Lego sets I've bought this year

As I mentioned the other day, I've lived eight years this year already. This has meant eight winters, eight springs, eight summers, eight autumns, and eight Christmases. And yes, I've bought myself eight Christmas presents. For future records (or posterity, if you will), here they are:

January's mini-Christmas: A coffee pod machine for the office. This was absolutely great. I've made amazing coffee. About a week ago I upgraded my office coffee game by acquiring a milk frother. So now I can enjoy autumnal lattes at the office. Which is beyond awesome.

February's mini-Christmas: Hogsmeade Village Visit Lego set and a Saddler leather weekend bag. The bag is beyond stylish and handy (albeit a little heavy), and the Lego set was so much fun to assemble. I love having Madam Rosmerta angry and wielding a hammer at everyone.

Sometime late winter, I bought the Boutique Hotel Lego set, outside the usual mini-Christmas-gift schedule. It was probably because my partner insisted. He thought it was beautiful, but the complete weirdo that he is, he didn't want to build it himself. (I mean, who doesn't love building Lego sets?!) The process was fun and enjoyable and the result was gorgeous, even if Remus Lupin (from the Hogwarts Express set) did turn up on the roof and doesn't seems to realize that he's about to step in the open skylight.)

March's mini-Christmas: Motorized Lighthouse Lego set. It has a rotating light at the top. It's beyond cool. The higher price-per-brick ratio is due to the included heavy duty motor that not only rotates the light at the top but also lights the fire in the base building. You can easily imagine that the pirate cave under the lighthouse hosts a certain elusive Horcrux, which is probably why Harry (from the Hogsmeade set) keeps poking around the place.

April's mini-Christmas: Holiday Main Street Lego Set. After breaking my heart by not buying the Elf Club House set before it was retired, I decided to jump the gun and buy one the other sets in the same Christmas series well in advance, before Christmas (the real one). I haven't built the thing yet. In fact, I've hardly even glanced at the packaging. It's in the closet, waiting for the festive season. (Though if I'm being honest, a small set like this will never keep me satisfied for an entire month, especially since Lego has recently released such absolute dreams as the Diagon Alley set and the Gringotts Wizarding Bank set - and I still have no idea how I'm supposed to pick between the two!)

May's mini-Christmas: Hogwarts Legacy on PS4; see tomorrow's post for more.

June's mini-Christmas: A recurve bow. Another deviation from the Lego craze, I decided to finally do the thing I've talked about for years and buy a new bow. We don't have physical archery stores where I live, so I had to do extensive research and then order the bow online, completely blind. Luckily it came out even more beautiful (read: with darker wood) than in the online photos. Fun fact: I'm a left-handed archer. Not knowing how to hold a bow as a general righty, the 10-year-old Legolas fan that I was back in the day just grabbed the thing and started shooting. As a result, I now feel completely awkward holding a bow the way righties usually do.

July's mini-Christmas: Jazz Club Lego set. I wasn't too into this set when I first saw it in the store, but my partner liked it, so I bought it - and it turned out to be a massively fun set! I love the little toilet under the stairs, and I love to make the tailor steal vegetables from the roof with his scissors in hand. (You can also find Mr. Lupin walking blindly into the open hatch on the roof. Wrong realm, but hey, that has never stopped our wolfie Professor before.)

August's mini-Christmas: Police Station Lego set. I'd giggled at the headline of the newsstand for months already when I finally got around to purchasing the damned set. I still haven't opened the box, though, so I'll have to get back to you later to report my thoughts about the process and the result. (But I am excited!)

So you might be thinking... how many Lego sets is enough Lego sets for me?

To which I will reply... YES.