Happy New Year to all! Here’s to another year full of adventure, exploration, and the beauty of Middle Earth!
Also full of fireworks, if the lotteries won by my characters mean anything. They ran every other hour, it seems, and I entered quite a few of them once I noticed that, so nearly all my characters have won at least one multicolored set of fireworks! They made merry with the winnings…
Yeah, I have an abundance of alts…
Meanwhile, back in Thorin’s Hall, Mireleth continued to do well in the quest for the Glorious Beer.
Isn’t it a glorious looking arena?
She finally lost a round by being flung out of bounds before she could grab the coveted drink, but still managed to collect enough of it that she is now known as “Bruised, Battered and Contused” for her rough-and-ready efforts.
Worn out from a long day of brawling for the glorious beer
She also discovered that one way to lose the beer brawl is when no one else shows up to fight for it. You can’t win that quest unless you can smack your fellow players around three times. If you’re the only one in the arena, grabbing the beer is easy but you can’t finish the quest. Alas!
Where is everybody? Come play with me!
Proceeds from Mireleth’s (and Alduine’s) festive competitions have gone toward a set of the classy cosmetic gear, which they shall share, because it was expensive (and is not bind on acquire).
I love that red!
She and Alduine have also been stocking up on the Yule gift boxes and those kind Dwarves, Elves, Hobbits and Men gifted them with a few lovely items to give Linett’s home at 3 Haven Way a more festive look.
A Yule wreath and candle
Yule trees – two of ‘em – collected in past festivals
We decorated this wing of the house Hobbit-style with garlands and bows; a mountainous snow globe from Thorin’s Hall takes center stage and a brightly wrapped present is waiting to be opened
Alduine is eager to open this present!
The table is spread with a holiday feast
Garlands in the Elven style deck this wing of the house, and if I had a third wing, it’d be decked in the Dwarven style…
Ah, the infamous Glorious Beer…the Dwarf Gisli sent home a souvenir stein with Mireleth.
Mireleth and the other alts have not been entirely idle during the festival season. Mireleth advanced to level 21 in the past few days and acquired a cute little horse.
Not the horse, sorry. I failed to get a picture of that.
She also learned to manage heavy armor, so my armoursmith Trumpkin made her some of the best.
On her, though, it doesn’t actually look that heavy!
But she still found time to learn a few new dances at the festival…
Dancing like a Woman
Some of my other newer alts advanced a few levels due to winning the fireworks lotteries, particularly those whom I’d created for whatever reason but not yet gotten out of the introduction instance. They had to finish the instance to have access to a mailbox and collect the fireworks, so…now I am tired of the starter instances for a while. 
But Cindella and Corella et alii are no longer stuck in them.
So, on to another year full of promise! In fact, a whole new decade. Make the most of it, whether in game or in life. Bonne Année, Annum Novum Faustum Feliciter, and however one says “Happy New Year” in Sindarin!
