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 takes pen to paper and writes a letter to her mother-in-law, telling her to stop intruding into her life. Horrified by the problems that this letter might trigger, Ray does everything in his power to intercept the offending document – but he fails. Surprisingly, the family discovers that honesty really may be the best policy.

All Ray wants for Christmas is a little loving from his wife and he's willing to try anything and everything to have his holiday wish come true. Ray has tried just about everything to get Debra "in the mood" and his dream comes true when she finally falls victim to his boyish charm on Christmas morning. The problem? At the very moment that he gives her the shivers, his entire family is working their way into the house for Eggs Florentine and gift unwrapping. But where there's a will, there's a way – and Raymond is determined to get what he wants from Santa this year.

When Marie surprises the family with the news that she's treating them all to a two-week vacation in Rome, everybody loves the idea – except Raymond. It's virtually impossible not to enjoy oneself in a country as beautiful as Italy; but, if anyone can manage it, Raymond can. 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, sights, smells and tastes of the city of love and try their best to ignore Ray. Meanwhile, Robert meets the girl of his dreams – she's stunningly beautiful, unbelievably sexy and works in a gelato shop.

When Marie surprises the family with the news that she's treating them all to a two-week vacation in Rome, everybody loves the idea – except Raymond. It's virtually impossible not to enjoy oneself in a country as beautiful as Italy; but, if anyone can manage it, Raymond can. 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, sights, smells and tastes of the city of love and try their best to ignore Ray. Meanwhile, Robert meets the girl of his dreams – she's stunningly beautiful, unbelievably sexy and works in a gelato shop.

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.

Ray is mortified when he realizes that Marie used to read the personal journal he kept as a teenager. When Marie blurts out an embarrassing incident from Ray's past, he can't figure out how she could have possibly known that information. That is, until he discovers that she must have broken the secret code he used when writing in his journal. And in the process, his mother has learned about his most personal, and perverted, thoughts.

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. Debra is as taken with the new vacuum as Ray once she witnesses all of the wonderful things it can do. That is, until she learns why the saleswoman showed up at their door in the first place. 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. Of course, the results are disastrous

Tempers flare when Marie accuses Debra of not returning a borrowed canister that holds sentimental value and Debra insists that she has already given it back. Debra is then horrified when she discovers that she does indeed still have the canister in her possession. With Ray and Robert's reluctant assistance, she concocts an elaborate scheme to get rid of the evidence, rather than confess to Marie that she was wrong and her mother-in-law was right all along.

The Barones clash even more than usual in the sixth-season opener when they get a child's-eye view of all the bickering that goes on in the family. The fireworks begin when the whole gang attends an open house at first-grader Michael's school, during which the kids all read stories that they've written themselves. Most of the students tell tall tales that are obviously fictional. But then Michael gets up and reads the title to his story, ""The Angry Family."" The shocked Barones fear the worst---and for good reason---as Michael begins the saga of a clan that is constantly arguing.

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 the Barones watch their sons play, Ray finds that Geoffery is having trouble getting the hang of the game. As Geoffery skips down the court and does pirouettes at the free throw line, Ray is mortified. He then 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 have been divorced and Debra is thrilled that both her parents have agreed to have dinner with the Barones. However, she soon learns that Warren 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 Barone's sports column. But when the woman mistakes Robert for Raymond, Robert doesn't set her straight. Now, Robert has to involve Ray in a complicated plot to keep the woman from learning Robert's true identity. Ray warns him that this could blow up in his face, but Robert keeps it up so he can get her to like him instead of Ray. As Ray expected, things go wrong when she shows up at Ray's house and she tells Debra, who she thought was dead, that she and Ray are dating.

While enjoying a college football game, Frank catches a football from a record setting field goal and refuses to give it back to the kicker. When word of this gets back to the local sports community via a talk radio show, he becomes a wanted man among sports fans. The rest of the family devise a way to get the football away from Frank and back to it's rightful owner, but Frank might be too crafty for them.

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 Troup 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, it's war. Ray vows to get even with this woman no matter what and to take home the grand prize in the cookie drive.

Robert is ecstatic when he is recommended for an FBI job. That is, until it becomes apparent that Marie's intrusive ways may be his undoing. This time, she may have gone too far and Robert may not be able to forgive and forget.

Thinking it would be hilarious to show the partygoers 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, Ray and Debra don't find it funny at all.

