Christmas Experience #2 … was going to be a wonderful stroll in a Christmas Market that a local paper described as “Vienna’s Best Kept Secret”. They had glass blowers, homemade crafts, and local music. The kicker – we didn’t go. Saturday was busy so we opted to do our experience on Sunday. Sunday was cold and we were tired and we had little "umpf” and we … well we just decided to go for Plan B. Plan B was an old black and white film, “The Bishop’s Wife”, nachos and being warm and cuddly in the house. Not so much of a “Wow” factor, but it was all what we needed … and wanted.

Christmas Experience #3 … was a hit. After regaining our “umpf” after last weekend, we picked the girls up from school Friday afternoon and whisked them downtown to an American Movie Theatre for the opening of the third “Narnia” film. I thought about making this blog all about my impressions of the film, however, seeing how that could take a few hundred … thousand words … I’m not going to (did I just hear someone whisper “Thank God”?). I will say (you knew I had to say something about the film) it was, in a word, superb! Despite the 3D glasses making me woozy (I get motion sickness in the elevator so can you imagine what experiencing all the action in 3D did for me!) the movie was just … again … superb! I could go on and on … but there I go again digressing!

The girls were surprised, enjoyed the film, and enjoyed the fact that when we came out of the film, feeling all warm and fuzzy by the various themes each of us applied to our own lives … it was lightly snowing! Ahhhh …

Then, the hunt was one for some street food! Our initial thought was to eat a Kebab … but alas we could not find one in the area. So, we took the U-Bahn (subway) to another station, knowing their Kebab stand would be open only to be disappointed. Traveling to one last Kebab stand, it was open and we all ate for 13 Euro!

As we walked in the snow to the car, eating our sandwiches and freezing our little toes off, I silently hid our evening in my heart. This Christmas will soon fade into the treasury of all Christmas’ past. The girls will go on to have their own adventures with their own families. But, for now, these are the things that make me want to hold every so tightly to the hands of my ladies, hug their little cold bodies longer and look at them for a really long time when they don’t know I’m watching them. These are the gifts they are unknowingly giving me.

I love Christmas.