Valentine's Day Care Package

Since we're currently in the middle of the largest span of time without seeing each other since basic (two-and-a-half months), I decided to put together a little care package for the hubby for Valentine's Day.  Basically, this is a trial run to help prep me for the day when he gets deployed and I am faced with putting on my creative thinking cap each month to give him little mood lifters and encouragement from home.

I started gathering items for this right after he left home to head back to AIT following Christmas leave.  It was at this time when I discovered how truly awesome the Target $1 Spot is.  I nabbed a small variety of candy from these bins, as well as a couple little toys for him.  Somehow over Christmas, we managed to get on the topic of a classic toy that most of our generation had as a child, the Slinky, and how much better the metal ones are at going down stairs than the plastic ones.  I of course found it very ironic that I then found junior sized versions of this iconic toy at the $1 Spot at Target.  I had a good little chuckle to myself when I saw them and then immediately picked up a metal one to include in the package.  Then right around the corner from the Slinky section was a bin full of Silly Putty, so I decided to nab one of them as well.

Other than these two little toys, I filled the rest of the box with lots of goodies -- tins of freshly baked brownies and white-chocolate macadamia nut cookies, chocolates, Skittles, Warheads, Moon-Pies, gum, and beef jerky -- and topped off with a cute little Valentine's Day card with a "hug from across the miles".

I went ahead and put the package in the mail on Tuesday, since U.S. Mail, as well as mail on post, can be a little unpredictable at times.  I wanted to be sure he definitely received it before Valentine's Day, and surprisingly all mail systems were quick and he received it on Thursday.  His favorite item out of everything in the box was the Slinky, followed by the Silly Putty and the beef jerky.  And apparently the box was man-handled a little bit during transit, as the tin full of macadamia nut cookies was all crumbled into bite size pieces.  But thankfully everything else arrived intact.