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Celebrating Looming Holiday Stress

Why are looming holidays a time of such stress? This is an issue that's hard to assess. It could be the flu that's making us stew, but are there some other good grounds for distress?
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Why are looming holidays a time of such stress?

This is an issue that's hard to assess

It could be the flu

That's making us stew

But are there some other good grounds for distress?

A person I know at his family feast

Finds that his heart rate is vastly increased

Whenever his aunt

Goes off on a rant

In praise of his cousin, the budding artiste

It's relatives, kinfolk, who get on his nerves

The pique that he feels no one really deserves

He hates when they're cute

Or when they're hirsute

He hates them and baits them, one quickly observes

And yet to the root of the problem he's blind

His anger fades out when he sit downs to dine

As soon as he eats

He gets very upbeat

Especially after a good glass of wine

By then all his kinfolk seem really just fine

His cousin seems funny, his aunt seems benign

The guy with the hair

May be still full of air

But no one could care, the whole world's just divine

Then suddenly someone says something quite rude

And one of the children has upchucked his food

Talk about stress

The place is a mess!

The drunken artiste makes a joke that is crude

Then the talk turns to health and the passage of bills

Insurance, Obama and all of his ills

Some people are pro

Some go back, to and fro

It ends in a battle of strong-minded wills

But when the guests leave with a tearful goodbye

Their hair all disheveled, their glasses awry

They're full of good cheer

For the upcoming year

They've loved it, just loved it, which none can belie

So laugh and be merry and don't get annoyed

It doesn't take Adler; it doesn't take Freud

To figure it out

That what it's about

Is that stress, although taxing, can still be enjoyed.

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