Last year we went to the midnight showing of The Lord of the Rings. We stayed up for it, and stood outside in the bitter cold to get tickets. There weren’t very many people in the theater at that time of night – I guess even the most hardcore of fans weren’t quite ready to go to a midnight showing on a work night.

This year we had the best of intentions to repeat the midnight performance for The Two Towers. But at about 10:30, when we were getting ready to leave the house, I eyed Richard blearily and asked if he’d rather just do this tomorrow. The word ‘tomorrow’ was barely out of my mouth before he quickly agreed, we laughed, and then collapsed half-asleep into bed.

We went this afternoon, after coming home from a trip to the dentist that procured one cavity filling for Richard and a package of bleaching solution for me. Richard checked the theater times and then we climbed back into the car. It didn’t matter that both of us were starving. We just wanted to see the movie. And all we wanted was for it to be just as amazing as the first.

It blew us away. Completely and utterly. Three hours we sat in the theater, entranced; oblivious to anything but what was unfolding on the screen. The special effects were so seamless that no matter what the rational part of my brain said, I knew I was watching Middle Earth – the *real* Middle Earth, and not something out of a computer’s digital memory. We had fallen headfirst into the pages of Tolkien’s books. There were rolling hills and dizzying camera pans up craggy mountains. There were furry-footed hobbits and sharp-featured, hard-eyed elves, and gruff, bearded dwarves, and human fighters both brave and full of human weakness, and wizards, ah the wizards. There were trees so ancient they could speak and move and feel anger more intense than any wizard could withstand, and orcs covered in mud and slime, and there was Gollum – poor tortured Gollum – and oh, oh, oh! Every time I close my eyes I am still there, holding my breath or clenching my fists or cheering.

I want to see it again. I want to watch both movies back to back and then I want to fast-forward through this entire coming year until it is December again and the final chapter is released on the screen and then I want to watch all three in a row, not stopping even once during the entire viewing so that I can lose myself completely in the story one more time. And then repeat it over and over until finally, I have seen it enough.

Tis the season for Holidailies!