(Strip Number 205, Original Publication Date, 24 December 1981)
Panel 1: It's VEEEEEERRRRRY early Christmas Day morning at the Pattermanse; since Mike is, as I am way too fond of pointing out, incredibly average, he cannot sleep due to the anticipation and has thus burst into his parents' bedroom trying to wake John up. The smile of delight on his face tells us that he means no harm but, well, that smile is gonna vanish.
Panel 2: That's because while he's asking if John heard anyone saying "Ho! Ho! Ho!", John's looking at his alarm clock wondering two things. The first is "What is Mike doing out of bed??" and the second is "There's a 3:45 in the morning now?? When the Hell did THAT happen?!?!"
Panel 3: Mike reacts to being told to go back to bed by thought-bubbling that he guesses that John didn't; as he does so, John glares at him as if he did it to be a dick to his daddy.
Summary: This need the Patterparents have of assuming as a given that their children WANT to disobey them, that it's the first thing that occurs to them because they hate the idea of seeing their folks happy is a hang-up that they never disabuse themselves of; it hurts to bear witness to it because it screws up their lives no end and deprives them of years of happiness.