A Very Special Christmas

On Christmas Eve we invited Sterling's parents over for the evening. A few days earlier Karleen, Sterling's mom, and I had been talking about Cafe Rio salads. She had never had one, so Sterling decided we should make homemade Cafe Rio salads for Christmas Eve dinner. Kind of an odd choice I know, but they were amazingly delicious. After dinner we put Emma into her Christmas jammies and put her to bed so we could watch It's a Wonderful Life. Val, Sterling's dad, wanted to go home after a little bit, but Karleen wanted to keep watching the movie. So during the next commercial break, they ran home so Karleen could keep watching and not miss too much. Later that night Sterling realized he had missed three calls from Karleen. She had left a frantic message saying that she couldn't find the right channel on the TV. It was so funny.
I'll write more about Christmas morning later. That afternoon we went to church with Sterling's parents to see the Christmas program Karleen had arranged. It was nice to be together for church.
Many of you know that the reason this Christmas was so special is that Karleen passed away on New Year's Eve. It was very unexpected, which has made it very difficult. I wish so much that I could see her just one more time to make sure that she knew how much we love and appreciate her.
Although this is a very sad time, there are two things that bring me so much comfort. The first is thinking about what a blessing it has been for us to have lived so close to them for the past year and a half. We have gotten to see them often and do lots of things together. I am especially glad that Emma was able to spend time with Karleen. Even though she won't remember it, I will have lots of stories to tell her about her time with her Grandma. I can't even begin to tell how much it meant to me that we got to spend time together at Christmas. It was really special.
The second thing that comforts me is knowing that we will get to see her again. I am so grateful to know that our family can be together forever. So although we miss her here, I know we'll all be together again.