the idea of old bilbo laughing and entertaining in bag end makes me so happy

old bilbo babysitting young merry and baby pippin when they visit hobbiton to see frodo, old bilbo very gently and patiently teaching sam his letters and how to read and telling young frodo yore of the elven-kings and queens of old as sam pretends to shell nuts by the fire, listening intently

old bilbo opening his round green door and laughing in joy at the familiar sight of gandalf, or the arrival of his dwarvish friends (who all consider bag end a sort of bed-and-breakfast) on their way from ered luin to erebor. they embrace him all at once, and might have accidentally crushed him, if not for his cries of very fond protest. (they empty his pantry each and every time.)

old bilbo teaching sindarin to frodo (bilbo himself was taught a little by gandalf, and mostly by lord elrond and the scholars of rivendell, and sometimes by sweet patient arwen and her brothers and glorfindel. he visited rivendell quite often before he adopted frodo) and one day after a letter arrives at bilbo’s doorstep, bilbo takes young frodo on a long walk to the old forest, where they are well met with the tinkling voices of elves who embrace bilbo, ask him how his translation of the lays are going, and laugh smilingly at frodo’s stilted pronunciation 

old bilbo calling in a favor with the former members of the company of thorin oakenshield, a year before his eleventy-first birthday. it is time for one last long-awaited party, and he needs their help. it is time for bilbo to give his own birthday presents.