Going Home for the Holidays

It's that time of year when people start making plans to visit their parents or families for the holidays. The holidays can be stressful, and one of the reasons is that we put such high expectations on them. We are bombarded with images in the media of happy families playing in the snow and singing carols around a grand piano. Mom is baking cookies and Dad and the kids are dressed in fashionable sweaters building a snowman in the yard. Even when we know how unrealistic these scenes are, we still sometimes get high expectations about how things will go with our families over the holidays. Here are some tips for gays and lesbians to stay sane during the holidays.