The Deathly Hallows

Wow. The book was fabulous, of course. It took me longer to get through than I was expecting but it was all worth it. Since I know some people who read my blog won't have read it yet, I'll just recap my reading weekend and review it in another post with a spoiler warning.

I threw together a last minute costume of Lily Potter with my pregnant belly labeled "Baby Harry". Didn't have a long red wig and my sign fell off after awhile, but it was fun while it lasted. My cloak got a bit warm in all the crowds but it was still fun to feel dressed up. My friend Barbara went as a Hogwarts student. We took a bunch of fun photos (which I'll post later).

The evening started off with being stuck on the top of a 7 level parking garage for over an hour (!!!!!) because there were so many cars/people out for more than just Harry Potter night. It was unbelievably frustrating. Adding to the torture, I was driving my husband's truck, big full-size rickety stick shift Ford. Not exactly my first choice of cars to be stuck in in a tight space with lots of stop and go. Ugh. It was close to 10:30 by the time we parked and fled. The evening was lovely though and the ride home was without incident.

Diagon Alley was packed with fun crazy people! In addition to the establishments in the previous post there was also Hog's Head Tavern (Potbelly Sandwiches) that totally had the ambiance of a wizarding hang out with their decor, dressed up Muggles and menu. (Even though the Hog's Head isn't IN Diagon Alley, it still worked.)

After strolling around the crowds outside for awhile we watched the end of the costume show inside. The winners were a Dementor, a Baby Mandrake (so cute), a Dobby, a crazy haired Trewlawney and a pink suited Umbridge. Quite fun indeed. Shortly after that they started the line-up and then came the long hour and a half wait until we finally got to the register. Fortunately they had the lines waiting outside so it was nice and cool. A news camera came by and interviewed a tired looking 9 year old witch sitting on the curb near us, asking about her evening, thoughts on the book, etc. It was close to 1AM when we finally had books in hand. I'd kept my iPod on the whole time we were in line in fear of hearing a spoiler....

We read the first page as soon as we got in the car, but I wasn't able to read anymore until after 2AM. My good friend Zuri was driving down from CT that night with her little newborn so we talked on the phone for a bit figuring out logistics. She arrived around 6AM at which point I finally stopped reading and we both slept until 11ish. After pancakes and visiting for a few hours, she left close to 2PM and I kept reading reading reading. I took another break around 9PM to get ice cream with Kellie at Coldstone and discussed the first part of the book we'd both read thus far. Around 10:30 I settled in for the long haul of finishing that night. It was getting pretty intense at this point and I couldn't put it down. Finally around 3:30AM I finished. Wow. I just sat there for a bit in that euphoric glow of a story well finished. Can't wait to discuss it!!

I'm so grateful for my dear husband's gift of taking the kids to Grammum's this weekend and letting me have this last two days of fun indulgent book reading. It's been a treat and I'm glad they were able to have a fun visit, too. I've felt like a teenager home alone with the parents gone!!