Original Commentary
I don't understand gift cards. I got them for people, but I still don't get why it's ok to give someone $25 that expires and that they can only spend at one place, but it's not ok to give them $25 cash. I think gift cards are the biggest advertising-perpetrated scam since diamonds. That said, I got gift cards for a bunch of people on my Christmas list because it's easier.

Also, when I originally wrote this, Brisbane and Kimberly's lines were all reversed. Then I re-read it and realized it had to be the other way - Terrence

Modern Commentary
Yeah, I mainly do giftcards for Christmas presents now. I think that checks would be better, except nobody wants to deal with the hassle of writing or cashing a check these days - Terrence

Original Commentary
Yes, Sinclair and Emily are still kind-of going out. And Lemon Technology is kind-of having a Christmas party. I get the feeling that Patrick threw it together at the last minute so he could get out of some other obligation - Terrence

Modern Commentary
Emily and Sinclair haven't shown up together in-comic since just after the wedding. I'm not sure if they're going out, but offscreen or if Sinclair is just showing up at her apartment seven months later as if nothing had happened. - Terrence

Original Commentary
Yep. Veronica and Sandra can tell them apart. Emily, Brisbane, and Kimberly can't. I think the rule is that if you weren't in Unlike Minerva, you can tell which brother is which - Terrence

edit: No, Brisbane can tell them apart. Heck, I wrote that comic. - Terrence

Modern Commentary
Can Emily tell them apart? I mean, on some level I'm sure she's noticed that there's the one that she likes and the one that likes her and they aren't the same...

Why is she here? Because she'd get bored at home and she likes parties - Terrence

Original Commentary
I added Kimberly's last line in panel three at the last minute... although I has thought of it a day or so ago... just didn't get the time to actually put it in the text file... at least I didn't forget it...

This comic is pretty much in response to this comic. Either Brisbane didn't understand what Kimberly was hinting at... or understood what she was hinting at but decided to play it safe. Either way, he still got black, stretchy underroos. -Isabel

Modern Commentary
Counterpoint: she could wear just the tie. - Terrence

Original Commentary
It's been a while since we've seen Brent and Brinna. Isabel wrote this comic last week. We had been keeping our presents in the closet. Two days before Christmas, though, after she had written this, one of our cats snuck in and tore open the bag of treats we had got for Isabel's sisters' dogs. So life imitates art. Or at least cats imitate brants. Or maybe the other way around - Terrence

Modern Commentary
I love the brant tree there with the lights strung up. If we did that to our cat furniture, they'd chew at the wires... - Terrence

Original Commentary

I had meant for their tree and Christmas decorations to have been more over the top... that's what I get for working without the script in front of me... Jane used to have a line about "garish ornaments" in panel one. But, well, they are actually rather subdued, so the line had to go. -Isabel

Modern Commentary
Yeah, he tries to be all "we'll have kids one day" and she just shuts it down. It was never going to work the way he wanted it to... - Terrence

Original Commentary

I had written this story arc over two days... or rather, I wrote the first six but was having a lot of problems with the seventh comic. It came into my mind to write a comic about what Miz Taylor did for Christmas, but thought it better to leave it a mystery- you never know when you need a larger amount of time for a character to be away... -Isabel

Modern Commentary
Brisbane talks to Ms. Taylor more than Kimberly does. He even gets invited to the company meetings now. I'm not sure why he thinks Kimberly would know - Terrence