I recently discovered John Scalzi's Blog (thanks Wil) and a couple of days ago he linked to a story he wrote that I really liked. Go, read it yourself. You won't regret it. In John's words:
"Sarah's Sister" is a Christmas-themed story I wrote a couple of years ago, and it's fairly atypical of my writing, in that it's not written for snark. Indeed, it was written with the specific intent of making my mother-in-law cry like a little girl. And I'm pretty sure she did. So there you have it. Also, fair warning: You may get weepy. I do, and I wrote it.