Lord of the Rings

We got two feet of snow just before Christmas. This is a lot of snow for us. A normal "big" snow would be about six to nine inches or so.

So, you're probably wondering what we did while we were snowed in over Christmas, with no newspaper and no mail delivery. Well, first, Brigid and I took a trek around the outside of our house. The extended version of the third Lord of the Rings movie had been released just two weeks before that, and we'd watched all three movies over the course of the previous weekend. While trudging through the knee-deep snow, we decided we felt like we were part of the Fellowship of the Ring: While Gandalf and the others fought their way through the deep snow, Legolas the elf trod lightly atop the snow.


In the snow up to our knees. Brigid is trying to look like the ultralight elf Legolas. (Click on the photo for a larger view.)

Our adventures in the snow made us want to watch LOTR again, but we decided we really needed to try to see them all in one day, rather than spread over a weekend. And so on Christmas Eve, Brigid and I had a LOTR movie marathon.

For those of you who've seen only the theatrical versions, you really need to see the extended versions. The extra scenes are woven in seamlessly, and they all add great detail to the movie. Some of the extra scenes are crucial to a fuller understanding of the events and the characters. In my opinion, the theatrical versions of these films are really just trailers for the real versions. But the extra scenes do make these already-long movies even longer.

The extended versions of all three movies all together are about eleven and a half hours long. We planned breaks for preparing meals—which we ate in front of the TV—as well as breaks for bathroom, laundry, and a few other small things. We decided it would take us fourteen hours to watch all three movies.

Brigid and I woke up early to start the day. We started watching The Fellowship of the Ring at 8:15 a.m., moved on to The Two Towers in the early afternoon, and began The Return of the King in the evening. The final credits rolled at 10:10 p.m. Our estimate of fourteen hours was accurate!

Where was Ron during all this? He decided not to participate in the LOTR marathon, although he did wander in for a few scenes every so often.

I think seeing them all in one day is the best way to watch these movies. The emotion really builds over the day. You end up feeling as though you've been on the quest with Frodo and Sam and the rest of the fellowship.

We decided that because this certainly isn't something we can do very often, we'd aim for once a year: We would make a LOTR movie marathon our new Christmas Eve tradition.

Great idea in theory. Not so great in practice, as it turns out. As I type these words, Brigid is upstairs having another LOTR movie marathon. At this rate, she's going to wear out the DVDs before next Christmas Eve arrives!