Family Time Survival

The holidays are a time for family. So brace yourselves... And in the interest of helping you prepare for the upcoming onslaught of family reunions, family dinners, and family fights allow me to provide you with a few key tips that should help you get through all that excess family time.

• Designate one room in the house as the “gift room” and place a sign on that door indicating that everyone should keep out. This serves two purposes. First, it helps keep the nosier family members out of their gifts – so they'll be surprised on Christmas morning. And second, it gives you a quiet room to hide in when you need a break from your talkative aunts, snoring uncles, and perfectionist spouse...
  
  
• Invite as many children (particularly babies) to your family holiday party(ies) as possible. Though they might be noisy and destroy the house – it's very difficult for adults to get angry when there's a cute baby in the room...
  
  
• Stock up with beer, wine, and various spirits. (This tip is self explanatory, I should think...)
  
  
• And lastly, if all the family time becomes too much for you to handle - don't explode at your family. Instead, “accidentally” drop the bomb that your cousin Laura is secretly dating the mayor – who happens to be two-decades older than her and married... And then sit back and relax as everyone's attention focuses off of you and onto your poor cousin...