Menu planning and Butterbeer!

Part of creating "A Very Harry Christmas" includes the menu. And top of my list for this is to create the delicious drinks in the world of Harry Potter. I ran accross this great selection of recipes for Butterbeer and just had to try them. http://wizardingworldpark.com/top-5-butterbeer-recipes/2010/08/20/ The one I ended up doing this time was #5 which contains ice cream. According to the articles I've read the one at Disney does not contain ice cream and are dairy free but this one was the most simple and we thought we'd try it. It was like a butterscotch flavored ice cream float. I got a lovely head of foam and the kids were delighted with the results. I tried to make a hot version but it was sickly sweet so I will have to tweak it a bit and see if I can come up with a version I like hot. Mugglenet has lots of recipes http://www.mugglenet.com/misc/rosmertas/index.shtml
I have the Unofficial Harry Potter cookbook to thumb through but off the top of my head other items I plan to attempt:
Firewisky
Pumpkin Juice
Pumpkin pasties
Cauldron cakes
Chocolate frogs
Licorice wands (I may just make dipped pretzel sticks since I don't like licorice)
Fever fudge

Of course I'll have to buy some Bertie Bots every flavor beans

Project of Doom

I have always loved to quilt, but I have never tackled anything bigger than a baby quilt. Here is a link to the finished POD quilt that I hope to modify http://www.flickr.com/photos/ofenjen/6052657737/ This project was designed by Jennifer Ofenstein at http://sewhooked.com/ as a quilt. I am going to take this and make it into a tree skirt.  I am not sure when I will have time to do it but if I take it one block at a time perhaps I can do it by Christmas. I think it would make a great tree skirt. I will take pictures as I go so you can see the progress of my project. I think scaled down these might make fun ornaments as well.

Broomstick ornament

One of the first ornaments I made for my Harry Potter tree was a broomstick. I purchased a larger "witches" broom at a Michael's store and cut pieces of the broom off to make the smaller brooms. I used wooden dowels and cut them to length for the broomsticks. I colored the broomsticks with a brown permanent marker. You could use sticks if you like. The broomstick material is secured to the dowel with a rubber band, then wrapped with brown raffia.
I'm having some issues with photos being too large. I will try to resize them so they fit on the page.

Welcome to A Very Harry Christmas!

I adore Harry Potter, so what better way to enjoy celebrating my favorite series of books than creating a Harry Potter Christmas for my family? I have put together a Christmas tree based on the books and I will be posting ornament ideas, other decorating ideas, gift ideas, and recipes for you to enjoy. I welcome your ideas and thoughts so please contribute if you have any suggestions!