My sons, Nicholas Lawrence Temple III and Robert Lawrence Temple II were both born on June 12 in 1971 and 1975, respectively. On June 18, 2011, they celebrated their birthday together at a party where the theme was J.R.R. Tolkien
's trilogy, The Lord of the Rings
.The Lord of the Rings
The cake was created by a friend, a fellow chef, of my son, Rob. It was in the form of a Hobbit house.
The Hobbit
I was told that my son Rob's favorite Lord of the Rings character is the man of many names: Aragorn, also known as Strider, who is a descendant of the human king who was too weak to destroy the Ring of Power when it came into his hands. Raised by the Elf King Elrond in Rivendell after the death of his parents, Aragorn learns as an adult that he is heir to the throne of Gondor. He also learns that he loves Elrond's daughter Arwen.
Nick told me that his favorite Lord of the Rings character is Samwise Gamgee, a hobbit, who is Frodo's gardener, and dear friend. Sam insists on accompanying his friend on his dangerous trip. Sam becomes one of the Fellowship of the Ring, and is the only one to remain with Frodo all the way to the end. Tolkien once wrote that Sam is the true hero of the story.
If I had attended the party as my favorite Lord of the Rings character, I would have chosen the wizard, Gandalf the Grey the first leader of the Fellowship of the Ring
, and the possessor of one of the three Elf rings which can be controlled by the Ring of Power. Whether he's really been killed by the Balrog, a monster of fire, or not, like the Mr. Spock in the Startrek film, Gandalf comes come back; this time, as "Gandalf the White."
First among the guests was Story Wyn Temple. daughter of Rob and Kim (above) and granddaughter of me!
The Fellowship of the Ring
The Two Towers
The Return of the King
the trilogy was a good read, and there was a time when i worked 2 rd shift as a corrections officer there was a book discussion club at the justice Center where I worked one of the favorite topics of discussion was the Lord of the Rings.I'm glad that the the party was enjoyable.
ReplyDeleteI loved the books. The movie was a little too action-packed for me.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite character is Treebeard the Ent. I loved the Ents!
Those books and the movies are a part of my everyday life. When I was talking with my soon to be ex-boss about his dismissal, I quoted Gollum when I said: We are not in decent places. He's a Tolkien geek so he laughed at the reference.
ReplyDeleteFun theme for the party! My son and his friends were LOTR fans, too, and one of them named his daughter Arwen. I guess it's one of those "in the blood" things.
ReplyDeleteExcellent photo and party theme, Rev. Saint. My birthday blessings to your sons.
ReplyDeleteHappy belated birthday wishes to your sons. That is an awesome cake and I loved how you related the roles to your family. That little baby is too cute.
ReplyDeleteReally good post, Saintly Nick. You have a handsome family and a lovely new granddaughter.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great cake! I enjoyed hearing about the birthday men and the party. And I love seeing photos of your beautiful granddaughter!
ReplyDeleteWhat a fabulous party!
ReplyDeleteMike: It was a grand party, Mike. Maybe not as exciting as Bilbo’s 111th, but fun.
ReplyDeleteThomas: I think that ents are neat!
ReplyDeleteSusan: I believe that I’d enjoy working amonh Tolkien geeks. I suppose one could use that term to describe Nick, Rob, and me.
ReplyDeleteLynilu: Wow! Arwen is a beautiful name. To be named after an Elf princess would be neat. I hope she enjoys Tolkien!
ReplyDeleteAzsonofagun: Thank you, Rex. I appreciate it.
ReplyDeleteFinding Pam: Thank you. The cake was really neat, but very, very hard and dry. I suppose it needed to be to keep its shape. However, if one added a bite of ice cream to each bite of cake, it tasted great.
ReplyDeleteAbby: Thank you, my friend.
ReplyDeleteCarol: Thank you, dear Carol. I suppose you’ll be seeing lots of pics of Story Wyn through the coming years!
ReplyDeleteWelshcakes Limoncello: Thank you, my Welsh friend! I wonder how a LOTR party would go over in Sicily?
ReplyDeletei like this lots happy bd to ur sons
ReplyDelete