My 30th birthday

27th of September 2012 - OMG, I turn 30!!! Big thing = big party :-)

Well, you only turn 30 once...so you have to make the most out of it - and I think I did :-)

For a long time I was thinking about what to do for that occasion. One thing, though, was clear since the beginning: I wanted to use my birthday to try to gather my whole big family, to get them all together again. Since the death of my grandmother on my mother's side and with many of our cousins founding own families or moving somewhere further away, it became more and more difficult to meet all. My 30 years could be a way of finally seeing each other again. But how should I arrange the celebrations? How to set it all up? My family is quite big and plus of course some friends that simply couldn't miss when I celebrate, it was quickly obvious that I couldn't make the party in our own house in Germany.
Thus, I had to rent a place. However, if I rent a party venue for some hours in the evening more problems would raise: where do the people stay that come from further away? With all the travelling expenses would they pay a hotel in addition? Would those come just for 1 day/night? And what about those with small(er) kids? Would they travel from far just to come for some hours party? What would they do with their kids, bring them along or babysitter?
Therefore it would be perfect to find a place to party on Saturday 29/09 and with accommodation possibilities afterwards (and why not even the for night before). This way it would be a whole birthday WEEKEND - some entertaining programme of course included. If everyone would take over just a little share of  the expenses (such as the costs for overnight + breakfast) that would be the greatest present for me as long as everyone comes. The people's presence on that weekend is the most important for me!

Being in Oslo it made it a little difficult for me to search for a place, yet to personally visit any venue. However, with the enormous help of my mum and the rest of my family, we found a perfect location! Eventhough I started planning the whole event already in February/March, many venues were already fully booked or didn't have enough capacity to host that amount of people I had in my mind. Spending a lot of time on searching for something adequate my mum had eventually found a place not only with availability, but also with accommodation facilities in a separate dormitory, a big party room, a dining hall incl. a fully equipped self-catering kitchen, with recreational rooms with fireplace, TV and full of amenities & games for kids, and with a promising outdoor area with place for playing soccer/volleyball/basketball, BBQ-/fireplace, children's toys and so much more:

"Ev. Jugendbildungsstätte" (kind of youth hostel for educational purposes) in Merzbach close to where I live

Signing the rental contract of the venue was only one element of the veeeeery long to-do or to-prepare and to-organise list. I prepared, sent out and followed up the invitations, but also the food and drinks, music & light, decoration and also the weekend/entertainment programme needed to be fixed - which wouldn't have been possible without the fantastic helping hands of family, friends, neighbours and friends of friends!


Anyway, September approached, the party (weekend) was getting closer and the still-to-do-list became shorter. I flew to Germany the weekend before my birthday to arrange some last things. Due to the big plans for the weekend, my birthday itself was pretty quiet. On that Thursday only a few guests had already arrived for the big party on the weekend: Marco (who had arrived already the 25th) and from Oslo my friend Audrey and my flatmate Mari who I picked up from Cologne/Bonn airport that evening. All together we had some nice dinner and the birthday cake made by my mum before heading to bed.

Friday, 28th of September:
The morning started with some kind of last minute preparations for the big party. Around noon I went to Bonn to pick up some more guests: my friend Sarah from Dusseldorf area, Jana with her boyfriend Helder and another friend (Eric) from Norway. After a short and simple lunch at home...

...and after testing the recently delivered party attraction of an apple-peeling-machine...

...we started moving all kinds of stuff to the party location (our overnight luggage, the decoration, cleaning supplies, food etc.). In the meantime my father met the supplier of drinks with the cold-storage plant and my brother brought the heat reflectors. We spent the afternoon decorating the whole area, setting up the outdoor tents, cleaning the fireplace and opening the first barrel of beer.
Not everyone invited this weekend would stay overnight, and not everyone stayed already from Friday. However, when all work was done, some further guests arrived (my uncle Jan, my former babysitter Steffi with her daughter and Dave & Yvonne with their three kids). We were now around 20 people and it was time for dinner; I had ordered a cold dinner buffet which was prepared by the staff of that venue.
An evening full of music, fun and social get-together followed.

 

Later in the evening a few more guests arrived: my cousin Emily (who arrived by car straight from England moving with all stuff back to Germany), my cousin Stephan from Aachen with his girlfriend and even my friends from Stockholm (my colleague Gerlinde and her husband Mike with their two lovely kids)!
We finished the day with some wine at the bar.


Saturday, 29th of September:
The big day! It started with some nice breakfast.

But more important: it started with great weather! This was essential as I had planned a walk through the vineyards of the beautiful nearby Ahr valley with most of the guests - and to be honest I didn't really have a fully developed plan B should the weather not be on my side that day. But I seemed to be lucky :-)
Not all people I invited would take part in the walk, some would only arrive in the evening for the party. But for those that wanted to join the walk I had announced to meet up at 11 a.m. In a convoy of 9 cars we drove some 15 minutes to a car park in Dernau in the Ahr valley, our starting point of the tour.

It started off with a small part through some forest area.

