Bon Voyage

With 25 people the house felt sufficiently lively for a going away party. Anna Rae and her friends stayed downstairs on the patio and in the yard. I heard lots of laughter and loud voices so I took that to be good sign. The adults stuck mostly to the deck and dining room, visiting and not quite as boisterous. At cake time everyone was more or less upstairs. Anna Rae was really surprised to receive gifts and I felt the same way. I was just happy that most of the people invited, could come, and those few that had scheduling conflicts at least stopped by to give their best wishes. The gifts were so thoughtful too; a stuffed turtle from Chloe to use as a pillow on the plane and it is also intended as a good luck charm (maybe now she won't pack PeiPei, her stuffed Panda), a phone card to be used on New Year's Eve to connect her with Christine (a friend with whom she has spent every New Year's Eve since 2nd grade), a notebook creatively decorated with pictures of her friends, a clay ornament that everyone signed, and cards loaded with best wishes and personal messages for only her to read.
Even our new neighbors came with a journal for her. She has some wonderful friends that span her grade school years up to now, Vashon High School.
This week she is trying to touch base with just about everyone, one last time. She is anticipating and dreading the approaching departure all at the same time.
Today she and I went to the Long's Drugs and picked up some lotions and creams to keep her stocked for at least the first 3 months. Both she and I with our dry skin, we are finicky about what we use to moisturize. Then we went to REI and picked out a gift for Marion, her older host sister. Then the last (I swear it) trip to Barnes and Nobles to buy a book about Seattle for her host parents and a good French dictionary and of course two books just for fun. On top of that she went to the library to pick up 4 books she had on hold. She insists that she will be done with all of them except the French history book by the weekend.
Has the packing begun? Barely; she packed shirts today then announced that was enough for today.
I am trying to remember what the forms look like for declaring goods when she goes into airports. If I made her a list of sorts what would be the most helpful way to categorize things?