Valentine's Day, 2021

I was very worried going into Valentine's Day entirely because of Hannie.  She's never had a boyfriend on Valentine's, and while that was a cause for sadness when she was younger, she embraced it as a young single adult by throwing Galentine's parties for her and her friends.  But with the breakup only six weeks old, and no real friendship here in Michigan yet, I was worried that the pain and sadness of the breakup would rear its ugly head on February 14.  I decided to include her in any plans we had, but I needn't have worried.

Hannah has a clear vision now of her relationship with Zach, and she can see the red flags now that were kinda obvious to the rest of us then.  I have honestly never seen her so happy.  She loves her job, she loves her ward, she loves living in Michigan, and as she says, she has no regrets.

Hannie and I had so much fun visiting the Valentine card section at Target a few days before and picking out Valentine's for friends and family.  I mean, I know Valentine's should be romantic, but it's really lovely to just celebrate love in general.

I had the idea that she should take some cookies to work too.  I mean, there's nothing wrong with getting in good with people through sugar and butter!  Little did I know that we would end up making about 180 cookies over the course of the week, because when the first distribution worked so well, why wouldn't we do it again for the second ENT office? And the third?  And then for her ward on Sunday?  And then for John's residents?  And wow, we weren't just making chocolate chip cookies which I can make in my sleep.  We were making Swig cookies!  Frosted sugar cookies that one of John's residents called "crack" cookies ;-). Hannah's already had a couple of requests for the recipe, but she's not sharing ;-)

And Hannie was such a good sport.  I found our box of hair accessories from when the girls were little and pulled out this gem.  She happily put it in her hair before she headed out the door to work ;-)

I had some fun gifts for Hannie over the weekend (a new Valentine dress, new washers for her national parks key chain, and a Pony-O with a bun band), and Hannie got us sweet gifts as well.  Really, love is such a fun thing!

Friday afternoon, we all headed to Melting Pot for some tasty fondue.  It was fun to get dressed up in our Valentine's finery.

But Saturday.  That's when the fun really happened.  I realized that the following Tuesday was Fat Tuesday which means a trip to Hamtramck for paczki.  I figured we could avoid the "day of" lines (and exposure to COVID) at New Palace Bakery, and then afterwards, we could go get some Polish food at one of the many Polish restaurants.  The night before, I had the feeling that we should invite Grammy as well. I seriously HATE it when I get those feelings, and even Hannah asked "Do we have to?"  Amen.

But I pulled out the red carpet in the snowstorm and made it a really great experience for her...which means it was a better experience for us.  And if it's a holiday celebrating love, shouldn't we be reaching out?

We picked her up in a snowstorm (yeah, that wasn't an analogy).  We went in the FJ Cruiser which is basically a tank on wheels with Johannah and me crammed in the teeny tiny back seat.  Grammy insisted that she'd never been to Hamtramck even though she repeatedly told us how familiar it all seemed and despite me showing her father living there as a child.  She wasn't going to get out and go into any of the shops, but after I insisted John park directly in front of the stores (so she didn't need to walk), she hopped right now.  And thank goodness for tender mercies--there were lines throughout the day, but NEVER when we showed up.

When she walked into that bakery, she was OVERWHELMED.  She basically recognized every single pastry and baked item in there, and she wanted a little bit of all of it.  It was pretty fun to see.  And the workers were super patient with us as we kept adding one more thing to what we wanted, including a very appropriate beanie for John (which he bought himself!)

Then it was onto the restaurant.  We didn't need it, but Grammy insisted we use her handicapped sticker.  The place opened just as we walked up, and we were seated immediately (thank goodness, again!)  She could hardly decide what to get, because (surprise!) she recognized all the food and wanted it all.  Beet salad, and stuffed cabbage, and Polish sausage.  I got the schnitzel, not thinking it could rival any German schnitzel, but one bite in, and I felt like I was back in Germany.  It was thick, and hand-breaded, and just delicious.  And if the food didn't take us back to Germany, the restaurant sure would.  Old, heavy wood decoration, strange things hanging on the walls, dark.  Yep, it was legit!

A thumbs up from Grammy.  
That's about as good as it gets from her!

I dived in so fast that I forgot to take
a good picture.  I'll be back before
2022 to get me some more of that schnitzel!

Hannah had to have a little snacky-snack of
Angel's wings in the back seat.  
She sure does look like Mark sometimes!

Then it was on to a fabulous macaron shop that we found a couple of years ago, Le Detroit Macaron.  I follow the company on Instagram, and I knew they had Galentine themed macarons which I wanted to get for Johannah.  Thankfully, they hadn't run out yet, and we grabbed her a box.  When we asked Grammy what kind of macarons she wanted (I had again convinced her to come in), she said she only wanted one.  So we walked out, and I asked her if she wanted to try hers to which she told me that she'd already eaten it ;-)

Time was tight for Grammy without a cigarette so I got her a large coffee to stave off the cravings, and we happily got her back home.  Of course, ten minutes out she was telling Hannah and me to get her baked goods ready to go, and sure enough when we drove up, she offered a quick "thank you" and got out of the car.  There's nothing better than a post-activity cigarette, I guess ;-)

After that, we needed to stop at the grocery store so Hannah could pick up potato chips to drop off at a women's shelter--her Relief Society was providing dinner.  We also decided to grab some flowers for my mom, and Johannah took those up to her as well.  It was a good sign when she didn't come out for a good 15 minutes (and yet another miracle that my mom even opened the door!). It would be a very sweet thing if Hannah could establish a relationship with my mom.

And then we went home and baked.  Hours and hours of making those ridiculously complicated cookies.  But when Hannah handed them out the next day at church, looking like a gorgeous walking Valentine herself, it was all worth it ;-)