Lupercalia is Over!

Lupercalia is over for another year! Going by my family gatherings in which sound level is an accurate gage of "a good time" I believe it was a success. The feast was great - Thank you Linda! - and the day went amazingly to schedule. The last I had checked an unofficial number attending was right about 100, very nice considering the weather!

There were new people there and a large handful of curious investigators. One woman just found us wandering the web, and a nice group from Martin Luther College came early and stayed until the end. (I was going to say the "bitter" end but that isn't until clean-up.) I spoke to all of them during the day and found them to be more than pleased with what they saw and experienced! If we keep in contact I believe we may lure them in with no more than a few crumbs! The more the merrier!

The fighting went well. The "ransom" tournament was a fun idea - thank you Mike - and the Bushkazi was a crowd pleaser as always however, we were hoping for more actual "carrying" of the bunny. Perhaps the fighters were too gentlemanly to roughly grab a lady although I did notice "her" rudely knocked over and then kicked about.

Lunch was thoroughly consumed. Patrice and Jeff created a multitude of rabbit pie and spinach pie and beautiful bread and soup! The rabbit pie was a hit! Thank you!

The games were popular with young and old. Pirates vs. Ninjas was great! The announcement that is was for 12 and up almost created a riot and so Bart ran another game for the 12 and under crowd. He was a popular man. Thank you Bart!

Thank you Trish and Bailee for being our trolls! Thank you for helping in the kitchen and cleaning up! You are young and wonderful! Thank you Gretchen for helping in the kitchen and helping things run smooth. These jobs get no glory but they are what make an event happen. thank you.

Thank you Darin for helping in the kitchen (see above paragraph!) and for being our Auctioneer! The auction was a blast! Darin was a great auctioneer. The Shire members were not to participate and I coached my whining kids all day that they would not be able to bid. The auction excitement overpowered Matthew and he entered into a bidding war with one other gentleman for a book donated by Melanie Wing. The war was entertaining and when he finally seemed to be losing, it prompted some tender woman in the crowd to give him more money. He won. This set a precedence on the rest of the bidding which also went into wars, namely the viking treasure necklace. What fun!

Congratulations to those of our shire receiving awards! Gretchen and Darin Ingalls and Patrice Hundstad all received Awards Of Arms!

It was a very good day and I must say a special thank you to Melanie Wing who jointly stewarded the event with me. I have been trying to learn "the way of things" and she helped me to be calm - most valuable. (Even though she was experiencing some "el crappo" deals of fortunes hand!) Experience trumps all else. Thank you Mel!

Now shall pass another year in which we shall forget the anguish and do it all again.