My Hogwarts Pal is the Coolest!

Yay - I am so thrilled! I got my Hogwarts Sock Swap package yesterday! Jill is my pal, so I was the lucky Gryffindor to get the fancy Hogwarts, A History box/book filled with goodies that all the other Hogwarts participants were drooling over! Lucky, lucky me!!!

Now, I love to get packages (note how many swaps I'm involved in) but when my mom came and gave me the package (that, woefully, had been delivered to the WRONG house - thank you, rare friendly neighbors), I didn't know what it could be. I wasn't expecting my pal to be so quick, since I'm only finished with one sock!) So, since I was up to my eyeballs in papers to grade and record (end of the year, don'tcha know), I wasn't really interested in opening it, UNTIL she said it had something about HP on it! Then I was all intrigued. I restrained myself enough to finish the stack of papers I was in the middle of, then opened the package. This is what I found:



Please go back to the blog to see the best picture of the book Jill actually made for me for this swap. It's awesome!

The Boy, of course, had to help me open it (after I opened the first box and saw that it was THE BOX I had hoped, I stopped and waited for him. Couldn't let him miss out on this fun. And was it ever fun!


I didn't want to break the seals on the book, so I cut the string from the back and opened the package up. The book was beautiful!

Inside, we found:

The greatest Dobby socks ever:



It's a bit difficult to see with this picture (more to follow later, once I get clear pictures. I'm seriously running on negative sleep here! There were stitch markers to commemorate each house, along with a Weasley sweater one, 20 Galleons on a Starbucks(!) card, plenty of Honeydukes Chocolate, and a letter containing a lovely note and the beautiful Brittany needles that Jill picked out for me. Oh, and don't forget the Felix Felicis potion bottle!

Let me just say - the wonder and creativity that are Jill astound me. Look at this: the filler for the package? Crimped strips with WORDS FROM THE BOOKS THAT CONTAIN THE WORD "SOCK." I'm not kidding.
I would never have thought of that in a bazillion years. And, there's a WHOLE BOX FULL of the stuff! Jill, I hope you're not tired of hearing me say how much YOU ROCK!!! I will never be that cool, ever!
Here's the borrower's card she created (with the help of her SNB/Knit-Night group):



OMG - I loved it. It made me smile all day long thinking about it, and how I was the lucky Gryffindor to receive such a grand package. Wow - I really am impressed. I might have to step up my game a bit, too!

This post does not do justice to what a wonderful swap, pal, and experience this was. I am too, too far into the end-of-the-first-year-teaching rush to be much more creative than this! I'll make it up, I promise!