The holiday season is meant for joy, for love, for gratefulness. Instead it ends up being for stress, for anger, for anxiety. How do you deal with all of this? Listen to the holiday getter throughers, and you will be just fine. We don’t claim to be experts, but trust that we know exactly what we are talking about. Trust the process. Throughout this mystical piece, we will explain to YOU the three most difficult parts of the holiday season, and how to get through them.

For the few people who begin thinking about the holidays in summer, you know the struggle of finding the perfect gift for your family members. After all, it can take months to find just the right shade of Clinique Chubbette Lipstick for your older sister. But where do you even start if you are the average late November, early December shopper?

Most likely, you will have someone else in your family also trying to cut costs; ask them to share a gift with you. This way it looks like you really splurged on a nice gift that is sure to please, but you only had to pay for half of it. If you are an only child, you may have to reach out to that weird family friend who tries to come to your family events all the time. After all, if they want in, they’re going to have to pay for it.

If you still don’t have the funds for that, it might be time to start digging into your seven-year-old summer camp self. Crack open the glue and beads because it is time for a homemade gift. The most accepting receivers of these gifts are mothers, grandparents, and very distant relatives. Use with caution though, a practical gift with an actual function is still a better idea than a macaroni smile plate.

Now this idea might sound like common sense but you’d be surprised how many people don’t think of this. If you are out with someone and they point out something they like, write it down and buy it as soon as you can. This eliminates so much stress if you already have a gift for someone before the first snowfall. Just please: DON’T wait until Christmas Eve or the day prior to another major holiday to do the shopping.

Probably the easiest way to avoid all of this in the first place is sitting right in front of you. Online shopping has become incredibly easy nowadays and you can even have it shipped directly to your house (already wrapped!). There are constant sales or discount codes; you never have to worry about long lines or chatty moms shopping for a family of seven. It is also common for people to have online wishlists. With the press of a button you can be taken directly to the exact gift that someone wants and buy it in seconds.

By following these tricks, you will become a pro in no time. And if all else fails, just stick your name on someone else’s card and hope no one notices.

Now that the hard part is finished, it should be smooth sailing from there. SIKE!!! After getting all of the amazing gifts that your family is guaranteed to enjoy, you face arguably the worst part yet: travelling to go visit your family.

Let’s be real, there is always traffic during the holidays. Everyone expects to be stuck for at least a few hours. As if that isn’t enough, your family could be a whole flight away; and I am 99.9% positive that your flight will either be delayed or someone in your family will have to wait an hour at baggage claim.

Holiday traffic is never something fun to deal with; especially when your loudmouthed great aunt won’t stop calling to ask when you will finally be there.

Situation number one: you are driving down the interstate as a part of a seven hour drive to your uncle’s house, maybe eight with traffic. All of the sudden, your great aunt calls asking if you are an hour away. You left ten minutes ago. How do you handle this?

Smartphones recently (or eight years ago) came out with these two new functions: do not disturb and blocking numbers. Just turn on do not disturb and you won’t get any of the calls! Or for more permanent use just block your entire family! Then you have a peaceful car ride up to that place in the middle of nowhere that your family lives.

Situation number two: You are at the airport waiting to fly to the Caribbean where your entire family is meeting for Thanksgiving. It’s the day before Thanksgiving and your flight is scheduled for 8:00 in the evening. All of the sudden, the flight gets delayed until the next morning; here’s where arguing becomes a major key.

Immediately after your flight gets postponed to the next day, you demand a prepaid stay at the airports hotel in a suite. If they refuse? Easy. You get refunded for your tickets for that flight.

When you see an airport officer walking your way you drag him so deep into your struggling situation that he makes the airport pay for everything just so he doesn’t have to see you anymore. But how much do you care? The answer: you don’t.

Now to the most grueling: situation number three. The actual drive to your family’s house is about to commence. All that separates you from being able to sleep in their comfortable guest bed is the drive. You just want to be in that bed, but you can’t just yet.

You’re exhausted from doing all of that school work due right before your break starts; so all you want to do is snuggle up and take a long nap. Except you struggle to sleep sitting up in a car.

All you have to do is take the back row, because most families travel on the holidays in their minivan. Now that you have the last row secured, it’s easy sailing. Three is better than one, so you just have to lie down and put all three of the seat belts in the back row over you. (NOTE: bring a blanket and pillow, preferably tempur-pedic, for the best experience possible) Before you know it, you’re at your family’s house, after nonstop traffic; but you didn’t have to suffer through any of it.

So, you bought the perfect gift, you sat in the middle-backseat throughout a twelve-hour car ride, and now you must face perhaps the most difficult challenge yet, dealing with your nagging family.

There’s the grandmother that won’t stop putting food on the table. The uncle who keeps shushing everyone down because the game’s on. The aunt who must put politics into everything. The younger cousin who is very, very particular about what he will eat. The guy in the corner that you’ve never seen before.

When all of these people start bombarding you with questions, it can be stressful. They will ask you questions that you simply don’t want to answer.

For example: your cousin, who is the same age as you, got into the college of her dreams and is bragging about it to the whole family. Your grandmother then turns to you to ask what schools you’ve gotten into, but you haven’t heard back yet or worse have been rejected from most of your schools. What do you do?

Stay calm; these people do not mean to put pressure on you. They are simply just curious on what is going on and what your future plans are. Respond with a simple, “I’m not sure yet,” or, “I’m still waiting to hear back from a few schools” and you should be in the clear.

Another example: your little cousin won’t stop following you around. It was cute at first, but now it’s just plain insufferable. You just want to scream at the poor kid to leave you alone; however, this is probably not the best idea.

The best way to handle this dilemma is to wait it out. Remember, they are just a kid, they will go get distracted with something or someone else in due time.

If not, just be a role model. The little guy just needs someone to look up to. You may only see them a few times a year; you can tolerate a few days. They are looking up to you; don’t let them down.

In general, remember that although your relatives can be annoying, they are still family. In the words of Kanye West, “waves don’t die.” Your relationship with family will have its highs, lows, and in betweens. But at the end of the day, these are the people who will be with you through thick and thin. Appreciate them, and know that however annoying you may perceive them as being, they have good intentions and probably don’t know any better.

You shopped on Amazon to get your perfect gift, you traveled for hours, you survived a few days with your family (which felt like a few years). Congratulations! You passed the test of getting through the holidays stress free. Happy holidays!