Several of our magicians, in the spirit of the holiday season,  performed tricks with a Christmas theme.  Mike Root put us in a festive mood with  a Christmas tree square circle which he had purchased at an auction.  The cutout on the square was in the shape of a Christmas tree.  The circle provided the green and the decorations.  Mike also had a Christmas wand with a snow ball on the end.   Also, in keeping with the season, he shared with us the Legend of the Christmas Tree.

Robin Myers proceeded to tell a rather complicated story that had to do with  Christmas shopping with his wife. During the course of his story he referred us to two websites which he though might be useful -- desperatemagicians.com and brokemagicians.com!    Ultimately he produced  a Christmas tree card castle along with an inspirational holiday message.

Jay Newby did a very creative version of the matrix which he called the â??Military Matrix.â??    The four chips represented four branches of the service.  The four cards included a flag for each branch.  Jayâ??s story was well thought out and well received.

Taylor Martin shared an effect known as Vases and Ropes.  Involved were two red ropes, two vases open at both ends, the phenomenon of internal levitation, a red silk and water.  The effect was awesome as somehow the ropes and the silk periodically seemed to get stuck in the vases although the water went right through.  

Don Miller entertained us all with his newly acquired Rotary Pizza from Smoky Mountain Magic, a very creative and upgraded version of the classic coin die box.  First, though, he made us all raise our right hands and take the five year old kid pledge.  Basically we all pledged to behave like five year olds while watching the trick.  It was amazing how easily  this group was able to act like a bunch of five year olds!

The reference for our evening teaching session was the Royal Road to Card Magic.  Master teacher, Jim Croop, was the leader.   The session focused on the double lift vs the double turnover and the differences between the two.  Jim patiently explained the various techniques involved, including the thumb count, the pinkie count and the snap double.  We learned both the approach recommended in the Royal Road and the Aaron Fisher approach.  Jim capped off the teaching session by demonstrating three different card effects easily performed using the techniques he had just described.