A Hobbit Party

It was Salem Baggins' 11th birthday, and all the party decorations were coming along... we even painted the front door green. Just kidding.

Welcome to Bag End. Everyone here has hair on their feet, for this, my friend is the Shire. Home of hobbits. What are hobbits, you may ask? We are hobbits.

Now, we are actually the Wath-ins, and this our home Wath End, but for the day we will pretend to be distant relations to that ever famous hobbit of the shire, Bilbo Baggins. Yes, the one who had the adventure.

Not that we are seeking any sort of adventure. Nasty things- adventures- make you late for dinner.

Ah. Dinner.

As every hobbit knows, dinner is the best part of the day, ... that is along with breakfast, second breakfast, elevenses, lunch, supper, tea, and late night snack, of course.

For Salem's birthday, we had prepared a spread of his favourite foods, ranging from cold chicken to hot meat pies, seed cakes to apple tarts, and from ale to beer, (of course we mean ginger ale and root beer, no mistake; we are talking about an eleven year old).

In the comfort and quiet of our cosy home on a hill (we prefer to live on a hill, not in it, like our New Zealand relations), we gave our gifts to Salem and enjoyed the afternoon together before the birthday feast.

"What could it be, all wrapped up like that in brown paper?" Bella wonders.  Mother hobbit says, "Wait and see." Ah mothers. All the same.






Why it's a map, of course! What else? And a map of middle earth to boot!  Salem likes his present.








Ah, what is a party without music. Too bad we didn't hire any musicians. Wait! Is that a CD? Perfect timing. I'll go pop it into the computer and upload it to iTunes.

How familiar. "The Hobbit" movie soundtrack. This is beginning to feel like a theme party.

But of course, thats silly. Just another perfect day in the life of a hobbit family.



Wait.



What's this?



A Hobbit Mirkwood Forest Lego Set complete with elves, swords, and spiders?! What was grandma hobbit thinking? These sorts of adventuresome toys are not considered appropriate playthings by most respectable hobbit parents. A game of Parcheesi would have been more fitting for such folks as us.  Still, he seems to like it. Well, we shall see.

Oh my word! Whatever can this be? A gun?!!! Not only is it not in the least hobbity, but it is also the wrong century!  Then again, maybe the CD and lego are a bit off as well.  Still.

A gun? At a hobbit party?! Only a dad could commit such a well appreciated faux pas.

But now, it is time for supper. And not a moment too soon. I'm starving.  Let me give you a quick tour of the feast before it is all consumed:

First on the menu, we have Sam's Scones. For those who speak both ancient Anglo Saxon as well as modern English, I have included a runish translation above and below the English titles.

Next to the scones, you will find an abundance of Middle Earth Biscuits, moist and flaky, the way hobbits all over the world like them.

Then we have the Shire Apple Tarts. You can't beat shire tarts; they are exceptionally good.

Then, my personal favourite, Bilbo's Seed Cake, taken from an olde' English recipe book from several hundred years ago. It is a moist and dense cake flavoured with caraway, poppy, and sesame seeds. Delicious. (And I might add, gluten free!)

Then there was of course Bree's Best Beer and Pippin's Pickles, Beorn's Bee's Honey, served with fresh butter on a loaf of bread... and of course, Gandalf's Cold Chicken.

We were all ready to be seated and tuck in to our feast, when the most unexpected thing happened:

The door bell rang.

No matter that we had posted a sign both outside on the front door and inside on the dining room door, it appears someone had not headed it. How terribly inconvenient.

With one last look at the feast and with instructions to wait until I returned, I went to the front door to see who had rung the bell.

Of all the unexpected and untimely wizards, it was Gandalf the grey, and with him was a hoard of hungry dwarves, all on our doorstep at dinner time. Really.

Salem was more excited to see him than I was, and was more than willing to share his birthday feast with his new friends. We all settled down at the table, (actually I stood, as a dwarf was in my seat and it seemed best to let him stay there), and began our birthday feast.

I must say, it was a rather merry gathering, and after my initial surprise, even joined in the fun.

The ale and beer was passed around liberally, and cheers were frequently toasted with clinks of silver goblets and calls of "Here, here!"  When the tap on the beer got stuck in place, the dwarf Tristan solved the problem by opening his mouth under the tap and chugging down the remaining contents all by himself. I must say, I did appreciate how he saved my floors!

We even had some elves show up for the party!













My hobbit daughter Bella was particularly enchanted by the company manners of the Elven queen Galadriel.

Tauriel, the forest warrior elf, enjoyed the festivities as much as the dwarves, and even was reported to have a crush on one of them.

After hours of eating, the dwarves decided that some party games were in order, so all of our unexpected guests headed outside for some wide war games. Thorin gave everyone the rules.

And the games began.

My hobbit sister's family came out with their chubby hobbit boy, Jase, to watch the wild dwarves. I found a nice shady spot on the wall to sit and watch the action. 

I'm beginning to grow fond of these dwarves. I'm glad they showed up for our little hobbit party. It somehow wouldn't have been the same without them.

But then it was time for the Mirkwood Spider Web of Woe!

The goal was to escape from under the deck, through the web of jump ropes and bungee cords without touching them, for as Bilbo and the dwarves learned the hard way, when the web is touched, the spiders come!

This fun lasted for over an hour. The dwarves and hobbits never tired of the game. They even discovered team work works. Bonus!

After this, mother hobbit called everyone inside for a game of riddles, with gold coins (chocolate) as prizes for solving them. There was runish translation going on as well, for which the prizes were maps of Middle Earth, a treasury of 40 riddles for the riddle master, and a recipe for Elven Lembas bread.

By this time, most of the tired, happy dwarves had decided to leave, and we were left with just two brother dwarves who needed a ride back. We decided to hold them hostage a little while and watch the Hobbit movie until mother dwarf called, requesting the return of her dwarves.

Salem Wath-ins went to bed a happy hobbit and as I turned out the lights of Wath End, I thought to myself how pleasant unexpected parties can sometimes turn out to be...  that is, when they only happen once in a long while, and when they weren't really all that, well, unexpected.