"I asked Isabel to contribute to Family Matters occasionally and share her experiences as a military spouse and mother of three, including a special-needs teenager. In today’s entry, Hodge writes about dealing with the holiday season with her husband so far away.
Guest blogger Isabel Hodge is a family support program manager for the Pentagon’s Office of Military Community and Family Policy as well as a 21-year military spouse. Her husband, Marine Corps Chief Warrant Officer 5 Bruce Hodge, has been deployed in Iraq since January."
By Isabel Hodge Dec. 24, 2009
I’ve been a military spouse for 21 years. I was an active-duty Marine for four years.
A little over a week ago I decided, at my children’s urging, that I would purchase a small 4-foot, pre-lit Christmas tree instead of digging around in the crawl space trying to find where my husband stored our large tree last Christmas. I didn’t have the energy to pull out the large tree, and putting ornaments from past Christmases past would only make this Christmas more difficult.
Our little tree is still special. For several days there was only one ornament on it, an ornament that the boys and I agreed on. I was happy with just the one ornament because it warmed my heart to see it on our little tree.
Eventually, we put some more ornaments on the tree — a multicolored star that my oldest son picked for the top, an angel with the word “hope” around the base of her gown and a gold cross.
Guest blogger Isabel Hodge's daughter, Kristen, drew this cartoon to illustrate how military spouses also have to be superhero moms. Courtesy illustration by Kristen Hodge
I picked out some simple apple garland for the tree because it reminded me of the story our pastor told us at church. He said people used to hang apples from their evergreen trees, and for some reason I liked the simplicity of hanging apples.
Tonight, I’m thinking about my husband. He’s been deployed to Iraq since January. When I asked him what he wanted for Christmas he said he wanted some wrapping paper so that he could give his Marines some gifts. I mailed him the wrapping paper, some Santa hats, antlers and
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