If you live with your friends, I'm sure house christmases are a familiar concept. Setting aside a bit of time before you all go home to your families to spend time and celebrate the festive cheer together. Our house christmas has been on the agenda for a good old while, and with a birthday trip to the Harry Potter Studio tour on the cards, we decided why not make the day even better and combine the two?
I could probably write a blog post alone about my love for Harry Potter, and this morning the 5 of us girls could not contain our excitement as we bundled into the car (Alexandra called shotgun) and headed up the M25 to Watford, where the magic awaited us...
I really don't want to spoil it for anyone who is planning to go, but let me tell you now, it is incredible. The first time I visited I had the flu and shouldn't really have gone at all, so this time it was so wonderful to take everything in properly and admire the creativity and detail which went into every single film!
New occupants of Number 4 Privet Drive?!
As with everything in the Harry Potter universe, the tour has you hooked from the very beginning but saves the climax until the end...
As five young adults, the Harry Potter studio really hit home how much we'd grown up with everything, we were all 7 when the first film came out and 17 when they finally finished, so Harry Potter took a huge chunk of our lives. One of the highlights for me growing up was waiting for the day the books went on sale and having to buy two copies because despite getting up extra early for the book, me and my dad just couldn't bare to share it! I was 7 when I first read my Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, with absolutely no knowledge of what Harry Potter was or that there was in fact a book before that one until my parents introduced me to the first film later that year.
But we didn't have too much time to dwell on our Potter-emotions because meanwhile at home, Christmas dinner was being prepared by Josh, our lovely housemate who despite buying a ticket, couldn't come with us on our Harry Potter journey due to an important uni presentation! Instead, being the true fabulous chef he is, he offered to start the meal for when we arrived home.
It might not have been the scale of the Great Hall, but goodness me did we have a feast (and a lot of wine)...
I feel so full just looking at these photos!
Our nibble-y starters were followed by this unbelievably roast, potentially one of the best I've ever had- even the brussel sprouts were gone by the end! We all pulled our crackers and talked about the year we've had together, singing christmas songs and absolutely stuffing ourselves.
I didn't actually get many photo's of the evening because as I've said before, I'm currently trying to be within the moment, and due to a lack of camera currently, the use of my phone as a camera is far too much of a distraction to take photos sufficiently! But we followed our mains with middle melting puddings and ice cream before resuming our positions for a game of Cards Against Humanity...
I would say Cards Against Humanity is not about for those who are easily offended, the humor is dark, but unfortunately it's exactly the kind of thing our house loves. Some outrageous things came out at the table but I highly recommend it, we were laughing so much our full stomachs hurt a lot.
As if we could manage even more food- there was a cheese course! Gooey camembert, gorgonzola and goats cheese with crackers and spread and all things delicious... and a box of Quality Street to go with it... Eventually we did stop eating and collapsed on the sofa to Macaulay Culkin in arguably the greatest Christmas film, Home Alone. Dozily watching him fight off the burglars and thinking about what a fantastic old day we had.
Christmases before Christmas are great, I haven't been feeling particularly festive due to the weight of deadlines, but the last week has left me feeling extremely christmassy and potentially a stone heavier!
Ciao for Now!
x
0 comments