It came and went...HP 7 ***spoilers***

Well, after nearly 48 hours, 756 pages, and 10 or so hours of sleep, I have finished HP & the Deathly Hallows! I can't believe that I finally know the ending, finally have most, if not all, the answers that I have wanted for nearly 5 years. And I can't believe that now it is over, and I don't have any more Harry Potter to look forward to. How bittersweet is that?

So here are my overall impressions of the book itself, the obtaining of the book, and reading it:

• I loved that I was with my sister Suzette and 3 of my nieces when I bought the book. The "memory" I thought I would make was different than the reality: I discovered that I didn't really care to buy the book from B&N the way I originally planned when it was 12:15am and I was still about a thousand people back in the line. After thinking this over for about 1/2 a secord, I ran over to another bookseller nearby, walked right in, and bought 3 copies of the book in a mere 5 minutes time. It gave me that much more time to read that night! (I finally went to bed at 4, and was up with Thomas at 7:30!)
• I loved that Suzette and Amy (my other sister) and I called each other throughout the day, comparing where we were in the book, and sharing what we could about the parts we had collectively read. We really were reading it together, just from 30 miles away!
• My favorite part was when Harry finally made it to Hogwarts and realized how much his fellow DA members had been doing to help his cause. I started bawling when so many people from Harry's past joined him to fight battle Voldemort.. I loved Neville and his courage and how he had really "come into his own" as a leader in the absence of Harry. When he killed Nagini, I was amazed at how his character developed.
• I could have lived without all the "camping" parts in the middle of the book, where we discovered what seemed like so little but took so long. I know why they had to do it, but it was frustrating all the same.
• I loved that Snape got to be good in the end, and that he really loved Lily. I thought it was terrible the way he died. I was glad to know that it was his Patronus that guided Harry to Griffindor's sword.

So now what? I am going to listen to the audiobook for all the things that I missed in my mad dash to read the book in a day. I look forward to reading them to my boys as they grow older. They have watched the movies, but I think that sharing their discovery of Harry Potter books by reading them aloud will be a true delight for me.

"All is well."