Tuesday Tip: Holiday Sanity Savers

With five days until Christmas, here are five stress busting sanity savers.  Think of it as your holiday survival guide courtesy of the Lyons Den and feel free to pass it on!

1. Drink. A lot.  Though it's tempting to toss back the eggnog and mulled wine, I'm actually referring to copious amounts of coffee.  At this point, strong, hot, freshly brewed coffee may be the only way you can cross every last item off your list.  Since too much coffee may give you the jitters, be sure to follow each steaming cup with a big glass of water.  And, if you're heart is still racing by nightfall, well, maybe it's time to resort to the eggnog and wine after all!
2. Make a run for it.  While you will undoubtedly be making a last minute run to the mall or the grocery store, I strongly suggest you tie on your sneakers and hit the road running.  It will clear your mind, burn off some of that caffeine, alleviate the eggnog guilt and surely leave you in a better mental state. If you run far enough, it may actually land you in another state altogether, prolonging your break from the mayhem at home.
3. Fake it. My to-do list currently includes baking five types of cookies, two kinds of bread and planning a Christmas Eve dinner for 25.  My calendar currently includes four days of back to back meetings as we wrap up the year at work and then attempt to squeeze in a year's worth of merriment and socializing at night.  So, this year, the cookies may come from a local bakery and the lasagna might be store-made. My holiday motto is quickly becoming "Fake it, don't make it."
4. Be a quitter. We just spent our evening addressing what seemed like a zillion Christmas card envelopes. By hand.  The home printer is on the fritz and we were hellbent on getting it done tonight. You know what? We didn't. You know what else? I forgot to order those cute return address labels and I'm outta steam.  I refuse to write our return address on a zillion envelopes. I quit.  If you don't get your card, I'm sorry but I think you'll still be my friend and if you're family, I know you're stuck with me. So, that's it.  When it comes to Christmas cards, I quit... and suggest you find something to quit too.  It feels great!
5. Enough is enough. With five kids, it's easy to go overboard.  While the family budget is always an issue, I find it difficult to resist filling the stockings and stacking oodles of gifts under the tree.  I drive myself crazy making sure each kid has the same amount of gifts from Santa and from us; if one gets socks in their stocking, all of them need socks in their stockings.  With five days to go, I've made a good attempt but really, enough is enough!  If the gifts aren't even-Steven, that's going to be Santa's fault, not mine!  It's time to call it quits (see point 4), settle in and perhaps enjoy a glass of wine (see point 1).

Happy Holidays!