Helping the families of deployed soldiers

As the holiday season approaches, everyone gets a little busy with cleaning, decorating, baking, and shopping. For the families of deployed soldiers, the additional stress of holiday preparations on top of the frustration and sadness of not having your husband (or wife) and your children's father (or mother) there to celebrate can be overwhelming.

Kristina's Soapbox has a list of ways to help a deployed soldier's family. Although not specifically holiday related, this is the time of year when families could really use an extra hand. Specific to the holidays, I'll add a few suggestions:

• Do some of their Christmas baking for them (thank you, Margaret, for doing this for me).
• Put up their Christmas tree and string it with lights (thank you, Tommy).
• Do outdoor decorations for them (and then help put them away after Christmas is over).
• Watch their kids so they can go shopping for presents (thank you, Uncle Steve and Aunt Lynne who drove 400 miles just to do this for me).
• Invite them to Thanksgiving or Christmas dinners (but realize they may not be in the mood to share these times with you).
• Invite them over to celebrate the holidays on a less emotional night (like the weekend before Christmas).
• Serenade them with Christmas carols on Christmas Eve (thank you, Cincotta family).

If you aren't local, mail them baked goods, give them a gift certificate to a maid service, find a local business that makes meals for people and send them a gift certificate, have your kids draw them cards, call frequently, and keep them in your prayers.