There’s nothing quite like the awkwardness of meeting your boyfriend’s family for the first time. Especially when that first time is Christmas.

In this 2005 family comedy-drama, the awkwardness revolves around Meredith Morton (played by Sarah Jessica Parker), a high-maintenance, uptight New York businesswoman who is dating Everett Stone (Dermot Mulroney). And Everett is bringing her home to meet the family and has possible intentions of asking for her hand in marriage.

The rest of the Stone family includes matriarch Sybil (Diane Keaton), a strong-willed cancer survivor who has just learned her cancer has returned and patriarch Kelly (Craig T. Nelson) and their other children, eldest daughter Susannah (Elizabeth Reaser), youngest son Thad (Tyrone Giordano), Ben (Luke Wilson) and youngest child Amy (Rachel McAdams). So no wonder Meredith is overwhelmed and feeling awkward. Of course her personality doesn’t help. She’s already kicked Amy out of her bedroom, forcing her to sleep on the couch, simply because she doesn’t feel comfortable sleeping with Everett under his parent’s roof.

Meanwhile, Everett is trying to convince his mother Sybil to give him his grandmother’s ring so he can present it to Meredith. Sybil refuses and flat out tells him not to marry her. And you can feel the tension between Meredith and Everett and you wonder why they’re even together. Meredith and Everett eventually end up moving to the local inn for the remainder of their stay. And on top of that, Meredith has decided to invite her sister Julie (Claire Danes) to the Stone’s for moral support. As if that is going to make matters any better. Plus you already know Ben has the hots for Meredith from just the way he looks at her. And you know Everett is interested in Julie from the way he looks at her when he picks her up from the bus she has arrived on.

Following a very stressful and uncomfortable conversation at the dinner table, Meredith takes off and crashes Everett’s car in the driveway. Ben goes out to investigate and the next thing we know, the two of them are sitting in a local bar getting drunk. While doing so, they encounter Brad, an EMT and old boyfriend of Amy’s. Meredith invites him over to the Stone’s house for Christmas breakfast the next day.

Fast forward to Christmas morning (the day after Meredith and Ben spent time in the bar) and Meredith finds herself in Ben’s bed. A lot is assumed and mistaken between Meredith, Ben and Everett. Everett has Julie try on his grandmother’s ring and she can’t get it off. Meredith makes it clear to Everett that she won’t marry him and he states he wasn’t going to ask her. So that opens things up for her and Ben. Julie leaves in a hurry and Everett follows her, catching her just before she gets on the bus. She asks him if they can get together at New Year’s.

Fast forward a year later and everyone has returned to the Stone house for Christmas once again. It’s quite clear that Sybil has passed as everyone arrives and we only see Kelly. Thad and his partner Patrick have a baby boy, Susannah has another child, Amy is with Brad, Meredith is with Ben and in walk Everett and Julie. It’s a touching ending as the camera focuses on a picture of Sybil on the wall that Meredith has presented to her the year before.