I am selling my home in AZ but will be moving to MN. I want to gift the money from the sale of the house to my children. I want to know what I need to do at the immediate sale and how much I am allowed per child for the year 2009?

You can gift up to $13K in 2009 to each child without any tax consequences. If you are married, then both you and you spouse can gift $13K each, for a total of $26K to each child. And if your children are married, you could make the gift to both the child and spouse - in this way you can gift up to $52 per child & spouse each year. If you gift more than that in anuy one year, then you have to file a gift tax form. There probably would be no taxes due for such a gift at this point, but any gifts above $13K annual exclusion are counted against the lifetime exclusion for estate tax purposes.

There's nothing to do at the closing. Once you have the cash from the sale just write your children checks for the amount of the gifts.