Sunday, July 17, 2011

Potter Heads

Last weekend Josh brought home a Redbox movie - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. I was surprised when he popped in the DVD and sat down to watch it with me! There was a lot of explaining going on, since Josh is a "muggle" and has neither read one of the books, nor seen one of the movies all the way through.

I must admit, it would be very difficult for someone to follow along with the movies unless they've read the books, don't you think?

He's been tolerant of my Harry Potter excitement through the years, bless him. He's often pre-ordered the latest book for me by surprise, and once arranged for me to go see the movie while he was out of town. You can read my history of Harry Potter here.

Josh has always been so clever and creative and thoughtful. I have many wonderful memories of sweet notes, clever theme gifts, his memorable marriage proposal, and our first married 12-days of Christmas. For me it's not really the gift itself, but the time and thought he always puts into it that makes me feel so special. He's awesome.

Imagine my surprise (and delight) when this little owl appeared at our doorstep one evening:

He was perched atop this decorative envelope which was sealed with wax (crayon)!



Isn't it fantastic!?

Inside, was a letter on Hogwarts' letterhead, which read:

"Dear Amy of ______, Your presence is formally requested at the Hogwarts School of Magic on Friday, the fifteenth of July, in this, the year of our wizard, Lord Dumbledore. You are to report to the Train Station, stop 9 and 3/4 at 5:00pm. You will meet your escort there. The care of your muggles has been entrusted with one of our seasoned wizards, Lady Brittany of _______ Court. She will arrive prior to your departure. Beware! The evil forces of Lord Voldemort have already commenced the attack against our students. Voldemort will stop at nothing to keep you from attending Hogwarts School. While the journey to Hogwarts will be filled with merriment, dangers abound. Know that you will not have to face these dangers alone, or without armament. Hogwarts will do everything it can to support you in your quest. We are counting on you - one of our most gifted magicians - to defeat Lord Voldemort's legions. Heighten your senses so that you can collect the seven horcruxes necessary to banish Lord Voldemort and restore peace and love to our world.

A few days later, we were all downstairs for breakfast, and Josh was beating some scrambled eggs for Diddles. He suddenly remembered that he had a morning meeting to get to and needed to get ready! "Could you finish doing these eggs?" I thought nothing of it, but found this when I opened the microwave:It read: "Snakes in the walls! You narrowly escaped today, but you're going to need a magic wand if you make it to Hogwarts. Your task today is to gather a magic wand, you'll need this before visiting the Hogwarts school.

I fashioned a wand: plastic drum stick (from the toy box), masking tape-covered and shoe-polished, 10-inches. Rigid.

Thursday night I noticed something crunchy under my pillow.


Oh yes, that's an invisibility cloak!

"A faithful owl, and a magic wand: essentials for any magic practitioner. But confronting the dark arts of Lord Voldemort will require more. Potions, spells, and mystic devices. Before your departure to Hogwarts, we entrust you with this invisibility cloak. Make certain that you bring this and other essentials on your voyage."

Josh left to "go to the gym" promptly at 5pm on Friday. Lady Brittany (one of my cute Young Women I teach at church) arrived shortly thereafter (I assume on her broomstick), and said, "I'm Lady Porter, and I am here to care for your Muggles!" She's awesome! She was even wearing black and had a Griffindor scarf on!

I arrived at the train depot. We really do have a train depot in our town. Saw Josh's car and the train marked 9 3/4. It took me a minute to figure out what I was supposed to do. Then I noticed that there was something on the seat of his car: A time-turner!! After reading the note (I kid you not), he appeared...seemingly out of nowhere!


"What good luck!
This time turner is just what you need to turn back the cancerous spell of lost love that Voldemort has waged against the muggles. Use this Time Turner to warp back to a time when you had dinner with your first love."


We went out for ice cream (we weren't quite hungry for dinner) and drove to a nearby park to eat it. I was asked to grab the blanket from the trunk, when I uncovered THIS fun little game of QUIDDITCH!


"The golden snitches have started to breed!
There are six in all, you must gather all of the snitches in the circle to win this game.
Use the catapult to launch them through the goal!
"

The rules were a bit different. You used this stick (a tupperware dish taped to the ice scraper) to send the snitch (gold spray-painted foam balls with feathers attached) flying through the hoop. We had fun discussing how the game is really played in the book. It was way harder than it looks! A++ for effort!


