Harry Potter Madness

I remember the year I was first introduced to the whole Harry Potter world. It was 1999. I was working in a Coles Bookstore in North Hill Mall. There was a lot of hype about a new book that was coming out - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. With working in a book store, I had the chance to read books without buying them, so I picked up the first of the Harry Potter books and I was hooked! The Harry Potter books are by far one of my favorite books ever. I love everything about them and even the movies have never disappointed me.


I used to wonder if any of my kids would share my same love for Harry Potter. I had asked Abigail in the past, to read the books. Promising her that she would love them. But she wouldn't. Even when she asked if she could read "Twilight", I said she'd have to read the Harry Potter series first (actually, I was secretly hoping in this case, that she wouldn't, cause she's WAY to young to read Twilight), she still refused to read any of the Harry Potter books.

No one was interested in Harry..... until recently. It seems that we have a Harry Potter Madness going on in our home right now. All the kids, particularly Emily, have gained a sudden craze over Harry Potter. It's been weeks now, and I think the kids have watched at least part of at least one of the Harry potter movies, if not the whole thing. Every single day! Every day it's Harry Potter. And I think we've watched each movie countless times now.

And it's not just the movies. I've been reading the books to Emily and Elora at night. Currently, we're part way though the 4th book - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Emily loves listening and picking up on all the details that are in the book, that are not included in the movies. It's been great. I love reading to them and sometimes they manage to convince me to let them stay up way too late and I'll read for an hour or so. Emily is always telling me how she loves how I'll make different voices for each of the different characters and if Grandma reads when she babysits, she doesn't do that for them, make different voices.

And it's not just movies and books either. We've also acquired several Harry Potter games in the last little while. For Christmas, I got the Lego Harry Potter DS game. I'm part way through, but Emily has been hogging it and has already gone through the whole thing. It a fun game. Pretty easy, but it follows the movies surprisingly close.

Then for my birthday in February, I bought the new Harry Potter Lego board game with a gift card my parents gave me. It's the second of the Lego board games that we've bought and I haven't been disappointed. Lego is awesome! If you're looking for a new game, these Lego games are great. We also own the Minotaurus game, which is very fun. It's Matthew who asks to play these games almost every day.


I wonder when this Harry Potter madness will end? I suppose I should be glad that my kids have finally expressed a love for something I've enjoyed since 1999.