Last year, my son got Covid for Christmas.

Seriously, after two shots and a booster, he ended up feeling bad enough that he decided to take a test only to discover he had Covid on December 23 … an hour before we were planning to drive to Carmel, Indiana to gather together with family.

He called me, upset and confused. What did this mean? Did it mean we’d head south without him, leaving him to sort out this sickness and Christmas all by himself? Did it mean we’d all stay home? My daughter was so excited about spending time with her cousins and was crushed at the thought. We were all looking forward to this family time. What did we do now?

To only make matters worse, there was a Winter Storm forecast to hit Detroit within the hour. Whatever decision we made had to be fast. Really fast.

I called my dad and told him the situation. He said, “I want my family here for Christmas. Come.”

So we did. We packed up, and Jarod and I headed out within 15 minutes of that call. Doug and Paige followed shortly after. We beat the storm only by minutes — frigid temperatures, snow, and ice hit hard. And so did Covid.

Jarod was completely miserable. Not only was he feeling all kinds of awful, but he didn’t want his grandparents to get sick. We stayed 24 hours and then returned home on perilous, ice-covered roads. It was a harrowing, white-knuckle kind of drive. And it was just a bad decision to travel there overall …

But was it? When we arrived and before Covid really sank its teeth into Jarod, we enjoyed a few moments with my parents — him 6-feet separated and wearing a mask — to watch one of our favorite Christmas movies: “The Muppet Family Christmas.” We spent precious time together, sharing a couple meals before packing up and heading back to Royal Oak on Christmas Eve. It wasn’t all bad. (I can say that because I wasn’t feeling crappy — it was pretty horrible for Jarod!)

The thing was, I knew this was going to be the last Christmas where Mom and Dad would be living in their home on Edison Way — a home they had helped design and that my mom loved to decorate for every holiday, especially when family gathered. But, Mom and Dad weren’t able to do much decorating any more. And time was growing more limited and more precious ….

A few weeks prior, Jarod and I had driven down to decorate their house for Christmas. My mom had boxes and boxes and boxes of decorations. We wanted to help them create a festive feel one final year in this house so they could thoroughly enjoy the sparkle, color, and collections they’d assembled so lovingly over the years.

We carried down boxes (and boxes, and boxes, and boxes!!), my mom sorted through Santas, Nutcrackers, and Boyd’s Bears, and Jarod and I decked the halls, the walls, the shelf cubbies, and the steps in a way special to them and special to us. It was a crazy amount of work but so worth it. My mom could enjoy her decorations for another year.

As we anticipated, my parents moved out of that house and into a retirement community within the next couple of months. My sister-in-law handled the lions’ share of the sorting. But, in the spring, my brother Jeff and I met at the house and finished sorting — going through a lifetime of memories, including ornaments and decorations from the attic. Some were donated while others we distributed to the grandkids. Oh, Jeff and I took a few special things for ourselves and I look forward to adding them to our own Harwood Avenue holiday decor. We also set aside special favorites so our parents could enjoy them in their new home.

But, despite these efforts, they probably won’t decorate much, if any, this year. Dad had hip surgery in late September and is still recovering. And during his surgery/recovery, Mom moved into the Memory Care Center — initially a temporary stay. But, unfortunately, her dementia has progressed and grown worse in the past month. It is unlikely there will be another Carmichael-Clark photo around her piano or that we will gather as we did in years past to share the Christmas traditions so long enjoyed by our combined families.

Yet, between the trip to decorate last November and the 24-hour Covid Christmas, I had a brief glimpse of Christmases past. And we all had a few more minutes with Mom and Dad — Gammie and Granddaddy. So, even in that terrible, no good, very bad Christmas, there were a few moments where we saw the light of that star. And I will be grateful for those fleeting glimpses for the rest of my life.

So, as Thanksgiving approaches and I count my blessings before enjoying that no-excuses holiday meal, I am grateful for those 24 hours in Carmel — and grateful we made it to and from safely. I am grateful for the traditions my parents instilled in me and my kids. And, I am grateful for the people who will join me at the table, for those who will be spending their holiday elsewhere, and for those who have passed on from our earthly Thanksgiving table and now celebrate at a heavenly one.

Mixed Blessings are still blessings … it’s just a matter of how you decide to look at them.

Growing up, my mom always decorated our house in Valparaiso for every holiday.