As we were playing, this friendly cat came to join us on our blanket as if she owned the place. Made herself quite at home. How kind of Professor McGonagall to come pay us a visit!



After standing in line to get into the 3-D movie theater, Josh decided he had too many pairs of glasses and it was imperative that he take a pair back to the car before the movie started. After he returned, he handed me his iPad to play a game while we waited, and I found this:

"Although it may seem that you are protected inside Hogwarts' walls, evil surrounds you. Lest you get burned or poisoned by a Norwegian Ridgeback you better have some potion on-hand. Hogsmeade has a variety of potions disguised in refreshing drink. Take this money and purchase one from one of our Alchemists. You better wear your invisibility cloak in case an ambush awaits you."


This was by far the most embarrassing step. When I refused to wear the cloak (NO ONE was dressed in Harry Potter garb. The best costume I saw was a pre-teen wearing a Griffindor beanie), he said I HAD to at least wear it over my arm. When I got to the counter, I ordered a popcorn and the college-aged counter guy reached under the counter and brought out this:

Butter Beer! (You can't see the little jug handle on the other side! Awesome!)

Then he nervously said, "Ummm, I....think....this is for you? Do you want it?" Why yes, yes I do! I heard a guy behind me say, "Dude, that's AWESOME!" Dude, it totally IS! We enjoyed our butter beer (cream soda with butterscotch syrup and whipping cream) and popcorn.

The movie was exciting and just as magical as I pictured it. It was a great way to end the series! But, I think we'll all agree that Josh's performance on this date won him some serious Griffindor POINTS! His creativity, secrecy and quick study of the Wizarding world was impressive, to say the least. Thanks to all the clever witches and wizards who assisted Josh in making this a great and memorable date. I had an awesome time!

Long live Harry Potter!

16 comments:

Peter said...

OH MY! That is soooo cool! Catherine and I are totally jealous that the Harry Potter world came to life for YOU! Way to go Josh. You're an inspiration to us all.

Catherine said...

haha that is totally awesome!!! Josh is amazing!

Nicole said...

Best Date EVER!!!! Josh rocks!

Holly said...

I think Josh should teach dating 101 at some Elder's Quorum activities! That is an AWESOME date! I'm telling my whole family to check out this blog post! So cool!

Greg and I met Greg's brother and finacee in spokane to see Harry Potter at the IMAX in 3D Saturday night. I wonder if you were at that one...

In the first year of our marriage Greg said, "Do you like Harry Potter?" I laughed and said, "No," because I saw half of the first movie and thought it was dumb. So he got me listening to the books by Jim Dale and I became addicted! I love that story! It really makes a difference if you can read/listen to the whole story with all the details. Maybe on your next big road trip you could listen to the books together. =)

Holly said...

PS. I posted a video on my blog that you would like. =)

Golden Girl said...

Pure awesomeness!!!

Dianna said...

Oh my goodness! Josh is totally showing up all the other husbands out there. He always has been an overachiever. It looks like you had a great time. The movie probably took a back seat to the date. I'm so happy for you. I agree that Josh should be teaching classes on this stuff.

Cara and Steve said...

This is just AWESOME! I wish I had a creative mind like that! What a fun magical week/night! Nice job Josh :)

Taylor's said...

One awesome and amazing husband - I wonder how long it took him to put all of that together!

What a great night! PS I want to hear about the engagement - you have me on the edge of my seat now!

Eric said...

Oh so not cool! My wife just made me read this. Seriously Josh, way to up the ante for us guys.

Anonymous said...

Boy, am I lucky! My wife does not care about Harry Potter. I'm the one who is addicted. I could never pull of a date like this. Wears me out just reading about it.

So Greg got Holly addicted with the Jim Dale CD's. Then Holly did the same thing to me. Thanks Holly!

The Anderson Family said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
The Anderson Family said...

I commented on another post, but wanted to make sure you saw it. I love your Book of Mormon party and am doing something similar for my son and his friends. Do you have the art you used for the completion certificate that you can email to me? I'm not talented on the computer, but this is exactly what I need. Thanks so much!! wobnsanni@cox.net

Holly said...

Haha, yeah, I showed Greg this post and he said I'm not allowed to read your blog anymore...

(Dave Bennett is my Dad.)

Sweet Cherie said...

I'm so impressed! I wish I had a guy who put that much effort into a date!

Anna said...

I am very impressed. You guys are cute.