Day 1581. It was 3 am before I went to bed last night, and so I was pretty tired this morning. I don't know what time it was, when Sammy was the first one to wake up. Emmy woke up next, then Tammy, and they left to play. They also wanted to open the last door of their advent calendars, and I told them to just open whatever door was not open yet, which worked well. Randy got up to make breakfast for them, and eventually I also got up. I had a turkey to put into the oven for our Christmas dinner. It was 4.8 kilos. After it was in the oven not long after 10 am, I dressed the kids. This whole advent season we hadn't been to any Christmas markets, so it was high time to do so before they all closed down. It was the perfect time for it.
At 10:45 we left the house and took the subway to town, then rode a tram for one stop. There were lots of people at the main Vienna Christmas market. There was a big two-story carrousel right in the middle that we headed to first. There was a long line that we joined to get on. Last year they took us to the front of the line because of Sammy, and we didn't even have to pay for him. This year we stood in line, and then the guy didn't want to even let Randy go free, which he should have, as a person accompanying another person in a wheelchair always goes free. He said that he was just filling in and didn't know how to do that. In the end, we did pay for Randy, but Sammy was free. Better than nothing. Thankfully he had stood in line well. Now we were standing in the next line, waiting for the carrousel to stop so we could get on. Randy took Sammy out of the wheelchair to be ready to move.
I then took the wheelchair to the side, while Randy and the kids walked up to the horses they had already chose from the distance. They then went up and down as they were going round and round. They were having fun. When it ended, we wallked away and in the direction of the Ferris wheel you could see in the distance. We had never been on it before. And so we lined up there next. As four tickets were cheaper than 4 individual ones, I asked about Sammy, but he said only 4 people could sit in there at the time, not 5. And so we all had to pay, and Randy had to stay on the ground.
We went through the line until our turn had come to get on. The kids were excited. I had Sammy on my lap, while the other two sat on the other bench. After a while I switched sides, and then Tammy sat next to me, while Emmy was oppsite me. It went around about 6 times or so. We had a great view up there, view of the town hall and the big theater, and the market. The kids were enjoying the ride, even though it was Tammy surprisingly who once expressed some apprehension about the height. I myself don't like heights very much. The kids waved down to Daddy on the ground.
We got off and walked to the area, where they'd had a small kids' ice-skating rink last year that was free. It was not there this year. There was a heated, wooden house for kids that we walked inside of to see what was going on there. They had games and crafts there. We sat down at the crafts table, but I didn't like what they had to offer, plus I was sensitive to the time, as I needed to be home by about 1 pm because of the turkey in the oven, and the kids wanted to go to the playground they had seen. And so we left again, took a family picture by the cute present outside, and continued walking in the direction of the playground. We passed a life-sized nativity scene, then entered the playground.
Because of the snow yesterday, everything was wet and muddy, as we had 10 degrees today. Tammy and Emmy ran to the slide, while I took Sammy to the baby swing that he enjoyed. He had fun in it for a while, then we decided to move on. We walked through the whole length of the Christmas market to walk back to the tram stop. We stopped at another perfect backdrop for a picture, then walked to the entrance, where we got some chestnuts for them before crossing the street to the tram stop. We rode the tram for one stop, then got on the subway to go home. It was a new train, so Sammy was happy.
Just after 1 pm we were back home, and I took care of our turkey in the oven, then started cooking rice with peas and mushrooms. I also decorated our dining room table, making it look nice and Christmassy. At some point I got the turkey out of the oven, finished the rice, and had chestnuts in a bowl. I took the food to the table for us to have a nice Christmas meal. I was surprised, when Tammy was fussing, refusing to eat the turkey meat. What was that all about? I could not get her to eat any meat, even though she eats chicken. However, she finished her rice and chestnuts. Emmy ate his turkey, but barely ate any of the rice. Sammy was eating well right next to me, with me feeding him.
After having eaten, the kids opened the last doors of their chocolate advent calendars, then Randy cut some cake he had bought for everyone. Everybody had cake before going back to playing or watching stuff on their tablets. As for me, I went downstairs, where I added a few more decorations to the Christmast tree, and then put all the presents I had wrapped under it, as well as our small nativity set. I still had to wrap the drawings the kids made for Daddy, and hung up the only two sparklers we had in the tree. It was 4 pm, and the time had finally come that the kids had been waiting for all day. I lit the sparklers and told them they could come downstairs.
They were all looking at the tree and the presents and the sparklers, while Alexa was playing Christmas music in the background. Then we sat down, sang HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Jesus, talked to Him, sang a few Christmas song, and then I read the Christmas story to them in German, from one of their kids' Bibles. Then the moment they'd been waiting for had come. It was time to open the gifts.
Emmy being the youngest, he got to pick the first gift and had to look on the card who it was for. They know their first letters, so I just put T, E and S on the cards. Emmy then gave the gift to the person it was for, and then that person opened it with everyone watching. Then that person picked the next gift and gave it to whoever it was for. And that's how we rolled, going from gift to gift, first the ones that were for a specific person. The gifts for all the kids came at the end. It took some time, and there was lots of joy, which was the best gift for me.
Tammy and Emmy each got a remote-controlled stunt car, and all three got a rotating lit-up ball that's supposed to fly, but we haven't been very successful with that. They also got a dinosaur with a remote control; it walks, his eyes are lit up, and he makes noise. Tammy got a necklace with her name, Sammy got different Mickey Mouse stuff, and Emmy a Paw Patrol watch and figurine.
Tammy had a nightgown on her wishlist, so she got a Paw Patrol one. Tammy also had wanted a shield to go with her sword, as her brother already had one. As for the parent, Tammy and Emmy had each done a drawing for each one of us. And when Randy went to the store with Tammy and Emmy, they got to pick out a gift for me. Sammy had brought a gift home for Daddy from kindergarten. It was a mug he had painted, it seemed.
Once we were done opening all the gifts, they wanted to play the board games. There were three of them, and we played them all one after another. They were perfect for their age, and they all had fun with them. Sammy especially enjoys the toilet & poop game. He was laughing the whole time.
We let them play longer than usual, and as they'd had cookies, we decided to skip dinner. And so they went straight into the bathtub, where I did give them some proper food. Then we got them ready for bed and read another story from the advent book. Sammy had his new favorite toy with him, a Mickey Mouse with light that plays soft music to go to bed with babies. It kept him up, and he himself decided to put it aside so he could sleep. After the kids had brushed their teeth and been prayed for, they went to bed. It wasn't any later than usual. Randy sat down with them, while I got myself something to eat, and then went to work. By 1 am I was so tired that I could not go on and went to bed without having finished the pictures or report.
