Hot chocolate, spiced wine and lots of snow

The boys were out in the snow getting ready for their epic snow-war with Uncle Bob about two hours before there was any chance of Uncle Bob actually arriving on the field of battle.

When Bob, Ana and Julia did eventually arrive the battle was indeed epic. It also turned out that Julia (a) seemed to quite like snow and (b) thought that people getting hit wit snow balls was simply hilarious. So a great deal of time passed with snow fights between various combinations of participants being relived only by the use of Julia as a human shield.

We then decided to build a snowman. It was going to become a snow-R2D2, but sheer incompetence had it looking more like a snow-Jabba the Hutt or maybe a snow-mushroom for a while and then it mutated into a snow-Dalek, although I’m not convinced that anyone else coming upon it is going to recognise that Dr Who has come to Tallinn.

After all that we deserved hot chocolates

Feeling enormously warmer, we decided to take a stroll up the hill behind the old town, largely in an effort to get Julia to fall asleep. A winding track leads to medieval walls and turrets with views out over the roofs of Tallinn. The whole effect, especially with the snow, was quite magical. It didn’t take long, though, until we were cold enough again to need to buy some spiced wine from one of the stalls located along the path. The kids were not entirely persuaded that the spiced wine was only required to stave off hypothermia – but, hey, we had a doctor on our side.

With Julia finally asleep, everyone else with functioning knees went ice-skating. We had been unsure about how we’d manage given last time the kids went skating they only managed because Bob and I each held one up and helped Jennifer too. It turned out not to be a big issue because the ice-skating rink comes complete with skating zimmer-frames to cater to the less than proficient. By the end, Declan had managed to go solo; while Callum had to retire damaged after an altercation with the walls.

Dinner was found in the Christmas market – a yummy combination of German sausages and Russian pelmeni.  And for desert, locally made marzipan from a stall that had taste testing of marzipan with different consistencies. For the record, we all agreed the 60% was the winner.