Boyfriend in Boot Camp for 2 Year Anniversary

[mabjap]

My boyfriend will be in the middle of boot camp for our two year anniversary. It's a few months from now but does anybody have any suggestions as to what I should send him? I've heard that I should not send anything that will get him too much attention, just letters and pictures, but I still want to try to do something special for him. Does anyone have suggestions for a simple and sweet non-attention grabbing anniversary present?

[KaylaRae]

Mine left the week before our second anniversary. Even though I wrote everyday I made that letter special in what it said. I didn't send him anything because you don't want to draw attention to them. The letter itself will mean everything to him. If you still want to get him something you might want to give it to him before he leave or after he is done. I have something set back for our anniversary and his birthday that I will give to him when I see him. 

[meagan5220]

I would say maybe a plain card in a regular envelope. But they are absolutely right do not send anything really other than that. when my husband was in BC a kid's mom sent him brownies for his bday... BAD IDEA. The RDCs ate all of them while he did push ups. My husband has missed our first two christmases (once in BC once while deployed), our first two valentines day,our anniversary, will probably miss my birthday, our dating anniversary (which is a HUGE deal for him mostly but me as well), and will miss many other special days I typically write him a super sweet letter and tell him either I will get him something he wants when he gets back or he can save it up and get one big thing lol. (if you saw his "wish list" you would understand lol!!) So far I have gotten him a few little things for this last go around  since he was deployed but it was like a book he wanted. on the ship he wont keep anything expensive because of theft and he has very little room. One thing I have learned is while its a special holiday sometimes its easier not to harp on the fact that they are missing it. It makes it harder for my husband. I tell him Happy anniversary and send him a sweet email and whatnot but we just celebrate when we can instead of focusing on the date we focus on the reason. So we did Christmas mid november this year. Our anniversary will be celebrated almost 6-7 months late.

 

In bootcamp you can send him pictures. If you dont have a shutterfly account you can sign up for one for free and get 50 free prints and get them shipped to you and send them in a letter for him. I used my free prints and made him a photo album and gave it to him when he went to bootcamp so he would have it. He takes it with him every underway and deployment since. But anything too thick gets questioned. If he hasnt left yet maybe celebrate early grab a hotel room for a night and go out to dinner. Just have some alone time. There really isnt much you can send in BC other than letters and pictures.

[mabjap]

Thanks so much KaylaRae and megan5220. :) I figured celebrating before or after would most likely be best, as BC won't let you send much. I already knew food was out of the question ( a bunch of young men who see good food are bound to ask for some and attract lots of attention), that poor kid who received brownies! I am definitely going to be sending him lots of letters and some pictures too. I really like your photo album idea for when he goes to boot camp megan5220! I suppose this is just the beginning of many combined holidays and celebrations for us. :)

[Anti M]

They don't have much room to store things in boot camp, so printing the pictures out on the back of a letter is efficient.  Save the album for A school, while it is pictures, because it is bound book-style, they can decide to disallow it.  You wouldn't want to have it thrown away or come back in The Box.  It isn't on the list, so I'm surprised Meagan's guy got to keep his.  Goes to show there's always exceptions!

I'd suggest a beautiful poem, one you wrote yourself, nicely printed on good paper, with a photo collage printed on the back.  

[meagan5220]

oh no sorry for the mixup guys I meant to say I gave it to him AFTER bootcamp to take with him to A school. He didnt have it in BC. in bootcamp I sent him pictures. but tbh I sent pictures on regular paper bc they are thinner and I knew he would run out of room bc his mother sent him 50 million pictures so he had to throw some away. I would have been upset if he had thrown them away on real photo paper lol :) oops sorry lol I gave it to him at his bc graduation I think...or showed it to him and shipped it to him asap.

[Tiffany51908]

Hey Mabjap! My sailor was in boot camp from Dec to Feb and our 4 year anniversary he will be a week away from home =(. We spent Christmas, New Years and Valentines day apart so far. Honestly I wouldn't send him anything other than letters. I sent my sailor so many letters, cards and pictures he couldn't fit them in his drawer lol. You REALLY don't want to do anything to bring attention to him! My sailor was RPOC so they were very hard on him. After his graduation ceremony I gave him a gift for each holiday we spent apart and It meant so much to him. It sucks that we have to give up these holidays BUT i also found that with a little creativity you can make the time you spend together that much more special. Good Luck! And congratulations on your anniversary!! =D

[mabjap]

Thank you for clarifying everything Anti M and megan5220! I really appreciate the advice and support from all of you who've posted. :) The poem sounds like a lovely idea and printing pictures on the back of letters is definitely a space and money saver. However the album sounds like a nice post boot camp, pre A school gift too. Any time I get to spend with him before boot camp seems to be getting more precious every day. The anniversary letter I send him is sure to be special in what it says and means to him. He said he's already figured out what he's going to do for our anniversary while he's at boot camp so no doubt he's got something interesting planned (and I think his mother is in on it)! ;)

[waterpologrl]

I bought note cards that have a space for 4x6 photos on the front that way I could send my bf personalized picture cards.  You can find them at craft stores like Michael's and JoAnn's. 

His recruiter told me to send newspaper/magazine articles since they have no reading material and don't hear any news unless it's something major.  I've been clipping out articles that I think my bf would find interesting and sending  those as well as magazine quizzes and games. His recruiter also suggested the sports section game scores since that's something he liked to get when he was away at boot camp, but my bf isn't really that into sports. 

Another thing you can send are those "love coupons" that they always sell around Valentine's Day.  I sent my bf a few of those and told him that he could use them as soon as he got home. Gives him something to look forward to ;)

[Anti M]

Some of the RDCs give them a hard time for too many clippings.... find out if their RDC is going to be strict about that or not.

[mabjap]

That's a very good idea! I know when my boyfriend was at summer camp in the short weekly phone call we had he'd always ask if something was going on in the news.

[welshcorgi25]

ya don't send nothing to fancy or they may have to do some extra pushups and stuff and be made fun of. There isn't to much you can send to him in boot camp. May be like a small pendent that has to do with the navy to put on his dog tags if he is allowed to. other than that pictures and letters are pretty much all I sent to my sailor. He is in A school right know and are two year Anniversary I am sent to boot camp. I heard once some one sent food and the RTC's went up to the recruit saying the fudge you got in the mail was really good. Boot camp will go fast. graduation is a sight to see.