Finally visit Winter Wonderland, under some level of duress! O insisted on going to Winter Wonderland, and in particular really wanted to try out ice skating, although F was rather reluctant.

In the end, I got us all tickets to go on relatively short notice because it’s a bit of a family tradition. But in my rush to buy tickets, I accidentally bought 3 additional entry tickets, which was a bummer.

We did the ice skating, because O was adamant he wanted to try it. This meant that I spent most of the allotted time clinging to the railings on the side, and trying to make sure F (who was in front of me) doesn’t fall, and trying to instruct him on how to ice skate / balance (a real mission, since I barely know how to ice stake myself!)

O struck out on his own towards the centre of the rink very quickly, and I barely saw him the rest of our session slot. I kept behind F, and would encourage him to try moving a little further and asked him if he wants to try venturing towards the middle / away from the railings, where the ice was slightly better. 

After more than half our session time had passed, when I had resigned myself to just clinging to the side, F suddenly decided to try to skate across a corner (ie cut a corner), and before I could follow, he skated further along, and I had to scramble to gingerly follow him.

F wobbled a lot rather comically like a cartoon character, and fell a lot, but he always picked himself up and valiantly continued to press on. I encouraged him in his efforts, but tried to deter him from going to close to the middle where the more confident and faster skaters were, and I asked him where he was headed and why doesn’t he just skate on the outer rim. And then he explained that he was trying to get to the railings in the middle… which made sense… the ice would be better (fewer people) and we could complete a round more quickly. We held hands a bit and made it to the centre soon before our session ended.

I also booked Cirque Berserk, which is the more adult circus. I much prefer it to Zippos because there are usually aerial performances, and some acrobatic stunts. Although the kids were not initially keen on the circus, they ended up enjoying it.

Finally we went to a Fun House en famille. We did one together, then O and F did one on their own, while I had a kasebockwurst, yummy!

At the end of the day, F said that “Winter Wonderland was the best Christmas present I got from you Mama”, and O said that “Winter Wonderland is the best thing in winter in London”. So all that effort was worth it – yay! – and I’m glad we went.