23rd was dedicated for gift wrapping. Marcus, Benjamin and their parents were not allowed to come upstairs while I wrapped my gifts for them. When I was done with my gifts, I helped Benjamin in wrapping his gifts. After the gift wrapping activity, Marcus and his dad started to set up the 3.8 meter tall Christmas tree which is a real tree by the way and not a plastic tree like what we have in China. The tree needed so much work so they decided to continue working on it on the following day.

On the morning of the 24th, we decorated the Christmas tree with candles, ribbons, Christmas balls, and chocolates then we put the gifts under it. The afternoon was spent quietly mainly because everybody is secretly eager to know what presents he/she will get. In this time, my mother-in-law prepared the special meal for our dinner. At 5:00 pm, it was time to give the presents away. Everybody got dressed and gathered in the living room. Each one got his/her turn to give his/her presents away. In the end, each got their shares. I have to say that I am one of the two who got plenty of gifts (Benjamin being the other one). After the generous gift giving, we had our delicious Christmas dinner and then we spent the rest of the night sitting together and drinking wine.

The following day was relaxed. We slept until it was almost lunch. Right after waking up, we tried and showed the presents we got the previous night. At 3:00pm, we went to Marcus’ uncle’s house which is on the other side of the block. We were invited for an afternoon coffee and dinner there. We stayed there until midnight with few of Marcus’ closest relatives. It was an intimate and fun Christmas party. Expectedly, everybody got drunk except me and the minors.

All in all, I enjoyed my first quiet, warm and private (because it was spent just with relatives) Christmas in Austria.