Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Our very own Ollivander

How embarrassing that we're looking at nearly 4 weeks post-Christmas and nary a mention about some of our treasures. I can only blame it on the ever-increasing list of "things to do" where items such as, "figure out why new computer isn't staying connected to the internet and why old financial data isn't transferring over." This particular problem was frustrating not only because I wanted to love this new computer, but the whole internet/network connection problem and the fear that we may have lost 12 years of financial data (especially as we're looking at the beginning of tax season - ACK!) was sickening. I don't even know how long I spent researching online (it would have been a lot less, probably, if my connection hadn't kept dying on me) problems with the new Lion OS. Long, boring, distressing story short: I had to update my router firmware. Turns out, it had never been done, and even though it was less than a year old, the version it came with was a 3-something, and they were currently operating on an 11-something. And now my computer works like a dream and I'm pretty sure that, while sitting at my 27" screen, I could run the world. That's also on my to-do list, but farther down than, say, talking about WANDS.
Back in October, when my mom came to visit and help made the kids' Hogwarts robes, she had mentioned that my Uncle Terry had made wands for all of his grandsons, (I'm sure he would have made them for his granddaughters, if he had any) and wondered if he could be commissioned to do some for my kids. Oh, and was I interested? Um...YEAH?! There was a slight question mark because I felt like it was a trick question - who WOULDN'T want wands for their kids?

Then came the questions: Do you want them plain, or with embellishments? (obvious answer) What kind of embellishments did we want? Uh...what's available? And could we wait until Christmas since they would take a little bit and that way he and Aunt Mary Kaye could experiment with a few details? OF COURSE.
Fast forward to Christmas and I was pretty excited to have the kids unwrap the presents. Plus, my mom informed me that they had made an extra for Joel and me to share. I'll probably carry it around in my purse and pull it out and mutter incoherently when I want to freak people out.

I shall call him Magnus.
It's no secret I like to brag about my family members. I've gone on and on about how my parents are better than yours; I've mentioned how my siblings are delightfully awesome; I've even talked about the merits of an Aunt (Nancy, but other aunts, too); this blog is devoted to how totally rad my kids are (most of the time). I realize, however, that I have been remiss in declaring Uncle greatness. Uncle Terry has raised the bar as far as Uncles go (with the help, obviously, of his super stylish wife). I love that we not only have wicked cool wands, but that they came from the crafting of a family member.

I was literally speechless at the gorgeousness (for a few seconds - that's like an eternity for me).
So thank you, Uncle Terry. Thank you, Aunt Mary Kaye. And thank you, Moomsie, for knowing who in our expansive family has talents. I kind of want to put the wands in glass cases for display. But then we'd miss out on things such as Gemma pulling her wand out of her made-by-Grandma velvet pouch and holding it aloft while running and yelling, "Win-gah-dum Lev-ee-OHHHHHHH-sah!"

Gemma loves how her wand has a gem at the end that has, "all duh colors inside!"
I had a 13 year old marvel at the craftsmanship and declare, "He could totally make these for a LIVING!" Heh. Uncle Terry is actually a retired dentist. But, yes, I suppose if that whole retirement thing doesn't work out, he could easily set up his own Etsy shop.

If that scrolling vine doesn't make you want to apply to Hogwarts, I don't know what will.

3 comments:

Sarah Burgoyne said...

I kind of want to be one of your kids right now :)

Annie said...

VERY cool. You guys are the coolest for sure!

Lisa said...

THOSE ARE THE COOLEST THINGS I HAVE EVER SEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seriously. Wow.

P.S. Did you see Daniel Radcliffe on SNL? I thought he rocked.