Do Not Open Before July 21st

Well after a full year of waiting and re-reading the first six books...P-Day was finally here! The release of the the final Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. We've had July 21st marked on the calendar since the release was announced! Bill and I hosted a read along of the first six books with a group of about to thirty people at bookcrossing.com. We started back in February with book one and just finished book six earlier this week. For the past six months we read, discussed, speculated but mostly waited for last night.

The day started out early, after dropping Emily off at camp I headed straight for Borders at Scottsdale and the 101 where we had reserved our books. They were handing out wristbands to get your spot in line to pick up the book at the stroke of Midnight! I got there early enough to get us in the first group! Yippee! Then more waiting.......

At about 4 Emily and I picked Bill up from work and headed back home to get changed for the Grand Hallows Ball. Borders was hosting a night full of games contests and fun to pass the time until midnight. I convinced Emily to wear some adorable purple and black witch tights and the cape from her Halloween witch costume. We had some Harry Potter themed drinks (a Fullers London Pride Ale and Nimbus Old Monkeyshine) and appetizers at the Yardhouse in Desert Ridge while we waited for Jon to join us. Then it was off to dinner at Blue Agave Mexican Grill next door to Borders. Finally at 8:30 we couldn't wait anymore and headed to Borders. There were fun games Harry Says Snape Says, a costume contest (with some lets just say original and some not so original things), the Great Snape Debate, and just lots of fun milling around waiting with lots of other Harry fans!

At about 11:50 they rolled out several carts of sealed boxes of books all marked DO NOT OPEN BEFORE JULY 21st and the whole store gave a big cheer! At midnight there was a countdown from 10 and the fist book was sold! Since our wrist bands had us in the first part of the line we were very close to the front and had purchased our books by 12:04. We took a few pics and headed straight for the car! After Bill and Jon dropped us off Emily went straight to bed and I read two chapters before heading to bed. OK had to get some pictures uploaded....now back to Harry!