288.

We've done Winter Wonderland yesterday.
Soon after Lee got home from work I started to pull ourselves together, had breakfast, and left. Got there before opening so we had to wait a little, but it resulted us being able to see the market without bumping into someone all the time, plus, we didn't have to queue to see Santa either!
Lileeva was a bit moany, since she hasn't had her morning nap, but braved Santa nicely! Although she looked like she was going to cry at some point, she just sat next to Father Christmas and stared at him continuously, with no shame whatsoever. She got a little present and we got a few nice, professional photos taken as well, to go in our family album.
On this note; For now I think I'll be going with the English version of things, where Father Christmas brings the presents. Therefor we have less chance of a slip up.
For us Hungarians, St. Nicholas (Mikulás) comes on the 6th of December (On the name day of Miklós aka Nicholas.) which we have to be prepared with polishing our shoes and putting them in the windows. He comes during the night, and if we were good, he leaves some chocolate in our boots, or, if we were bad, we get virgács. As of Christmas, we get the presents from Baby Jesus and/or angels. (Being atheist, definitely angels in my book.)
Maybe I make up a Hunglish version, where Santa comes twice for her, I have to figure this properly. Luckily I've got at least one, but possibly two years to work on the matter.

By we finished with that and had our lunch (Bratwurst. I've been craving wurst forever and W.W. blatantly the place for it!) Lileeva fell asleep, so me and Lee got on the German dark beer and hot cider. Around noon the place got packed, which gave the ultimate Christmas buzz to it. Lee not liking the crowd, I thought we were going to leave pretty much after looking around once but instead we ended up staying until about 04pm! We probably would have even stayed longer if I wasn't expecting a delivery that evening.

We went on the gypsy trick games, trying to win a teddy for Lileeva, but failed miserably. However, I did win her a teddy-snake! I say win, but all I had to do is catch a ball, which was way too easy comparing to shooting cans or throwing hoops over bottles. We bought her a massive, helium Peppa Pig balloon, which was good for hanging on the pram, flapping in our faces for a couple of hours, then right before leaving for home, flying away.
I wasn't really fussed about the prices, they could have been much worse. The food, drinks and market goods were fairly reasonable (£4 mulled wine, £3 chips, £4 wurst in a baguette, £6 pie and mash) but I hated the fact they made their money out of the children. £7 for a helium balloon that they don't even tie properly is a rip off!
I was quite surprised that the village was basically 98% German. Not complaining though. I even found a couple of Hungarian food stools too, where I immediately bought a túró rudi and a lángos. I was tempted to get a kürtőskalács too but decided on a belgian waffle instead.
Basically we had an entire day of family outings, which was amazing and much needed! The whole trip threw even Lee to the Christmasy mood, ha!
Yes, lot of money spent and technically we came home empty handed, but definitely worth it.
I loved it. I love Christmas and above all, I love my family!