Jack had put his foot down about Chet coming up to the apartment for Christmas, which meant that Shawn had talked him into going to the trailer for Christmas Eve. He wasn't normally a big Christmas guy, but he felt mildly cheated at spending the day watching Shawn's forced levity with an increasingly drunk Chet. Luckily, Chet passed out before getting belligerent, and Shawn carefully laid him out on the couch and put a blanket over him.

"How long is that going to last?" Jack asked.

"Usually he sleeps through the night. If he doesn't, we don't want to be here when he wakes up."

"Let's go back to the apartment, then."

When they got there, Cory was standing dejectedly by the door.

"What are you doing here?" Jack asked, mildly annoyed.

"Yeah, I thought Topanga was staying with you guys," Shawn added.

"She is, that's the problem." Cory went on to describe his latest relationship crisis, which Jack didn't quite understand, but which apparently had caused him to flee to the apartment for solace.

Jack was mildly irritated, but Shawn seemed horrified.

"You walked out on Topanga on Christmas Eve day? Cory, go back."

"No. I'm not gonna go back." Jack was privately of the opinion that Cory had the emotional maturity of a three-year-old, but had never discussed this with Shawn.

Shawn turned to Jack. "You know, Jack, he doesn't realize how lucky he is to have a girl like Topanga."

"Uh-huh."

There was a knock at the door and Jack answered it to find Topanga.

"Your boyfriend's here."

"I figured he would be."

"What exactly are you guys fighting about?"

"I'm not…sure exactly. Did he tell you?"

"Something about grapefruit." Jack led Topanga into the living room, where she apologized fulsomely to Cory for whatever it was and asked him to come back home with her. He decided instead to stay at Jack's apartment and watch A Christmas Carol on TV.

Jack decided to intervene before Shawn spent the rest of his Christmas tending Cory's bruised ego. "Do what you want, we're going skating."

They got their skates and walked over to UPenn's rink. They stayed out until the rink closed and then walked back to Jack's apartment.

There was a note from Cory on the dining room table, inviting them over for dinner. Jack was famished from skating so long, and there was no food in the house, so he agreed against his better judgement.

When they got to the Matthews', everyone else had finished dinner and gathered in the living room for George Feeny's reading of A Christmas Carol. Shawn and Jack each got a plate and sat on the floor for the reading. Somewhat drowsy from the food and having spent five hours skating, Jack got lost in the story until the final "Bah Humbug!" He looked around to realize that everyone except for him, Shawn, and Feeny had fallen asleep.

Shawn stood up and stretched. "Mmmmm…what time is it?"

"Just past midnight. You boys should think about staying here tonight; you look a little sleepy to be driving."

"You're probably right," Jack said, "I'll go get the spare blanket from the car."

"I'll walk with you," Feeny volunteered, "I'm going that way anyway."

When they got out to the driveway, Feeny turned to Jack. "Did Shawn have a good Christmas?"

"Yeah, we went ice skating."

"He's always loved ice skating."

"Yeah, it's really the only interest we have in common."

"Well, go every chance you get this year. The two of you have a lot of lost time to make up."

"I know."