Keeping Our Sanity During The Holidays

It's that time of year again. Regardless of our backgrounds or beliefs, many of us celebrate the holidays starting from Thanksgiving and all the way up to New Year's.

Let's try to actually enjoy this holiday season. Don't be so hard on yourself trying to cook the perfect meal or trying to buy the perfect gifts which often winds up with us stressed out and anxious for the season to end.

The holidays in a way remind me of large weddings. With large weddings, many times all the planning and preparations take on a life of their own and after awhile, it stops being enjoyable for the engaged couple and they simply get stressed out.

Same with the holidays: in theory, as the song says "It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year." But a lot of times, we spend too much money and commit ourselves to too many activities thereby getting upset and wishing this time of year would end.

Let's relax more and put things a little more in perspective. The world will not come to an end if you bake 1 or 2 pies instead of 3. Thanksgiving will not be ruined if Aunt Susie comes a half hour late like she does every year. And if some relatives start a heated debate about religion or about the outcome of our recent elections, you don't have to necessarily participate.

And speaking of family, let's make a plan ahead of time to not let them stress us out with their antics at our holiday gatherings. We know who are the ones that like to get under our skin or flat-out annoy everyone. That's why we only see them once or twice a year in the first place: because they're annoying.

We all have family that is a little argumentative or even nuts somewhere around dessert-time after the holiday dinner. You know the lunacy and craziness that occurs every year. I myself plan to leave the room if I have to. There's no law that says your evening has to be ruined by that one drunk (or sober) relative who thinks he or she knows everything about Current Events.

If I have to eat my dessert in the living room or go play Solitaire on my cell phone, I'll do it. I'm not in the mood to listen to fights and debates when all I want to do is digest my food and relax.

Heck, even if I have to go watch TV with the kids after dinner, it's still better to me than listening to the know-it-alls at the table who are debating about everything from politics to sports.

What are your plans this holiday season to keep your family and other stress from stealing your sanity?

Happy Thanksgiving!