Stephanie arrives to stay with Sarah while Carly and Jack go to the theatre. Carly overhears Nicole tell her girlfriend about her secret plans to go out with a boy that night. Carly asks why she didn't tell them about this. Nicole answers that the guy is twenty and her father would never let her do it. She tries to play on Carly's desire to be liked by her and pleads with her not to tell her father. At first Carly doesn't, but soon she does tells Jack, who is predictably furious. He rushes down to the lobby and brings Nicole back upstairs. Nicole is mad at Jack for being so stubborn and at Carly for what she sees as a breach of trust. Alone with Nicole, Carly reminds her that she never took her into her confidence in the first place and that she never said she'd lie to Jack. Carly agrees, though, that Jack is too obstinent about letting his daughter date older boys. Stephanie weighs in with her opinion too, and she agrees with Carly and Nicole. Jack throws up his hands and agrees to le

It's Christmastime, and Carly is depressed because all the kids are leaving to spend the holidays with their other parents. Jack just wants to get everyone ready and out of the apartment building. His reason: on his way in his car splattered their hapless neighbor Mr. Sandzimeier with water and caused him to fall down while carrying his groceries. Of course Jack can't escape a confrontation with him. Later, with the kids gone, Carly wants to do something meaningful for Christmas, like take Sandzimeier for a carriage ride. When they knock on his apartment door, though, they find that they've woken him up from a much-needed sleep now that he is getting ill from Jack's drenching. Carly and Jack return from their carriage ride to find a large puppy in the elevator. Carly insists they take it in for the night, against Jack's better judgment. They leave the dog in the living room for the night, where it proceeds to tear up the Christmas tree, decorations, presents and an odd pillow or two. W

Jack and Carly lie in bed, fondly recalling how they first met, though they disagree on many details. The story flashes back to a teacher-parent conference about Will. Both of them are smitten with each other from the beginning, but Carly is wary of another relationship with a man following her two failed mariages. With Grace's encouragement, Carly finds an excuse to call Jack. When Jack tells her he'd been thinking about her and proposes they go out for coffee, Carly backs off, but she soon finds a reason to drop by the school. Again she draws away from Jack. Finally they make a date to go out. As they prepare to leave the building, Carly makes sure Jack understands that she wants to take things very slowly--then they fly into an embrace and kiss passionately.

After a recap of the Thanksgiving episode, the scene is three months later. Carly's father Ben and his second wife Beverly are visiting, about to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary. They plan to renew their vows and be remarried by the same judge. Carly has lunch with her mom Kate, who tells her that Beverly invited her to the party. Ben confesses to Jack that he still has amorous thoughts about his first wife. Carly and Jack are afraid lest their parents meet again and rekindle their adulterous relationship of a few months before. Nicole, Will and Sarah buy a silver ring as an anniversary present, then drop it down the elevator shaft.

Parents and offspring alike are praying for a ""snow day"" which would close school and allow them to do want they really want--climb into bed together and watch ""Leeza!"" As the show is going off, Sarah notes that ""Leeza"" is looking for ""blended families"" to feature on an upcoming episode. She secretly submits her family's name to the show as potential guests. When a letter comes back accepting them, Jack and Carly give a firm ""no,"" but their minds change when Leeza Gibbons herself comes to the apartment to persuade them. Jack, Carly and the kids plus Sheldon and Dante gather for the broadcast, but now Sarah is having second thoughts after comments by a classmate starts her wondering just what kind of a chance her new family has of staying together. Sarah excuses herself to go to the bathroom just before airtime, and after the show starts, she's nowhere to be found.

Dante is feeling like Will is avoiding him and favoring Jack over him as a parent. After Will cancels a few get-togethers with his father, the issue comes to a head when Dante comes over and finds Jack teaching Will how to shave. Carly attempts to moderate the situation and set some boundaries and guidelines for the two men. Also, Carly takes Nicole and Sarah along to work on a Saturday, but Nicole isn't good for much after she gets a load of Grace's Italian nephew Lorenzo, much to Sarah's disgust.

Jack and Carly's friend Joel is depressed about his breakup with his wife Amanda and wants to talk about it with the couple, though at first Jack thinks it's an April Fool's joke. In private Jack and Carly agree that Amanda was to blame but also agree they should not badmouth her. Joel's daughter Cindy, a friend of Nicole's, is upset also, and Will comforts her at school. Jack invites Joel and Cindy over to dinner. Cindy is grateful for the kind attention Will has given her, and to his amazement, she kisses him. (Nicole is amazed too when Sarah tells her about it.) Joel asks Jack and Carly point blank what they think of Amanda. Uncomfortable at first, they soon start in on a character assassination of her. Now the couple has gotten involved exactly the way they didn't want to, as Joel decides he should divorce his wife.

Carly is planning Sarah's 12th birthday party, and they both want to make sure the girl's oft-absent father Sheldon attends. After he's been pinned down on a date and invitations are mailed, Sheldon asks if the date can be changed to accommodate some important business. Carly goes to all the trouble of notifying guests of a new date when Sheldon asks to change it again. Carly and Jack wonder if Sarah can take the disappointment of her father missing her party, but she has an unshakable, if seemingly unfounded, belief that he'll be there.

