I was right about Mike being a brat. That's something.
Panel 1: As she dresses him to go out, Elly tells Mike that if he doesn't behave, Phil won't take him to see Santa.
Panel 2: Phil does the discipline-helper thing by telling him that if Mike is grounded, he can't see Santa either.
Panel 3: Suddenly transmuting into one of those fake-sounding pseudo-children from a bad sitcom, Mike points out that Phil doesn't want to see Santa, he wants to check out the girls in elf suits.
Panel 4: Phil asks him if he's sure he's a kid. That all depends on what you mean by child, I guess. I do realize that a child Mike's age (whatever it is) might know Phil would be more interested in cute girls in skimpy costumes; the thing is that he'd be a lot more squicked out than this.
Summary: If Connie doesn't show up next week, it'll be the week after that.
ETA: I just noticed that Lynn removed the Core Four's years of birth. I think she finally realized that she couldn't make it timeless if she had a date of birth to tie them down to a specific era.