Holidays! This is the time of the year when people go visit their families for, supposedly, good times and a nice meal together.

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Well, these are gatherings where we revive family ties and catch up on news from everyone. More often than not, though, what we see is a gathering of a bunch of people who have nothing in common, really. Here sits a bunch of strangers called relatives: uncles, cousins, in-laws, friends of family, nephews, etc. all dressed up with nowhere but a family dinner to go.

After greeting everyone, you decide to take a look at what others are doing. You will regrettably realize that some will drink too much; others will eat too much; others won't turn off the television; others will only serve others, and still others will never stop cleaning. You want to make small talk but after some futile attempts, you get bored.

To make matters worse, some will do nothing but criticize everyone else while others, especially the ones doing all the cleaning will make everyone else feel guilty. And to complete the ordeal, there are also those who, no matter what, will bring up politics and religion to the table, just to heat up the conversation.

More than a fun day, it will most likely be a pretty stressful one, compared only to the tension of "The Pianist." After a very short while, you will realize that, again, you wish days such as this never existed.

An even worse case scenario would be if the visit is to your spouse's family rather than your own. Than, the nightmare would be complete. Oh, yes! You think for a moment that your family is not comprised of a bunch of weirdoes as his or her family is.

Dream on! Your life-partner will feel just the opposite!

So, how do we deal with such a situation?

The best approach is to learn in advance who will be present in this gathering.

Call ahead of time, at least three days beforehand. Now that you know that Aunt Myrtle and Uncle Wilbur will be there with their two children and the their families, and that your sister-in-law will bring that guy who really thinks he is a good politician but can't really speak one sentence using common sense, as well as Rupert, your father-in-law's college roommate that just got divorced after 30 years of marriage and can never shut up about his wife keeping the house he bought for her in the first place, you can begin to pray for them.

Ok. Perhaps "pray" is a strong word. Bless them. That is what you need to do: one by one, you should bless them. Better yet: make a list of the event attendees. Ok, let's make a list:

1. Get your phone and call at least three days before the gathering to learn about those who will be attending the event.

2. On a piece of paper, write down everyone's names.

3. Write each name on a different line.

4. Thank the host/hostess for the names and hang up the phone.

5. On another sheet, write again the names of the dinner's attendees.

6. Leave five blank lines between names.

7. For each of the attendees, write five good qualities each person has.

8. If you can't find something good about a particular person, skip him or her and go to the next one.

9. When you are done, go back to fill the blanks of the people you left behind.

10. No, you may not skip finding five qualities of each person who will be in the gathering.

11. Put your pen down, or stop writing if you are using a word processor. I recommend you do this by hand: it is more powerful.

12. After you are done with everyone, say aloud each name and bless this person.

For example, Aunt Myrtle:

(1) makes delicious brownies,

(2) sings beautifully,

(3) knows how to buy bargains,

(4) dresses extravagantly - if you like the way she dresses; otherwise, find something else--

(5) remembers everybody's birthday.

Bless you, Aunt Myrtle; I am looking forward to seeing you at the dinner (you can add the word God, if you so wish, as in: God bless you, Aunt Myrtle, I am looking forward, etc., etc.)

Got the picture? What if you simply hate a person with such a passion that you can't think of a good quality even if your life depended on it? Look deeper. I swear it is possible to find those five good qualities, even if they are lame ones. At least they are qualities!

Now, be ready for a miracle. When you get to the gathering, you will see that those who bother you will leave you in peace; those who criticize you, will be pleasant, or, at least, mute; those who love you will go out of their way to make you feel welcome, and so on and so forth.

It is all about your energy regarding these people. I guarantee you will be so happily surprised by the pleasantness of the gathering that you wish you had known about this process a long time ago.

By the way, after the holidays are gone, you still can use this process for any occasion, really. You only need to start doing your list every time you need to meet someone else.

The holiday season has arrived. The stores are all ramped up for Christmas and the decorations are out from floor to ceiling. Everyone in the country is in the midst of making their plans for Thanksgiving and Christmas with great anticipation. Menus are being planned, parties are being arranged, and decorations are being pulled from closets, attics and basements everywhere. After sometime you think you have thought of everything to make Thanksgiving the best feast ever and Christmas the most memorable. You have your food shopping all planned and your gift buying almost completed.

You have even decided what to feed your vegan in-laws in lieu of Turkey and Prime Rib. Did you remember your carpeting? You know that big flat colored thing that covers your floor that you spent so much money on. It is going to receive more traffic in a few weeks than it has all year. Flying around your home, above your carpet, will be a whole bunch of new threats to its remaining pristine. Thanksgiving brings out red cranberry sauce, orange pumpkin pie and sweet potatoes, brown gravy, black olives and an assortment of liquids ranging from red wine to beer, soda and an array of mixed drinks with a huge variety of multi colored ingredients.

Then comes the pre-Christmas parties intermingled with Football. Saucy Buffalo wings in the hands of excited fans are an accident in waiting. Pizza, when dropped, always lands topping side down. Beer will find its way to the carpet every time, as will chip dip.

So now it is time for the big days. Christmas Eve and Christmas and you want everything to be as perfect as a Hallmark made for TV movie and it is. Except for the mess the past 4 weeks have made of your carpet. You call your carpet cleaning service and they tell you they are booked solid. You take out the yellow pages and start calling around without success. By luck you run into your neighbor and she tells you about David from Carpet Doctor and the great service he provides. She calls them for you and they agree to squeeze you into their busy schedule. they arrives just in time and determines, with your help, what each and every stain is on your carpet. He works on them independently then gives your carpet a thorough cleaning. It comes out like new and you are ready to do a happy dance. He explains to you that he can treat the carpet to protect it so when the Christmas crowd leaves the clean up will be much faster therefore saving you money. You agree.

So the next day your husband and son come in dragging a live spruce tree across the living room. No worries the pine tar will come right vakantie denemarken up. It is now Christmas Eve and your friends and family are there and all sorts of new carpet bombs are being passed. Shrimp sauce, Guacamole, Chinese mustard, Thai curry, Korean barbeque, pulled pork, lobster bisque, eggnog and the rest of the arsenal are causing cluster stains all over. Then it all ends with the last guest spilling his red wine on the coffee table and onto the floor before leaving. It's over until tomorrow. Fortunately Christmas Day's festivities are being held in the formal dining room. Today's menu consists of prime rib au jus, Yorkshire pudding, several vegetables, roasted potatoes and a nice Cabernet. There is nothing too threatening there except Buddy. He is one year old and can throw any food from his highchair with the speed and accuracy of a baby Nolan Ryan and he does.

Christmas Day has ended and you look at your carpet and are ready to cry. New Years Eve is only a week a way and guests are coming again. You call David and he is there again in a timely manner. He assures you that there absolutely is no problem. One quick steam cleaning and it is all removed thanks to the special protection he applied. It will be a Happy New Year! While making all their plans for the Holidays people very often forget to either call a carpet cleaner or protect it from the unusual amount of traffic that occurs during the season. Protect your investment, call a Tampa carpet cleaning professional today. Now is the time to prepare!