A Harry Potter Happy Christmas Scribblings
Under Happy Christmas Ghostly Construction
Stay Tuned!
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You Are Cordially Invited To A Magical Christmas
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I wrote this:
January 1, 2025
Another New Year
Today is the start of another new year.
This has been a day that I have been dreading since the election in early November, 2024.
I haven’t wished one person a Happy New Year. Oh, I’ve said things like ‘may we all have a nice new year,’ but that’s different from wishing someone a Happy New Year. It’s not that I don’t want everyone to have one, it’s just that I don’t feel that too many of us will be having a very happy new year so it just seemed pointless to even ring in a new year when this could very well be the beginning of the end of America as we know it. I also noticed that when I was out shopping on New Year’s Eve that not one person wished me one either. I thought that was unusual seeing as how that’s kind of what employees in business do every single holiday to the people they encounter. Whether it be the cashier’s, the bag boys/girls, the receptionist at the doctor’s office, the vet, and any neighbors we may encounter when crossing paths.
I was so depressed after the election that I immediately cancelled Thanksgiving. After all, Thanksgiving is a feast based on a slaughter as it is, but it represents Native Americans coming together with immigrants to have a peaceful feast. So, with that in mind, how can any of us be so hypocritical as to celebrate Thanksgiving when we have so many anti-immigrant Americans among us? Well, actually, they are just anti-black and brown immigrants, but any white Canadians that care to migrate over then you are all very welcomed!
I also just didn’t have the strength to even muster any semblance of an attempt to plan any Thanksgiving, so I cancelled it.
But, when it came to Christmas I was inspired. Although I didn’t start out that way. It was a gradual gravitation in that direction. Or rather I ‘levitated’ in that direction. 🙂
It was while I was browsing online when I came across the Harry Potter Official Christmas Cookbook, by Elena P. Craig and Jody Revenson.
It’s really not like me to even want to buy a Harry Potter Cookbook, but for some reason I did. When it arrived I was flipping through it and I loved every page, every photograph, every recipe.
I WAS INSPIRED!
I just couldn’t put it down. I ended up looking through it so much that I told Gordon (who is working overseas), that I have the best idea for a Harry Potter Christmas but I just don’t know if I have the energy to do it? I told Gordon that I think it would be a great idea for me to buy the same book for Veronica, Mackenzie, and even her sister Susannah, who is a HUGE Harry Potter fan. I also had the idea to have each of them to make 1,2, or 3 things from the cookbook to bring over here for our Christmas Party. He told me to go for it! So, I thought about it and decided that if I didn’t do this now then I might regret it later on. After all, we don’t know what Christmas, 2025 is going to be like? We don’t even know if any of us will want to celebrate Christmas, 2025. Therefore, now is the time for me to do this.
This just might be the last ‘Happy Christmas’ for all of us.
The Christmas Books and Gift Bags
As a rule I don’t believe in Miracles, but I do believe in Magic
It was at this point that the ideas and inspiration just flowed like a waterfall all over me. I couldn’t contain my excitement and I just started to dive right in with all the prep work. Everyone was also very excited about our very own Harry Potter Christmas. There was also this baking show on the Food Network, hosted by the Weasley twins, Fred and George Weasley, A.K.A. James and Oliver Phelps. That too was inspirational. A baking competition based on the Harry Potter movies and all the baking was being done by huge fans of the movie franchise. I contacted everyone to tell them about the show and they then informed me that they were already watching it. Great!
It was then that I started looking online for other Harry Potter cookbooks, etc. I came across some more and ordered them for me to look through and perhaps become even more inspired. They arrived, and I WAS! Even though I may never cook anything from those books they were still enjoyable to read and look at. After all, that is what books do for you. They make you feel good.
My sad and depressed mood starting lifting up and I was becoming so happy.
I have no earthly idea why someone would prefer that small handheld cold device that most people are glued to the majority of the day, to holding a book in your hands. Large enough to see and read. Colorful enough to enjoy all the photographs, to read all the words. To even touch and turn all the pages.
Did you know that the average person is on their phone a total of 2 1/2 months a year?
I never would have even thought to have a Harry Potter Christmas had Trump not won the election.
I never would have ordered all those books that have made me so very happy this past month, and inspired me more than I have been in awhile. I can’t imagine burning any of these wonderful books like some in my country want to do. Books teach us, books entertain us, books inspire us, books make us happy.
I sent my mother-in-law, Sarajane Whann, the Harry Potter Cookbook and Hogwarts book stand for Christmas. She too is a huge fan of the franchise. I heard that she loved it! She had developed Bronchitis over the holidays and was bedridden and the only book she had with her to read in bed was the cookbook I sent her. The thing is, I totally get it! I know she will never cook one item from that cookbook. You don’t have to, to enjoy reading it.
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This is perfection to me! Snuggly covers, comfy pajamas, and lots and lots of inspiring books! Oh, and my Blackberry Gingerale.
Harry Potter Glasses (Optional)
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The Christmas Party, A.K.A. Our Harry Potter Pot Luck Supper
Before My Party Starts
Although you wouldn’t know it to look at me in the photo above, I was rushing around like crazy doing last minute things and I’m surprised I look as calmly as I do. I really can’t believe that I pulled off such a big party all by myself. You know, it’s a lot more work than it looks and seeing as how I kept Isabelle up until a day and half prior to my party. I so wished that Gordon could have been here to help me.
Isabelle’s crib had to be moved out onto the lanai in order to create some more space inside the house. I was moving/dragging furniture to the bedroom and the den. I had to create space in order to fill space. Christmas trees, etc.
It wasn’t just the family that came, it was also Mackenzie’s twin sister Susannah and her boyfriend Matt.
Mine and Gordon’s bedroom was such a mess that I just closed that part of the house off and everyone had to make due with the guest bathroom. There were so many pots and pans and dishes and skillets, that I just piled everything into the laundry room sink just to have somewhere to put them all. Otherwise, nothing could have been prepared in the kitchen. I know that it took me a good 3 days after the party to get all those things washed and put away.
Our Harry Potter Table
Everyone did such a great job making their food to bring from the cookbooks I bought them all. Veronica was so inspired by the Focaccia Breads that she made that she wants to make more of the bread in the future. Same with Brodie and his Pumpkin Rolls. They were so good too! I would like to think that this Harry Potter Party was inspiring to everyone. I know that I am looking forward to doing the write ups. I even told everyone to take photos while they created their foods so that they can be included in the website page recipe write ups. I just wanted everyone to have fun with it.
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I was so busy with this Harry Potter Christmas throughout December that I really didn’t have that much time to work on past Christmas website page write ups. Looks like I will be devoting January to try and catch up. Perhaps even into February. I’m really not planning on doing anything big until Gordon comes back home in March. We are already planning a few fun things to do while he’s home.
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I do wish every single one of us a nice new year.
I think that is about the best that any of us can hope for.
Julie
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