I finally had a chance to do a little Christmas shopping for the small fry today, which was fun. So I'm closer to being Christmas-ready than I was a couple days ago. Unfortunately, the picture I'm working on for my brother Andrew and his wife won't be done for Christmas like I hoped it would be - unless the cross stitch elves come in and finish it for me. Maybe I'll have it done by their first anniversary.
On a completely unrelated note, the final "Hobbit" movie came out today. I'm happy and sad about that. I'm happy because I've been looking forward to this installment since the first of the trilogy came out. After what Peter Jackson did with Helm's Deep and Pelenor Fields, I'm curious to see what he does with this climatic battle scene - the titular battle of five armies.
But I'm sad for two reasons. One, this is the final time we'll be surprised by Middle-earth. Yes, we can go back and watch the Hobbit movies and The Lord of the Rings trilogy any time we want, but we've seen them so we aren't necessarily surprised by what happens. Of course, if you read the books, you weren't surprised to begin with. What was surprising to me about the movies was how Peter Jackson created Middle-earth. The actors he chose for the characters fit with my mental pictures of them, so it was easier for me to immerse myself in the story. But it was such a great story, thanks to J.R.R. Tolkien's incomparable writing, how could you not get sucked in?
Speaking of the books brings me to my second reason for sadness. I know who dies, and I'm not sure if I'm ready for that. I tend to get attached to characters in books and movies, and I cry when they die. Yes, I shed actual tears over fictional characters. "Where the Red Fern Grows?" Cried my eyes out. "Charlotte's Web?" I couldn't see the page to read the final chapter. By the way, Charlotte is the *only* spider I will *ever* cry for. "Little Women?" I sobbed when Beth died. I cried in "The Waltons" and "Little House on the Prairie." I'm not sorry. These characters become like family to me, and their deaths make me sad. And, based on Tolkien's book, I know who's going to die in this final installment. I want to see this movie in the theater, but if I do, I'm going to have to take a box of tissues.
