s biological dad, CHARLIE, 60’s, shows up, drunk.

Charlie is out in front of the house, yelling to get inside and see his son “because it’s Christmas.” It becomes clear that the Wendell family adopted Stephen to start him on a better path. Wayne handles him with ease.

Hours later, Alex volunteers to stay up and take the pies out of the oven. Everyone but Alex goes to bed. So Alex pours a glass of wine to relax. But Alex falls asleep.

She is awoken in a hurry. There’s a fire. Wayne gets everyone out of the house. The kitchen is destroyed and The Fire Chief (basically Megan Rapinoe) explains to Carol and Alex that whoever fixed the stove caused the problem. Wayne blames Alex for falling asleep, having been drinking. Alex starts to explain what the Fire Chief said but is hushed by Carol, who explains privately that Wayne has been having memory trouble of late - but nothing this bad. Wayne has had to call in some buddies on Christmas Eve to help patch up the kitchen. Jack calls Alex on Christmas to confirm she’s got the job at the magazine. She asks if he’s with family. He looks at a picture of his parents on the mantel and replies “I’m always with family.”

Christmas at the Wendell’s is had amidst chaotic construction on the new kitchen...

Over the course of the next year, we learn that Wayne has been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s Disease. Though Alex wants to stay and work, Jack convinces her to return to Alaska for another Christmas because of the importance of family. We learn that Jack lost both his parents in a car accident a few years before. They hug. It lingers.

That Christmas, Wayne seems fine. Alex privately addresses the elephant in the room - how sorry she is for what happened last year. “We never really talked about it,” she finally admits to her dad. She admits that there seems to be distance between them. Wayne looks up at her, having no idea what she’s talking about.

Charlie shows up again. The altercation turns violent as he knocks Stephen down. Wayne jumps in and separates them and decides to drive Charlie home. During the drive, Wayne talks to Charlie about how to clean up as act and live a better life. On the way back from Charlie’s house, Wayne gets lost and, due to the cold, his truck stalls. Alex and her family go on a search her dad that leads them to the hospital, where he was taken after someone found him walking down the road in below freezing temperatures.

Alex and her family arrive to find Wayne leading the entire ER in Christmas carols. When asked if he knows who his new guests are, Wayne says he doesn’t, then claims to be joking. Alex, relieved her dad is okay, calls Jack for comfort. These two seem more drawn to each other than ever.

The next day, Alex takes Stephen to check out a local nursing home, which Stephen protests, citing that “it’s too early for something like this.” But Alex is insistent on assuring dad’s future care before she leaves. Stephen counters, “So you’re just gonna write a check and then get on a plane.” But Alex knows that her family cannot afford her dad’s care unless she leaves town.

As the next year passes, Alex is on assignment a lot, as her dad’s condition worsens. During this time, her feelings for Jack have grown and she decides she wants to take him up to Alaska so he can meet her dad.

But when they arrive, Wayne has no idea who Alex is. She is overcome and has to leave the room. Jack finds her and explains that whether or not he knows she’s there, it’s important that she is there. He relays the story of how his parents died in the crash. And though he was told his father was braindead, he stayed. And just before his father passed, he looked up at Jack, squeezed his hand and smiled. It was more than worth it. Alex returns to her father and puts on the familiar Christmas music they all used to dance to. The music jogs her father’s memory and he is ecstatic to see her! A montage of pictures over the next few years as Alex tells/shows us: Wayne, in a wheelchair escorts Alex down the aisle... Alex and Jack at the nursing home with Wayne, in a wheelchair - holding his grandson: a newborn boy from Nigeria. We see Charlie, sober, happy, help with Wayne.

And as Alex narrates, camera in hand: “The thing about memories is: they’re not always what happened. They’re what we remember. I don't just take pictures. I preserve memories."