As a working mom, I can tell you life is busy. When the holidays arrive each year, "busy" anxiously welcomes its long lost pal "overwhelm". So how can you cope with stress during the season of supposed cheer?

Delegate. Are you lucky enough to have a friend or coworker who's a fabulous baker? I do. Emily Donohue, our online editor here at The Saratogian, can whip up a delectable holiday cookie tray in a flash. I just ordered two homemade (albeit not by me) cookie trays that will be ready on Christmas Eve. If you don't have your own source, feel free to borrow mine. Emily's Cookies

Schedule a sanity check. Call a girlfriend for coffee or tag team a shopping trip. I play Bunco with more than 20 great gals in Saratoga once a month and this month we're turning our "girl's night in" into a girl's night outside. Honk if you see a group of women serenading fellow Saratogians on Broadway in Saratoga this Thursday! I'm looking so forward to getting into the spirit of the season.

Sign on. I was a late adopter to online shopping. I think it's partly because I spent nearly four years as a local business owner before returning to media. I couldn't bring myself to shop at a store where I didn't know the owner (or manager, at least). You know what changed that? I had a baby and became a working mother! Now, I buy the name brand stuff the way the rest of the world does. For unique and handmade gifts, I shop local all the way. It's all about balance when you don't have the luxury of time.

Start a new tradition. I'd like to say my idea for starting a new family tradition came straight from the heart. Nope. Mine came in the form of a Bed, Bath and Beyond $5 off coupon. The flyer from the paper showcased an easy-to-assemple, fully stocked kit for making a colorful, traditional ginger bread house. For about ten bucks, I've got myself a new family tradition.

Treat yourself. You know you want to. That gorgeous scarf. The over-the-knee leather boots. A relaxing massage. My version of taming the holiday tension took the form of a much needed personal day last Friday that included a hot stone massage. The soft light, aromas, and the sensation of knots leaving my stressed out shoulders proved to be just what I needed.

Enjoy the season and feel free to share your holiday survival tips with me!

I remember last year scrambling out the door on the Friday before Easter, the task of getting the kids' basket goodies still ahead of me. Because we were leaving town the next morning to head to Connecticut for the holiday, this was my window for getting it done.

Where could I go that would be on the way home, open at 9 p.m. and have enough left at this point to fill two Easter baskets? My boss, who also was still at the office and has been in my harried shoes, suggested swinging into CVS — surely I could get a few meaningful trinkets, a couple of chocolate bunnies and some jelly beans there. And while things were picked over, I scored enough to make only the one stop so I could get home to pack.

It's not that I don't want to plan ahead and get things earlier, especially for Easter. As a Christian, this is a really special celebration. While Christmas is obviously special, too, the events of this day are what we center our beliefs on. I have wonderful childhood memories of outdoor sunrise services in our fresh-from-the-store Easter dresses, one of the few new items of clothing I remember getting. I get goosebumps every time we sing "Christ the Lord is Risen Today" during an Easter service, and my mother and I exhange a knowing look and a smile.

So planning for Easter is not so much a matter of procrastination as it is that I'm constantly in the mode of crisis time management. This year, however, I am a whole day ahead of schedule. I went to Wal-Mart last night, and all the goodies are stowed away in the trunk, ready for their pilgrimage to my sister's house in Connecticut tomorrow.

OK, I just realized it's warming up rather quickly outside, and my planning could backfire if I don't go save the bunnies from melting into unrecognizable chocolate blobs in the trunk. Happy Easter everyone!