*Phew*

Well, it's over.

Even though last year was a lot of fun, I think this year topped it by a mile and then some. We laughed ourselves silly, and had a chance to talk a little bit face-to-face about some guild issues. A good time and a little productive, too!

By about 5:30pm on Friday, everyone was here and we left to go out for pizza. I gave out our little gifts to the Don and one other guild member (for his graduation). The Don loved his tabard (yay! I can say it now!) and we all ate way more than we should have.

On Saturday, we had the birthday party for Conman. ONE of his classmates came, and E (D's son) and a little girl from Conman's church were the only kids outside the ELC that came to his party. Low attendance aside, the kids had a BLAST - the ones who were not here for the entire weekend are STILL talking about how much fun they had. The Don somehow got involved in a huge water fight with the kids and everyone involved ended up soaked to the bone. Later, after the party, we ate fantastic pasta sauce and rigatoni with salad and bread created by the Don, and then sat around the fire talking. Yes, yes, I fulfilled my promise and sang for them, too. No, there is not video evidence, but there were many witnesses.

On Sunday the ladies (Erudismom and the Don's wife) cleaned up some while I got the chili for our dinner on. We didn't have anything planned for early on Sunday, so we did some (more) filming for the "guild videos" of the weekend. Once we ate dinner, we all changed into our ELC shirts and took the group picture for the 2008 gathering. The kids were beginning to get antsy, so we did our best to entertain them until our 6pm date with the bowling alley. Once that rolled around, we all went and had a great time. I went bowling knowing I couldn't beat DH, so my goal was to beat the Don in at least one game (which I did) even though he creamed me the second game. DH ended up winning "the tournament" (and subsequently the 250g in-game pot we all put up), but I beat the Don. I achieved my goal.

The kids all went to bed Sunday night, and we spent our last night together out at the firepit laughing and talking until way too late. On Monday morning, everyone got their things together and sat out. I was sad that the 2008 ELC was over, and look forward to next year.

It's a lot of work, but man, I love having it at my house. I love seeing everyone that comes, and spending time with friends face-to-face. I can't wait until ELC 2009!