Well, everyone, this weekend I spent a few days in Edison, NJ meeting various Hallstars and let me tell you, it was a blast! It was Christmas Con NJ held by That’s 4 Entertainment. I also attended the convention in 2019, where I met the lovely Nikki DeLoach, and Ashley Williams agreed to be my very first interviewee for this site.
This year’s convention had some significant improvements, the biggest of which was the fact that by renting the entire convention center, there was much more space to move around, and it enabled the autograph/selfie lines to be better organized.
This year I took my mom with me, and we spent the time and money to meet and greet many of the celebrity guests. First up was Brennan Elliott. Because we were there pretty early on Friday, the lines were still relatively short. We were able to walk right up and immediately meet Brennan. He is so handsome in person, and while I was talking to him I got a bit flustered, and as I told him that his movie was my all-time number one, I FORGOT THE NAME OF THE MOVIE! It competely left my brain.
“I’m so embarrassed,” I said. “The name of the movie completely just left my head.” I paused a moment as he looked at me, and I finally said, “You know, the one with you and Lacey Chabert and the house.”
He nodded. “‘All Of My Heart,'” he responded.
“YES!” I said, relieved. “I can’t believe I forgot the title!” He mentioned that there’s talk of possibly doing a fourth one (WOO HOO!!!) before taking a picture with my mom, who is a huge fan of his as well.
My brain kicked in at that point, and going forward I did not embarrass myself in front of any other Hallstars. *lol*
We met Jill Wagner, who was so nice (which was no surprise). I mentioned that I had interviewed Polaha and Nikki DeLoach for this website, along with a few others, and she said, “I have one question – why haven’t you interviewed me yet?” I said, “That’s what I was about to ask you!”
She immediately wrote down her manager’s address and urged me to contact him to schedule something. So, you can look forward to that interview showing up here on HFAS in the future! After I got her autograph, my mom took a photo with her.
I also took a moment to stand in line to get Ashley William’s autograph and to THANK HER for the opportunity a couple years ago. She was just as sweet and funny as she was in 2019, and I really do chalk up this site’s success to that initial interview!
And although the line was long, I stood with great patience in order to meet Tyler Hynes, who is probably my 2nd favorite male Hallstar behind Kristoffer Polaha (who will ALWAYS be my number 1 guy). One thing I noticed is that he is soft-spoken, but so incredibly charming and able to make you feel like you are the only one he wants to talk to in that moment. That’s a rare talent, and he has it in spades.
He was also a lot of fun – he was game for just about anything that people threw at him and in seeing some of the professional photo ops people were posting, he was having a great time this weekend.
A few people ahead of me in line gave him little mementos. When it was my turn, he was just putting away some the previous attendee had given him. “Getting a lot of gifts, Tyler?” I asked.
“People today are being so generous – it’s so nice!” he said, in a surprisingly quiet voice.
We spoke for a few minutes about his hilarious conversations with the guys from Deck the Hallmark Podcast, and it was a treat to see a short video pop up in Tyler’s Insta feed later in the weekend where he finally met the DTH men in person after all this time. Tyler captioned the video, “When 4 become 1.” So great.
My one regret is that I forgot to ask him for an interview! He was just so handsome that I became flustered and all logical thought left my head. Yes, he’s THAT good looking.
I was also able to meet Andrew Walker. We chatted about the need to get his Little West juice company to make a cotton candy grape juice (he said that it would require a LOT of grapes to make that juice, which is why they haven’t done it).
I asked him if he was tired yet from having to talk to so many people, and he said, “No! I’m getting so energized talking and meeting everyone! It’s been great!” At that moment I realized I was clearly talking to an extrovert, because an introvert like me would be EXHAUSTED having to talk to so many people over the course of one weekend!
My mom and I also had the absolute pleasure to talk to Brooke D’Orsay, who was adorable and GORGEOUS in person. I mean, she’s very pretty on camera, but she is so incredibly beautiful in person! She had a very sweet presence about her and happily gave me an autograph. My mother then mentioned that I had an interest in interviewing her for my site. She put her hands up to her face and admitted, “I know this is dumb to say since I’m an actress, but I’m actually very shy and get really nervous thinking about doing interviews. But I know I need to do them!”