Debra takes offense 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 achieves in making a bad situation worse. Then, the unthinkable happens (at least to Ray) - Debra decides she likes it when Marie doesn't speak to her and she intends to keep it that way.

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. But when Raymond still hasn't touched the material the night before the review, and Debra refuses to bail him out, he goes to the one person he knows will help him with his homework... Marie.

The six-year on-again, off-again relationship between Robert (Brad Garrett) and Amy (Monica Horan) is definitely on again in this pivotal episode. So much so, in fact, that ""Robert wants to propose to Amy,"" says executive producer Philip Rosenthal. But there's one formality the hopeful groom-to-be must take care of first: asking Amy's devout churchgoing folks (Fred Willard, Georgia Engel) for their daughter's hand in marriage. To that end, ""Robert convinces Ray to accompany him to meet her parents in [Pennsylvania],"" says Rosenthal. How they---and possibly Amy---respond determines whether wedding bells will be ringing anytime soon. Peter: Chris Elliott. Frank: Peter Boyle.

Ray takes Ally over to her friend's house for a sleepover and is mortified when the girl's mother pats his behind after he helps set up a tent for her. Ray finds out that the mother is the same one Ray had a nasty run-in with over some Frontier Girl cookies a year before.

Debra and Ray pick out replacement spouses for each other and jealousy starts. Marie announces that Rose, the elderly lady next door, has passed away. Marie is upset because Rose is the woman she'd chosen for Frank if she hadn't died. Debra thinks it would be fun to fantasize about who should take her place and tells Ray she's selected her friend Linda. But then Ray picks Linda's husband Bernie for Debra.

Ray hosts a lame bachelor party for Robert and is shamed by Debra, Marie and Amy into throwing him another one at the lodge, which is 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.

After the agent tells Robert he has a unique look, he convinces him to pose for head shots with their ""in-house"" photographer. But when Robert and Ray return for the pictures, they are surprised to find the modeling agency has mysteriously disappeared.

A young man, Sam Gilula, arrives at Frank and Marie's and everyone is surprised when he and Frank fondly embrace. Sam explains Frank had been quite an inspiration to him as a lad, a mentor in fact, much to Ray and Robert's disbelief. Later, Ray and Robert make fun of Frank, wondering how he could have inspired anyone.

Robert and Ray end up with the mother of all guilt trips when they decide not to help Marie with a home project so they can land a prime spot on the golf course. Their overnight wait in the car for a tee time becomes a brawl over their respective roles in their parents' future.

When Ray and Debra visit Fank and Marie's condo, they learn that the owners are going to kick them out. Marie and Frank move out. Robert and Amy are upset, but they let Frank and Marie live with them.

Debra invites her divorced parents, Warren and Lois, to the family Thanksgiving. When Ray walks in on the two making love, he and Debra assume that they are getting back together. Later on, Warren and Lois inform Debra otherwise and an unprecedented turn of events shocks everyone.

Ray accidentally insults the twins' new friend and the faux pas quickly spirals out of contral when he repeats it to the boy's dad.

Ray tells Robert that Amy talks too much after she chats with Ray for over an hour while he tries to watch a basketball game on TV. Of course, Robert tells Amy, which leads to a heated confrontation between ""Lady Chatterly"" and her insensitive brother-in-law.

Robert discovers Pat smoking and she pleads for him not to tell. Later, when Amy smells smoke on Robert, she thinks Robert smokes. Frank, Marie, Peter, Hank and Amy all think Robert smokes. Robert gets yelled at, and Pat doesn't tell the truth or back him up. The next day, Robert tells Raymond and Debra about Pat, and the family comes over. There is a bitter argument and then Ray and/or Debra yells out that Pat smokes. She confesses and tells the truth. There is another argument and Peter confesses something, then Hank, then Ray, then Debra. It ends with Frank and Marie telling them that they are weird and that they shouldn't do the stuff they are doing.

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, the nurse says that Ray isn't waking up from the anesthesia and everyone fears he may die. Fortunately, thirty seconds later, the doctor comes out and says he's just fine. Everyone agrees not to tell Ray or Marie about it; however, Frank ends up telling Marie who rushes over to smother Ray with kisses. Ray finds out about it and begins acting weird as if he thinks he really is going to die. After a couple minutes, he gets out of it. The show closes with the entire family sitting around the table eating and arguing, just like the Barones always have in the past nine years.