Hello from the currently cloudy town of Taunton, Somerset!
I started writing this post with the view of just sharing the care package I made for Ben's birthday (which is today!). But it turned into me writing a bit about our relationship too as he is on deployment at the moment, so this topic is forever on my mind.
I hope you enjoy the read!
Out of the three of Ben's birthdays that we've known each other, we've only been able to celebrate one together in person as most of our relationship has been long distance. Even after marriage, the nature of his job in the air force meant that we will inevitably be apart for long periods of time. This is something I was well aware of right from the start, and for that reason I am somewhat glad that our relationship was exclusively long distance up until we tied the knot. It meant that we both had an idea of what it was like to be apart for long periods of time.
Having said that nothing can really prepare you for such separations, as each one is as hard as the last. We've found that this is especially so after marriage even when we knew the deployment was coming. But we consider ourselves blessed to have spent the first 8 months of our marriage (mostly) together in order for us to settle in.
We're set to experience a fair few significant dates apart during this deployment, including Ben's birthday, Thanksgiving, our 1st wedding anniversary and Christmas. All being well he'll be back for us to spend Valentines day together, although that's not certain of course. But until then I'm going to try and make these occasions as special as I can with care packages for him to open.
This leads me on to his birthday care package. Since I arrived in England, we have been video calling each day at 8am UK time and this morning I got to see him open his package! Sadly not all of the contents survived the trip, but he appreciated everything he received regardless. Read on to see what it looked like.
What I included
Before putting this all together, I spent a lot of time thinking about what to include which involved looking at other peoples ideas on blogs and YouTube videos. The final contents however were tailored for Ben and the things I thought he'd like or needed.
Here's what I decided on:
- A lemon birthday cake
- Chai tea latte concentrate
- Chocolate almonds
- Birthday card and letter
- Tums
- Painkillers
- Tennis ball sock (for massaging his back)
- A memory stick with videos and photos
One of the ideas I gleaned from my research was decorating the inside of the box. I thought that this was such a great idea to make it more personalised, and decided to do that as well. It just makes the parcel look like one big present instead of just a plain ol' box.
So I lined the inside of the box with wrapping paper, wrote on the box flaps and included a few photos of some of our memories together (see below).
I hope you enjoyed this slightly different than usual post! It's no fun being away from your loved ones on special days, which is why care packages are so great to remind them that you care and are thinking of them.
I thoroughly enjoyed doing this one and I look forward to the ones I have planned for the future!
Have you put together a care package before? What did you put in it? I'd love to know what you did and any ideas or tips you have for organising them.
I'll be in touch again soon,
Kathryn.