Brenda Soriano came home for the holidays in 2007 and amid the family frenzy, she noticed something wasn’t quite right with her mother.

“My mother, she smiles, she looks at the camera, and you could tell she wasn’t there,” Soriano said of her mother’s first signs of Alzheimer’s.

The holiday season is a time when family members gather and often see loved ones whom they haven’t seen for months. Their day-to-day absence can make them particularly sensitive to any cognitive changes in aging family members.

Dr. Elizabeth Crocco, who specializes in geriatric psychiatry and is the medical director at Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Geriatric Psychiatry in-patient unit, said this a common occurrence.

“What tends to happen is that is that they [relatives] think everything is fine — when they talk to them on the phone — but when they actually come to visit, they can notice signs,” she said.

Crocco said that what often ensues is that the family members who have been out of town get upset with their siblings because they think they have been neglecting their loved ones, when in reality, they might just not have noticed because the changes have been progressive.

Dr. Ranjan Duara, medical director of the Wien Center for Alzheimer’s Disease and Memory Disorders at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, went a step further and explained that, “often those who interact with the aging family member regularly, may assume that what are in fact signs of Alzheimer’s, are simply signs of normal aging.”

Duara said there are various symptoms that people with Alzheimer’s have that are similar to those of normal aging, but the difference is that those of Alzheimer’s become more persistent and tend to evolve more quickly.

Duara recommends that those concerned with memory issues undergo a memory screening — a brief test that tests the patient’s ability to remember common things. He gave the example of asking a patient to draw a clock with the numbers, the second and minute hands, and the correct time.

But, he noted, there are at least two situations that may cause a memory screening to produce a false positive. Patients who suffer from depression and/or anxiety may have such a hard time concentrating that they may not do well on the tests, raising a false red flag for the doctor and the patient. Additionally, he said it was important to go through the patient’s list of medications, because drugs that treat vertigo and allergies may also affect one’s memory.

It’s important to distinguish the typical aging signs, versus those of Alzheimer’s. So when you’re home sipping some eggnog, trying to find just the right place to hang the mistletoe, lighting the menorah — or simply enjoying family time, keep an eye out for the following signs, compiled by the Alzheimer’s Association, to help you discern if your loved one is just maturing, or if they should be seen by a specialist.

1. Memory loss that disrupts daily life. One of the most common signs of Alzheimer’s is memory loss, especially forgetting recently learned information. Others include forgetting important dates or events, asking for the same information over and over, relying on memory aides (e.g., reminder notes or electronic devices) or family members for things they used to handle on one’s own.