Harry Potter

Harry Potter has been a big part of our family ever since Nathan was in my tummy.  I remember for a Children's Literature class I could read the first 3 books (the only ones out at that time, I know I am old!) for extra credit.  I had heard so much about the books from kids and adults alike so I thought I should finally start.  I LOVED them!  That Thanksgiving Greg and I were going home to visit my family and the first movie was coming out.  I made Greg read the first book before we left so he would enjoy the movie better.  We went with my little brother who was then 11 and had also read the first book. 
Over the years we have read all the books and gone to all the movies. Book 7 we even read out loud to each other since neither of us wanted to be the last one to read it.  We have read the first two books to our older 3 kids.  After that Ryan and Annabelle got a little scared so we let Nathan read the rest on his own.  And he LOVED them just like Greg and I.  It was fun to talk about them and remember things with him.  I would even re-read some of the books so I could talk to him about them better.  Then as he finished each book we would watch the movie together. 
In April Nathan read the 6th book in a couple weeks since it was Spring Break and a family reunion with a bunch of younger cousins.  That is when I realized that he hadn't ever seen a Harry Potter movie in the theater and his last chance was coming up quick.  I was a little hesitant to let him read 7, but with the movie coming I felt he was okay and ready.  He loved it and was REALLY excited to come to the movie with Greg and I. 

 Greg's company bought a theater for us on Thursday the 14th at 9pm.  The movie wasn't officially coming out until Friday at midnight.  I had to miss a couple meetings in order to go, but it was worth it.  Greg got some extra tickets since the company got the whole theater and there are only 20 employees.  We had a fun crowd of Harry Potter fans: Jeff, Bri, Mike, Kimberly, Aaron, Amy, and Katie with her roommate.  I had wanted to get a picture of everyone, but we were all coming from all over (2 even from 2 hours away-dedicated fans!) and so we didn't arrive at the same time and at the end we all had to scramble home. 
It was really fun coming out of the movie and seeing all those who had just minutes more of a wait to see it for the first time.  There were SO many people dressed up and it was fun to have Nathan see the craziness of fans.  The whole way home we talked about the movie and Nathan kept wanting to talk about it more and more.  It was a fabulous movie and while, yes, it is sad that the movies and books are over, it was a great era and I look forward to reading and watching it all with Ryan and then Annabelle and finally little Callie.