Jack is a little uncomfortable when he finds out that the bed he's sleeping in was previously used by Carly's ex-husbands also, so they go out shopping for a new one. While doing this, they run into Brooke and David, old friends of Carly's who she ""lost"" in the divorce from Sheldon. But now they seem to want to make amends and become friends with Carly once again and her new husband, too. Jack and Carly are happy enough to have new friends at first, but at dinner they get a suggestion that the couple isn't perfect after David is unnecessarily rude to a waitress. Sheldon stops by the table and says he feels betrayed by his old friends, and says David and Brooke must choose between Jack and Carly or himself and Marianne. The couple picks the Farrells. Soon Jack wonders whether Carly really likes the pair or if she just enjoys sticking it to Sheldon. Carly soon admits she doesn't actually like David and Brooke. They don't like their bed either, and when they go to return it, they get a ch

Nicole's boyfriend Sean asks her to go on a canoeing vacation with him and his family. Nicole knows it will be a hard sell to make to her father and she pleads with Carly to convince Jack to say yes. At school Nicole tells her friend Cindy about Sean's invitation. Cindy warns her that ""canoeing"" is just a code word for sex. Back at home Carly has talked Jack into giving his permission for the trip, but now Nicole is apprehensive about going. While Carly and Jack wonder why she is not happier about the trip, Nicole seeks counsel from an unlikely source--Dante.

Jack and Carly are planning a weekend getaway at a mountain cabin but can only find Stephanie and Sheldon to take care of the kids. They can't relax at the cabin and cut the weekend short. Also, Lucy Lawless on hot on the trail of fellow TV warrior-goddess Stephanie after the latter made some disparaging remarks about her and her show.

Jack and Carly have planned a romantic vacation in Mexico for just the two of them. The ex-spouses will be looking after the kids while they're gone, but Carly has second thoughts about leaving them out of their plans. As they rush to get ready for their departure, the couple, the children and the exes all are involved in a series of mishaps which makes it seem like fate is conspiring against them.

Jack and Carly are getting tired of exes Stephanie and Sheldon hanging around the apartment so much, so Jack manipulates Stephanie into taking out Sheldon. While out on an errand, Will sees the two in a restaurant sharing a kiss. This news upsets everyone in the family, so Jack tries to undo the relationship, this time with much less success.

Carly has a big job catering a party for the mayor and she's so busy that she doesn't notice Sarah is acting preoccupied herself before leaving for school. When Sarah arrives home, she is still acting a bit odd. Jack asks what's wrong and she tells him she got her first period that day. Jack, who had just been bragging to Will about having it all together while Carly is out of the house, is thrown for a loop and bumbles around trying to find the right thing to say and do. Stephanie shows up at the apartment and leads Sarah in some strange New Age-type ritual to commemorate the event. Jack calls Carly to tell her the news. Carly feels that she should go home to Sarah, despite the importance of her job.

Jack is worried because his marraige to Carly is entering the ""red zone,"" the fourteen-month mark around which her other two marriages began to fall apart. At this inopportune time Gail, a woman who Jack once had a short, scary relationship with, shows up. Gail announces she's getting married and wants back a watch of hers that Jack kept when he fled from her. Jack tries to get the watch back from Will, to whom he gave it as a gift, but Will gave it to his father Dante. Trying to hide it all from Carly, Jack folows the torturous route the watch has taken from a pawn shop to Stephanie to Sheldon to Sarah. When he finally gets his hands on it, both Carly and Gail see it, too.

Jack and Carly have been married a year, but anniversary plans aren't quite working out the way they want them to. They're having a hard time being alone between kids and ex-spouses. Will hasn't bought them a present, and at the instigation of his friend Davis, he attempts to shoplift a gift and gets caught. When they finally are alone, Dante brings his son Will over to Jack and Carly's with the news. He grounds Will--at their apartment.

An angry Jack is on the train from Philadelphia with Nicole. The story is told in flashbacks. Carly plans for the family to help out at a homeless shelter, but Nicole wants to go to a party. Nicole convinces Carly to let her go if she'll find a substitute for the night--who turns out to be Jack. The next night, Nicole is supposed to help again at the shelter, but she has a chance to go see the Rollling Stones. She takes advantage of Carly's desire to be liked as a stepmother, borrows $150 from her and gets permission to go to the concert, telling Carly the show is ""downtown somewhere"" and conveniently neglecting to mention the downtown is Philadelphia's. Jack is angry at his daughter and goes to retrieve her. He thinks the best punishment for Nicole will be facing up to Carly.

Carly's free-spirited, globe-trotting New-Agey friend Rachel Travers is in town. The kids are excited and Jack looks forward to meeting her, but Carly is afraid she might be a mite too free-spirited for Jack. However, Jack insists that Rachel stay with them while she's in town. Jack is a little uncomfortable with Rachel's hugging, vegetarianism and dung-cured Pakistani rugs, but when she counsels Nicole to take some time off before entering college, he can't abide it any longer. Rachel and Jack argue and she storms out of the apartment, leaving Nicole and Carly both upset with Jack.