Coloring Easter eggs has always been a pretty big deal in our house. Each year after the Good Friday Tenebrae service at the Lutheran church we've attended for more than 20 years, we'd head home and color eggs as a family.

Like our Halloween pumpkin-carving rituals, the egg coloring involved everyone competing for the very best design. Also like our pumpkin-carving rituals, someone usually ended up in tears or -- during the teen years -- huffing off to their room for a host of hormonal reasons having nothing to do with the design competition.

But it was fun. Really. We have lots of happy pictures and warm fuzzies to prove it.

This year for the first time ever, we won't be coloring Easter eggs. All the girls live on their own and our only grandson lives too far away to come over for a dip in the dye with Grandma and Grandpa. And I really can't see egg coloring as a couple on the Good Friday agenda for me and Jim.

So we'll go eggless this year.

There's a domino effect to the decision to not color eggs. Having no colored eggs impacts our Easter morning breakfast, as we've always eaten our colored eggs on Easter morning, along with blueberry muffins and sausage links. It made for an easy holiday breakfast before the family dashed out the door for church service in our new Easter outfits.

Oh, that's another thing: We're not buying new Easter outfits this year. There's really no reason to as we have plenty of dressy duds and really shouldn't spend the money this year.

With the delivery of Easter Bunny baskets having ceased delivery last year (although the girls will always get SOMEthing from E.B. but don't tell them that), it seems the last vestiges of our old-time Easter celebrations have bit the dust. The children are grown; the traditions of childhood are no longer relevant.

I should be sad about the change, as I've always worked quite hard to create memorable holiday traditions for the girls. But that's the key and the reason I'm not too broken up about this Easter's empty nest: It's always been work ... a lot of work ... done mostly by Mom.

So I'm kind of glad that this year I don't have to color eggs or go shopping for outfits (especially when the girls -- and I -- often preferred black to the pinks and yellows and greens typical of Easter finery) or stay up waiting for kids to fall asleep just so I can fill a few baskets or help three little girls crack and peel and wash their colored eggs for breakfast.

Nope, we're having an adult-only Easter celebration for the first time. First up: A breakfast menu of Lemon Ricotta Pancakes with Lemon Curd and Fresh Raspberries. Then Easter service, with our oldest and youngest daughters joining us.

After that, it's anyone's guess. We're all grown-ups now and I no longer need to set the day's agenda in advance.

Except for one thing, that is: I need to ensure time for a Skyping session with Bubby. I want to see my handsome grandson dressed in his new Easter outfit as he tells Grandma all about his basket of goodies from the Easter Bunny and the colored eggs Mommy peeled for him for breakfast, all before he, Mommy and Daddy dashed out the door for Easter service.

Knowing the beloved family traditions that once defined Easter in our house are continuing with the next generation make it much easier for this generation to bid them farewell and move on.

Today's question:

What's your favorite Easter tradition?

My answer: Breakfast as a family. Family dinners have always been a given in our house, but family breakfasts happened rarely ... usually only on Christmas and Easter.

2009 - What a year!

When the girls were in high school, we started a new tradition: When we took down the Christmas tree, we all wrote predictions for the coming year. The plan was that each person would write their prediction for each family member and we'd seal the predictions -- without anyone reading anyone else's -- and open the envelope when it came time to put up the tree the following Christmas.

We did this for eight years, starting with 1999. Here are a few of my favorite predictions from the past:

Predictions for 1999:

"I predict that technology will be more advanced because everyone is scared that the world is going to end in 2000. I also predict that I will get in shape." ~ Megan (Okay, so it was the first year and my overachieving, overthinking middle daughter didn't really get the idea of the new tradition.)

For 2000:

I cannot find the envelope for this year. I've searched high and low and in all the "Year 2000" memorabilia we have saved and can't find it.

For 2001:

"Dad will own [his former employer] or at least be number two, unless someone kills him because he won't quit talking about the election!" ~ Brianna

For 2002:

"Megan will love Concordia [her college] and never want to come home. She will meet some of the greatest friends she ever had and possibly the love of her life." ~ Brianna (Megan DID meet the love of her life there!)

For 2003:

"Brianna will leave Eric's ass, finally recovering her brain." ~ Lisa (Thank God this prediction came true!)

For 2004:

"Jim will drive us all crazy with his political rants and raves!" ~ Lisa (Yep, this came true, too!)

For 2005:

"Megan: Preston will have proposed. She will be deciding where to live with the P-ster!" ~ Andrea (This one came true, too! Good call, Andie!)

For 2006 (the year Preston joined us in the tradition):

"Preston will be happily married to the most beautiful wife ever: Megan." ~ Preston

Then the tradition ended; the logistics of getting everyone's prediction in the same envelope and sealing it up to open together the next year no longer worked. It was fun while it lasted.

Now my prediction for 2010: It will be better than 2009! Can't go wrong there (I hope ... maybe I've just jinxed all of us!).

Today's question from "If ... (Questions for the Game of Life)":

If you could only keep one of your five senses, which would you save and why?

I'd keep my vision because I cannot imagine not seeing my beautiful children, grandchildren, husband ever again. And I can't imagine never reading again. I can do without loud, screeching noises (although missing out on music will be horribly difficult); I am okay with not tasting or smelling things; not being able to feel/touch stuff would be hard. But overall, I need to see, so that's what I choose.