Thanksgiving Weekend

Ah, Thanksgiving. It conjures images of toasty mornings and rich foods. Naturally, thanksgiving last year was just that. 

Yes, I am posting my Thanksgiving post in October... I was looking at my blog which I obviously neglect, and realized I never posted this bad boy. It would be horrible to let a whole year pass, so here it is. Just, um... 11 months late. 

I had nowhere to go for Thanksgiving. Well, let me rephrase, I had everywhere to go for Thanksgiving, but neither the time or the money.  Hope was in the same boat, so we made a plan. A food plan. I found this bread pudding recipe in Real Simple and determined that it must be ours: 

And it was

We had my apartment to ourselves, and while we were eating breakfast, coloring Christmas sheets, and listening to Christmas music,

I got a picture from my family and their Thanksgiving day hike. 

SO. Cute.  I loved it. 

Later Hope and I had to prepare the dishes we would bring to the mass Thanksgiving dinner held at one of the Branch Presidency's homes. While we were there, I got another awesome home pic. 

Keep 'em coming, I love it! 

The next day Hope's friend Mel came in to town. And did you know that she served her mission with Abe Garza? 

The Magnolia Bakery recently opened up on State Street (it's a big deal in New York),  so we went to partake of the deliciousness. 

We had fun, and it was cute, but soooo overrated. Seriously, they use paper plates? And plastic forks?Are you kidding me? There are a million bakeries in Chicago, and their presentation is a hundred times better. Sorry Magnolia. 

I love love love when people visit Chicago, even if they aren't my people! Because we get to see Chicago, and I love to see Chicago. This time we decided to see the trees. 

Macy's tree:

Macy's old-timey water fountain:

Bloomingdale's tree on Michigan Avenue:

Christkindlemarket tree: 

The water features at Millennium Park:

Chicago Cultural Center (cause we can never get enough) Possibly there was a wedding that night?

More baking! There were so many holiday flavors we needed to taste!

And another great pic from home!

Aww, I love it! I can't wait for Thanksgiving 2012!