Well, Christmas in El Paso was wonderful. Including trips to Carlsbad Caverns and White Sands National Park. You can check out pictures of Christmas morning and White Sands online. More when I dig out from the holiday!

Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

Well, not only is there now a union between the two towers, there is now a union between New Line and my wallet. Wow. Absolutely amazing work; Jackson is to be comended. Even reading the books I don’t think that I ever quite got the expansive, truly epic feeling I got watching TTT. It’s simply amazing in its scope. It was once said of Joseph Smith “He lived great, and he died great,” and that must certainly be the case for Celeborn and others in this picture. Their lives were concatenations of great acts of heroism and selflessness, and as inspiring as anything I’ve ever read or seen. Great books, great movie. If only Tom Bombadil could have made it to the party… perhaps its better that he didn’t…

Ahhh, The Two Towers. Elaine and I made the 11am showing here in beautiful downtown El Paso. Wow. I was reminded of the words used to describe Joseph Smith: “He lived great, and he died great.” How many characters in TTT can that be said of? Gandalf battling the balrog in mid-air, Celeborn going down in the battle at Helm’s Deep, and whoa! Helm’s Deep! Holy cow! Absolutely amazing. Definitely worth the wait.

More later.