I’ve mentioned before that I have been reading LOTR out loud to our kids these last few months. We started July 16, 2009 and last night – 19 months later – we finished.

<I’d put the last line here, but I don’t want to ruin it for those who haven’t read it yet.>

Knowing that we had only six pages left of the book I wanted to do something special. So we drove over to Panera and the kids listened as they enjoyed Smoothies and Cinnamon rolls. An enjoyable ending.

Other comments:

– Some might be thinking – Aren’t your kids a little young for this book? And sir, my answer: Yes, it’s quite possible that my seven year old didn’t catch all of the nuances in the narative.  Honestly I was torn on this issue and still am. But my oldest was eleven! I couldn’t wait any longer.

– I hadn’t remembered this, but Carl mentioned last night that we began the book on vacation at Cascade Lodge. Very fitting.

– It’s such a perfect ending for a book, except for one thing that I’ll note: It is too short.

– If you interested in a pretty good chapter by chapter review of the book, you can find it here.

– I’ll be going through the very important After-The-End-Of-The-Book-Events timeline with them sometime soon. We did note in the appendix that one of the major characters ended up having 14 kids. Yikes.

– I predict we’ll read it again, outloud, say in ten years.

– Big question: Who should we let watch the movie?

– Heard from the back of the van as we drove home: Thanks for bringing us, Daddy!

– Also heard: “What are we going to read next?”

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