Tolkien Christmas Grab-Bag

*So we had a great Christmas...in fact, we're still having a great Christmas. With six grandparents all making appearances of one type or another, Christmas just keeps going and going. The last of four Christmas's will go down tomorrow. Spreading it out is a good way to go--it keeps the kids heads from completely exploding with excitement Christmas morning.

*Highlights for me included finishing Lord of the Rings for the fourth time. A few quick observations this time around:

1. The story is epic. It's vast and sweeping and intricate and nuanced and just a ton of fun.

2. I think that even the most ardent LOTR fan would say that at points Tolkien's writing gets a little campy, a bit over the top in his eagerness to make a point about how "kingly" this person looked at this moment or how significant a certain event was.

3. This was my first time reading the books since watching the movies a couple years ago. I continue to be grateful for how true to the story the movie was, with some notable exceptions.

I am particularly vexed that they sent Strider to an almost/non-death in the second movie. Seriously, there are enough important characters throughout the story that have "we thought he was dead" moments that they didn't need to create another one.

4. Some tremendous quotes, here was my favorite:

"My I not live my life as I will?"
"Few may do that with honor."

*Christmas cheers for my wife, she is tremendously thoughtful about gifts for our kids. We give them each three gifts, in keeping with the biblical story of the three wise men who brought gifts. We discuss the gifts but she really does the creative work as well as the leg-work. And the gifts were all big hits this year. I really appreciate how thoughtful and intentional she is about knowing our kids, gift-giving is just one opportunity to see that in action.

*We saw a couple of movies over Christmas. Hancock was a lot of fun. But no matter what anyone tries to tell you, avoid seeing Mama Mia like the plague.