For ten years now, we have juggled as part of a Christmas party in Naples, Maine. That in itself is not unusual, but the venue is. The party is held at the Umbrella Factory, a local, independently owned grocer store. For the first eight years, I shared the stage (actually, the meat aisle) with BAWT, a local worship band that has since disbanded. Last year there was no other act; just us. This year, there were musicians again. Although I had never met them before, they were fun to work with and we had a nice time. Neither my wife, Sue nor my daughter, Rose, were able to attend, so it was nice to have some others to work with.

I did three shows of about 25-30 minutes each. While the singers' first set was all secular classics: "White Christmas", "Rudolph" etc. after my first set, in which I did several routines focusing on the first Christmas, they sang exclusively sacred Christmas songs. While I don't believe I singlehandedly convinced them to go a different direction for the night, but it was interesting to observe.

It is truly amazing how many people come out for this event each year. Literally hundreds of people. This year, as usual, there was an obligatory visit from Santa. But for the first time, Portlands own minor league mascot, Slugger the Seadog, was there too.

This year I typed up a few invitations to our home church's Christmas Eve dinner and service. Four or five people took them, and I am hoping to see some of them there.