One of the challenges that I face leading a neverthriving of ten young  jugglers is that when one is absent on a show day, there's a lot of adjusting that needs to happen.  This was true again last moth when LOL did a chapel program for the Windham Christian Academy elementary grades.  Even with Sunny - one of our best jugglers - absent, LOL rose to the challenge and did perhaps their best show of the school year up to this point.

Although elementary chapel normally lasts thirty to thirty-five minutes, an hour was set aside so that LOL could do their whole program.  Introducing the team by name is how we start our show, and each performer enters in some flashy way.  Haddie gets us started as she rides in on a ripstick waving the LOL flag.  Lucas performs the color changing clown, which always gets a reaction of wonder.  Doing it for the home school ctowd was no difference.  But when Clare entered blowing literally thousands of soap bubbles, the kids went beserk!

Since this was our December show, we replaced our regualr music with popular Christmas songs.  Instead of "I Want to Know What Love Is", Lucas performed our classic mime routine to "Last Christmas" (which got our third and fourth grade teachers dancing in their seats.) We closed the show with the jugglers bringing their burdens to the cross, not to "Beautiful, Scandalous Night", but to "O Come All Ye Faithful" by Martina McBride.  Some of our upbeat juggling routines were done to Feliz Navidad, and Linus and Lucy- the jazz piano piece from the dance scene in "Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown".

Other significant moments in the show included Alex's diabolo high throw and catch that missed the gym ceiling by millimeters, and Clare juggling machetes in a show for the first time in her career.  Even better, her parents were there to see LOL for the first time, and their little girl dazzled!