'Chasing Life' Christmas special recap: Santa visits in May 

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\'Chasing Life\' Christmas special recap: Santa visits in May

Season 1 | Episode 11 | “Locks of Love” | Aired Dec 9, 2014

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brought us Christmas in May. How did the show end up celebrating the holidays on such a random month? Well, it all started when April’s paternal grandparents came to town to visit her. Grandma Emma isn’t thrilled about the visit, since it seems to always be a battle between Grandma Emma and Grandma Lynn. The Carver grandparents come in and disrupt all the peace. Well, really, they just blew the top off an already boiling pot.

The chemo is taking its toll on April’s body. She notices the first chunk of hair left behind on her pillow when the Carver grannies come to spend time with her. They guilt her into playing games and try to keep her at their speed. They don’t cut her any slack, and April isn’t feeling the pressure. On one of their visits, she even fakes being asleep to dodge them.

Back at home, though, it’s not so easy for the rest of the family to escape their wrath. They put pressure on their son—Uncle George—to find a wife already, even suggesting online dating or polyamory. Awkward, considering his life-long love, Sara, is right there. George gets fed up with their constant criticism of how he’s lived his life and airs his late brother’s dirty laundry. The real surprise is that they already knew about their other granddaughter, Natalie. This sets Sara on fire. Brenna has an explosion on them too, after days of hearing Grandma Lynn question her on her boyfriend status. “I’m bi!” she reveals. They aren’t opposed to her sexuality; they’re just mad that they’re once again the last to know. Luckily, they aren’t the last in on a surprise they’ve all planned for April.

April spends most of the episode trying out new hairstyles. She knows she needs to address the fact that she’s balding, but Beth isn’t going to let her have at it alone. Instead, why not give every ‘do a shot in the process of trimming away to baldness? Ultimately, it’s Leo she allows to shave her head, and she shaves his too. That voicemail that we were all left wondering about was, in fact, Leo saying he’s going for the brain surgery. Unfortunately, he couldn’t be as dramatic as he’d wanted by leaving a voicemail and immediately going into surgery. These kind of things take days to prep for, so in the meantime, we get a little more Leo-and-April action. But after the bonding over shaving each others heads, it’s time to say goodbye for real. Leo’s surgery is just minutes away. The two share a hug that we all wish would have been a kiss, but we’ll be patient.

When April returns to her hospital room, she opens the door to stumble upon a Christmas miracle. It’s Christmas in May, just for April! Knowing that it’s her favorite holiday, Brenna came up with the idea of celebrating Christmas since the entire gang was together. Sure, there were a few stumbling blocks along the planning process, like family tiffs, lack of Christmas-themed decorations available in May, and Sara catching a cold that prevents her from visiting April for a week … but they still managed to pull together this awesome and thoughtful surprise. Sara—being the dedicated mother she is—wasn’t going to miss out on this, so she stood outside of April’s hospital room window with a Charlie Brown-size Christmas tree.

Everything comes together for the family, but the April, Leo, and Dom love triangle still isn’t settled. Guess we can’t get everything we want under the Christmas tree!

, rated TV-14, returns Monday, Jan. 19, at 9/8C on ABC Family.

While many of her fellow twenty-somethings see the weekend as freedom to party, Katerina eagerly anticipates her favorite kind of bingeing: TV. The pop culture and television junkie is often trying to clear space on her DVR while live-tweeting her favorite shows. On her spare time, she runs her blog, queLatinablog, where she sprinkles Spanglish whenever she can. You can read more of her sassy writing there! She loves the occasional selfie and tweeting, so follow her and chat!

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