Harry Potter

Advent 2020–Day Nine

Today, Moose added a small, but important part to Diagon Alley…the windows and foundation for the second floor of Scribbulus:

Tomorrow Ladybug is going to finish the steps for bag four!

Advent 2020–Day Eight

Today we broke from our expected pattern of building so Chickadee could finish the steps for bag three of Diagon Alley. She got to start building the second floor of Ollivander’s:

Tomorrow and Tuesday we’ll work on bag four, and then, if I’ve done the math correctly, we’ll be able to do one bag each day for the remainder of Advent!

Advent 2020–Day Seven

Can you believe today marks the end of the first week of Advent? Today Turkey started working on the third bag of parts for Diagon Alley, which finished the front facade of the first floor of Ollivanders, and also added Hermione Granger to the set:

Here’s a look back at some of my favorite parts of the build from the first week, including the Ollivander’s window displays pre-window, and a glance at how the staircase in Ollivander’s can fold into the set:

We’ll finish the build for bag three tomorrow to kick off the second week of Advent!

Advent 2020–Day Four

Today was exciting, because not only did Ladybug start working on the second bag of the Diagon Alley build, she got to add Mr. Ollivander himself to the set!

It’s already starting to look like something…I can’t wait to see what the next steps of the build add to the set!

Advent 2020–Day Two

Tonight Bunny added what is going to be the display for the front window of Scribbulus to Diagon Alley.

I peeked ahead, and there’s a cute little mini build coming up tomorrow!

Advent 2020–Day One

We had so much fun building the Lego Hogwarts Castle throughout Advent last year that I knew I wanted to repeat a Lego project this year. So way back in February, I bought the Lego Millennium Falcon (the big one!), not only as an Advent activity for 2020, but also as a way to build anticipation for the trip to Disney World, and especially Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, that we had planned for summer 2021.

Well, you know what they say…man plans, and God laughs. He may not be laughing, but our plans…well, they went the way of COVID-19. We’re still hoping to take that trip, but it won’t be next summer. So, as a family, we decided to hold on to the Millennium Falcon until the Advent before our trip (whenever that may be), and this year, we’re going to build the Diagon Alley set I impulse bought when it came out this summer.

Instead of dividing the builds up by bag number (this time, there are less bags than there are days of Advent), we’re going to start by building about 15 steps a day. The first instruction book coincides with the first of four buildings on the street, which houses Ollivanders and Scribbulus, and tonight, Turkey built the floor and the first shelf.

I’m really looking forward to seeing how this set comes together!

Halloween in the Time of COVID-19

Halloween is the one holiday this year that looks pretty much the same to us, since our celebrations are always minimal at best. But I still wanted to make the day special, so I went to some extra effort with our meals.

We started the day with pumpkin spice cinnamon rolls. Yes, they were from a can, but they were still a treat!

I chose all of the elements of our dinner from our Harry Potter cookbook. We had braised lamb, Brussels sprouts, boiled potatoes, mashed parsnips, and butterbeer.

Dessert also came from the Harry Potter cookbook…a chocolate gateau.

We spent the day watching movies (Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, because it’s about candy, and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone), and It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, plus we listened to my favorite Halloween episode of The Baby Snooks Show. And of course, Animal Crossing: New Horizons was played!

Another holiday in the time of COVID-19 has come and gone, but the big ones are still on the horizon!