Tuesday, December 27:
Played with the children in the morning. (Fidi overexcited by the music and other Christmas pleasures—could not sleep all night and kept on laughing and being skittish. During the Idyll he pleased and captivated all the musicians with his lively and spirited enjoyment of the music.) Letter from Frl. v. Meysenbug; she maintains that Hans appears to be ignoring her entirely, which pained me, but it must all be borne. In the evening fetched the children from Countess Bassenheim’s in a sleigh. In the evening we start on Hoffmann’s Der goldene Topf, which we enjoy greatly. R., embracing me as we part, says, “I want no change, I want only that it remain like this forever.”
We are concerned to have had no news from the King at Christmas; R. fears that he is angry about not having been sent Siegfried. (Things for the children from their grandmama.)