Does the holiday season bring on the blues?  Sometimes feeling down sneaks in and crushes the best of us. So, several years ago I came up with six steps for avoiding the holiday blues.

1) Sing along with the most uplifting songs of the season. (Best done in the car alone, if like me you can't carry a tune.)

2) Tune out nostalgia - hide the photo albums from past holidays and special events. Also essential, avoid those toxic, pessimistic and/or perpetually angry people who wander through our lives from time to time. (Unfriend them if possible, but if they're family members, practice extreme diplomacy.)

3) Smiles! Sprinkle smiles everywhere. A simple smile brings one back to you. 

4) Practice random acts of kindness. Helping a fellow shopper find her car, treating the folks behind you in the drive-thru to a cup of coffee. Little things mean a lot.

5) The Good-Book Getaway. Find a hideaway and curl up with a book which will transport you from stress to magical places.

6) And lastly, dwelling on the past drains energy required for what IS. Live in the present! Enjoy every minute of now...and eat chocolate!

And now I'm stepping away from the blog for a few days to enjoy the holidays with family and friends. Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah! And cheers for Kwanza!

If I believed in conspiracy theories, I would focus all my energies on cookies. Holiday cookies in particular. I would point out people and places and ruthlessly expose the culprits engaged in the great seasonal cookie conspiracy. 

Even now kitchens across the globe look as if they were hit by a sugar explosion. Brigades of bakers armed with cookie cutters, parchment, and spatulas camp out by ovens, big and small.  All types of delicious sweets occupy every single inch of counter space: shortbread, thumbprints, fudge, rum balls, and biscotti. It's torture by sugar and sprinkles.

As the recipient of heaping plates of home-baked sugar cookies, candy, and bread guaranteed to put ten pounds on my hips just by inhaling the savory, once-a-year scents...I am begging for mercy. Somewhere there are people who need all this sugar. But not here. Not in my home. It isn't that I don't appreciate the time and efforts of the holiday bakers -- my thoughtful friends, neighbors, and motivated Hallmark viewers -- I do.  I have a sweet tooth, but I have no willpower. So please, pass the cookie plate by me this year. 

I will appreciate your act of kindness! And, hopefully, this year I'll not have to join a weight loss program only because I yielded yet again to the great cookie conspiracy.