Hey guys, Dennis here. Ready to give you the rundown on this week's episode of Brothers & Sisters.

The show opens at eldest Walker daughter Sarah's house. Sarah's husband Joe is puttering about unpacking Christmas decorations like it's his full time gig. Does Joe ever leave the house? Maybe he's vowed not to go out in public until that Ogilvie home perm of his relaxes a bit.

Anyway, the front door opens and Sarah enters with their two young children, Paige and Cooper. Paige looks pretty glum for some reason and Sarah just looks exasperated because all during the drive home her hyperactive son Cooper was belting out the chorus to “Noel, Noel.” That would be enough to drive any parent crazy. Brief aside here, but Sarah should take a lesson from my mother: whenever us kids started getting on her nerves, Momma just wondered aloud if we were “coming down with something” and double-dosed us with Nyquil. In our house, “time outs” usually involved a loss of consciousness.

But I digress. Sensitive Joe has his own playbook when it comes to handling annoying children. He just tells Cooper to go practice “Jingle Bells Batman Smells” up in his room, which seems to do the trick. That leaves daughter Paige to drop her school stuff on the kitchen table. Joe then blithely violates her right of privacy by digging through her open book bag. He pulls out a crudely made ornament, which Paige explains is something she made in art class. It has a Star of David on it, or possibly a Wiccan pentacle. Either way, it makes for an odd Christmas ornament, doesn't it?

Paige: Hey Mom, some kid at school told me that if your mother's Jewish, you're Jewish. Is that true?
Sarah: Yes, it is true.
Paige: So why aren't we Jewish? Grandma's Jewish which means you're Jewish, so I'm Jewish. So why don't we celebrate Chanukah?

Out of the mouths of babes. I've been wondering about this whole Walker family religion question for awhile now.

Sarah explains it's because Grandma Nora is a Jew for Jesus. Okay, that's not exactly how she puts it, but she clearly lays the blame for the family's confused religious heritage on grandma.

We cut to later at the Walker Mansion. Paige, with Sarah in tow, has gone to the source to ask Nora (Sally Field) what's up with the lapsed Judaism.

Nora : Well, your grandfather loved Christmas and he wasn't Jewish so that's just what we did.
Paige: So you just stopped being Jewish.
Nora: Yes. Uh, no.

That little Paige is asking some tough questions. It's not too late to slip the little upstart some cough syrup, guys.

Nora: You can ethnically be Jewish but at the same time, Santa's just so much fun!

Oh, sure. Have your fling with that Shiksa, Kris Kringle. But oy yey, Nora! When it comes time to settle down and start a family holiday tradition, the Yenta in me says you're supposed to go with Chanukah Harry.

Paige: But Chanukah has a menorah and candles and eight days of presents.
Sarah: Is that why you want to be Jewish? Because the loot's better?
Paige: I don't want to be Jewish. I thought we were Jewish.
Nora: We're secular humanists honey!
Paige: Secu what?

Paige isn't the only one scratching their heads over that one. I mean, it sort of makes sense in the real world, but not so much for a television character. I'm amazed that Nora describes herself and her family that way and wondering if ABC is going to get some complaints over it.

Okay, we're off to corporate offices of Ojai Foods. Tommy and Sarah join Uncle Saul in his office and he looks to be in a foul mood. The Nevada property that they thought would solve all their financial troubles has one serious string attached. Apparently, Bill Walker's mistress, Holly, owns a 1/3 interest in the property. If they want to sell it to the army at the inflated price of 30 million, (Yay war profiteering!!) then they need to get Holly to agree to sell them her share. Tommy doesn't see where they can possibly come up with 10 million to buy out Holly. Sarah has a devious solution.

Sarah: On paper the property is only valued at 1.2 million. Let's buy her out for a third of that, before we sell to the Army.
Tommy: You mean screw Holly.
Sarah: It worked for Dad.

Oh Sarah, you can be heartless. Cheat Holly out of ten million dollars? One wonders if Uncle Saul is going to sign off on this.

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