Friday, July 15, 2011

Happy Harry Potter Friday!

Here's a quick post I've been meaning to write all week... We're big Harry Potter fans in this house. While I read the first book not so long after it came out — and saw the first movie with some friends, including Brenda and her kids, the oldest of which is now a sophomore in college — I decided to wait to read the series with Izzy.

We started when Izzy was in kindergarten, and had just finished Sorcerer's Stone when we set off to visit my sister in England over Thanksgiving. Karen, for those who don't know her, is the biggest HP fan I know. She actually did all the paperwork and jumped through all the hoops so she could be selected to take a group of her college art students to Oxford for a semester. So there was no need for us to hire a tour guide, we had the best one all to ourselves. Here she is with Izzy in the Christ Church dining hall that inspired the Great Hall.


Izzy and I finished the Harry Potter series, starting Deathly Hallows just weeks after it was published. But the love affair hardly ended there. At this point, I've lost count of the number of times Izzy has checked out the books and audio books. As for the movies, let's just say our DVR queue holds space for little else...

Two summers ago, right after we'd moved to ABQ, we went to Chicago to see the Harry Potter exhibit, meeting up with Karen and her husband, Dean. Luckily the Weasley's car was located outside of the exhibit, giving us at least one good photo op from the visit. And tucked under Izzy's arm is the Hermione poster that's now the focal point of her room.






Given this history, it seemed absolutely necessary to take today as a vacation day from work. Izzy and I are now headed out for a celebratory breakfast, then off to the theater early to wait in line with our pre-purchased tickets. And (I buried the lead), I've packed a knitting project along for the wait outside and inside the theater. Dumbledore, himself, said it best, "I do love knitting patterns!"

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