Jamaica is great.  Michael loves being able to sit on the beach in his swimming trunks and watch the sun go down while drinking a glass of wine, and here it is Christmas Eve.  And the company, the company couldn’t be better.  He looks over at her, the breeze softly blowing her hair in front of her face, and God, he’s never seen her look so beautiful.  But something flips in the pit of his stomach, and he can’t for the life of him figure out what it is.

Back in the hotel, she’s in the bathroom and he’s pondering briefly if maybe, maybe she’ll put out tonight.  After all, it’s almost Christmas and she seems to be having a good time.  Last night she laughed at fourteen out of twenty of his jokes.  He thinks that’s a record.

The phone rings, and when he answers it his stomach flips again and he suddenly realizes why he’s been feeling so guilty.

“How’s the resort, Mikey?”

He pauses.  Sighs sadly.  “It’s…great, Mom.”

Stanley stays up late with his wife wrapping presents.  It’s one-thirty in the morning, and the last thing he wants to be doing is wrapping a black 60GB video iPod for Melissa.  She’s been asking for a new one ever since her last one accidentally went through the wash.  She had screamed at Terri for an hour that night, insisting a real mother would have checked the pockets before putting jeans in the washing machine. 

Terri had cried for hours in bed that night.

Stanley tosses the package haphazardly under the tree, and reaches for the digital camera he bought for his oldest daughter.

He grunts angrily.  The things he does for his children.

Dwight stands solemnly next to Angela in the sanctuary, candlelight dancing on the walls.  His eyes dart anxiously around the room.  There are approximately a hundred people at the service, each with their own candle.  He scoffs irritably.  Even the small children have their own candles.  The building is made completely of pine.  Apparently the pastor, in all his wisdom, didn’t even think about what a fire hazard this whole thing is.

His ex-wife drops Sasha off in the morning with specific instructions that she needs to be ready to go at exactly 6:00 that night, no later.  They’re driving out to Maryland to see his former in-laws and she doesn’t want to be late.  He sighs and stands with Sasha on the doorstep as his ex-wife climbs into the car with her new husband, Colin.  Toby waves with Sasha until Colin beeps the horn like a jackass, and he ushers her inside.

He hates that guy.

They spend the rest of the morning decorating the tree.  It’s rather lopsided and he tries everything to get it to stand up straight.  It looks rather pathetic, actually.  He doesn’t have very many ornaments.  His ex-wife took most of them.  They finish in less than thirty minutes.

She opens her presents in the afternoon.

“Who’s that one from, Sasha?” he asks her with a smile.

“From…Santa,” she says slowly.  His smile widens. 

“But Daddy, this isn’t really from Santa, right?” she asks, “He doesn’t even come until tonight.”

His smile disappears.  His ex-wife took everything from him.

Bob Vance’s mother is extremely old, hard of hearing, and hates Phyllis.  Phyllis brought her a plate of homemade cookies to which Mrs. Vance responded by tasting one of them, spitting it out and declaring, “Ick.  Why did you make them so bitter?”

Phyllis tries to help her with the cooking in the kitchen, but Mrs. Vance quickly shoos her out of there.  “You can’t even bake cookies.  Go sit with Bobby in the living room.  Do you think you could handle wrapping some presents for the children?”  Phyllis nods quietly, and quickly leaves the room. 

She excuses herself to the bathroom where she cries for fifteen minutes.

Ryan spends Christmas Eve with Kelly and her family.  He figures it has to be better than just sitting at home and doing nothing.  He can’t go to his parent’s.  He hasn’t spoken to his dad for almost two years now.

“But Ryan, it’s Christmas,” his mother insisted.  “Your father is sorry, just come on home and everything will be just fine.”

“If he’s so sorry, put him on the line.”

His mother hesitated, so he hung up the phone.

Kelly’s parents don’t mind having Ryan over, but they do insist he sleep in the spare room.  It’s just past midnight though, when he hears the door open.

“Merry Christmas, Ryan,” Kelly whispers.  She closes the door and locks it with a click.  He makes room for her and she climbs into bed with him, kissing him briefly before rolling on top of him.

His fingers find the bottom of her shirt, and her kisses become more urgent.

She stops briefly and pulls the shirt over her head.  “We have to be quiet,” she whispers.

First of all, Jim doesn’t call Pam.  Even though he kind of wants to—no, really wants to.  He doesn’t do it.  He sits on his couch with Karen, watching A Christmas Story, and he loves that she knows all the lines too.

It’s not snowing outside, but he pulls her close to him and kisses her lightly.

And he doesn’t call Pam.

His mother greets him at the door with a plate of cookies.  She ushers him inside and takes his coat, cooing nosily over him. 

Andy sits down in his favorite chair in front of the television.  He props his feet up and his mother asks what he would like for dinner.

 She goes into the kitchen and calls over her shoulder, “No girlfriend this year, Andrew?”

He sighs and flips the channel.  “No, Mother, it’s just me.”

Meredith’s ex-husband (the second one) has Jake for Christmas this year.  She dropped him off at the airport yesterday and he won’t be back until the New Year.  She sits at the kitchen table and flips through a magazine while sipping a small (small) glass of wine.  She looks up and relishes the sound of nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing.

But later when the house is completely dark, she tiptoes into Jake’s room, climbs into his bed, and cries silently until she falls asleep.

Creed collapses tiredly on his couch.  His stomach is full to the breaking point, and as he turns on the television his eyes start to flutter shut.

The shelter always brings out the best food around the holidays.

Stacy wants to get married within the next few months.  Kevin listens to her as he watches the football game from this afternoon that he had to TiVo because Abby was watching some Christmas cartoon on Nickelodeon.

She says she might want an April wedding, or maybe a June one.  His team is winning.

“Kevin, are you listening?”

“I like April.”  She smiles.  His team scores.

Touchdown!

Pam decides to drive out to her parent’s house tomorrow morning.  For as long as she can remember, Christmas Eve has always been spent with Roy’s family. 

This year, there’s no Roy, so she spends it by herself.

She watches It’s a Wonderful Life and has to blink several times in order to keep her eyes clear.

She loses it when she hears, what do you want? You want the moon? Just say the word and I'll throw a lasso around it and pull it down.

She thinks Jim would say something like that.  She knows he would. 

Her phone rings, and she wipes the tears off her cheek.