Wednesday, December 19, 2012

An Unexpected Journey

Pin It Now! I had no idea that a made up world would have such a profound impact on our family. As we counted down the days until December 14th, the day The Hobbit was released, I couldn't help but think back on the day Middle Earth invaded our lives.

Well, I honestly don't remember the exact day. I do know that my husband and I watched The Fellowship of the Ring and Two Towers on DVD, probably sometime in early 2003 because I remember being crazy excited to actually see The Return of the King at the theater in December 2003. I do, however, know the exact day we introduced Lord of the Rings to our oldest son - February 13, 2004.

I remember Mark and I seriously contemplating whether or not we should allow our almost 5 year old to watch this movie. In the end, we decided to let him, and it's been quite an adventure ever since!

 
Mullin receiving his first LOTR character - Frodo - for Valentine's Day, 2004. The very next day, he bought a black rider character. That's when you could buy them at Wal-mart for like $5.00. I was probably even more excited than Mullin to scout Wal-mart weekly for new LOTR characters. :)
 
The craze didn't end there. Mullin wanted a Lord of the Rings birthday party, so in August that's what he got! We played Pin-the-Crown-on-Aragorn, Black Rider Tag, and Seek and Find the One Ring. Such a fun party!
 


Mullin found the One Ring - yea!

 
Mullin's it! The Black Rider must tag another player with the sword of Elendil - Anduril, flame of the west. (Yes, I know that is Aragorn's sword, and technically a black rider wouldn't be using it. *wink*)


Of course he got lots of LOTR characters for his birthday! He's thanking Grandma over the phone. :)


Wow, just 6 months after receiving his very first character, he has quite the collection.

 
When I used to have time for scrapbooking, I even wrote "Happy Birthday Mullin" in elvish runes.
 
 
Mullin loved pretending to be Frodo. Before his birthday and before he actually owned the swords, Anduril and Sting, he got quite creative. He used part of Cranky the Crane as his sword, a Lego bucket top as his shield, a pillow case as his cloak, and a chip clip as his leaf broach.
 
 
 
Over the years we've read Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and other Tolkien books. We've watched the movies, the extended editions, a bazillion times. We've watched hours of behind the scenes material. We've listended to the Return of the King soundtrack on long car rides. We've played LOTR Trivial Pursuit, LOTR Stratego, LOTR card games, LOTR and Hobbit video games, LOTR Tic-Tac-Toe, and oh my, so much more!
 
 
 
Goodness, back before red-eye was so easily remedied. Makes me feel so old. :)
 
 
Somewhere in there early on in our homeschooling venture, we even named our school . . . Rivendell Academy. Dorky, I know. My boys didn't think it was dorky when they were little, but I think they are wishing for us to change the name now. We can't be too cheesy now can we?
 
We still have a huge tub of LOTR characters, though most are pretty beaten up. My boys have all the LOTR Lego sets and now they are working on collecting all of the Hobbit Lego sets. My daughter still drags out the LOTR Trivial Pursuit game even though Daddy knows the answers to ALL of the questions.
 
 
It was so amazing to finally see The Hobbit after all these years of waiting! Now that our kids are so much older, they have friends with whom to share their obsession. :) On December 14th our kids went on the best field trip ever . . .
 
 
 
 
Amazing movie! Can't wait for the others. Love sharing this unexpected journey with my four favorite people!

It's so hard to believe that it's been 9 years since our Middle Earth craze started. And we have many more years to go so it seems! It's been an unexpected yet very pleasant journey indeed.
 
I think sometimes we have to remind ourselves that Hobbits, Dwarves, and Elves aren't real. ;)
 
 

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

LOVE this!!! After my husband and I watched the first movie, I then read all the books except The Hobbit. Now I feel I can't see the movie until I've read it. Don't know when that's going to happen. I might have to make an exception this time. :)

Stopping by from the TOS Comment Club. ;)

A Dusty Frame said...

Stopping by from the TOS Crew.

Looks like you have a lot of fun with it:)

We are not LOTR fans around here though...

Lizzie TOS Crew

Stefanie said...

What awesome family memories!!!

Would you believe we've never seen any of them? With 2 girls and a hubby who's not interested, I've never had the chance.

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