How Did You Spend This Hallowed Eve?

Well i just got back from Barns and Noble around 1 AM... I was lucky to get there around 830 PM... the line was only circled around half the isles in the store.. when i left.. it covered the entire store out the door and circled the HUGE building.. I imagine some will not get there book tonight. The poor souls. must read now.. ;)

James, you obviously don't know anything. He runs away with the dish and the spoon and a guy shows up and eats him. Remember?

Just walked in myself from the Hallowed Ball at our local Borders. We had a blast, my hubby won the custume contest and a Borders Gift card. LOL I was using my 2 $50. gift cards I earned from Potter for this event, on coffee for our entourage 6 of us went together., some other books and of course Potter, and now we have more to spend later. Don't know how to post the photos here so I will probably write a piece and post some photos tomorrow, he even got a crown!! LOL

Forgot you can see a photo of my husband modeling his attire just after I finished making it.
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977053809
or here:
http://www.gather.com/viewImage.jsp?fileId=3096224744280810&memberId=261008

Wend to Borders with my 12 year old son and spent 3 hours wating in line ;)

We did come home with the book and my son is thrilled - i even managed to take a few pics of the event and will share them once I get some sleep :)

I went and saw the last movie then went to stand for an hour in my rightful place at my borders in line... took an hour... not bad, people behind me with the purple ones were there for 4 hours.... :-) ohh the things we do for Harry!! off to read I go

heh didn't need to go to b&n i got my version offline read it before most people darn near destroyed my eyes

Our waiting in line time was only 15 minutes once my bracelet color was called, I had the third color called, there were still 6 other colors to be called whhen we left. the rest of the time was spent playing Potter bingo, participating in the Potter spelling bee, and parading around in fancy clothes, and sipping good coffee with friends. Even though their were still people there waiting for there turn no one had to stand in line and they were still playing trivia games for prizes. They expected to go till 5am before everyone got a chance at receiving there book but once your color is called the line wait is only about 15 min.

April, sounds like you guys had a blast! I can't wait to see pics of your husband's costume. Congrats!

Timothy, Kim and Bob, you must be well on your way to enlightenment. Ohhh, to hold such secrets! Gather Book Essentials will be hosting a couple of Harry Potter chats this weekend for folks like yourselves.

Lisa M., you are officially the Best Mom in the World!

Thanks, guys. It's as close as being there that I can imagine.

i went to borders in lithonia ga. it was awesome. i got some hp blood pops. and i have a dark mark drawn on my arm. i dressed up but it wasn't very good. i have a pic on my main. but i am going to put up more later. i need to start reading. i haven't read that much. :[

I don't do the midnight craze, but now I'm currently sitting around, looking out the front window every two minutes, looking for the UPS guy.

ARGH.

Goodness I dont have that much patience. Maybe its my age. LOL

Join us tonight from 7-8 p.m. ET in the Books Essential (books.gather.com) to talk about the first few chapters of the book. I just got my copy and am going to sequester myself. I hope to see everyone later!

I was lucky. I went to Borders very early in the day and got my bracelet, so when they started calling colors I was among the very first in line. I only had to wait about 20 minutes to get my book.

I can't stay up really late unfortunately, so I quickly read the last 12 pages or so and then went to bed. I've concluded that the whole "early release" thing was a publicity stunt since virtually all of the spoilers I saw earlier are not true. There are other things that are interesting as heck though, and I'll leave those for you to discover on your own.

I am some 200+ pages into the book right now and it's all it was reported to be and more. Enjoy the ride. I know I am.

Mwahaha. I got to Borders around nine in the morning, got my bracelet, and stayed there all day, just hanging out. Somehow, though, I still didn't get to all six mini-events... ^^;;

I just finished it a few minutes ago, some fourteen hours into reading. Oy, and I've hardly eaten anything in two days. @_@

we got there, went shopping (at meijers) and i got my groceries. if you got $30 worth of stuff, the book was only $12.98. well, it is too easy to spend $30, so no big deal. by the time i was done, no line. but a HUGE line to check out - 30+ minutes. cripes. i read in line. heh heh.

two idiot people were reading the last chapter out loud. i had to ask them to please stop. what?? i know!!

i finished it early tonight - it was lovely, i am so sad that there is no more new harry potter!! boohoo!

I finished it that day.
So Many People died.
WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA (inhale) WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA (inhale)WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaa (Sniff,Sniff,Cough)

It only took me around 20-25 minutes to get my book Friday Night. I had an orange wrist band so I was in the first color group to get called up =) I finished the book nearly exactly 24 hours later. Did you guys enjoy it?

I went to the potter party. I had a lot of fun. I was the 2cnd group to go up there. I got a poster too.

My 20 yr old and 17 yr old went to the party (and won the costume contest) while I stood in line with my 14 yr old elsewhere. They went as Fred and George and had Weasley sweaters and spray painted their hair bright red. It helped that they are tall and skinny and can pass as twins anyway. I will post pics later. They had a riot and came home with goodies.

