When we are going through a trying period of our lives, we often long for the time when' things will get better'.  Those of us who have been through some of life's ups and downs realize that often things don't get better as much as they just become different.

In this perceptive essay, our member, Cara Holman, shares her experience with this phenomenon. 

I am giving this essay to you as an early holiday gift.  I am telling you how one family, my family, managed last year to break out!  Break out from the tyranny of stressful holidays!  Yes, it can be done! And you need to start plotting your escape right now.  If you wait until after Thanksgiving, it will be too late, you'll be sucked right in to the maelstrom.

OK, I'm being a little dramatic here, but seriously.  Give some thought to how you can make the holidays more to you and your family's liking without conforming to someone else's ideas of what it should be.  Try it, you'll like it!