Farewell..... party?

"Farewell" and "party" don't seem to go together.

Who wants to celebrate the departure of dear ones?

That's one of our challenges these days: saying goodbye to folks we love. The O'Bannons drive away to Terre Haute, Indiana this week - and the Sharptons will be moving to Chico, CA.

So we went to Hillcrest Tree Farm together to make some memories and to answer the question: How do you cope with those goodbye blues?

Some of our answers:

You sing together...

(as much as is possible through tears.... well, and sometimes through laughter if you happen to be stumbling over the words that you can't see without your glasses - huh, Nancy?! ;-)

and reflect on the value of friendships

You hug dear friends...

or you climb up into high treehouses....and then hang out up there with good buddies;

You swing from the treehouse's rope swing if you're a little kidor a big kid (like Max);

You pretend you're king of a castle

(and you can order your subjects to stay within your realm instead of moving far away!);

You swing away those goodbye blues on the biggest, smoothest tree swing ever;

You remember "the good ol' days" on a rusty, homemade tractor;

You head off on an adventure across a swinging bridge;

Or get away from it all on a train trip with friends;

(a very small train engineer)Of course, eating's always good for drowning sorrows...

(as is pondering what you're about to eat...)

(maybe even a parting discussion of whose biceps are bigger)And then there's just "being with" ...

(OK, you may only go away as far as we can see if we squint...)
So... how DOES one properly say goodbye ...to dear ones...

- Lori