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Sunday morning we set our alarm very early as we had a lot to prepare for the guest we expected, but we were woken up by a sound that we haven’t heard so far this winter: the sound made when shovelling snow. Even though the thermometer showed -8 degrees (which we believed is too cold for snow) we were presented a winter-environment with ca 5cm of fresh snow. It looked fabulous and the fact that it was so cold and there was no wind made us confident that it could last for a while (apart from on the roads). Once awake we got on the task of preparing everything for a quite huge crowd of 16 adults + 5 children (between 8,5 months and 5,5 years) which signed up to come for a brunch on the occasion of Kerstin’s birthday.

Freshly squeezed juices (apple/carrot/orange and orange), freshly cut fruit salad, pineapple with mint & sugar, yoghurt, cheese, sausage & vegetable platters, bakes beans, sausages & scrambled eggs as well as fresh bread & bread rolls needed preparing and after more than 2 hours we were done and were expecting the first guests to come. By 1130 we could call it a “full house”, the espresso machine was running on full steam and the “chef de cuisine” Markus did his best to keep everyone happy and feeding. A birthday song by Kerstin’s godchild Rosemarie accompanied us toasting to Kerstin’s health during the break between the Men’s Slalom in Adelboden and the ski flying competition in Bad Mitterndorf shown on TV.

Noone had to leave with hunger - there was enough for all of us

Later on we left for a walk in the snow-covered Prater where Markus tried the sledge hill on

Jesuitenwiese (which is floodlit and serviced with artificial snow) on a plastic bag which is not exactly the right vehicle - hence the decision was taken to go and get a proper sledge as lateron this week. With some help from Peter&Lini and Mimi, Bruno&Max we reduced the food pile a bit more and then focussed on cleaning the elevator and anteroom of our flat which were both flooded with water, dirt and gravel from the street. The day was definitely a stress-test for the flat (we don’t think much more people can be accommodated during winter times without the terraces) and it has coped with bravery. Especially Kerstin enjoyed the day with many of our friends a lot, even though we were dead tired in the evening and fell asleep very early ahead of a normally long week.

Kerstin & Markus