 

 

 

 

 

After about 1,5 hours we stopped for the lunch break at some wonderful picnic area above the little village of Mayschoß. I had announced that everyone had to bring a little backpack for the walk. That way, before departure, everyone had to fill its rucksack with some food and drinks which allowed us this vast and delicious lunch. We had all sorts of bread, several pieces of ham and bacon, small salamis, blocks of cheese, many fruits and raw vegetables, some sweets, water and of course some bottles of typical red wine from the area we were just walking through.

 

 At one point they were all singing for my birthday - even in a canon conducted by Werner!

 Great food, good weather, wonderful atmosphere - happy faces :-)

 

 

Special guest:

 

 

 Even the kids had fun at the playground!

 

 Strengthened by that break we made us on the way back, again through the wonderful wine landscape.

On the way back one of the many kids among us found a beautiful flower and handed it over to me wishing me happy birthday. Of course I kept carrying it with me. In somehow that had inspired also the other kids in such way that by the end of our walking tour I found myself with a wonderful and big bunch of wild flowers in my hands :-) So cute!!!

It must have been around 5 p.m. when we were back at the party location that I had rented as I didn't even have one hour before those guests arrived that only came for the party. So just enough time to take a shower and change.

I opened the evening with some prosecco at 6 p.m.

 

6.30 p.m.: dinner time!
A large buffet was waiting in the dining hall, partially prepared by the in-house kitchen, but for a large part set together by the many contributions of friends, neighbours and other wonderful people that helped with food preparations.

  

 My uncle preparing pancakes:

 

 

After dinner many were still sitting together around the tables. Some went over to the party room for some dancing and others sat down at the camp fire to listen to the guitar player, to bake some bread on sticks or to simply chat and warm up.

 

 

 

 

  

Later on I gathered all guests for the drawing of a winner of a game I had prepared for this evening/weekend. It was a little quiz to get to know each other. Upon arrival everyone had received an envelope with 3 notes about a guest of this party weekend. It was either a distinctive characteristic, an anecdote or a funny information about a family member, a relative, a friend or other important person in my life. In the course of the festivities everyone had to find out who is described in the envelope he/she had received. Searching for that described person brought the various people in contact and created the basis for some nice conversations. As an incentive for participating in this game I had prepared a food basket filled with Norwegian delicacies.

The party last until late. Though some of the non-overnight guests had already left by midnight, there were still many awake, either still sitting outside at the fire or in the tent, or chatting in the dinig hall or at the bar playing billard. As I had heard the next morning some resisted even until the early morning hours. Not me - I had turned 30 - too old now to party until 6 a.m. ;-) Or let's blame it on all the fresh air in combination with the 14 km walk we did during the day...


Sunday, 30th of September:
I think there was no one that wouldn't have loved to get up a bit later after that long night. Unfortunately I couldn't keep the place until the evening, but had to hand it over - neat and clean - by 2 p.m. And also breakfast wasn't served anymore after 10 a.m.

 

 

With several cups of coffee and some food we had all re-gained enough power for the big task of the day: the big clean up of the whole place.

 

 

Pretty exhausted we all left the venue and drove back home. Together with some last guests, the friends from Norway and Sweden, we used the afternoon for some sightseeing and drove to Cologne to see its cathedral.

The last act of this eventful weekend was dinner back home at our place.

Marco, my flatmate Mari, as well as my friends from Norway Audrey, Jand and Helder stayed overnight at our place on that Sunday. We all had our flight tickets the next day.

For me this was a really fantastic, successful and certainly unforgettable party :-)

This, however, wouldn't have been the case without every one that came to celebrate with me and the amazing help received from all sides. Therefore I would like to thank once more every guest for coming and send some special thanks also on this way to my family and to so many others for the wonderful support. Everyone of you has contributed in his/her own special way to the success of this unforgettable birthday, be it with the organisation of food and drinks/decoration/light/music/entertainment, with a contribution for the buffet, with the drawing up of the route through the vineyards, with money or with helping hands during set up and taking down!!!

It was amazing to see how many people offered their help, some eventhough they weren't invited. Neighbours, friends of my parents...and even the hand full of friends of my brother doing the service, cleaning up a bit and making sure noone would be starring into an empty glass during the whole evening.

And a very special thanks to my mum for her enormous effort and as main coordinator at home in Germany!

Despite some cancellations of people that simply couldn't make it that weekend, I was honoured with the presence of 80 guests (thereof 18 kids) :-) I had my direct family plus some of my uncles, aunts and cousins with me (unfortunately not all, but yes, that family is huge!), friends that are an important part of my current life in Scandinavia, friends that accompanied me over many years as child and/or teenager, friends I shared my hobbies with (dancing and volleyball) and many other wonderful people that became part of my life and formed it until now. It was a real pleasure to have celebrated with all of you!

THANKS TO ALL OF YOU!!!

Back in the office I was celebrated as well, together with my colleague Elisa that had her birthday in the beginning of October.

All in all, turning 30 wasn't bad at all under those fantastic circumstances :-)