I'm watching LotR for the first time right now. It is amazing! I'm nost sure why, but I find myself very much drawn to the elves.
Frodo has the most incredible eyes. Big and blue, wow. I'm really liking Legolas too. Gollom is creepy, and the Orks are nasty! The photography/cinematography is just amazing. All the different colors and textures that they've been using. The scope of so many of the shots is just mind-boggling.
The whole family is probably going to see The Two Towers tomorrow afternoon, so I'm watching the first one now. I had been waiting to watch it until I finish the books, but then I lost my copy of the first one... So I'm just going to watch them and get around to reading them when I do. I'm going back to watching now...
One last thing - have you checked out the Polar Plunge page yet?