Last weekend was great fun, and a wonderful first Valentine's Day since Mike and I were married. My folks drove up to Chicago and brought us along to Michigan to spend some time with extended family and attend a fun event... my cousin Sarah played the role of Giannetta in Opera Grand Rapids' production of L'Elisir d'Amore by Donizetti, otherwise known as The Elixir of Love. The production was very entertaining with a highly talented cast, and it was great to be able to see my cousin in her first professional role. The plot is romantic with lots of opportunity for humor, and like much comic opera every character finds a happy ending. It was great to be there to support Sarah and see how proud and excited her family was for her performance.
I also invited a college friend, Nick K., to meet us at the performance and catch up a bit since he's living in Grand Rapids these days. We lived on the same hall freshman year at Kenyon and got to know each other pretty well because we were both involved at church, but aside from a longstanding facebook "poke" tradition we haven't kept in touch much in the intervening four years. He and Mike and I wandered around snowy downtown Grand Rapids after the show looking for a bar or café with decadent chocolate desserts, suffered a minor setback when I thought I'd lost my I.D., and wound up at a chain restaurant (but at least one with decadent chocolate desserts!)
The other very exciting part about the weekend was meeting a new addition to the family. My cousin Lauren (one of Sarah's sisters) and her husband had a little boy in November. Brian is extremely cute and eating very well (as demonstrated by the fact that at 3 months he's in 6-9 month baby clothes already!) My grandma was with us for the weekend, so she officially met her first great grandbaby for the first time. It was interesting to listen in when my cousin Melissa got her reminiscing a bit about her own memories of young motherhood. I wish I could post a picture or two, but I forgot to get out my camera... it'll have to wait until my mom can figure out how to email me the ones she took!
***UPDATE***
What a cute little butterball! Here's me and Grandma Doris (now Great-Grandma) with Brian! "Who the heck are all these new people??"
*** end update***
Oh, and as for celebrating Valentine's Day as a married couple, Mike stepped up to the task admirably, surprising me with a purple sprig of flowers (from the dollar store, no less!) before we headed back to Chicago.
