Yes, I mailed mine on the 29th. I sent it filled with Halloween candy and guess what I forgot to say ...... Happy Halloween. I really don't know how I forgot!

Well, sent out my boxes yesterday -- thanks for all the suggestions!  I ended up deciding to make it a joint effort with a few other couples from church.  We ordered pizza and all brought candy over, dumped it in the middle of the floor into a mini candy mountain, and started stuffing individual candy bags that we twist-tied shut.  Some of my friends brought their kids who colored pages in Halloween themed coloring books to include -- and they were so cute helping stuff the bags.  When they first saw all that candy, their eyes about popped out.  They showed a lot of self-restraint, though....they all got to pick one piece each and then had to send it away.  It was a great opportunity to talk to them about our troops....not sure how much sank in, but if this becomes an annual routine, they will remember it and catch on a little more each year.  They would talk about army guys and shooting and how we were going to help and thank them....and then the light bulb would go off and they'd say...."Wait, now WHY are we sending all of this candy AWAY!?!?!"  One little three year old was very diligently packing his bag as full as he could until he found a special piece and would say, "Can this one be for my bag?  Then he would find one similar to it and stuff it in the bag to make sure this "soldier" (which sounds like "sew-jur") got one just like it.  In about an hour's time, we had stuffed 169 individual bags to be distributed by my contact.  We also all signed a Happy Halloween card to include, and took digital pictures of us all packing the bags, the mountain of candy before we started, and a group shot of us surrounded by all the bags we had packed.  They filled three large cardboard boxes to be shipped over.  I hope they are received well -- we certainly had fun putting it all together!

Amy

I sent my boxes out yesterday, one was a Halloween box filled with goodie bags for all 15 soldiers along with bags of loose candy (m&m's..candy corn etc) that can be opened and poured into a cute pumpkin I found, also decorations and a Halloween music cd.  I sent a second box with body wash, tooth paste, tooth brushes, coffee singles, creamer, sugar, body lotion, and socks.

Kathy,

In case you have missed the posts about packing boxes, the contacts have requested that we not send anything edible with the toiletry items due to the fact that soap, body wash, etc. normally are pretty strongly scented and can cause anything edible to be polluted with a perfumey taste. In fact, even strong mints can affect the taste of other foods. We can all use that reminder until we are doing it naturally in our sleep.  It was a little easier for me to learn because I had always separated my coupons for decades into food and nonfood categories, so my brain was already somewhat programmed that way.  Still, it is very tempting to combine items in order to get the most benefit from the larger FRBs.

Gran

 I did get official word from a contact that one of my halloween packages was happily received this last week!!  Since I mailed them all within a couple of days of each other I am kind of assuming most of them have hit their marks by now. If not, I am sure the rest will get there pretty soon!

The good news is that the marshmellow candies arrived in good enough condition to eat!  I was a little worried about the melt factor on those! The rest of the candy was stuff like twizzlers, M&M's, skittles and such that I knew would survive the trip!  I am looking forward to getting all the bargain chocolate that I got on vacation shipped out in a few weeks - I have been eating way to much of it myself the last couple of days!

One more thought for all of the very frugal junkies out there...and aren't we all shopping for bargains as such at Dollar Tree and so forth?...anyway, my suggestion is to hit all of the CVS, & Longs, & Rite Aids, & grocery stores, & .... the DAY AFTER Halloween (Nov 1st) for 1/2 priced candy to send...  Usually all the really good fun-sized Snickers, Reece's and such are gone, but there are usually bags and bags of other stuff to fill boxes or for a soldier to give out to kids, or stocking stuffers, etc. If you've got storage space you might also grab things like decorations and empty goodie bags for your contacts for next Halloween...Just remember where you store them...lol

That's a great idea I plan on doing that early Saturday morning before it gets picked over. I'm going to hit the grocery stores...lots of left overs there. I'm praying that our men and women won't be there for next Halloween, but I'll keep an eye open for decorations too.