The book "Home Evenings for Empty Nesters" by Alison Palmer is a wonderful guide with 60 lessons to keep the family home evening habit going after the children have flown the coop.
"Home Evenings for Empty Nesters" is organized by topic in alphabetical order, and each includes ideas for a lesson with discussion questions, an activity and a treat.
Topics include appreciation, living a Christ-centered life, family history, healing, intimacy, learning and priorities. Each topic comes with suggested reading of scriptures or a general conference talk, which could be read or watched on video. Also included are discussion points to spend time communicating and sharing thoughts. The lessons are focused toward a couple and are intended to help grow their relationship.
There are also some fun activity suggestions. One such activity is to find pictures of old friends and reminisce about them together and then spend time writing stories for personal histories. Other ideas including ones for service, walking somewhere or learning how to do something new.
Moving through the book would be a good lesson in balancing life's commitments. It would be a real treasure to commit to doing each week, not as the date night, but in addition. This book would make a great gift for someone going through the growing pains associated with an empty nest.