Early on, I recall it was very simple … themed cardboard images on the wall each holiday and specialty items in a variety of places. I recall making ornaments with pins and sparkles. And or course there was an Easter egg tree that she created, carefully draining the egg yokes and painting the shells.

As years progressed and they retired into a house in Syracuse, I recall the decorations became more involved. Rich floral elements graced the cupboards in the fall; red, white, and blue items appeared on side tables and in bathrooms in the summertime; and a fabulous Santa and Nutcracker collection began to decorate the mantle when Christmas came along.

No matter when I visited them, the house reflected the character of the season.

Recently, my parents moved from their home into a retirement community — an apartment that would never support the amount of decorations they had assembled over the years. We cleaned out the attic, which featured more bins than I could count of decorations — items that brought joy to my mom and to everyone who visited their home. Their last Christmas in the Carmel house, my son Jarod and traveled down after Thanksgiving to handle the decorating for them. I recall the joy both of us felt as we opened boxes and found the items that helped create that festive feeling for us personally. Jarod like the stuffed Santas, animals, and snowmen that my mom always placed on the stairs. And I enjoyed finding her special Boyd’s Bear to their shelves.

If you think about it, our calendar year offers many festive holidays. And, like my mom, I decorate for many of them. Perhaps not to the extent that she did. But each holiday is reflected in my home. And I know my kids enjoy the decorations as much as I enjoy placing them around the house.

But, when Christmas comes along, well for some reason, decorations seem to multiply.

Yesterday I visited a craft fair. Even though it’s November and only weeks until Thanksgiving, the fair was dominated by Christmas/Winter decor. Why is it that the December holidays bring out the interior designer in all of us while the holidays throughout the rest of the year are relegated to a limited selection? What is it about Christmas — which again is only a one-month celebration — that creates the need to transform our home with sparkles, red and green tchotchkes, and well-dressed snowmen?

Well, I don’t know. But I do know that I bring out the tinsel! Decorating my home creates a sense of “homeyness” that people feel. And while I typically decorate on “the First” for any of the holiday months, I brought out the Hallowe’en decor early when I knew my college daughter Paige would be coming home. I mailed a package to Jarod when he was in college — and did the same for Paige this year — sending along a selection of fall decorations for their dorm rooms. And I now shop for festive items to help my grown-up kids bring that feeling to their own spaces.

With my parents aging and all the complications that has brought, perhaps my love of decorating is a way of paying tribute to them — to the loving home and the feelings it fostered for me when I arrived during one of those special seasons that brought out the interior designer in my mom. Perhaps it was something I learned from them that just “stuck” and made me want to bring whatever that feeling was into own space. All I know is that starting that first December 1st at Albion College, I rose early to surprise my flat-mate Nina with Christmas tinsel, tunes, and socks hanging on our bunkbeds. Socks that my mom had sewn for each of us.

When they moved out of their most recent home in Carmel, my brother and I packed up boxes of decorations to share with each of the grandkids — hopeful they too can find that feeling my mom and dad created for us all over the years. I brought home many of my mom’s seasonal Boyd’s bears. Right now, the Pilgrim and Native American Boyd’s are featured near the grandfather clock that once belonged to my own grandparents. When Christmas arrives, there will be different bears to place in that special spot. It brings my mom into my home, I guess.

Whatever the reason, I’m sure my mom attended Craft Fairs to find special pieces to make the Holidays — every one of them — special. I know my parents shopped for Santas and Nutcrackers and built quite a collection. I know my dad liked to buy special Santas for my mom each Christmas. I now have a few of their decorations to add to the collection that my husband and I have built … like my dad, I think he enjoys the festive feelings these decorations add to our home. And, my kids both have their own Pipka Santa from the extensive Carmichael Collection.

Yes, there are more bins with Christmas items than any other holiday. Even more now that I have additional items from my parents’ attic. But, as I open the bins each holiday and place the items special to me — and now, the ones that were special to my parents — it brings them and their loving energy into my home. It creates that Holiday Feeling that makes me smile.

Whether it’s Dingy Bat at Hallowe’en, construction paper creations from my kids, or a Santa once displayed at my parents’ home and finding its place to mine, Holiday decorations create a warm, peaceful, grateful, happy feeling for me and whoever steps through my front door.

Perhaps that’s the reason Craft Fairs are so prevalent this time of year most of all. Maybe that’s why we shop and decorate. We all seek to find those special items to capture that magical feeling from childhood. And once we find it, we seek to create it in our own homes to offer the people dearest to us that same sense of warmth, peace, gratitude, and happiness.