I love Christmas. I love the sights, sounds and smells. I love the home-y kind of feeling that you get when family and friends gather to share stories and sit and have dinner together.

What I love most about Christmas is the music and concerts. Yes, I celebrate Christmas all year long with remember Jesus' birth, death and resurrection, but there is something special about the time God's Son came to Earth to humble himself and become like us. And Christmas concerts do that to me.

I went on Sunday, December 6th, to see the Bethlehem Skyline with downhere, Jason Gray, and Lanae Hale. I got to help run the merch stand and meet some great new people. I got to finally meet Lanae. She is one sweet lady! I also got to meet and work Merch with Walt. He works with Centricity as well as played bass for Lanae on her set on the Skyline tour.

We had a meet and greet before the show and since I had an extra pass, I thought that I would just randomly pic 4 kids out of the crowd. I picked four very sweet little girls who seemed to enjoy every minute of it. I wanted to pick kids, because meeting "rockstars" at their ages means alot to them. One of the girls said she didn't know what to say to them! I told her just be yourself and just start talking about anything. They are all great and they love meeting their fans!

I had too many memories before and after the show to even write here. If you are on the downhere messageboards, you can see the stories there.

But the concert itself was awesome. I didn't get to see Lanae's or Jason Gray's set because I volunteered to watch the merch table so the other volunteers could go and see the show. That was alright. I could still hear the music and I was having my own little concert up at the table.

I got to head down to see downhere and the first couple songs of the show were upbeat, fun and familiar. I was bouncing around like a normal "obnoxious fan" then out of nowhere, I just sat down, closed up, and didn't sing the rest of the night. I could barely look at the guys even. I found myself focusing more on the screens with the words. Something strange happened to me.

During soundcheck early in the day, I got to hear a snippet of Silent Night, and I know the song off the How Many Kings album, so I knew what I was in for. But nothing prepared me for what happened. I tried telling myself I wasn't going to get emotional, but I couldn't help myself. Every ounce of energy I had trying to hold the walls up, broke down.

Silent Night was always my grandma's favorite song. She and I were really close when I was little and the more I grow up, the harder I am finding myself with her passing. Yes, it's been almost 20 years since she has gone, but being 9 you really don't understand what has happened. I have so many great memories with her. Every Friday I would go to her house and hang for the weekend. Our Saturday morning ritual was make scrambled eggs, I would bring her her coffee, then we would watch Gunsmoke or Bonanza, depending on what time we got up. And depending on the time of year, we would go shopping or rummage saling.

I remember when she got sick and was in the hospital. She was in a coma but she still squeezed my hand. Mom told her we would be back later that night to see her. It was about a half hour after we left, and the hospital called. Mom brought me into their bedroom and told me. I screamed. It couldn't have happened.

Every year gets harder, so I think with downhere releasing How Many Kings and putting that on there was really really hard on me. I remember listening to it with Liz on the way home from our downhomiepalooza back in July of this year. I couldn't even make it through the verse line of the song without weeping.

But I am grateful for tears. Tears of joy, tears of sorrow. I have many great memories with my Grandma. I still wish she was here. I know that she would be proud of me, but I want her there in the front row watching me perform, I want her to be the first to hear a song that I wrote. And I know she is sitting with me as I write them.

This blog has taken a completely different turn than I wanted it to. But maybe I needed it. I wanted to tell you about my wonderful experience about the Bethlehem Skyline tour. But in a sense I think I did. This tour means a lot to me. It brings back wonderful memories while making new ones with family, friends, and "rockstars" that I consider like family.

You can see my pics of the show at: mindyracal Flickr If you get the chance to go, please do! Check out the tour here at the Bethlehem Skyline site.

It's that time of year again!!! HOLIDAYS! And I am not going to shy away to "make people happy" by saying Happy Holidays. It's Christmas time. We celebrate this time of year with the birth of Jesus.

Not Santa. Not candy. Not presents. Not little elves.

There is a reason for this season and people have slowly over the years forgotten the reason we celebrate. Retail has played a big part in everything too. Buy this!-it will make you thinner! By that!- you will make over a $100,000 in 24 hours! Crazy how we let ourselves get caught up in pleasing "us".

How can we forget that one person that humbled himself as a baby, in a feeding trough, in a barn....

Really if you think about it, even as Christians we romanticize the birth of Jesus. We think of Him as this bouncing blue-eyed smiling baby. Ponder the origin of His birth. I am pretty sure He wasn't blue-eyed and fair skin. Nor did He have a halo glimmering around His head.

He was born a normal baby, Mary with complications, like any child. But it was the best birth anyone could have.

Could you imagine being chosen to carry the Son of God? I would be like Mary. I admire her. She was so strong for such a young girl. 13! I have a niece that's 13 and I couldn't even THINK of her getting pregnant in our day and age. But at that time, it was normal.

I wish I had a heart like hers. Even being ridiculed by her peers and village, she trusted God. I want a faith like that.

So with all the hustle and bustle of buying things, take time to really sit and think why we are celebrating. Jesus came for you. He came for me. I will close with the chorus from How Many Kings written by Marc Martel the lead singer of downhere:

How many kings stepped down from their thrones
How many lords have abandoned their homes
How many greats have become the least for me
How many gods have poured out their hearts
To romance a world that's been torn all apart
How many fathers gave up their sons for me?
Only one did that for me.


Please take a listen to the song at www.downhere.com