Aliens in the Apple

A hobbit comes of age

Ben 8 Aug 2014 Culture Food Friends Hospitality

As everyone knows — well, at least everyone who’s a fan of Tolkien — a hobbit comes of age at 33. I turned this ripe old age the other day, and had a fabulous party, mostly organized by Franci, my lovely hobbit-wife.

No Admittance Except on Party Business

We had some great, down-to-earth hobbit food cooked by Franci with some help from Lillian: loads of mushrooms (fried in butter), homemade bread rolls with “Beorn’s” creamed honey and butter, Mum’s meatloaf (“dwarvish meatloaf”), punch (“Miruvor”), ale from The Green Dragon, “Sauron’s eyeballs” deviled eggs, and lots of other yummy things I’m forgetting.

I wrote a little speech that kind of paralleled Bilbo’s speech at his “eleventy-first” birthday party (and Frodo’s 33rd). There were a couple of Lord of the Rings-based games and riddles.

Gandalf quote

There was a small crowd of maybe 15 mostly from church and a couple from work. A few people even dressed up.

In true Hobbit-fashion, Franci and I organized and wrapped gifts for each of the guests (though there were no silver spoons).

Gifts for the guestsAll in all, a fun time! I highly recommend a Hobbit coming-of-age party for your next trend-setting event. :-)

 

Comments (5)

hannahholder 8 Aug 2014 at 8:41am

Great photos, Franci! Beautifully wrapped presents! Wish I’d had some of that Ent Draught! (What was it, btw?) Looks like a celebratory time was had by all. Maybe I can make it to Franci’s Hobbit coming of age? Eva and I are still hoping to do some travel around the time of hers, since we didn’t make it back to NZ for my 33rd and her 30th—it had been a dream we had.

lianahavelaar 8 Aug 2014 at 5:28pm

Would’ve loved to have been there! Ben, can you post your birthday speech? :-)

Ben 8 Aug 2014 at 8:44pm

Hey Liana, it was nothing too amazing, but I’ll email it to you. I included a reference to “one billion seconds old”, which harks back to your event. :-)

Laurel 9 Aug 2014 at 7:08am

Look like fun! Enjoyed the lovely ideas, the stylish lettering, and the familiar faces in fancy clothes! We just watched the second Hobbit movie (sigh…) right before I saw your post, so it was very timely. Yours was way more authentic. :-)

evaholder 18 Aug 2014 at 7:06pm

Truly lovely food photos! Looks like it was grand fun. Good thing I have 15 months to think about my own Hobbit-coming-of-age.