The holidays are without a doubt the best time of year, and one thing is for sure. You always know when you have made it home for the holidays. Of course there is the smell of great home cooked food coming from the kitchen, but there are also a few other sure fire signs that let you know you have arrived. If in doubt here's a quick checklist of symptoms...

You Feel Like You are Actually Living Inside of a Toaster Oven

Energy conservation was long forgotten about at home; if you are indoors and the temperature makes you feel like you have just arrived in The Bahamas, chances are you have made it home successfully. The thermostat could probably use a little adjustment when everyone realizes the holiday meal is half cooked before it ever even goes inside the oven!

Let's face it, the only chance of an arctic breeze in your future is a Blizzard from Dairy Queen.

You are Watching the 106th Season of CBS' Survivor on TV

Survivor Official Facebook Page

Survivor used to be one of the hottest reality crazes on TV, but that time has long since past... by just a shade under a decade! They are literally in the show's 27 season now; believe me I know because I just watched it. Therefore if you are watching Survivor on TV, it is probably a good bet that you are home!

There is another related symptom to this one that is a little more generic, and chances are you have experienced it at some point in the past. If you sit down to watch TV and after 15 minutes are the only one not asleep, you are most definitely home. And what is the most common channel for the TV to be on? Yep you are right... The Weather Channel.

All of Your Wifi Enabled Devices are Unable to Connect

"The Connection was Reset"

If you are not experiencing either symptoms above, consider yourself lucky. However maybe this one will strike a chord.

Your laptop and your iPhone are both dead in the water (we are in the basement after all). You just get hopeless messages like "connection reset" or "page cannot be displayed." That's when it hits you that mom and dad just upgraded from AOL dial-up last year; wireless internet is out of the question!

This time of year web browsers need to add another diagnostic statement to the list of ones normally displayed that says something along the lines of "Home for the holidays? Sorry you are SOL."

It is 7:05 AM and You are Already Awake on a Holiday

If you are lucky, the reason for being up early is that you had to set an alarm for some awful reason, but that is your own fault. However chances are that if you were "accidentally" woken up way too early on a holiday, you are home.

Somehow dad thought that blaring Animal Plant first thing in the morning was conducive to sleep. Maybe he was just going for the the fully immersive tropical experience including wildlife; we are in The Bahamas after all!

You are Listening to Kenny G Instead of Jay Z

Ethan Miller, Getty Images

As a little kid Christmas is such a magical season, and the sounds of the season abound. Over time that seems to fade a bit. Apparently the desire to constantly listen to Christmas music is once again kindled with age. If you experience none of the other symptoms on this list, you will surely know you are home after riding in the back seat of the car as mom and dad jamb out to Kenny G performing the entire gamut of Christmas classics.

While all of this may be true, there is nothing like being home for the holidays! Have some great symptoms that I missed? Leave them in the comments below...