Holidays

Since When Did Carnivals Become So High Priced?

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / Leave a comment

I couldn’t believe what we spent at our little neighborhood carnival yesterday.  I could have taken bought two tickets to Disneyland for what I spent yesterday on rides and games and snacks.  OMG.  It was insanely pricey–but the kids had so much fun and I had a blast watching them have so much fun–ride tickets were $1 each and most rides were 3-5 tickets (per kid).  It added up fast as we went around 4:30 and there were no lines for any rides–next time we’ll go when at least waiting in line will take up some time.

Zoë won a prize at the first game we played and it just went uphill from there.  They rode rides and it was childhood at it’s best.  I feel bad that Bill was at home with a mild case of food poisoning and couldn’t join us.  We lasted through the fireworks and I think I had as much fun as the kids.  There isn’t much better than watching your children have unadulterated fun.

 

Merry Christmas

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / Leave a comment

From My Family to Yours (pictured w/kids–Santa and Uncles Jeff and Curt)

The winner of the Tassimo Giveaway is….

True Random Number Generator Min: Max: Result: 1

Congrats Shawn.  I’ll contact you via email for you address.

Merry Christmas

My Life Has Become A Bad Holiday Drama

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 2 Comments

on lifetime no less.  Why do some families have to be so difficult?  Seriously?  This is suppose to be a happy, joyful season.  Well, when your family is frickin’ insane, it’s really the season for insanity and crazy.  I love my family, but they can totally drive me crazy and are such drama queens.  So, Christmas is always a drama of some sort as is anytime there is a holiday and we have to all attempt to juggle our lives and what we want to do.  Everyone has their own ideas and we are all very independent but we like to do things together yet we don’t often want to do the same things.

My mom and youngest brother run an ice skating rink–it’s outdoor and it is only open from mid-November to late February.  So 3 1/2 months is all the time they have to make a years worth of $$$.  They often can’t do much over the holidays as it’s their busy time.  I totally understand that and I think we all do.  But my other brother and partner are coming down and we all want to go to dinner.  We were nice enough to include my mom and brother in the invitation and OMG–was that the totally wrong this to do.  It has totally blown out of proportion and gotten insane.  I feel it’s a bit like that seen in Home for the Holidays and they all explode at each other at the dinner table.  Now, all I am wanting for the holidays is for them to be over so I can enjoy some peaceful time with my hubby and kids and without all the crazy.

Thank goodness for wine.

Yeah, Santa Is My Cousin

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 1 Comment

No joke.  Really. Okay, he’s really my first cousin once removed–but a cousin just the same.

No, I didn’t tell my kids that Santa is our cousin–that would just really confuse all of his friends at school and they’d be all like “how come Santa isn’t my cousin?”  And then all the parents would hate me, so we keep our kinship to Santa on the DL.

The skating rink that my mom runs, has a skate with Santa day at the rink and it’s quite popular.  We go every year because it’s nice to see family and where else do you get to really hang with Santa? I worked really hard to keep my kids from monopolizing Santa’s time.  It was really hard work to keep Noah from photo bombing all the nice families pictures with the big guy.  This has been the first year that the kids have really grasped the gravity of the situation.  Santa was there and they could talk to him.  And I could use my relationship with Santa–“did you see how much mommy talked to Santa?” to scare the children into submission.  Often it just made them cry. Especially since they KNOW that I know Santa.

The kids got to have quite a bit of one on one time with Santa and it was pretty awesome.  They played and played–Santa is the best.  He has such a jolly spirit and loves kids.  We are working on having Santa come and deliver presents on Christmas eve to the kids–How incredible would that be.  It would certainly be a Christmas they would remember for the rest of their lives. Santa has quite a busy night on Christmas eve, so we are hoping he can fit it into his schedule.  It’s awesome to have relatives in “high” places.

A Christmas Whirlwind

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 2 Comments

Christmas has come and gone and after three days and five celebrations I am very happy it is over. The kids got spoiled by everyone and it was nice to get together with family. I am exhausted from it all. Here are some pics from the festivities. Hope everyone’s holiday was filled with happiness, joy and love.