Woof Woof Woof, Woof Woof Woof, Woof Woof WOOF WOOF Woof (First Impressions - "White Christmas" - Season 7, Episode 9)

In case you are wondering what in the world that title is - it's my rather crude interpretation of the opening line to "Jingle Bells", as sung by The Singing Dogs.

So why would I do this? Because, sadly, based off the press release for this year's Modern Family Christmas episode, it looks like it might be a bit of a dog (they're going off to the mountains to celebrate, and this show's history with travel episodes is spotty at best). Or a howler.

“You And I, And Something More(?)” (“Phil's Sexy, Sexy House” Recap)

OK, I already knew there was more coming between them from reading the press release for the upcoming episode which I saw earlier today, but, I still have to say it....

"In The Sweet Spot" (First Impressions - "Clean Out Your Junk Drawer" - Season 7, Episode 8)

SpoilerTV has a two-for-one special today: links to both the press release and promotional photos for the next episode (in two weeks) on the same Web page.  The press release is a little bit interesting, the photos, meh.

“Here's The Key To Unlock The Door”

After seeing all of the sneak peeks (5!) posted for this week's “Phil's Sexy, Sexy House” with not one sign of Alex in any of them, I was beginning to wonder if this wasn't going to be Alex-less episode number 2 after all (despite what I though originally about the whole family being together likely precluding that – there is precedent [“The Incident”, “Closet? You'll Love It!”] for a family gathering to not include Alex).

However, not to worry – I found a video of the promo commercial and she is in that. But does that make this episode any more interesting from her standpoint?

“Didn't Wanna Leave You With The Wrong Impression” (First Quarter Review)

Time flies when you're having fun. And sometimes when you're not. I wouldn't exactly call the first quarter of Season 7 fun for Alex, but it was interesting (and very emotional, for the first 3 episodes anyway) – a lot more than I had any right to expect.

“There Must Be Some Misunderstanding” (“The More You Ignore Me” Recap)

And boy am I ever happy about it. Well, at least relieved. Never mind – I'm happy.

And, no, it turns out I'm not crying as I type this, even though I thought I would (from relief) even if (as happened) Alex's story didn't end badly.

"You'll Never Make A Living From Reading Minds"

So we're now about 12 hours (15 on the West Coast) from having to "rip off the Band-Aid" and finding out what happens in "The More You Ignore Me".  In other words, I've reached the point of "let's get it over with":

"Waiting...To Fall Apart"

Some sneak previews of tomorrow night's episode have been released, and the fourth one shown at this link is the important one, the one where Phil and Claire catch Alex sneaking out of the liquor store with that case of tequila.

“I'm Being Taken Over By The Fear”

The promo commercial for “The More You Ignore Me” is now available online. While it focuses on the part of the main Dunphy story where Luke is getting into trouble, the part which would reveal whatever trouble Alex ends up getting into is (ironically?) ignored.

"What A Difference A (Third Of A) Day Makes"

Oops. looks like I jumped the gun (again)...

On the same message thread on the IMDb board about the Christmas episode where the ABC press release I mentioned earlier was shared, another poster (lynlyunderwood) later posted a link from Jesse Tyler Ferguson's (Mitch's) Instagram account, where yesterday he posted a picture from filming of the Christmas episode (with guest star Andrea Martin from the old Second City TV days).

So there will be a Christmas episode as expected.  What role if any Alex has is still TBA.

"Do They Know It's Christmas?"

[EDIT: It turns out the first half of this post is now moot - and per the next post there will be a Christmas episode - no worries.  Sorry about that.]

An interesting press release was issued by ABC listing  some of their holiday programming coming up in a few weeks. (I didn't find this one myself, BTW - credit to a poster named sannozz94 on IMDb's board who did.) What's interesting is on the night (December 9th) that the rest of their Wednesday comedy lineup has their Christmas episodes, there's no mention of anything for Modern Family.

"If It's Getting Cold, Reheat It" (First Impressions - "Phil's Sexy, Sexy House" - Season 7, Episode 7)

Well, I dodged a couple of bullets today.  First, last night I thought I made a major screw-up at work and wasn't sure if I would still have a job when I came back on Friday.  Thankfully for me when I asked about it this morning it turned out to be no big deal.  Not that there's even a hint of correlation but hopefully that's a good omen for Alex's story next week.
 
And now, I don't have to worry about whether or not the press release for the episode that follows whatever happens next week contained any spoilers about "The More You Ignore Me" - nothing at all is mentioned about Alex (i.e. no "Now that Alex blah, blah, blah..." type of information).  So I don't have to agonize over how much to say about it.

"Seven Days And Seven Nights Of Thunder"

Episode 7's title has (finally) been released: "Phil's Sexy, Sexy House".  Yeah, I don't think much will come of that one (and in more ways than one that might not be a bad thing).  We'll probably get more details later this week.   

Still nothing about Episode 8, which probably won't air until December 2nd (presumably "Three Turkeys" will repeat on Thanksgiving Eve).

And that's that.