Debra is sick and tired of having Raymond's parents and brother show up unannounced. With her birthday coming up, they try avoiding having them over.

When newly-wed friends make a public display of their affection, Debra wonders why reticent Raymond has trouble saying those three little words.

Even dead people love Raymond, as he is chosen to deliver the eulogy at his great uncle's funeral. It's an occasion that serves as a reunion for Ray's mother and her feuding sister, Alda.

For a criminal-psychology course, Robert issues standard IQ tests to Raymond and Debra, and boy, is Ray smarting when they get the results.

Nemo's niece, Angelina, takes employment at Nemo's restaurant as a waitress. When Angelina catches Ray's eye, he has a lot of explaining to do to his wife, especially after Angelina calls him at home.

When Frank gets a few anecdotes published in Reader's Digest, he submits his writing samples to Ray's editor, hoping to get his own column in the newspaper.

When Ray's upper class in-laws come for a visit, he begs his parents to be nice to them. Ray admits to his parents that he doesn't always see eye-to-eye with Debra's folks but manages to fake it, and he'd like his parents to do the same when they all go out and try to have a family dinner.

Ray gets tired of being treated like a kid at his father's poker game, so he decides to ignore his father's advice and ends up losing all his money.

Although Marie has always cooked the traditional turkey dinner for Thanksgiving, Debra decides it's her turn to prepare the holiday meal, but not wanting to compete with Marie's turkey, she chooses to serve fish.

When Ray's free time goes to coaching Nemo's basketball team in preparation for the Pizza League championships, he is reminded by Debra that their kids are growing up fast and he's missing precious time with them.

Ray discovers that the autographed Mickey Mantle ball he got as a kid from his father isn't authentic. Feeling hurt by the fact that his father wasn't truthful about the ball, Ray decides he's going to tell Ally the truth about Santa Claus.

When Debra comes down with the flu and is bedridden, so now the inexperienced Raymond must take care of her and the three kids.

Ray can't face the fact that everybody thinks that his brother Robert is "classically handsome," while they consider him "adorable like a hamster."

Debra, already annoyed at getting stuck driving the old car Ray bought from his parents, really gets upset when she discovers that it was his old "make-out-mobile."

Ray finds out that the diamond on Debra's engagement ring is a fake, so he steals it from her to get it changed, only to find out after that she already had it exchanged it with her grandma's $15,000 diamond.

When Ray and his family play a game of Scruples after their cable goes out, they find themselves arguing about honesty. To make matters worse, when Ray complains to the cable company about the disruption in service, he is informed that he has an illegal hookup.

When Debra tries to change Ray's pessimistic attitude about winning the Sports Writer of the Year Award, he agrees to change his ways and become more positive, but he soon has to suffer the downside of being the only optimist in his family.

Ray brings home a stray bulldog that reminds him of the dog he had to give up as a boy due to his allergies, but his brother Robert bonds with the dog and the siblings have to decide who gets to keep him.

The neighbourhood is up in arms over Ray's noisy dad and meddling mom, and the neighbours demand a meeting at Ray's and Debra's house.

A popular radio psychologist visits the Barone household to interview Debra for a book on the American family. But the doctor finds that the rest of the eccentric Barones are more captivating.

In this flashback episode, Ray and Debra remember their days in their first apartment.