Sending LOVE A Long Way | Care Packages For Our College Students (2023)

Introduction

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Video

I'm hoping that Brennan and Katie will feel the same thrill and a little bit of love from home when they get these packages.

Pam welcome to it's the Donnelly's I'm Jill, if you guys haven't watched before I'm the mom, and if you have watched before welcome back, we are a family of five that is now divided only because two of our oldest are in college, so Katie and Brennan are in college.

Ryan is still with us with Mike and I here at home.

He is a junior in high school, so we get him.

We get to love on him on the daily, thank goodness, but today, I'm going to put together Valentine care packages for Brennan and Katie, we just love being together and when we're apart, it makes me sad they're doing their thing, they're flying they're doing what they need to do, but I also want to be able to infuse a little bit of home and a little bit of love from our family into them, while they're at school and what better time to do it than Valentine's Day Katie does have a valentine, of course.

Her boyfriend Kaden they're.

Two and a half years dating now so I'm sure they're going to do something nice for each other for Valentine's Day, but I still want to show Katie how much I love her and send her something and surprise her, hopefully that she can open up and absolutely love.

I feel like Mom was thinking about her Brandon's, a different story.

He does not have a valentine, so I want to make sure to get him.

A good treat a nice box a nice, something that he can open with lots of little things.

It just says: I love you so I'm going to attempt to put that together today.

Thank you! So much all of you who commented when I asked the question what I should put into a Valentine's Day Care Package.

You guys totally gave me some great ideas.

One thing that was overwhelming was that we have to send Ryan's cookies, Ryan's chocolate chip, cookies, I'm, hoping to be able to send the package out today if I can't send it out today, because I, because Ryan might not be able to make the cookies today, I'll put the package all together and we'll just wait for the cookies and we'll send it out tomorrow, but in the meantime, I made a list of all the things that I'd like to put together for them that will make them feel special and make them feel loved and I'm gonna go out and get those right now.

So you guys can come with me and then I'll come back and we'll put together this care package we'll stick together.

Everything is so many stupid things.

Okay, I am back.

I didn't anticipate that care packages would take up this much room but I think most of it is the boxes I bought boxes.

So one of the things that I wanted to try to do is one of those Expo exploding boxes where you open it up and the sides fall down and then everything inside it falls down.

But now that I've purchased everything I, don't think that's going to work because I have more stuff than I have room for exploding boxes.

So what I think I'm going to do is I think I'm just going to fill all these little boxes with things put it in a great big box like a big shipping box and then wrap it in Valentine's, Day gift, wrap and then send it that way.

So, today, with me, my plan has changed just a little bit but I think it's going to work out just great.

Let me put every organized everything together that I got and then I will take you through.

So here is our Valentine's Day haul, I! Guess it's a haul right, so I'm going to attempt to put all of this stuff into two boxes for one for Brennan, one for Katie.

We do have some stuff for Kaden too, so we are going to make a box for Kaden as well and send these off to college.

So hopefully some of these items will make our kids feel loved and, like they've, got a little bit of sweetness from home.

We still have to add the chocolate chip cookies.

But let me put this together now: um Mike went overboard with candy, but I got the Clif bars, Katie loves, Cliff, Bars and Brennan loves uh trail mix, so I got him trail mix.

I found this little cutie pie, I'm, not sure if I filmed it, but this little Happy Valentine's Day box super thrilled about that cutie patootie.

This is for Brennan, and this is for Katie.

This one says you and Sparkle on Valentine.

That's where Kate Mike got those he's got a great sense of humor.

I got Brennan a 25 Aldi gift card because he buys his own groceries at school.

That's part of our deal, of course, a candle from love at fam and a sweet little teddy bear from love that fam Kate's gonna get the candle put that right in there Brandon's gonna get the teddy bear, so this is Katie.

Katie loves, making gingerbread houses, so I was thrilled when I found this Godiva Cupid house kit, I thought that was adorable.

I didn't know that she and Kaden are going to want to put that together.

So that's sort of a gift for the two of them.

This is Katie Katie, Katie Katie.

This is Katie.

This is Brennan Brennan, Katie, Brennan Brennan.

This will be to the Brennan Brennan Brennan Katie Oh Katie Katie, Brennan Brennan foreign.

What I'm gonna do I'm using the big black boxes to put in the snacks that they get and then they're the little gifty thing and then the rest of things like the gum and a little sweet, tart sweethearts, and that kind of thing and then I'm gonna put a little picture in, because I wanted to include a picture of me showing them how much I love them for Valentine's Day.

So I did make this little picture for Katie, so what I did was.

My original intention was to take a picture and then make like a cut out heart frame that did not work out so well, because the picture that I chose really wouldn't fit with a heart like I'd, have to cut all of it out and I didn't want to just do that.

I took some poster board covered the poster board with this really cool paper and then I glued the picture to it, and then I took another piece of poster board on the back and made it a little a little stand and then wrote a little note on the back, which is I, love you a bushel and a peck.

That is, are one of our sayings that we say that we grew up with, and so they can.

Katie can put this next to her bed.

I did one for Brennan too that's our picture, and then it stands up like that and on the side.

