Ah, the holidays…all is calm, all is bright. Or not.

There's always plenty of self-help articles in women's magazines around the holidays, coaching women on how to simplify their lives and commitments during that time of year. Quite frankly-and don't write me nasty letters-I've never understood it. The holidays have never been overwhelmingly hectic for me.

Until this year.

I'd been congratulating myself for months because I ordered a huge shipment of gifts online in late August. I was set. There were still a few things I needed to pick up for loved ones, of course, but that could be done later. When "later" arrived, however, so did everything else: my wedding, my fiancé's January 3rd birthday, and a cat who still insists that she'll determine where she urinates, thank you very much.

And the baking this year. Oh, the baking. Maybe I do this much baking every year, but it's never seemed like such a massive undertaking. I always make double chocolate biscotti for my family at Christmas, and this year was no exception. I have no explanation as to how that came to be a tradition, as we're in no way Italian. We're Canadian, which means we have no cultural tradition except an inexplicable love of moose.

But I digress. When I told my soon-to-be-husband, Jeff, about my annual tradition and offered to make some biscotti for his family too, he said that was a great idea. Except for his grandmothers, who wouldn't eat hard cookies. Even though I explained that biscotti are meant to be dunked in coffee, cocoa, or even milk until they're softened, biscotti weren't on the menu for the grandmothers. So I offered to make Neiman Marcus cookies for them. Who doesn't love those?

Apparently, Santa Claus. When I told my son, Jesse, that we could leave these wonderful chocolate chip cookies for Santa Claus, he was adamant that Santa would prefer chocolate-peanut butter cookies-the same cookies Jesse had been clamoring for over the past two weeks. What a coincidence. So, chocolate-peanut butter cookies were also on the "to be baked" list.

I know, I know. I could have said, "Listen, buddy. Santa will eat those chocolate chip cookies and like them. So there." But-and all of you mothers of only children out there, back me up-the word "no" usually doesn't come up in my house. "Can I have some ice cream?" Yes. "Can I watch a basketball game for the billionth night in a row?" Of course. "Can the cat take a bath with me?" I don't see why not.

So, in the days leading up to Christmas, all was not calm and bright-all was a blur. But for Christmas Eve and Day, we were able to slow our pace from breakneck to only slightly harried and enjoy the many wonderful moments. And I'm sure next year the holidays will go back to being a nice, calm season. That's what happens when you get married, right? Hey, are you laughing at me? TPW