We have all finished the book at our house (5 readers) and have settled into post potter depression. I am rereading and savoring every word.

Here are the fred and george costumes.

http://www.gather.com/viewImage.jsp?fileId=3096224744284238

I'm so depressed. There will never be another midnight release agian!

My costume took longer than I thought it would take to get ready, so I went to the Grand Hallows Ball late...like 10 pm ish. It was awesome, I went as Nymphadora Tonks, pink temporary hair spray and all! My only regret was that I missed out on the costume contest, I guess I did not hear them announce it because it was upstairs... but I will upload a picture later! Hehe, some people even asked to take a picture of my friend [who went as Cho Chang] and I! I got the book at 1:30 pm, drove home, and then read STRAIGHT THROUGH from 2 to 10:30 am... 8.5 hours to complete the whole thing...I loved it! HARRY POTTER FOREVERRR! My only heartsore is that none of my friends are anywhere near finished yet so I have no one to talk to about it! :\

I took my children to the release party. They had never made it to the other ones cause they were little and I made it to one that didn't have any party stuff going on. I decided to join the spelling bee and won ( I am still amazed about that) and had a good time playing Snape bingo and listening to the debate. I was the first to get the second color and we had less than a 15 minute wait once we were in line. Went home about 12:30 am and read the first two chapters to the kids. I continued reading book six until 2:30 am cause I wasn't finished with it. Went to bed and got up about 8:30 am and then finished book six and started on Deathly Hallows. Had some things to do so couldn't devote the whole day to it. Read to the kids again last night, three chapters and then started reading and kept reading and kept reading until 7:30 am this morning. Got about 3 hours of sleep after that and then reread the last chapters this afternoon cause they were so powerful and I knew I missed some things cause I was tired. The book rocks! I still have questions though! LOL

I took my sister the ball and had a black dress on with my invisable cloak. ^_^ My poor sister hasn't read the books but I think she shall start. wahahaha! anyway after getting my book at 12:33 am i went home to start and finished the book at 12:OO am even after I had a 14 hour day at work! I am the only one that has finished the book at work and people keep asking me questions and then telling me not to tell them. ^_^ man... it was good.

Had a blast at the local Borders party and came back at about 2:30 am. Finished the book in 24 hours. Have not slept, ate very little, and felt completely . . . I'm not sure where to start. There's a certain connection between the Harry Potter and myself that is yet to be determined.

It's a little depressing knowing that the story is over. It was a good read though,
could have been a few pages longer.

Alas, our small hick town does not have a Borders and our Walmart did not celebrate the release (sad face) I received my book in the mail Saturday afternoon and finished it last night at 8:30. Loved the book and I was pretty satisfied with the ending, but I am so bummed that it was the last one! But we still have two more movies to look forward to, right?

We wandered through Naperville,IL watching Leaky Cauldron's Pottercast and being in costume contests with 60,000 of our closest friends. Peole LOVED my snowy owl puppet ( I could make it move its head!!!) actually,I got about 10 pictures taken of me that night. (I'm a celebrity!) I didn't win the costume contest, but a kid an extraordinary outfit( althhough she was Dolores Umbridge)won. At about 10:00 my Dad and I went to the Crystal Lake Borders. There I did a candy walk,was in yet another costume contest. (didn't win there either, a Dumbledore with a really cool beard and a cute 4-year-old dressed as Harry Potter did.)Then we stood in a LOOOOOOOOOONNNNNGGGGGGG line to get my very own copy of The Deathly Hallows.(OK,maybe my mom took it once or twice)All in all about ................ THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE !!!!!!!!!!!!!

hey i waited for about an hour till 12:01 but was the 5th to get the book and finished it at 7 that evening! it was awesome, but i had a really irritable day because everyone from my family kept coming in and asking what had happened since the 2 minutes they'd been in my room previously. i locked the door....hee, hee, hee :)

Just catching up on this article here - I've been busy cleaning up my store from one of these events! Thanks to everyone who chose Borders for their festivities. It's amazing to be a part of this once-in-a-lifetime event.

Just wanted to say that I, my daughter and nephew went to the party at Borders dressed as witchards. I took second place at the spelling bee. The costume contest was won by a guy who dressed up as the Hogwarts Express. It was so cute, at least a third of the children there got behind him and formed a sort of Hogwarts Conga Line throughout the store.

The trivia contest was so-so because it wasn't a true contest. In order to get a glow stick wand, you had to answer a question correctly. My question was: What was the spell that Ludo Bagman used to make his voice louder? I couldn't remember so I got the answer from some kid who got the same question. (yes, I got my wand. It stopped glowing the next day.)

The excitement was palpable. The book is wonderful and JKR is phenomenal! I look forward to her Harry Potter Encyclopedia which certainly will require another midnight party!