I love my birthday sooo much!

If you are here for a while you know how my wish for a white wedding with a huge party went… my husband opted out. If you want to read about our love story and our proper but tiny wedding party you can read it on my blog.

No big wedding, okaaaay, I’ll do a BIG GORGEOUS 40th birthday party instead where I can decide everything on my own : ). Hotel Castell in Zuoz is our favorite 4 star-hotel where you feel so welcome and at home, it’s elegant AND so authentic and sincere… I asked them in February 2017 if the weekend after my birthday - 14th of December - is free to party and have the hotel exclusively for ourselves.

I wanted elegance like at a wedding party and instead of saying gala dress code I went for “James Bond” : ). The only problem was, that I didn’t make enough money at all in my business to pay for the whole party easily like I attempted to. I pondered over solutions and in the end I swallowed my pride (a lot of my friends admire my business-efforts AND they are watching me with a little worried frown from the sideline “Will she make it like she’s dreaming of?” and that’s ok! I’ll go for it until I make it…but that was not yet the case in December 2017) and asked for money as a gift instead of mugs and gift-cards. My friends showed up. I’m so thankful for that. I promised to invite them “all inclusive” when I turn 50, so the pressure is ON : ) I have 4 years to make that happen.

My birthday cake made by my dear Mama has a traditional cookie on top with a stork bringing a baby. This design was on my birth announcement in 1977 : ). My parents gave a lovely speech with pictures of my childhood: How I grew up on a construction site (I’ll tell you stories about that next year) and how I was a tomboy and how I eventually turned out to be a lady. Did you see my wingmen in the pictures? They bought body suits-suits : ) combined with blazers and hats and always acted as security with headsets. 

I introduced everybody. A daunting long speech? Or a fun way to get to know all of my different friend groups which I met when I worked in the circus, my four favorite former students of 800 I thought food technology, relatives, neighbors, scout friends, school & university friends, teacher friends, my hairdresser, business friends, Madalena from California…

The stories I told elicited many laughs and after finishing up with bragging about how every single person in this room is the greatest, I was thrilled to see how the different groups mingled… Everybody came up to me and let me know: Wow, you know GREAT people!! And I said: Yes, I know, I am so, so blessed and YOU are one of them.

My dear husband who once told me: I don’t know if I’ll come to your party (seriously, he pondered that…) had the best time with my favorite men who I met at a music festival 10 years ago and I’ve spent many weekends with them in snow and summer, carnival and other parties…and he never met them before. They even questioned if this Japanese husband is a myth : ). It made me sooo happy to see my man bond with them and have fun until waaaay after midnight. At 2am we went to search for our daughter : ). We didn’t see her for a while and found her sleeping in front of the fireplace in the party room. Baaad parents we are… but Mika loved and knew that hotel very well, we knew that she won't be lost anyway.

She had a pirate-children party in a separate room with the amazing kids-club-person and all the kids of my friends. They’ve built a big ship out of cardboards and watched a movie while eating dinner on the floor and at self-built cardboard-tables. She came into the party room every now and then for dancing with her friends or getting a kids-drink at the bar : ). She also handed me the cake officially which was a very, very magical moment. No big (wedding-like) cake. The cake my mama made, presented by my little girl who was 7 back then… I was moved to tears!

Dinner was amazing. I opted for a standing one as I wanted my friends to get to know each other, moving around while eating, getting into different circles and discussions and it really worked out. I was on cloud nine the whole evening and took every minute ALL IN! One bestie who couldn't be there sent me a box full of goodies, like my blinking birthday crown (it is still working when switched on), confetti guns, party hats… so fun. The cleaning team at 6am when we finished up the party didn’t like the soaked confetti on the floor that much though… uuups, sorry!

I love parties where everybody knows: My bed is one elevator ride away and THAT’S why I stay up all night… I remember at my 30th birthday party in Zurich a lot of friends went home at one am and my sister teased me with: Ok, is that the case when you’re 30ty everybody goes home THAT early!!?? Oh, yes, my sister was missing. She was on a year long campervan trip with her husband and my nephew soooo we missed them badly at the party where NOBODY “went home” early, not even Mister Sakata : ).

Do you have these kinds of vivid memories of your wedding day? Another legendary party? I am so glad I did this even though I had to borrow money from my bestie to pay the last part of the hotel party bill. I am so glad that I hired a professional photographer to capture the epicness of this night. If I would have postponed the party to my 45th birthday it would have been exactly during the pandemic. Let’s not postpone important things. Let’s do the things which are dear to our hearts TODAY or next week or just SOON… as we never know what will happen.

I am sending you so much love : ) if you hate birthdays or if you love it as much as I do. I’m sending you peace for your heart and soul. I’m sending you a big hug (if you want one)

Thank you for being on this journey with me. It’s an honor for me to be here with you. Yes, I mean this, every time I say it!

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This is a story from my weekly Joy-Letter that goes out every Sunday. Do you want to be the first to hear my personal scrapbook stories? Then sign up below.

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