During one of our recent deployments my husband had the opportunity to stay well-connected. We were able to Skype almost each night. He would read our daughter a good night story via Skype, and then we were able to spend some private time together.
We found that timing is everything...unfortunately that may mean sacrificing sleep on someone's part! Find the time that allows for the most bandwidth availability and connect at that time. The stronger bandwidth allows for a clear and full-stream connection. For instance, simply by accident, we celebrated our Christmas at ~2am (my daughter woke up and came out of her room as I was placing the last present in front of the tree and chatting with my husband via Skype) - our Christmas connection was perfect! However, Christmas morning (when everyone in the world is on) we could not establish a connection.
My husband had missed every birthday celebration from 3-6 years old. To ensure that he was able to participate in her 7th birthday, I held her party at our house and had a friend
