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This was Harry Potter’s year. Yes, two of the three girls asked for Legos from Santa. But they have hardly played with them because they are too busy playing with all their other Harry Potter goodies. But let me start this story at the beginning. We started our Christmas adventure at church on Christmas Eve where Ellie and Kate were in the Christmas pageant and Jill and Allen and I were ushers for the first two services. They we all (Joelle and her crew, my parents and our crew) met my brother at home for some great hang out time. We all spent two night at my parents’ house even though we all live within a half hour of there because sleeping over is part of the fun and allows for time for games and stories and hanging out. For example there was plenty of time to track Santa’s progress on the iPad through the NORAD website…
After opening pajamas from Mrs. Clause the kids were all ready to hear the traditional reading of ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas. Which, of course, is never traditional because my Dad changes all the words to suit his whims.
This year he was upstaged by Henry. Sure, he sat in Jill’s lap for the first half page but then he decided story time was over. So he sat on the end of the bed contemplating his next move (or his belly button).
Then he decided to walk a mile in Dad’s shoes.
Then he decided that the french doors needed to be cleaned.
On Christmas morning the kids were up early opening their stockings in their sleeping bags while the adults attempted to prop their eyes open and look cheerful. After a quick picture at the top of the stairs (the Dads needed time to get cameras ready and lights on and music going) the kids were off to see what Santa brought.
Ellie got the Lego Diagon Alley (Harry Potter), Kate got the Lego house with the real doorbell and Jill got the complete set of Harry Potter videos. That fat man was good to us!
After a few more gifts were opened I decided that I just couldn’t wait any longer. Allen and I had been planning a big surprise for months and I couldn’t stand it! I had the girls open their gifts from us all together. First they opened Harry Potter scarves. (One got Griffandor, one got Ravenclaw and one got Hufflpuff.) And they were happy…
THEN they opened a scroll that Jill read out loud. Here is what it said…
Ginny, Luna and Hermione are the girls’ favorite characters and Nevill and Colin are characters Allen and I played for this party. The girls thought Jill was reading a cute little story until they heard the word Orlando. This is when it dawned on them what their gift was…
This is what they looked like as the idea of going to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando Florida sunk in…
This is how Kate expressed her joy…
I should probably end the story here with us being the BEST PARENTS EVER!!! But I won’t because we had more Harry Potter fun from grandparents and aunts and uncles. Just a few of the other items included Hogwarts pins for Kate…
Posters for Ellie and Jill…
After all the gifts were opened and breakfast was eaten we assumed our regular Christmas Day position. At the dining room table, with diagrams and bricks in front of us to build the Santa gifts…
Since we did spend Christmas night too we were able to dig into our new books with our cousins…
And play a few rounds of Harry Potter Uno too…
And we aren’t even done yet! We are celebrating with Allen’s side of the family tomorrow. Lucky us that the fun continues!