Yule Ball 2016 Recap

On Sunday, December 18, 2016, I had the pleasure to attend The Yule Ball at the Middle East Downstairs in Cambridge, MA for a night of Wizard Rock which is also known was Wrock. The lineup was fantastic and I had a wonderful time. You can see below for the lineup of the night. I ended up skipping out on Harry & The Potters due to how late the their act was and because I needed to get home at a decent time in order to go to work with enough sleep.

How awesome is this line up?

The Yule Ball is always fantastic and I love how $5 of the admission ticket goes toward the Harry Potter Alliance. The HPA changes the world by making activism accessible through the power of story. They have been around since 2005 and have engaged millions of fans through work for equality, human rights, and literacy though many different projects such Accio Books, Not In Harry's Name and Odds in Our Favor.

Some of my favorites songs of the nights include the following:

Lauren Fairfeather: Lost and Found, And Then I Died (song from when Lauren was in the band Moaning Myrtles), Home and It's Real For Us
Whomping Willow: I Believe in Nargles and In Which Draco and Harry Secretly Want to Make Out

Although I am not a Star Wars fan, Blue Milk Run is definitely band to see! It's my second time seeing them and they are fabulous. Blue Milk Run is a Star Wars fandom band and they are pretty fierce. They are definitely an awesome opener for the Yule Ball.

My favorite act by far was the Potter Pupper Pals. Neil and co. never disappoint and I love seeing their acts live. They are very innovative and he always adds just the right amount of humor.

Potter Puppet Pals hosted a Secret Santa exchange that went terribly wrong. Dumbledore calls everyone in Hogwarts, which to him includes himself, Ron, Harry, Hermione and Snape. He produced a goblet which has names for the Secret Santa exchange. Because Harry got Snape's name after the name drawing, he had an idea to bewitch the goblet for his name to be on all of the pieces of paper. Because the Trio had no money and Harry couldn't loan his own savings to Ron and Hermione due to some investments (his savings and checking accounts were zero), they all decided to get seasonal jobs. Ron of course talked about rubbing spices in meat.

Ron ended up getting a job helping Hagrid chop down trees but it was difficult since Hagrid fell in love with the first tree they saw and didn't want to chop it down. They finally found a tree but Ron was pretty much chopped up with the tree and was sent off to Madam Pomprey's.

Hermione sported a red polo shirt and was employed at the wonderful Target. Snape was a customer there buying some pants and also wanted to get a bar of soap for his Secret Santa. Funny thing is that Snape nicked the soap from the Men's bathroom and wanted Hermione to wrap it. However, Hermione told him she can't gift wrap it because it's still wet.

Harry ended up being an entrepreneur and had opened up his business to make money off of kisses. Hilarious how Ron gifts Harry a present of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them on DVD. Hermione walks in and gifts Harry a copy of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Harry was not pleased that he wasn't in the Fantastic Beasts movie and he was not happy that he has a child. Hermione realized that Ron also had Harry for the Secret Santa and was questioning about it.

Snape comes in and gives Harry a bar of soap. Harry cries for joy because the Dursley's never gave him a bar of soap and he was the stinky kid. He tells Snape that he had Snape's name but didn't have a gift for him.

When Dumbledore comes around and finds out Harry bewitched the goblet, the Goblet "starts devouring Harry's soul." It was pretty much a prank and it taught Harry a good lesson. Snape said all he wanted for a present is to see Harry pretty much scream in agony. Lol. Also, apparently Dumbledore mentioned how Snape usually wears Khaki pants under his robes.

Check out this video for the opening of the Potter Puppet Pal act. Thank you Imagineeri for the video capture.

Potter Puppet Pals were great as always 👍🏾 #yuleball2016 #harrypotter #potterpuppetpals

A video posted by Eeri (@imagineeri) on Dec 18, 2016 at 7:41pm PST

All and all, this year's Yule Ball was fantastic! Thanks everyone for making the annual Yule Ball a success! I always look forward to attending this wonderful event every year.

Day 9 of the 12 Days of Book Blogmas

I was reading Ashley's Books to Tea blog earlier this month and I stumbled upon the 12 Days of Book Blogmas that Rachel at Parajunkee is hosting. I wanted to do something festive this month for the blog but haven't found the right Book Blogmas to participate in. Parajunkee's 12 Days of Book Blogmas is definitely right up my alley. The ninth day is today and the 12 Days of Book Blogmas will continue for 3 days until December 25th.

Day 9: Free For All

The Yule Ball in Cambridge took place at the Middle East Downstairs on Saturday, December 20, 2014. It was an amazing event with an amazing lineup. Yule Ball X's lineup included Harry and the Potters, the Potter Puppet Pals, Draco and the Malfoys, Tonks and the Aurors, Jason Anderson, Lauren Fairweather and The Whomping Willows.

Image from harryandthepotters.tumblr.com

I have seen half of the groups previously but I was super excited to attend this festive Harry Potter event. The cool thing is that 5 dollars of the ticket purchase goes toward the Harry Potter Alliance.

The event was amazing. The Whomping Willows played the "I Believe in Nargles" which is one of my favorites. Lauren Fairweather is amazing! She had a song called "Math" in tribute of Hazel from The Fault in Our Stars. 

Lauren Fairweather

And the Potter Puppet Pals were hilarious. This year the Potter Puppet Pals did a Christmas beauty pageant. Snape MCed and the trio were contestants. I loved it so much. I love all their outfits and Hermione's song about "All I Want for Christmas is Books" was amazing! I loved how her Christmas wish is a Kindle...a Kindle Voyage because if of the better DPI. Ron's Christmas wish is to have a lion with a nice mane to eat his enemies or something of that sort. Harry's Christmas wish is to get a more competent Potions Master. Harry did a freestyle dance which was so him earlier during the Potter Puppet Pal act. You can check out Rachael's video for the freestyle dance/song.

The best part of the pageant was the ending. Ron won the competition but had to complete one more task...to beat Voldemort in a snowball fight. You can see part of the fight below. Voldie got pummeled by a bunch of small snowballs and one HUGE snowball. Too funny.

The HP Alliance hosted an amazing Apparating Library. If you have a chance to attend an event with an Apparating Library, please participate! It's an amazing way to share books with other book lovers. 

I brought in three books to donate and was able to bring new books home. I already read The Fault in Our Stars before but I can never have too many copies of the book. I never read Burn for Burn but it's been on my TBR list for quite awhile. And I loved Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried so I figured I would check out If I Die in a Combat. I also picked up a Books Turn Muggles into Wizards mug.