We had a great evening.  We’d been promising the kids that we’d go over to the Rathaus to ride on the train, try out the carousel and go for a pony ride “soon”, and, since we’re a week away from Christmas, we were running out of “soon”.

So, we went over to the Rathaus, all bundled up, because it was cold, and raining (not quite cold enough for snow — bummer).  We rode the Christmas train that drives through the park, taking us on a scenic tour of all of the amazing lights.  And, as an added bonus, the rain discouraged most of the other visitors — we had almost an entire train to ourselves.  As we drove past the pony ride area, we noticed — no ponies.  Maybe they were in because of the rain?  The boys were a little upset until we suggested we might get balloons or candy canes instead.  Balloons were an acceptable alternative to ponies, it turns out.

But, our next stop was the carousel and the reindeer ride.  It was also completely deserted because of the rain.  We had a great time on the carousel, and since Liam didn’t want to ride by himself, I got to go, too.  We got a private carousel ride — just the three of us (pretty fantastic).  And then Benjamin got to ride on the lead reindeer on Santa’s sleigh/train.  Unfortunately, after our carousel ride and Benjamin’s turn on the reindeer, we went to find balloons, and came up empty-handed, perhaps because of the rain.  Undaunted, the kids happily accepted candy canes instead.

We really had a great time.  It was actually quite nice to not have to fight the typical week-before-Christmas crowds.  It was a lovely evening.  It didn’t quite go the way we had planned, but it wasn’t a problem — not even for the kids (which was kind of impressive).

It strikes me as kind of a metaphor for our whole adventure . . . or maybe it just reflects something we’ve learned to be good at here — so often, you can make of an experience what you will.  Good or bad, festive or frustrating.  Tonight we chose fun & festive.  Happy choice.