Holidays & Hobbits

The LOTR came out during my daughter’s college years.  I waited each December until she was home from school so we could go see the LOTR.   It was wonderful and my enjoyment of those 3 movies will always be overlaid with seeing them with my daughter.  I’m a serious Tolkien fan but my daughter isn’t so for her the movies where just that – movies with an integrity of their own.  She insisted I not tell her anything in advance, which I mostly but not totally managed. 

So it was with great joy that we planned to see the Hobbit (part 1) together.  I re-read the book just to refresh my memory.  She has never read the book as far as I know, so I again had to promise not to tell the story in advance.  And yes, there are events in the movie from outside The Hobbit, but overall I found it closer to Tolkien’s texts than the LOTR.  Yes it’s a slam bang action adventure movie, but then so is The Hobbit.  And most of the “extra stuff” served to tie the movie to the LOTR for those who hadn’t read every work Tolkien wrote about Middle Earth.  I was entertained.  It was fun, it was action packed, and I will buy the DVD when it comes out.  I’ve already bought the sound track.  As for those of you who are not thrilled by the movie, well to each his own.

The weekend we went to The Hobbit was also the weekend we celebrated my birthday and our Christmas.  Da Urchin found me a grand sparkly green hummingbird ornament and 2 sparkly red mistletoe ornaments.  Then she let me pick out 2 books at McKay's for my birthday. 

I made her this count thread cross stitch ornament.  This is before I put the ornament in its frame.  Its 2.25x2.25 inches square.  I’ve never done this type of embroidery before and it took me quite awhile to get any rhythm to my stitches.  But it came out nicely and I enjoyed making it.  The apples in the tree are my own addition to the pattern. 

We also had a very nice dinner near the movie theatre and watched “Brave” together the next day.

On the way to Manassas for all this celebrating nature graced us with one of its wondrous moments.  About 15 miles from Da Urchin’s Place there were 2 eagles engaged in a courting flight.  I’ve seen this on National Geographic but its not at all the same as seeing it right before your very own eyes.  May they have many many healthy offspring.