How about that a little homemade, homemade gift there, so I'm gonna finish putting Katie's together and then I'll put brightness together and I'll.

Give you a little tour I can remember getting care packages from my parents when I was in college um, because back in the day, first of all, we didn't get the opportunity to communicate with our parents.

As often as we do now like there were no cell phones.

There were no like FaceTime.

Maybe there was none of that stuff.

So when I was in college, you know, I grew up in Upstate New York and my parents lived in Upstate New York, when I was in college and I went to college in Delaware, so it was about five and a half.

Sometimes a six hour drive, which is a little bit farther than Brennan and Katie are from us they're about.

If, if you get a good day, it's four and a half, but mostly it's like a five hour drive anyway.

So if I wanted to talk to my parents, I would have to call them on this on the pay phone that was in my hall in my dorm, and we had one pay phone for the whole for the whole floor and that was like I.

Don't know, 30 girls, something like that.

So if you wanted to use the pay phone to call your boyfriend or your sister or your mom or your friend or whoever you had to wait in line, so I can remember nights where, like I would be sitting on the ground in the dorm waiting for the person before me or three people before me to get off the phone and they would like talk as long as they want.

You just sit there and you're waiting you're like oh, my gosh, so you bring your homework with you and you wait until they get off the phone.

So that was definitely a thing or if your parents wanted to call you, it was even worse because they would call the number and then hope that someone would answer, because literally someone walking by would just have to pick up the phone and say hello.

They would say: hi is Jill.

You know Jill hemor there and they'd go down if if they had the time or even wanted to the girls would like go up and down the hall chill bones for you um, but my parents like didn't know when I would be home or if I had class or whatever, so it was really hit or miss.

Anyway.

If you ever got a chance to talk to your parents, um, which was stinky, you know what I mean, but it was a whole different thing like you knew it, you knew that going in.

So it's not like you were shocked or surprised, that's just how it was, but we would write letters.

My parents would write letters and um.

They would also send me care packages so anyway, that's what I'm getting to and the whole care package thing.

So they would send me care packages, which was very nice, and my parents had a bread maker like one of those machines that were all the rage back in the 80s, where you would put like the flower in and the and the yeast and the salt and the whatever else.

If you were going to flavor it and the bread maker itself would need it and then it would let it proof you know rise, and then it would cook it.

So my dad went crazy with bread, he loved, making the bread, and so he would send it to me in this care package.

I would get this care package of like two loaves of bread that were you know, wrapped in foil and I, absolutely loved it.

Not only did it make me just so happy that, like my parents were thinking of me, like my, my parents went to the trouble to make bread and pack it up and send it to me, but also then eating.

It was just such a thrill.

It was a really good bread for like um, toasting or french toast, or that kind of thing not that I had any of the capability to do that in my dorm, but later on, when I lived in an apartment, I did, but that was one of the things that I really enjoyed was receiving that so I'm hoping that Brennan and Katie will feel the same thrill and love and a little bit of love from home when they get these packages set in the mail.

Guess who just came home from school right as I was packing all the stuff up Ryan, so we're gonna make chocolate chip cookies.

So I am going to be able to put all this stuff together and send it out, probably not today by five but send it out first thing in the morning: I'm so excited okay, so I'm gonna help him by getting all the ingredients out.

Okay, so I looked up some cookies they're baking in the oven.

Currently I got another batch here.

I'm gonna go to golf soon, so I think Mom's gonna take over this whole process, so these cookies are gonna, go to Brandon, Katie and Kaden.

As you guys, uh know, it is so kind of you to send love during Valentine's Day to Brandon and Katie and Caden.

So we already put together I already put together a box.

We thought we should absolutely have some homemade baked cookies.

We always do baked goods uh, because our family loves baked goods so um and we like making them so you're.

The cookie guy.

You know I was saying earlier: Katie has a valentine, but Brandon doesn't I, don't want him to be all alone on Valentine's Day I.

Don't think single people on Valentine's Day really get bad press, or at least I don't, but it's nice to get a gift right, yeah and you get if it even if the gift is from your mama.

That's right, I'm, your I'm, your Forever Valentine.

Basically, oh all right! Well, all right, we'll show you the finished product.

Yep all right cookies said cookies are finished.

Each person gets 15 cookies.

We are good to go packing.

These babies up shipping them out I'm on my way to take these packages to The UPS Store, to send them off to Brennan and Katie.

It was quite a fun project, although I did face challenges along the way in between time, not being on my side.

I had these Grand visions that I was gonna, do like a cut out heart for the frame and that didn't work out, and then I was going to do the exploding boxes and that didn't work out.

But as I say, where there's a will there's a way and I absolutely had the will and wanted to get this done so just improvised a little bit, but regardless I am so happy that these guys are going to be able to get a little bit of love sent from home.

So even though the miles divide us, it's little things like this that keep us together as a family.

If you want to see what we did last year for Valentine's Day, when Brennan was in college, we sent him a care package and at home we did a secret Cupid exchange.

So watch this video to watch the reveal and see who had who for the cupid exchange and see Brendan's reaction when he opened Valentine, Day Valentine's, Day Care Package from last year, thanks for watching be sure to Thumbs Up And subscribe, see you later.