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Deployed over the Holidays
My husband and I are separated right now by my 6-8 month deployment. This is the first time I will be deployed for a period longer then 8 weeks for the past year. I am going to miss his Birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Valentines Day before I am finally state-side again.
I am trying to come up with ideas that we can do to still keep us close while we are far apart. We are going to start reading the same book, a chapter or so a day together and email back and forth about it to keep us busy for the in-between time.
For Christmas the first idea we have come up with is send each other a present and open it at the same time and email pics of us opening our presents to each other. I plan on trying to call him, however with it being around the holidays and I am deployed on a ship with over 5000 other people who also want to call home email will be the safest route to go.
I know I am not the first or last military wife to be deployed and would love some ideas of what we can do to still make these holidays special. If anyone has any ideas from either the deployed or the home-side spouse I would love to hear them! Thank you for reading!
Re: Deployed over the Holidays
Hi! My husband is Air Force and was deployed last year from Oct-May. We sent emails and he also had access to pretty regular internet so we skyped (sometimes video, but mainly the type chatting). One of the things that I did for him that he loved (he actually teared up over it) was a slideshow of our life. I uploaded a bunch of photos from our past along with some photos I took of myself holding up large pieces of paper to narrate the video (things like "Right now we are thousands of miles apart...., You're my husband and my best friend....., You're my everything and I can't wait till you are home and we are together again...") then I followed it with photos of us living our life together. He LOVED it! It only cost a few dollars to make on the website and it is set to music and has a nice background theme.. (Animoto. com is the website I used, but I am sure there are others out there).
Being deployed over the holidays is crappy... it basically feels like we didn't have any holidays last year because we were both alone, but do the best you can to stay connected. Unfortunately my husband is being deployed this year in Oct. again! ugh, stupid rotation..
H was deployed for Thanksgiving, Christmas, V-day, and Easter last year, and will miss everything but Thanksgiving again this year. His ship was in a port over Christmas so we were able to Skype for about an hour and a half on Christmas morning. I had went back home to spend the holiday with my family, so we skyped with him as we were opening gifts and everyone got to talk with him too.
For his gifts I sent them a few weeks ahead of time, and just insured the box. We are horrible at surprises so he opened them as soon as he got them and emailed me right after.
I think his favorite thing that I did for him was that while I was home I took my Flip camera everywhere and got video of as many of our family and friends as I could saying hi to him. Then I put it together into a movie and put it on a jump drive and sent it to him, and he loved it. I plan on doing it again when I'm home this year.
I love that idea. I am going to borrow it if you don't mind.
I'm also deployed, all I missed was hubby's birthday though. Unfortunately for you and I, it's hard to make the holidays special from the other side of the world.
I know it's not super romantic or anything, but I sent him a super mushy email telling him how much I love him and how wonderful he is. Since you're on a ship I'm sure it's that much harder to skype, or get pictures of the 2 of you. It's hard for me as well, and I'm on land!
I like the idea of opening a gift at the same time, it would be super bittersweet but it's a very nice thought. Good luck!!
I was deployed last year from Ausust through February -- missed both of our birthdays, all the winter holidays, Valentine's day....yeah, it kinda sucked!
We IMed pretty much every day, and that was awesome.
We also did video e-mails when we couldn't chat. We'd record a 60-second clip saying hi, I love you, I miss you, then email it to the other person. I can't tell you how awesome it was to come back to my tent after a long day and open an email with a video of him telling me that he loved me.
We also did care-packages, and lots of cards back and forth.
Thank you everyone for the ideas and shared experiences! I am defiantly checking out that website and going to do the videos and pictures!
For everyone else that will be deployed, stay safe and stay positive! For those left at home, thank you for the support you give all of us out here, and the same again, stay safe and stay positive! I know all to well the craziness of a military schedule but I think its hardest on the ones left at home...