Yule

Sunday night, David and I celebrated the official beginning of our Christmas season. The tree was up, the house was clean (well, decent anyway), and we had finished most of our shopping—which was the goal for that day. So, on our way home, we stopped for real cocoa, egg nog, sugar cookie dough, Mayfield Peppermint Stick Ice Cream, and the movie Elf with Will Farrell. We managed to sample some of everything, even though we had to pause the movie several times in order to fit it all in.

I tried to revive the spirit Monday night while watching the Sci-Fi Earthsea mini-series. You’d think fumbling such a great story, such great writing, would be hard, but apparently all you have to do is change the plot significantly and candy up the tone. Changing the protagonist’s name is helpful too. I watched for an hour and a half and then turned the TV off without feeling all that bad about it. The only thing great about that night was the Peppermint Stick Ice Cream.

Last night, we went to Honor and Drew’s for the extended Return of the King and actually managed to watch the whole thing. Overall, I think I like it better than the theatrical release, especially the scene in which Aragorn confronts Sauron in the seeing stone. I think that confrontation adds a lot to the movie, as does the Mouth of Sauron, although I bet the latter would have disgusted many theater viewers. I also love the scene in which Eomer finds Eowyn on the battlefield.