To the grandpas spending Christmas in heaven,

I hope you are reading this somewhere, and I want you to know how much I wish I could talk to you, with you sitting next to me.

I know that you know how much we miss you, and it's even harder during the holidays. We hear laughter at the table, in the church, and around the tree. We find ourselves looking around to see if one of those sounds of laughter is coming from your smile. But there's one smile that's missing. Instead of looking around us for your smile, we look up.

We hear songs that remind us of you, and wish that we could sing them with you. Instead, we sing them to you.

We search the shelves for gifts for our loved ones, but there's one less gift to give. Instead, we give you our hearts, rather than a gift wrapped in paper and tied with a bow. We send up a prayer, hoping that you will hear our "I love you" and "I miss you" from up in heaven.

There's one less chair at the table and one less plate of food. There's one less person to pass the mashed potatoes to. There's less stories about the old days being told at the table, and one less set of ears listening to our stories. But we know you are listening from above and smiling down at us.

It's hard. It's hard to be happy when we know we won't be seeing you this holiday. But we know you can see us. You are watching us exchange gifts. You are listening to our stories. And you are sharing our happiness.

It's not fair. It's not fair that someone that we love and look up to so dearly could be taken from us. But we know you are in good hands now. We try to be strong because we know that it is what you would want us to be. We miss you incredibly and wish you were here. If heaven wasn't so far away, we know you would be here. We hope you are singing with angels and celebrating the holiday with all the ones that you missed while you were here with us. We hope you can hear our laughter and see our smiles from your safe haven in heaven. Most of all, we hope you are happy. Because happiness is the best thing we can wish for you.

Love,

The ones who love you no matter where you are