When Marie crashes and ruins her Tupperware party, Debra decides that she's had just about enough of her mother-in-law's constant interference. She puts pen to paper and writes a letter to her mother-in-law.

All Ray wants for Christmas is a little loving from his wife and he's willing to try anything to have his holiday wish come true.

When Marie surprises the family with the news that she's treating them all to a two-week vacation to Italy, everybody loves the idea except Raymond. Not willing to let his sour mood spoil it for the rest of the family, Debra, Frank, Marie, Robert, and the kids go on their merry way and soak up the atmosphere, the sights, and tastes of the country.

Ray is complaining about the heat, Debra is getting tired of following Marie's strict schedule and of Ray's pessimistic attitude, Robert meets Stefánia's father, who is not thrilled with his daughter choice of man, and Frank is enjoying himself playing pétanque. After going on a long walk with his mother, Ray slowly starts to enjoy himself and appreciate where he is, no thanks to Marie.

Ray finally tells Frank and Marie how he feels about their constant intrusiveness after Marie accidentally drives the car through the front of his house.

When Marie blurts out an embarrassing incident from Ray's past, he can't figure out how she came by that information. He is mortified when he realizes that she used to read the personal diary he kept as a teenager.

Ray and Debra discover that they have nothing to talk about except the kids.

Ray is upset when he finds out that Debra signed up Michael and Geoffery to play fairies in a school play.

Ray purchases a new state-of-the-art vacuum cleaner from an attractive door to door saleswoman and it ignites a housekeeping war between Marie and Debra. Determined to prove to Marie that she's is just as good at "keeping house," Debra attempts to use the new vacuum to find some dirt, any dirt, in Marie's home.

Tempers flare when Marie accuses Debra of not returning a borrowed canister that holds sentimental value. Debra insists that she has already returned the canister, so she is horrified when she discovers that she still has the canister in her possession.

The Barones clash even more than usual when they get a child's-eye view of all the bickering that goes on in the family. The fireworks begin when the whole family attends an open house at first-grader Michael's school, during which the kids all read stories that they've written themselves.

Marie and Debra set up Amy with Gianni to get Robert jealous so he'll want to get back together with Amy but their plan backfires when Amy and Gianni hit it off.

While Debra and Ray watch their sons play, Ray notices that Geoffery is having trouble getting the hang of the game. Ray learns the hard way that his son's lack of ability shouldn't interfere with either of them enjoying the game.

It's the first Thanksgiving since Debra's parents divorced, and Debra is thrilled that both her parents have agreed to have dinner with the Barone family. However, she soon learns that her father is bringing a date. Everyone is horrified except Debra's mother, who thinks it's just great.

Robert meets a beautiful woman who is a big fan of Ray's sports column and who mistakes him for Ray. When he doesn't correct her, he has no choice but to involve Ray in a complicated plot to keep the woman from learning Robert's true identity.

While enjoying a college football game, Frank catches a football from a record setting field goal and refuses to give it back. When word of this gets back to the local sports community via a talk radio show, he becomes a wanted man among sports fans.

Held captive at Frank and Marie's during a snowstorm, Debra, Ray, and Amy actually find themselves having a great time. Then Debra makes a nasty comment to Frank which totally upsets the good mood. This causes Marie to defend Frank and finally reveal her true feelings for Debra.

When Ray learns that scout troop leader Peggy and her daughter have targeted his parents house as a spot to make a big sale for themselves during the Frontier Girls' selling competition, while Ray and his daughter Ally were assigned to a terrible spot, it means war.

Robert is ecstatic when he is up for a job at the FBI. That is, until he learns that Marie's intrusive ways may be his undoing.

Thinking it would be hilarious to show the party-goers a typical day in the life of Frank and Marie, Ray and Debra do a dead-on impersonation of the two that brings down the house at the party. But when Frank and Marie turn the tables and do a Ray and Debra imitation, the couple finds it much less funny.

Debra takes offence when Marie accuses her of being rude and the two wind up fighting and not speaking to each other. When Ray tries to make things better by getting each of the women to apologize to the other, he only makes a bad situation worse.

When Ally's teacher, Miss Purcell, overhears Ray commenting about the kids' excessive workload, she invites Raymond to address the curriculum review board and gives him a mountain of material for review and evaluation.

The six-year on-again, off-again relationship between Robert and Amy is reaching a pivotal moment. Robert wants to propose to Amy, but there's one small formality the hopeful groom-to-be must take care of first: asking Amy's devout churchgoing parents for their daughter's hand in marriage.

Ray takes Ally over to her friend Molly's house for a sleepover. He is mortified when Molly's mother turns out to be Peggy, the same Frontier Girl troop scout leader that he had a run-in with doing the cookie sale last year. Things get awkward when she pats his rear after he helps her set up a tent for the girls.

Marie announces that Rose, the elderly lady living next door to her and Frank, has passed away. She is upset because Rose was the woman she had chosen for Frank as a replacement wife, if Marie should pass away first. Debra thinks it would be fun to fantasize about who would take her place.

Ray throws a lame bachelor party for Robert and is shamed by Debra, Marie, and Amy into throwing him a proper one at the lodge, which will also be attended by Amy's father and brother.

When Debra accepts a position at Frank's lodge to help plan a member recruitment party, Ray begins to resent how much time she is spending away from home.

When Robert informs Ray that Amy filled him in on some juicy gossip about him, Ray decides to get even with Debra by sharing some nasty secrets of his own.

Robert has been discovered. While he and Amy are out buying Chinese food, a modelling agent gives Robert his card. Robert and Amy tells everyone about the modelling opportunity and Robert later goes to the agency for his first profile shoot. Ray, who really wants to meet the models, especially the Swedish kind, accompanies Robert to the agency, but when they get there, everything has mysteriously disappeared.

A young man named Sam Gilula arrives at Frank and Marie's and everyone is surprised, when he and Frank fondly embrace. Sam explains to Ray and Robert that Frank had been an inspiration and a mentor to him when he was a young lad. The two are understandably in disbelief.

Robert and Ray end up with the mother of all guilt trips when they decide not to help their mother with a home project. The reason they skip out is so that they can land a prime spot on the golf course, by waiting in line in their car all night.

When Ray and Debra visit Frank and Marie's condo in the retirement community, they learn that they are going to be kicked out due to a number of complains from the other residents.

Debra invites her divorced parents to the family Thanksgiving. When Ray walks in on the two having sex, he is traumatised and tells Debra about it. She assumes happily that her parents are getting back together.

The twins' new friend has a janitor for a father. When Ray accidentally says a bad joke in front of the father he tries to cheer him up, but keeps making things worse.

After Amy spends an hour chatting with Ray while he is trying to watch the basketball game, he tells Robert that she talks to much, which of course, Robert repeats to Amy, leading to a confrontation between Ray and "Lady Chatterly."

Robert discovers Pat smoking and she pleads for him not to tell anyone. When Amy later smells smoke on Robert, she tells everyone that he has been smoking. When Pat doesn't tell the truth, Robert ends up being yelled at. The next day, he tells Ray and Debra the truth, but it doesn't take long for the two to blurt out the secret in front of everyone, which leads to many more secrets being revealed.

Ray fears getting his adenoids removed, but Debra convinces him to go through with the surgery. At the hospital, while Marie is in the bathroom, and everyone else in the waiting room, the nurse comes out and tells Debra that Ray isn't waking up from the anaesthesia.