Plot summary

Just before he and Madelyn McKay, his BFF since college freshman year, are to head off to Milwaukee to spend Christmas with his long widowed mother Kate Spencer and his army soldier brother Aiden Spencer, hard working and talented Manhattan lawyer Hugo Spencer, facing his regular year end review, issues an ultimatum to his boss, George Vogel, for a position as partner in the new year, he looking for a job elsewhere otherwise, such forthrightness about himself unusual for Hugo. Vogel admits that the thought of Hugo being partner at this time had not yet passed his or the other partners’ minds, something that they will have to ponder over the Christmas break. In Milwaukee, Hugo finds that his mother, as is her usual nature, has assigned them all 24/7 tasks, this time associated with her role of the Carroll Avenue Neighborhood Association President in organizing the annual Christmas Eve Festival at the historic Carroll Avenue Train Station, this the last year in this role for her not …