It was my birthday in January, and shortly before it, the new kitchen arrived. What a lovely "birthday present"! And then I suddenly feel very grown-up; when you're happy about things like a new kitchen and a new vacuum cleaner, the house is really starting to feel finished. "Only with a kitchen is it a real house," my boyfriend says. At the end of January, we celebrated the housewarming and my birthday—at the same time, because that's so much easier! That was the first real party we had in our new house, so I felt it was extra important that the whole place was tidy. Gosh, I found that quite stressful! Everyone is incredibly curious, of course, and you never know how things will turn out—it's been a while since I've had such a big party. I rented a small house for a while before, but it wasn't nearly big enough to accommodate many people at once, or they would have been crammed together. So I didn't really throw any parties back then, even though I enjoy them so much. You're going to show everyone everything, of course, so everything has to look its best—even though it's not entirely finished. For example, the stairs still needed carpeting, which didn't happen until later. Luckily, I could just mention that, because we'd agreed I'd do the house tour and my boyfriend would serve cake.

To be honest, if possible, I'd recommend everyone celebrate their birthday and housewarming separately—especially if you enjoy birthdays as much as I do. I love birthdays and I enjoy having my own special day of the year. Only now that we combined the celebration, it seemed like people had forgotten that it was also my birthday. It's confusing, I have to admit; who do you congratulate, just me or both of us? Actually, both, anyway. But all that was offset by the sheer joy we had. Also by the praise for our house, which we'd obviously worked so hard on. So when people say, "Oh, what a beautiful house you have!" or "Wow, it's so big," everything feels great. I'm so proud of us and what we've created. So all in all, it was a successful party, and everyone seemed to have a great time and be excited about our new place!