Celebrating Easter After Your Kids Have Left Home

Did your children just leave home, maybe off to college or "to find themselves" like so many youngsters before them have felt the need to do? Facing Easter alone, like any holiday, can be a daunting proposition. The following list of activities can ease the loneliness and create some worthwhile memories to tell the future grandkids.

1.) Decorate anyway! Pull out those old construction paper bunnies and handcrafted treasures of little hands yesteryear! While this may be painful to some, a lot find comfort in the familiar and just the memories these item will invoke can get you through a hard day.

2.) Volunteer! Go to a local nursing home where you can spend the day with others in the same situation as you. Easter is not as big of a holiday for visiting like Christmas, Birthdays, Mother's Day or Father's Day is in retirement homes. Especially for those with families that live a little distance away. Offer to be the "Easter Bunny" or one of his helpers at a local children's hospital, hospice or shelter. These kids need every reason to smile and anyway that we can remind them of normal lives should be done. They need to create more special memories for their long road ahead. Help with a local community or church egg hunt. There is a wealth of these in any town on Easter and any extra adult supervision is always welcomed. You can also volunteer for the preparations, such as decorating the eggs or hiding them.

3.) Throw an adult only Empty Nest Easter party. Eggnog is not just for Christmas you know! Have some fun and have bunny ears at the door that are required attire and line up games like pin the tail on the rabbit and Easter charades. (It must have egg, bunny, rabbit chick, etc. in the answer!) Who says that parties are just for children? Make sure to take plenty of photos to send to everyone's wayward kids to show them all of the fun that they are missing out on.

4.) If you are married, plan a special day with your spouse. This is where the "empty nest syndrome" really comes into play. Although you would never trade the years with your children for anything, the time is now to re-introduce yourself to your partner.

5.) Have a day just to yourself. While the rest of the world is rushing to get bows in hair and ties straight, grab a cup of coffee and the paper to read by a sunny window in your robe. If you like to cook then start the big dinner on your time schedule or just simply get dressed up (or not) and go to the local buffet.

Even if bunnies and colored eggs are not the main concern of the day anymore, Easter can still be a day of wonderment and child-like abandonment. When the nest is empty, it is all about getting creative for it to sing again.