It is New Year's Eve, and Jay (Ed O'Neill) wants to celebrate it with his family (his wife, his kids and their husbands) by taking them to a hotel in Palm Springs.
Jay ends ups playing poker with the owner of the hotel (Lainie Kazan) and her friends, which include Billy Dee Williams.
Phil and Claire strip and make love at the hot spring, but the demented bellboy forgot to say that nudists come there to celebrate the New Year as well.
Meanwhile, Alex (Ariel Winter) and Haley (Sarah Hyland) are left back home babysitting the younger kids, Luke (Nolan Gould), Manny (Rico Rodriguez) and Lily (Aubrey Anderson-Emmons).
Luke takes her up to his room, making it awkward for Haley and Alex, while Manny's date is a sullen, depressed weirdo, who shuns his gracious hosting.
""New Year’s Eve", which gives tonight's Modern Family episode its title, promises both the chance for a fresh start as well as a potentially stark reminder that life only moves forward in time.
"Although it's 10 days late, the Modern Family New Year's Eve, showed NYE from every point of view, romantic, unexpected, spontaneous, quiet/alone, and I thought each story was nicely done, but the episode as a whole was just alright.