Wednesday, March 20, 2013

The One Expected Party

With all that's been going on around here, and I'll not get into it now, a couple of us were very much in need of a mental health day as my mom would call it.

My youngest, Caraline, and I were very excited ever since we found out the release date for the dvd of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. I've mentioned in the past how she saved her money to take the family to the theater the last time The Trilogy played. She's sixteen, so missed out on the original theatrical showings but since then has grown to love Tolkien's world just as much as I do.

So! March 19 was the date announced and we made plans. Oh did we make plans. Neither of us has been able to watch the ending of The Return of the King since we bought the dvd. We turn it off just as they arrive back at the Shire. It's just too heartbreaking to go through every time we watch that movie, but now, with the first of The Hobbit movies to watch after The Trilogy, we were determined to watch it through till the end, boxes of used Kleenex be damned.

We decided we needed a marathon of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings, The Two Towers, The Return of the King, and The Hobbit- An Unexpected Journey. I am very aware that I'm one of the lucky mom's who can enjoy this many hours with their sixteen year old daughter and still be smiling and hugging each other by the end.

I decided to be lazy and looked at Amazon, instead of the back of our dvds, for the the length of all the movies so we could plan out our day. We decided what Hobbity type meals we would fix and how long we would need between movies to get things ready for the next one. This included potty runs, plating up food, changing disks, etc. We decided what to wear. What does one wear on a Hobbit day but Hobbity type clothes. I have to admit, she outdid me on this one. I don't have any skirts I can wear right now so I was stuck just wearing a Hobbity looking shirt while she went the whole nine yards with her outfit.

So, we made our plans and waited for the day.

Cara put the countdown on the family wipe off board (along with the countdown for her brother's eighteenth birthday and which cat has had their medicine)

This is the plan we came up with.


As you can see, it's a full day of fun and food. I figured if we prepped as much as possible the night before we could have about half an hour between movies before sitting down to the next one. On Monday the 18th, I baked apple and cherry tarts (cherry added to the list because that's Cara's favorite) while she baked the mini cupcakes.



Something went wrong and the cupcakes wouldn't turn out the way she wanted so she baked a carrot cake instead. I cut the veggies and got the chicken ready, we thawed the bacon and orange juice, got the meat and cheese sandwiches pre-made, and went to bed early so we'd be fresh as a daisy in the morning. Well as fresh as two non-morning people can be at 7am.

Finally the day arrived.


We got up and raced around like crazy trying to get dressed and fix breakfast at the same time. While I was throwing supper in the crock pot to cook all day, Cara decorated without me knowing about it. Sneaky little Hobbit. When we sat down to start The Fellowship we were only ten minutes behind scheduled but we had a feast and a great movie to look forward too so all was right in our world.


This was both breakfast and second breakfast, which we renamed elevensees since we tucked into the tarts at eleven. I have to say now that no, we did not eat all of this food!

The movie ran quit a bit longer than I had figured so we raced to get dinner ready. Andy was at home too, but stayed far from us crazies, so we fixed his meals with ours, threw food on our plates, raced into the living room, and put in the next movie The Two Towers.

This is what photos look like when taken with a cell phone and you're too rushed to make food look pretty.

While we were in the middle The Two Towers there was a knock on the door. The Hobbit dvd had arrived but The Two Towers was taking quit a bit longer than I had planned. It finally dawned on me that I had taken the movie times from the original showings and we were watching the extended versions. We were falling quite a bit behind, and since we were hoping for my oldest son and his wife to join us for The Hobbit, this was not a good thing. I text-ed them to let them know that we were running late, but that I'd let them know when we were ready. As it turned out they decided not to come over because they had to work the next day and getting up at something like 4am after being at our house past midnight was not their idea of fun. I really can't blame them for that.

So, The Two Towers is over and we race into the kitchen to get supper done. My husband came home then but since he had been made aware of our plans, knew enough to stay out of the way and leave us alone. Cara and I raced back into the living room with our food and boxes of Kleenex to brave The Return of the King.


Supper wasn't anymore appetizing than it looks. Because we were running late everything over cooked by a couple of hours.

The Trilogy was over. We'd braved the ending once more. We took our time between movies now, what with all the tears and not having to rush in order for Steve and Kiri to make it back home in time. I'm not sure how long we took but I don't think it was longer than 30 minutes, then we put in The Hobbit and sat down with our cake.



For seventeen hours we were living in Tolkien's world. That's seventeen hours of pure bliss as far as both of us are concerned I think. This morning my eyes are still swollen but I'm happier than I have been in a long while. It was a much needed escape that's hard to come back from.

And if you're wondering what all of this has to do with a craft blog, well....

Somewhere in there is a spinning wheel


And after ten hours of spinning (even by candle light) I have something to show for it.