I told her a little bit about how I do my interviews, and that Polaha would vouch for me (he was in the booth next to her and it was all I could do not to lean over and holler over to him that he needed to provide bona fides for Brooke). But in the end, I was able to assure that she didn’t need to worry about me, and she agreed to an interview!! I’m so excited because her movie from this past weekend, “A Dickens of a Holiday!” was OUTSTANDING (review for that is coming tomorrow).
I was also able to talk to Nikki DeLoach again. She was just as sweet and friendly as she was in 2019. At the time of my interview with her, we spoke briefly about her father (who sadly passed away a few months ago) and advocacy for the Alzheimer’s Association, and I mentioned acting as a companion to my sister’s mother-in-law on a trip to Israel a few years ago because of her own memory issues. After the interview I sent Nikki a picture of my sis’s MIL achieving her bucket list item (visiting Petra) – and this weekend Nikki mentioned she put the picture up on her bulletin board! I was very touched by that.
But the pièce de résistance, ladies and gents, was that after SEVERAL years of communication with the one and only Kristoffer Polaha, on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, by telephone and Zoom meetings, we were FINALLY face to face in the same room, and within a couple feet of each other. We both grinned at each other as he came around his booth’s table with his arms wide open to give me a great big hug. I truly felt as though I was seeing a long-lost friend versus meeting an actor I admire and respect.
And y’all, he is just as friendly and engaging and handsome and funny (and tall!) as he appears to be when you see him on tv. We chatted for several minutes, and when I introduced him to my mom, he had the nicest things to say about me and how supportive I’ve been of his career.
He then signed an autograph for the two of us, and we took selfies together. Only a short time later we had our professional photo op taken with him. Since we were the last ones in line for the photo op at that moment, we chatted a couple more minutes with him, and then my mom was able to go speak with Kris’s wife, Julianne Polaha, who was hanging out on the other side of the booth. My mom watched “Days of Our Lives” for decades and enjoyed the added bonus of meeting her.
A couple hours later, my mom and I were sitting down to take a break from all the standing in lines, and when I went into my phone to look at the selfies, I couldn’t find them. I was so sad to think they my phone camera failed (it has been acting up recently and not saving photos I’ve taken). A quick search of my phone allowed me to find where my phone had hidden the pictures, and let’s just say: THOSE PHOTOS WILL NEVER SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY. He was incredibly handsome and photogenic (of course), but I looked like Jabba the Hutt on a good day.
The next day I got right back in line at his booth and when I got to the front I said, “Polaha, I think you are an amazing actor, but you are a crap photographer. We need to redo our photos!” This time I had my mom take the photos and through trial and error, (“No! MY EYES ARE CLOSED! Jane, we have to take more.”) we finally got an acceptable photo together. Then my mom told me to pivot away from him for another picture, and I said, “I am NOT doing a prom pose with Polaha!” He said, “Just turn a little.” I protested again, at which point he said, “Well, if we’re going to do a prom pose, you should face me and put your hand on my chest.” I IMMEDIATELY turned and leaned into Polaha for the hand-on-chest prom pose. *lol*
My mom and I had weekend passes that would have allowed us to go back on Sunday, but when we arrived at the convention center the parking was all gone because of our late arrival. We really only wanted to see the Polaha panel before hitting the road for home but figured it would take us an hour to find parking, get inside, and wait in line for the panel, and then 45 minutes later we’d be schlepping back to the car for a long drive. We sat in the idling car for a couple minutes going over pros and cons, and in the end opted to just begin the drive to my mother’s house in Virginia instead.
But we had no regrets at all, because it was an amazing weekend that we’ll never forget thanks to lots of photos and fun experiences. I’ll be heading to California in 2022 to attend the west coast Christmas Con. My hope is to meet Paul Greene and Paul Campbell during that trip (they both had to cancel their NoNJ appearances – Paul C due to scheduling conflict, and Paul G because his soon-to-be-wife, Kate Austin, had their baby this weekend!). If you have a chance to get tickets to the California convention, I highly recommend it! And I’ll see you there!
