Hobbit Day was a success.

We started with breakfast, then enjoyed a second breakfast, and then I received a surprise in my office when my four favorite hobbits brought elevensies, a snack that included a basket of grapes, cheeses, and sliced sausages. Later I arrived home with the delicious coney stew on the stove filling the air with the aroma of Hobbiton. The coney stew included rabbit, pearl onions, carrots, ‘taters,’ turnips, leeks, button mushrooms, bacon, and red wine.

It was delicious. After the stew I read from LOTR about Frodo and Bilbo’s birthday in the Shire and we enjoyed Tolkien’s rich images in the fireworks and the deep humor of Bilbo’s speech (“I don’t know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.”). By this point the three smallest hobbits were all in costume.

Then, as is the case whenever a Hobbit celebrates a birthday, we distributed trinket gifts. Then after we cleaned up the kitchen we gathered around the screen and enjoyed a delightful look at what Mordor must now look like (Iceland), filled with peace and song and kites and fellowship. So we watched the Sigur Rós Heima documentary. The film was a most perfect conclusion to a delightful (and filling) Hobbit Day.