My sis (recently twelve) is listening through the whole series, and for whatever reason, she played them out loud today (she’d mostly been using earphones). She’s up to “Peace on Earth,” and it gave me some thoughts:

 - The reason Whit’s acting strange now is because he doesn’t have Tom to keep him straight. Tom was just about the only one who could call him out when he was getting off track, along with Bernard (and maybe Jack).

 - I really love how Whit basically takes Eugene into his own family for Christmas—and remember, he was just introduced three episodes ago! And yet Whit just insists that Eugene have Christmas with him, and not be alone. It’s so cool.

 - Donna is three years older than Jimmy. So Jimmy is probably 9 years old, since in the previous summer, Donna said she was twelve.

 - The Barclay plot is basically “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” meets “It’s a Wonderful Life”.

 - I just think it’s nice that they brought Lightning in again.

 - They managed to sneak Harley back in for a cameo, but only because they didn’t say his name. George just says “you”.