Christmas Letter 2017

Greetings,

We made it through another year. Life is still busy but we managed to do 35 shows again this year. Honestly, I’m busy enough that I am not sure how many shows we did, but 35 sounds right to me. Darren will probably correct me if I am wrong. I just read last year’s letter and saw that I put 35, but I remember finding out later that it should have been 34.

We started off by premiering the whipped cream version of Father Abraham at the HMS Winter Carnival.  I have really enjoyed doing this routine through the year. I like having a finale that doesn’t even try and look big and dangerous.  We haven’t done any other new acts, but we are still working on our new devilstick routine and our II Cor 12 “dropping the ball” routine.

Most people would say the most notable show we did this year was Creation. We performed all three days in the kids’ tent. We had fun doing some collaborations with This Way Up, and got the whole kids’ tent lineup to sing Father Abraham with us. We have even been asked to come back for 2018. However, I would still say the most exciting show we did was the Saucon Hymn Sing. They actually let us “lead” a hymn sing with juggling. It was basically exactly what I like doing: getting to do something new, limited practicing, no acting, and me transitioning between things by clumsily explaining songs.  The most amazing part of all this is that it really worked well. We didn't have any solo shows this year, but Darren did sing a solo in Kids Praise!

Sadly my two year streak of D vs K victories ended this year. Round one was diabolo routines. I tried singing “Do Your Ears Hang Low?” with my routine. That was a mistake, but I am still glad I tried it. Darren crushed me that round with a routine set to The Breaker's Commission. I should really encourage Darren to make more music selections. In round two, Darren did a cigar box routine with grapefruits and I did a devilstick routine with a tennis racket. I won this round with some help from a volunteer. Round three was close. Darren did the water bottle flip challenge and added a flip to his forehead. I tried doing slinky tricks with a giant slinky. It was ok, but not enough. Darren won, but I still enjoy having a giant slinky in my bag of props. As the winner, he has set the rules for next year. We are basically doing Balancing(D) vs Twirling(K), but the three rounds aren’t quite finalized yet.

Finally, here is the personal sentence. Darren got a new job pouring concrete, and my wife and I are expecting our second child.

Merry Christmas,
​Kevin