Our son just started college this fall and he's nearly 500 miles away, so trips home will be few and far between. A lot of my Facebook friends are in the same boat and we're missing our kids.
I was surprised to find out that my mom friends weren't utilizing the full extent of technology and video chatting with their college kids. Do it! It's much better than a phone call. You can check out their dorm or apartment decor, let the kid say hello to his dog (that freaks out the pets, BTW) or simply see their cute faces. You can even help them troubleshoot their morning coffee – yes, that really happened. I had my kid show me what was going on with the coffeemaker and saw that the lid wasn't on the carafe.
Just give them a quick text to see if they're up to Skyping or FaceTiming, and get the whole fam together. We even watched a baseball game on TV together!