It's always hard to be away from loved ones over the holiday season. I knew it was even harder for my boyfriend during December, because that is when he always heads home for his family celebration. So, I have spent months thinking of what I could do to make it special. Spending that much time...lead to lots of things (so make sure to check out all the posts).
In November I came up with the idea to do the 12 days of christmas leading up to December 25th. I thought it would be cute to have little gifts he could open each day. As I started scouring the dollar stores and coming up with ideas, it morphed into the 25 Dates of December.
What's That?
One HUGE box of goodies.
The Premise:
Each day, beginning December 1st, we would have a mini-skype date. We got really lucky that for this part of his year deployment he is in a place where he has good internet access. For the first 6 months of the deployment in Afghanistan, we only talked maybe once a week if the connection lasted for a few minutes.
Inside the boxes are wrapped presents with numbers on them. Each day he opens a snack to eat (one of his favorite treats) and there is some type of game/activity. This was hard to find 25 things to do over skype, so some are a bit of a stretch. I tried to make it so if we have a christmas activity it was a normal snack item and if we had a normal activity it was a christmas snack item.
He would comment all the time about how great it was to have something to look forward to each night. It was a bit of a challenge with the time difference to make the commitment to be home when he was available, but we made it work every day. It was a great way to help stay connected during a time when it feels so lonely.
Before being wrapped
The finished dates all labeled and ready to be shipped!
The Dates:
- Ding Dongs & Decorate a fake tree together (I sent one and had one at my house)
- Sabritones Chips & Christmas Scratch Off Elf (black paper and stick, you scratch off to make a design...we raced to make it something to do together).
- Twinkies & Battle of the Sexes card game
- M&Ms & Playdough (competition to make different christmas themed items out of the dough)
- Doritos & Christmas Magic Paint (all in one paper with paint...need water and a q-tip to color in...raced here too)
- Milano Christmas Cookie & Farkle
- Pringles & Hangman (sent dorm room whiteboards to easily compete with)
- Reeses & Christmas Color Velors (another competition...it's hard to find Christmas themed activities to do over skype)
- Takis Chips & Guess Who (travel version, opened and sent 1/2)
- Gingerbread Cookies & Battleship (travel version, opened and sent 1/2)
- Cheetos & Draw/Plate Game (FOUND HERE)
- Chips Ahoy Cookies & Christmas Bingo
- Christmas Shortbread & Plastic Skeeball Game
- White Tic Tacs & Guess the Song Christmas Printable (FOUND HERE)
- Lays Chips & Roll a Snowman (FOUND HERE)
- Gum & Tree Maze with markers (FOUND HERE)
- Fritos & Foam Christmas Decorations to assemble
- Oreos & Christmas MadLibs
- Canned Lasagna & Foam Play Materials with list of Christmas items to make
- Chips & Christmas Puzzle (raced to finish)
- Peanuts & Christmas Word Search
- Ritz Crackers & Christmas Jokes (we each had a different sheet and told them to each other)
- Rolled Chocolate Cookies & Christmas Trivia Game
- Candy Cane Kisses & Draw by Number Disney Sheets (played with my cousins)
- Christmas Box...Open Presents
Most games/activities I bought at Dollar Tree, 99cent store, target dollar bins or joann fabric dollar bins.
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