Celebrating My 33rd Birthday with Frodo: We’re Coming of Age!

Yesterday I turned 33!

I have had the bad luck to celebrate TWO birthdays under COVID-19 restrictions. Currently in BC we are not allowed to hang out with anyone outside of our household, so I asked my girlfriend to join me in the nerdiest, most introverted birthday celebration imaginable: a Lord of the Rings movie marathon. It reached new heights of perfection when I remembered that 33 is a special age in LotR lore:

At that time Frodo was still in his tweens, as the hobbits called the irresponsible twenties between childhood and coming of age at thiry-three.

The Fellowship of the Ring

Secondly, to celebrate my birthday. Cheers again. I should say: OUR birthday. For it is, of course, also the birthday of my heir and nephew, Frodo. He comes of age and into his inheritance today.

The Fellowship of the Ring

With this seal of nerdy approval, Rachel and I celebrated my birthday in a decidedly hobbit-approved fashion: By eating good food, drinking good drink, and partaking in a good story from the comfort of my hobbit hole.

We were inspired by Webstaurant Store Blog’s Hobbit Meal Times and came up with the following schedule for ourselves.

9:00 a.m. Combined Breakfast and Second Breakfast

Admittedly, it’s not a strong start to combine two meals, but we never eat breakfast at 7:00. Anyway, the bacon, eggs, and toast was delicious, which is the most important thing!

11:00 a.m. Elevenses

Halfway through The Fellowship of the Ring, we went for a quick walk to the neighborhood Breka for an almond croissant, carrot and walnut muffin, and breakfast cookie – too much, but wow, so good.

1:00 p.m. Luncheon

We forgot to buy food for lunch, so in between Fellowship and The Two Towers, we once again went across the street for Chung Chun Rice Dog (full review coming soon). Small but mighty!

3:00 p.m. Afternoon Tea

Just before the battle of Helm’s Deep, we grabbed boba tea for our take on afternoon tea. No joke, we live within a block of three boba tea places, and that is why I love our apartment.

6:00 p.m. Dinner

By this time we were flagging, both with sitting through 8 hours of movie and with shoving sugary foods into our mouth. But we were eating like hobbits, dammit!! So I served us the tiniest portion of some butternut squash soup Rachel had pre-made the night before. Absolutely delicious; I can’t wait to eat it while actually hungry.

8:00 p.m. Supper

Things were at their darkest point in Return of the King when we dished out homemade cottage pie. It helped with the aching sadness, but again….this was all so much food, and I definitely didn’t need more. Thank goodness for leftovers!

9:00 p.m. Birthday Cake

Of course there’s always room for cake.

10:00 It’s over

I love these movies as much as I did when they came out 20 years ago! What a perfect way to celebrate my birthday in these COVID times. I highly recommend the meal plan for anyone else contemplating a marathon of the extended editions, but go with small portions early on…it’s a marathon, after all!