A Gift That Keeps Giving
The story: So, I haven't found this anywhere yet, but this is what I did for my S.O. before leaving for college. We aren't going to see each other until Christmas, so this first bit is a total of 4 months apart.
I grew up with advent calendars, which counted down the days in December until Christmas day. I remember getting excited each morning to open the day's gift, even if it was usually chocolate. I wanted to make something similar for my S.O., to supplement any mail I planned to send.
The process: I drew a calendar which covered the time we would be apart, with doodles of us and a relevant quote each month. I circled one day of every week, making sure to circle big events like our birthdays and the first day of school. Over the summer I collected and made little gifts for him. I wrapped each of the gifts individually and put them all in a large box.
The week before I left I gave him the box and the calendar. There's one gift for every circled day, excluding our birthdays which have two gifts apiece. Whenever a circled day arrives we Skype and he picks and opens a gift.
Thoughts: So far this has been pretty successful. We're both excited on days leading up to gifts, and opening gifts is an extra incentive to make time for a Skype call. I also feel less guilty when I can't physically mail him something. Overall this was pretty inexpensive as well, as I made many of the presents or had them lying around. It was a little labor intensive at the beginning, and I'm not sure whether it will be possible to do this again, but it definitely made our first months apart much easier.
A few of the things he's opened so far:
A mix-CD I made him with cheerful songs
A unisex hoodie of mine
A slinky
One of his favorite treats from my home country
A "coupon" for a Skype movie date, and one which promises an ice-skating date in December
A picture in a frame
I grew up with advent calendars, which counted down the days in December until Christmas day. I remember getting excited each morning to open the day's gift, even if it was usually chocolate. I wanted to make something similar for my S.O., to supplement any mail I planned to send.
The process: I drew a calendar which covered the time we would be apart, with doodles of us and a relevant quote each month. I circled one day of every week, making sure to circle big events like our birthdays and the first day of school. Over the summer I collected and made little gifts for him. I wrapped each of the gifts individually and put them all in a large box.
The week before I left I gave him the box and the calendar. There's one gift for every circled day, excluding our birthdays which have two gifts apiece. Whenever a circled day arrives we Skype and he picks and opens a gift.
Thoughts: So far this has been pretty successful. We're both excited on days leading up to gifts, and opening gifts is an extra incentive to make time for a Skype call. I also feel less guilty when I can't physically mail him something. Overall this was pretty inexpensive as well, as I made many of the presents or had them lying around. It was a little labor intensive at the beginning, and I'm not sure whether it will be possible to do this again, but it definitely made our first months apart much easier.
A few of the things he's opened so far:
A mix-CD I made him with cheerful songs
A unisex hoodie of mine
A slinky
One of his favorite treats from my home country
A "coupon" for a Skype movie date, and one which promises an ice-skating date in December
A picture in a frame
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