Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!  I had a very fun (but tiring!) Thanksgiving!  The night before Thanksgiving, or Thanksgiving Eve if you will, Kari and I stayed out way past our bedtimes to see David Burtka perform at 54 Below.  You might know him as Neil Patrick Harris' husband.  But he's an actor/singer/dancer/performer in his own right so it was fun to see him perform a cabaret style show.  I did see NPH shmoozing with the crowd before it started so that was cool too.  Basically David Burtka was great, he sang a lot of fun songs and show tunes, and was absolutely hilarious at the same time.  I think good things are in his future!

Then my friend Ashley came into town for Thanksgiving!  So of course nobody went to bed even remotely early as we chatted into the wee hours of the morning (ok, 12:30am).

On Thanksgiving morning we (plus Kari, Jarod, and Dekota) got up at 5:30am, left by 6am, to head down to Times Square to watch the parade!  We watched it from my office, which let me tell you is the only way to go.  It was a lot of fun even though we were absolutely exhausted!

There was quite the crowd of cold people outside!

Then after coming home, freshening up, and a quick nap, we were ready to start cooking!  Dinner was a lot of fun, I met some new people, at some delicious food and overall was ready to take a nap again after it was all over!  I was very focused on eating so forgot to take pictures, but here are the 3 I did manage to snag.

And today, the whole lot of us are headed out to see the new Hunger Games movie!  No moss clearly grows on this rock!

Harry Potter Studio Tour

Check 1 item off my bucket list.  I've known about the Harry Potter Studio Tour in London for a while, but didn't really have the chance to go in February and then had never been in London before.  But since I was going to London by myself anyway, I was so pleased I was able to snag a ticket to this awesome experience!  Basically they turned the studios where they filmed all 8 Harry Potter movies into a behind the scenes tour. I saw props, costumes, set pieces, and much more as I wandered around the 2 large sound stages plus the outdoor backlot.  I also got to try Butterbeer out on the backlot.  It was amazing, and so much fun!

The bus that took me from the train station to the studios

I waited here for the shuttle bus!

on the bus

They played a cute little video to prepare us on the ride

It's so big!

My many tickets (I also got an audio guide and a
paperback behind the scenes book)

Christmas tree in the lobby

The car that Ron stole

The first piece of set - while waiting in the line to get in

The doors to the great hall

The great hall was decorated for christmas!

The ceiling in the great hall (what you see in the movies was done with CGI)

The costumes from the Tri Wizard Ball

The scale model of the Hogwarts ceiling

The candles that were added in digitally later

I thought this was fun showing the different costumes as they become more
and more distressed

The Hogwarts gates!

The Gryffindor boy's dormitory

The Leaky Caldron using forced perspective

The Mirror of Erised

The Fat Lady painting

Gryffindor common room

Harry's invisibility cloak

Big swinging clock thing

Outside the door to Dumbledore's office

The Goblet of Fire

Prop cage

Tri Wizard Cup and the Golden Egg

Dumbledore's office

The sword of Gryffindor

Many paintings, plus the green screen ones where they
filled in the moving images

Chamber of Secrets door

Potions classroom

Potions are serious business and Snape is watching

Inside Hagrid's hut

Outside of Hagrid's hut

Through the window of Hagrid's hut

Showing the green screen techniques for broom riding

Inside the Chamber of Secrets

The inside of The Burrow

The Weasley's clock

Horcruxes

Scary scene with Deatheaters

Deatheaters and Nagini

Fireplaces at the Ministry of Magic

Umbridge's office

The Hogwarts bridge outside on the backlot

It was raining

Life size chess pieces from the first movie

Walking inside the bridge

Inside the Knight Bus

The Knight Bus

Drinking Butterbeer!

Potter's Cottage on the backlot

Privet Drive

Scary Bathilda Bagshot

Scary Inferi

Models

Fawkes the Phoenix

Mechanized Monster Book of Monsters

Also Mechanized Hedwig, creepy Voldemort baby, and mandrake in the back

Hagrid's head that the body double wore

Werewolves

Grawp's head

Thestrals

Dragon from the Tri Wizard Cup Tournament

Dobby

Aragog

Buckbeak

Model of Gringotts

Showing the snow shoes effect when Harry is invisible

Part two - it's a mechanic elevator type shoe thing that goes down on command

The details were crazy! Like this sign

Diagon Alley

The broomstick in the window was actually moving!

Original paper models

The model of Hogwarts Castle that they used in all 8 movies

It's so big!

And they covered it in snow for Christmas!