This is my first and only John Grisham book. It's a cute, short novel about an empty nest couple who decides to "skip" Christmas trappings and go on a cruise instead. So far, I'm with them. Then they realize those trappings are not so easy to shed, and their neighbors and friends give them a lot of grief, much of which is funny. It wraps up neatly (no pun intended) with some clever plot twists. But I was rooting for them to get past all the meaningless rituals that they wasted so much energy and money on, and to find something of infinite greater value in celebrating Christ's birth, or at least just go on their damn cruise! Instead the message seemed to be "conform, conform"!