Return to the Hobbit Hole

This is when Ben and I met Dustin.
He's third from the left.  (What was I doing?  Showing off the snow on my boot?  Who knows...)

Dustin loves the Tolkien universe more than anyone I know.  My standard of measurement is that he can write in Elvish AND has read the Simarillion at least twice.  I think he was delighted when for some reason, we decided that he looked like Elijah Wood and took Lord of the Rings re-enactment photos of him (that are mysteriously lost) using The One Ring from the Lord of the Rings board game set.

Ben and Dustin hit it off and later lived together at college.  They both grew their hair long and curly and called their room the "Hobbit Hole".

Meanwhile, do you remember when this magic happened?

That was a Halloween to be remembered.  I made the cloak, by the way.

For some reason, the Hobbit costume made it through all of our moves and last week was in my parent's garage, in the same box as the sword collection and my "Marlo Thomas in 'That Girl!'" costume.

When I brought it to their house last night, Dustin's wife Marie instantly said "What can I wear to be a Hobbit too?"  And so I got to see this:

It's so special for some of Ben's things to find meaningful new homes.

My sister (herself a huge Lord of the Rings fan) and her husband also enjoyed the scene, as well as how Marie was awesome and kept on her costume for the rest of the evening while we played board games.  We decided that costumes should be mandatory for the next game night.