With the holiday season here, it's easy to get overwhelmed with the shopping and the cooking and the wrapping and the baking and the decorating and the stuff. So make a pact with your best gal pals to spend an afternoon or an evening – a day, if you can – just hanging out together and having a good time.

Maybe you'll go shopping; maybe not. Maybe there will be mani-pedi appointments; maybe not. Maybe there will be pasta, coffee and chocolate; maybe ... OK, there will be pasta, coffee and chocolate!

You'll trade recipes. You'll admire shoes and handbags. You'll brag – just a bit – about the kids. And for a few hours, you won't be somebody's mom, or wife, or boss, or assistant. You'll be somebody's friend.

It'll be over too soon, but you'll enjoy it longer than you can imagine.

Make the time. It's worth it. Start your planning at www.thebeachiscalling.org