For us, the spouses, we have the option of being with friends and family, usually in a semi-familiar place for the holidays. We can choose what we want to do, what we want to cook and eat, what we want to buy, where we want to go. Unfortunately, our service members don’t get that luxury.

In the 13 years I've been with my service member, we've spent approximately six years of that time separated because of his military duty—whether it was for deployments, training, or simply hectic work schedules—and plenty of experience with deployment during the...

left on Christmas Day.

My 6-year-old has had three Christmases where Daddy was either going or gone. I know we aren’t alone in that situation, but the logic of “other people are dealing with it too” is often lost on children when all they really want in front of the fireplace on Christmas morning is their deployed parent.