Sorry, this column isn’t really about Elvis, dead or alive. Though it is a bit about life and death. The column I write closest to Christmas and New Year’s is usually more humorous and a bit preachy. I can’t totally forego that last part.

The holidays are, after all, a time for remembering that it is the thought behind gift-giving — not the gifts themselves — that matter. The holidays also are a time for making resolutions and counting our blessings.

There have been a few extra challenges regarding all that this year, though, especially recently. But they should only serve to emphasize all I and we can be grateful for, including some things we take for granted. For instance, on Dec. 23, my household was among those without power. Luckily, we have a gas fireplace, so one room, at least, was just very chilly when we celebrated Christmas with my mother, daughter, son-in-law and grandkids. One could say our crowding together by the fireplace was cozy.

That night, after our guests had left, we dragged some mattresses down from the upstairs bedrooms along with lots of quilts and heavy blankets and positioned them next to each other in front of the fire. Five of us managed to make do. We remembered that many other people have poorer or no shelter, nor other basic necessities.

Then, sometime before midnight, a call came from a member of my husband Tony’s family. His mother, Mama Rosina, or “Mama ‘Ro” as everyone calls her, is 94. She had been recovering nicely from both a stroke and heart attack she suffered shortly after Thanksgiving, but she had just had another stroke. She was being taken from the nursing home to the intensive care unit in the hospital, and things did not look good.

After a restless night and when it was barely daylight, Tony threw some things into a bag and, with our younger son, Philip, set off on the five-hour drive to see his mother for the third time in as many weeks. We had all visited for Thanksgiving, and Tony had gone again when Mama ‘Ro took ill the first time.

Son and grandson spent the night in cots by her bed. Mama ‘Ro wasn’t responsive and wasn’t expected to last the night, which was Christmas Eve. Many other members of her extended family also took turns holding vigil over her, comforting each other and praying. She had lived a long and full life and had even said she was ready to die, but that didn’t mean it would be easy for others to let her go.

When Tony called me Christmas morning, I expected to hear that the end had come. I was ready to set off with the rest of our family and join him. I expected my Christmas to be spent handling funeral preparations instead of celebrating the holiday.

That wasn’t the case. This Christmas, Mama ‘Ro had a surprise for us. Instead of leaving us, she returned. Christmas morning, surrounded by loved ones, she woke up. She spoke coherently and even made jokes. As the day progressed, she regained more mobility and even improved to the point where she would be moved from the ICU.

Anything can happen between my writing this and the time it is printed. Mama ‘Ro’s improvement could be the last rally before the end or the beginning of several more years she may share with us. In any case, the gift of her recovery on Christmas Day — for however long it lasts — was a wonderful present to her family and friends.

My husband and our son Philip are now headed home again. Our gifts to each other still sit under our Christmas tree, unopened. We’ll pick another day, soon, for our Christmas celebration together. We know that although we were apart on Dec. 25, it was nothing like the kind of separation endured by many other families, especially those with a loved one in the military stationed overseas.

And, as they and many others already know, we are aware that it isn’t the date on the calendar that makes Christmas be Christmas — it’s the shared love and goodwill.

So — and here comes the New Year’s tie-in and slightly preachy part — not only could New Year’s Day or any day “be” Christmas, in that sense, but every day should be.

True Christmas spirit should be expressed all year round because the spirit of the season is what really counts. Therefore, I wish everyone both a happy New Year and another Merry Christmas every day.