for the last 10 or 12 years, we have been going to the local hospital (three miles from home) on Christmas afternoon and doing five or ten minute shows for the people who have to spend Christmas there instead of at their homes.  We did this again yesterday, Christmas Day 2012.  Sue stayed home with Rose, our 11 year old, because Rose has a cold, so this year it was just me and our two adult daughters who are home from colllege for the holidays.

This Christmas there were more patients than usual for Christmas.  A few of the patients were sleeping or didn't want us to come in, but most of them welcomed us.  I did a ball jugglnig routine with Jona-Lynn to Michael W. Smith's "Jingle Bells", then performed the linking rings and pulled a 4 foot magic want out of a 6 inch gift bag.  Jo then produced a dove out of an empty dove pan, I juggled cigar boxes to "Oh Come All Ye Faithful" and Naomi closed out the set with machete juggling.  After the mini-shows, the girls gave the patients and their guestd Christmas Cards, a CD of Christmas music, and a balloon animal.

We met an elderly man who dozed on and off throughout our shows, a young man who was being visited by his wife and one year old daughter, a lady who recognized us from other local shows, and a variety of other people wishing they could be home for Christmas.  We even had the chance to get reaquainted with the nurse who was there for the birth of all three of our girls.  We were home in an hour and a half to continue our family celebration of Christmas, but it was a blessing to us to cheer up some other families' Christmases, too, and perhaps, through the cards and music, gently point them to the Savior whose day it is meant to be.