Not loving my advent calendar this year

This is the advent calendar that I made 28 years ago, when I was still doing such things. Each of the ornaments is hand stitched and appliqued. It took me forever to make this calendar. The kids loved to take turns putting the ornaments on the tree as they counted the days until Christmas. Sometimes, after someone had taken their turn, someone else would sneak the ornament back into the little pocket and then put it back on the tree just so they could have an extra turn! We always used to start from the bottom of the Christmas tree and work our way backwards so that we would know how many more days there were until Christmas. In recent years there has been some amount of debate among my kids about this practice. Some of them feel that we should start at the top of the tree so that the first ornament is placed on the first day of December, the second on the second, etc. My kids thrive on these kinds of important controversial issues. Whatever.
I've always enjoyed my handmade advent calendar and felt a little tingle of anticipation, along with the kids, as the tree became filled with ornaments, heralding the approach of Christmas day. I'm not really loving my calendar this year, however. You see, on the very day after Christmas, Brent and I will be leaving with Laura, Jordan and Lucy on a three day drive to Atlanta, Georgia where they will begin their new life. We're going to help them drive their 16 foot rental moving truck (towing one of their vehicles) and their mini-van and we're going to take them hundred of miles away from here, help them get settled in their new home and then come back here to our new life of empty nesting. I feel like I'm an accessory to some sort of crime! So each day, as a new ornament goes up on the advent calendar tree, my heart squeezes a little bit tighter knowing that we're one day closer to these beloved kids going away. One more long-distance relationship. Missing out on these kinds of day to day things:
Blowing out the candles on a birthday cake together . . .
watching Dumbo (for the sixty-ninth time) together . . .

making a puzzle together . . .
Maybe if I just pack the calendar away in a box and hide it in the closet, the day after Christmas won't come. "The Grinch Grandma who stole the day after Christmas" or something like that.
My heart is imploding.