My best friend and I are always mailing boxes to each other.  She started the trend by sending me a care package after I moved away from San Diego and no long had access to some of my favorite stuff anymore.  It seems that no matter where I live, it is never by a Trader Joe’s.  And I have lived in the South, the Midwest, the West Coast, and New England.  The irony is that most people I know have access to multiple Trader Joe’s, and I have to drive about two hours to get to one.  Since my best friend can literally walk to hers in less than ten minutes, she often surprises me by sending me some goodies in the mail.

One of our unspoken stipulations about this mutual process of mailing boxes back and forth is that we spare no expense.  We really go all out.  Because if we are going to do it, we might as well do it right, right?  Right!  For instance, we have been known to include a stack of t-shirts, our favorite movies that we watch every time we see each other, so both of us need to have a copy.  We send Justin Bieber valentines and homemade crafts.  There is nothing so wonderful as when I come home from the store, or some other crazy outing with my two crazy toddlers, and I see a box sitting on my front stoop.  Could it be?  Wait for it…Wait for it… It is!  And then I’m shoving my kids out of the way and ripping through the cardboard with my teeth.

Recently, we both gave up junk food for Lent.  We frequently lamented to one another over the 40 days about how much we missed our favorite snacks.  She promised that when it was all over she would send me my favorite stuff from Trader Joe’s.  And did she ever.  A Cinnamon Coffee Cake with the crunchiest crust and the moistest of middles.  Hazelnut cookies put together like macaroons, and boxes chocolate peppermints and fruity, gummy sugar crusted squares.  A box of madelines to dip in coffee, and even hot sauce for my husband.  The best part was the stuffing, which was wadded up newspaper, but in the middle of the wads were bottles of nail polish, of my favorite colors.  I sent her a text that said: I don’t think anyone in the history of the world has ever gotten a box as good as this one.

And it’s true.  So even though the time for New Year’s resolutions has passed, it’s not too late to start a new.  Try mailing boxes to people you love, full of things that you know they love, and you just might get one in response…