The battle begins between mother and son when Eddie informs Jessica that he wants to spend Christmas with friend Nicole in New York. But Jessica insists that tradition prevails and he needs to spend the holiday with the family, so he does everything within his power to try and get her to crack and allow him to go. Meanwhile, Louis and Evan do their best to try and help an overwhelmed Emery decide on which one of his numerous friends to invite to the family's Christmas Eve dinner.

Evan has a girlfriend! And Jessica deeply disapproves because she thinks it will distract him from his schoolwork and cause his grades to decline. Meanwhile, Eddie, Emery and Honey are shocked when they all go out to see the film "You've Got Mail," and Louis hates it. But Louis' reason for disliking the film has to do with a ruthless act he unconsciously committed years ago which resulted in a mom and pop rib shack going out of business, much like what took place in the movie.