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C hristmas and the surrounding holiday season is always a good time for reflection, and seeing Junior play with a piece of wrapping paper while ignoring the gift inside makes me think about just how different this year is from last. Junior is now 18 months old, and has turned into a chatty and personable toddler. He likes to run, name body parts, eat "Berries!" and "Cheese!" and pretty much anything else. Most of his words are cutely mispronounced and always have exclamation points after them.

This is quite a different scenario from what we were dealing with last December, when he ate only breast milk, very reluctantly, and formula. He had not yet begun to crawl and his first word was another six months away. He also was teething in earnest, and like the old Christmas song goes, he actually did get his two front teeth. But the most challenging thing for all of us was that he was still up routinely two or three times a night. I was a walking zombie.

Jack sleeps through the night now, except for the odd occasion, and if he sometimes needs soothing at 3 am, it's not a big deal to get up and do so, because I've had a full night's sleep for a week before, and I'm reasonably sure I will for the next week ahead. I cannot put into words how much better my life is now that I can sleep for eight uninterrupted hours, my husband's snoring excepted.

I've been back at work now since July and feeling pretty good about it. I miss my boys while I'm at work, of course, but having Stephen at home with Jack is a huge bonus. I come home to dinner ready or almost ready, and the laundry done. It's lovely. And I'm tired at the end of the day, but it's great knowing that I can plan on the boy sleeping through the night.

Even though I'm so very lucky to have a stay-at-home husband who does the lion's share of the housework, being a working-outside-the-home mom is still hard work. This became even more apparent during the holiday season. I've only baked twice so far this month, both times the night before I needed the cookies for a gathering, whereas last year, I already had three kinds packed away in the freezer in advance. And after much fretting and stressing, we decided that we weren't going to send out Christmas cards this year. The thought of writing dozens of cards was in and of itself daunting enough, but we simply couldn't get it together to take a spontaneous but adorable photo of Junior to include in them. So, taking a page from every "How to beat holiday stress" magazine article, we decided to strike something from our To-Do list, and that was it.

Christmas brought new excitement for us this year, now that Junior is more able to play and interact, not only with us, but with all the relatives. Visiting other people's homes led to new baby-proofing challenges, since he was off and running before we could even take our boots off. This required a heightened sense of parental vigilance that could sometimes affect the holiday merry-making, since he didn't really slow down until he conked out in the car on the way home.

W e tried to continue our long-standing family tradition of reading “Twas the Night Before Christmas” by C. Clement Moore, from a stunning Robert Sabuda pop-up-book. Unfortunately, the pop-ups were so detailed, and popped up with such speed and force that it scared the boy to death. The late hour probably didn't help his coping skills either. We'll try again next year, earlier in the day, and open the book more slowly, and with lots of warning.

Christmas morning was really fun. “Anta” had left him an Ernie from Sesame Street doll, unwrapped, that he recognized right away, pointing out his hair, ears, nose and “googie” (googly) eyes. Junior doesn't really understand who Santa is but recognizes him in pictures from the storybooks that we borrowed from the library. I imagine that next year he’ll get the whole “Santa brings me toys” concept, but for now it’s nice to know that he thinks of him just as a guy in a red suit and funny beard who seems to be everywhere right now.

I'm lucky enough to have two weeks of much-needed holidays before I start the New Year in a new workplace. I'm looking forward to some personal relaxation time, but also to having some unscheduled fun with my boys. I'm headed to Canadian Tire to buy a toboggan, and can't wait to hit our neighbourhood hill with Junior all bundled up, and then return home for some hot chocolate and a nap.

We may not have that perfect holiday photo to send to our friends and family, but that's all right. We've got some blurry ones of a perpetual-motion little boy who never stays still for the camera. Those will bring back the memories just as well as a posed photo shoot, for me, anyway.

Happy holidays to all, and to all a good night's sleep!