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Our youngest daughter’s birthday is coming up soon. She’s the other writer in the family and is currently working on a triple major of Creative Writing, Film Production and English. My kids all grew up with Tolkien’s movies, books and stories. I was never shy about sharing my favorites. The fact that The Hobbit began as a serialized story that Tolkien told his young children, originally created for their entertainment, has always fascinated me.
While home on break, Juliet requested a Hobbit meal for her early birthday celebration. We usually have a Hobbit Dinner on Sept. 22, each year. That happens to be the shared birthday of the Hobbits Bilbo and Frodo. We were happy to have a second dinner though in the true spirit and celebration of Tolkien. In celebration of Juliet.
Our menu is varied but always includes many mushrooms, plenty of Po-ta-toes, sumptuous seed cakes and mushroom and meat pies. One of the things I love best about this meal is how we brainstorm the ideas together, come up with some new variations and cook together. This time, Jen made the potatoes, Lucy made the meat pie crust and I cooked up the meat pie filling and the mushrooms. We let Zup’s handle the seed cakes as we opted for some fantastic lemon poppyseed muffins found there on a regular basis.
If we had a map to pore over while we ate and an adventure to set out on the next day and smoke rings to blow I guess the event would have been perfect, but it is hard to improve on something so wonderful as a birthday dinner with family. The next day Juliet and I were, in fact, hitting the road for adventure as we returned her to college. On the way down we talked about music, the Grammys, movies, the Oscars, and writing ideas. We spent time together in the worlds we both share admiration for and where our stories, the ones that belong to us alone, take us. As the trip progressed, it felt like I was opening birthday presents, even though it wasn’t my birthday.
That’s what Hobbits do on their birthdays. They give presents to other people. It seems like a great idea. As always, when I finished getting the car unpacked and Juliet moved back into her dorm room and I headed back to the big highway with the car, my head was overflowing with ideas and inspirations. I couldn’t write them down and drive, I just had to chew on them.
A snowstorm was coming. I wanted to beat it home so I wouldn’t have to drive through it or drive over snow-covered and wind-blown roads the next morning. So halfway through my 11 hours behind the wheel, I headed back north. Some adventures are meant to be taken on our own. Not surprisingly, I put on an audible book, and through the speakers of my car I escaped into the pine-scented world of the Dwarves on a quest with their new burglar Baggins to reclaim their long-forgotten gold. I had been there and now I was going back again.
I’m thankful for good books and a great family. Thankful for the opportunity to be a writer.
