I woke up this morning to a snow covered Vienna and it kept right on snowing all day long. It was a perfect snowfall really, light but constant, coating everything in a clean white. Unfortunately, when I was packing in the heat of August, I did not think about my amazingly incredible snow boots, which I need for such weather. I've been sliding around the city all day in my adorable and completely impractical grey suede boots. No warmth, no waterproofing, and no grip.
I was surviving in them for the most part, until I went to work. I took the baby in his stroller to pick up Stella from school, about a 15 minute walk away. Normally, the walk is fairly pleasant, wandering through unused streets under tall trees, but normally the sidewalks are clear. Alas, Vienna does not really use salt on sidewalks, nor do most people clear them. Leaving me, my grip-lacking shoes, and the stroller to traverse the 4-6 inches of snow covering our path. Going slowly, I managed to get there fine, albeit a bit chilled.
Stella's school is on a bit of hill and as I waited for the bell to ring, I saw a taxi cab slide slowly down it, unable to stop even with it's brakes. That did not bode well for me making it back up the hill. I made it about the first 20 feet before a lovely older Austrian woman offered to help me, which I tried to politely refuse, but she would not hear it. She scolded me a bit for my poor choice of shoes, but since the kids don't know I can speak German, I just kind of pretended not to understand and apologized for "not" knowing German. Together, we made it up the hill and I thanked her profusely before we headed home.
When we arrived, Inge asked me if I knew how to bake roll-out cookies. Like that is even a question. Who knew that I could have put all my years of rolling dough at Cookie Bake on my resume? I quickly googled the Wilton no-chill roll-out recipe and we got started. It was so nice to cook in a kitchen with proper utensils and supplies!!! Inge is a furniture designer and she was having a client party for her company, Airture (airture.at), so Gerd made a cookie cutter in the shape of one of their signature couch. It was awesome. In no time we had whipped up a batch and cut out our couches. Just as I was about to put them in Arthur started crying, so I was holding a crying infant while baking cookies. I am too young for this. The whole infant thing is totally throwing me off - they are so much work! Although I have yet to have to change his diaper, so in my book, we are good.
Anywho, after work, I met up with Jess, Abe, Rochelle, Hannah, and Georg at the Rathaus, which ended up closing up right as I got there. Schade! Although my favorite pastry stand was still open, so I got a warm delicious nutty twirly thing before we departed. When we got home, I whipped up a batch of my famous hot chocolate and Jess and I sat around watching Love Actually: the quintessential snowy day movie.
All in all, this was pretty much the best December First since the creation of the International Day We Could Be Models.
