One event at a time: Countdown to the end of deployment

The beginning of deployment is like looking down a long, dark tunnel. You know the light is at the end, but you can't see it. Our deployment is roughly between 200 and 250 days long. Counting down each day through each month is slightly depressing and too great of a time span for my kids to grasp. Instead, we have concentrated our countdown according to holidays, birthdays and scheduled events.