Ahhhh -- another Thanksgiving dinner finished.

With enough turkey leftovers in the fridge to keep you in meals the rest of the weekend, you can just sit back and relax until Monday. Have a cup of coffee and enjoy your paper.

Oh wait, this is the day after Thanksgiving. The paper weighs enough to give you a hernia just picking it up out of the driveway and who has time for coffee? It's time to begin shopping, addressing cards, planning parties, baking cookies, trimming the tree and decking the halls. It's Christmas!

The most wonderful time of the year!

If you find yourself saying "yeah, right" and less than enthusiastic about the upcoming season, you're not alone. Most moms feel a bit of stress through the holidays with all the hustle and bustle that's added to our already seemingly hectic lifestyles. This year, vow to yourself to take control. Enjoy Christmas and be a merry mom!

I would like to suggest a few do's and don'ts for the holidays that can make Christmas much more enjoyable. To start with, don't covet the impossible to find toys for your kids. While it may be at the top of their list, it won't make or break Christmas for them. There is nothing wrong with trying to fulfill your child's Christmas wishes as long as it doesn't require driving the equivalent of miles from Detroit to Tampa to find it, then standing in line for six hours to purchase it and spending your entire Christmas bonus to pay for it.

Use the mileage to drive around looking at Christmas lights together, invest the time in making cookies or gingerbread houses and spend the money more wisely. They will remember these things far longer than the coveted toy that would be broken, lost or boring next April.

As for your Christmas card list, make it now. Then set aside a day between the 5th and 12th of December to sign and address them. If your kids are old enough to print, ask them to help. Your cards don't have to be written in perfect calligraphy penmanship and it will make your kids feel good to have helped. Once you've addressed them, apply postage and mail. Make this a one-time deal. You do not have to go along behind the mailman returning cards to everyone who sends you one but wasn't on your list. Instead, have an extra box of cards and sign your family's name (or just let your kids sign theirs) and drop them off to the nearest nursing home or children's home. The employees there will distribute them for you and you have created the potential to touch a few lonely hearts for the price of a box of cards.

When responding to invitations for Christmas parties and other gala events, it's OK to not go. Just say no! Attend the one or two that are the most important or that you look forward to the most and politely decline the rest. No matter how fun and exciting of a person you may be, you won't single handedly ruin anyone's party by not attending.

Make time for you, too. If you put up a tree, and it's an artificial one, do it earlier than usual. It is a worthwhile task completed and for the weeks leading up to Christmas you can stay up late with a hot chocolate (or wake up early with coffee) and enjoy your tree! Christmas is a wonderful time and you can make it merry for you and your family if you just remember what's really important - each other.