Ahhhhh, the holidaze are upon us.  I had a wonderful Thanksgiving sharing a meal with my daughter and some newly found friends/neighbors.  And the day was realitively stress free.  Sure, there was the pre-holiday shopping and cleaning and preparing.  I even was having my office/living room and (only on the holidays) dining room painted during the week of the holiday.  There was the unplanned replacement of the wobbly fan with a beautiful chandalier and the realization that I will have do without the dimmer switch that started the whole fan replacement side journey.  In the olden days, I would have fretted and fussed.  My blood pressure would have risen.  I would have blamed myself and made myself wrong for having taken the risk of trying to replace a dead fan switch for a dimmer switch.  This year I rejoiced in finding out that the fan was dangerously dangling from one screw and shouldn't have been there in the first place. 
Being able to change how I look at things, people, situations has been one of the best learnings I have gotten over the years.  Reframing the content of the challenge or problem and putting it into another context has saved me from anger, dissapointment and tons of stress.  I used to worry that the fan would come crashing down on the conference table with a client sitting there.  (Or during a holiday meal with family and friends.)  Now I am confident that I have a safe lighting fixture. 
There are a few imperfect paint lines.  Something to stress over?  Heck no.  Life isn't perfect.  The rooms were painted a wonderfully bold color (covering sterile white) and I marvel at the richness whenever I pass thru the rooms. 
Steps to de-stress a problem or situation during the holidays:
1. Problem presents itself
2. Take 3 long deep breaths and let them out slowly.
3. Ask yourself...
      "Is there a way that I can look at this that would make it OK?"  
      "What could be 3 positive outcomes for this challenge?"  
      "If this happened in another place or time...would you think differently about it?" 
      "What's the best thing I can do at this moment to eliviate the problem for my highest good?"
4. Take Action... Do what you chose to do (which may include doing nothing at the moment and calling a repairman). 
5. Be Grateful that you chose to react in a  positive manner to this situation and remember that this method defused what, in the past, would have been a stressful situation.

Holidays were wrought with possibly stressful situations...using this method has helped me stay realitively stress free.  Try it ... you might find yourself relaxed in the most interesting of times.