Two Lang Traditions That Will Go Undone This Year

Now that October is over and I’m taking down the ghosts, skeletons and witches that the kids have made over the years, I realize that we didn’t make it to the pumpkin patch this year. Uh! It’s always a challenge to squeeze it in because of the busy afternoons and the jam-packed weekends, but somehow, we always manage. But this year I got too comfortable buying the awesomely-priced pumpkins at our local market. Once they were on the front porch, I let the urgency of getting to the pumpkin patch slip and here we are, looking back at October with no visit to Oma’s. I’m a little sad.

I’m even sadder when I look ahead, through this November and see that there will be no annual trip to Knott’s Berry Farm. Sad! We’ve been going to Knott’s, every November that we’ve been in California, since Arianna was small enough for me to carry her in the backpack. Knott’s has a Salute to the Armed Forces each November and the whole family looks forward to this trip. BUT, this year the park has changed it’s guidelines for entrance and the military member must be present for their families to take advantage of the offer. Excluding the dependents of deployed service members doesn’t make sense to me. It makes the sting of deployment even greater when the children who look forward to a tradition are not able to participate because Dad is gone. Ugh! Why don’t I just take them on my own, without the promotion, you ask. The wonderful offer that Knott’s puts out every November is for the active duty member and one guest to get in for free. They are then able to purchase up to 6 additional tickets for $15 each. Regular admission for adults is $44.99 and kid’s tickets are $23.99. Kid’s tickets are based on height. So, I have 4 “adults” among the 7 children that I currently have at home and 3 “kids”. I’ll let you all do the math to figure out the difference in the price. But you can see that it’s a great difference. Once you do all that math you’ll see why the Lang Clan never storms a theme park without an awesome promotion, especially around the holidays.

So, while I’m thankful that Knott’s puts on this really wonderful deal each year, I’m confused at their thinking. If a dependent is holding a copy of the Active Duty member’s orders and an ID card, I think it’s a shame that they will not be able to take advantage of this offer. And I’m really sad that for the first time in 10 years, we will not be going.

Have a great day~