1. Where I Find You (Sparrow), Kari Jobe
This is leaps and bounds beyond her debut album. In fact, the transformation took me by surprise! Jobe’s sophomore effort is mature, relevant and emotive. Sparrow was wise to snatch her up! This album proves she is more than another routine female worship leader, but she has a knack for spiritually-relevant pop tunes. I do believe Ed Cash has turned Kari into a pop songstress! Radio single “We Are” is infectious. She should be a lovely, powerful addition to Winter Jam this year. The eloquent album hits stores and digital outlets today.

2. Barton Hollow (Sensibility), The Civil Wars
Ever since I saw them perform flawlessly in front of a packed house at the historic Ryman Auditorium earlier this month, I’ve had The Civil Wars on repeat. OK, let’s be honest, I’ve had them on repeat for the past two years. It’s that good. They are the best thing to come out of music in a long time. They debuted their new song with Taylor Swift at the Nashville show, and let’s just say we can’t wait till The Hunger Games releases just so we can hear this song in the movie!

3. Give Us Rest (a requiem mass in c [the happiest of all keys]) (sixsteps), David Crowder Band
DCB is taking their final bow, but not before giving us what may very well be their greatest undertaking yet. With over two hours of music, calling it epic is a bit of an understatement. The band recently gave its final performance at Passion 2012 in Atlanta, Ga., earlier this month. They may have played their last concert, but DCB is leaving us with a lovely parting gift.

4. If It Leads Me Back (Reunion), Lindsay McCaul

This is one of the best debuts I’ve heard in quite some time. McCaul’s soothing alto coupled with her intelligent lyrics make for a beautiful album. (Think Nichole Nordeman and Bethany Dillon.) It’s a shame radio isn’t embracing McCaul’s music. She has a lot to say, and her thoughtful prose deserves a platform.

5. Stories to Tell (Razor & Tie), Dave Barnes

Dave’s new record doesn’t come out till March, but advance copies were serviced to media last week. The GRAMMY nominee wrote many of the songs for the new album after learning his wife was pregnant. Barnes tapped into his paternal feelings on the brink of first-time fatherhood. Lest you think the album is all lullabies, rest assured that Dave’s signature ballads and soulful pop gems are all in tact. New single “Mine to Love” (yes, this is one of the songs for the baby) is a great follow-up to “God Gave Me You.”

**Other albums I’m looking forward to in the coming months: Audrey Assad, Britt Nicole, Christy Nockels, Passion, All Sons & Daughters, for KING & COUNTRY

What are your favorite albums right now?

Here’s a powerful acoustic performance of “Let Me Feel You Shine” from David Crowder*Band’s final album. Crowder has called this the most personal song he’s written, and it speaks to the struggle he must have faced in closing this DC*B chapter.

1. Winter Jam 2012 Line-Up UnVeiled
2. Chris Tomlin Shares Details of New Album and Engagement Story
3. The Civil Wars: 5 Secrets to Their Success
4. Francesca Battistelli and Meredith Andrews Welcome Baby Boys to Family
5. Free Download of New Casting Crowns Single “Courageous”

Thanks for journeying with us in 2011! We look forward to sharing more with you in 2012! Here’s to another great year in Christian music!

What do you enjoy most about Christmas?

I love being with family, and I love traditions. For some reason on Christmas Day, we always eat Mexican food.  We also enjoy looking at Christmas lights on Christmas Eve as a family.  On Christmas morning, we read out of Luke 2 to remind ourselves of why we are alive and have hope — because of Jesus.  We’ll share gifts and focus on the spirit of giving, because Christ has given to us.  I have fond memories of Christmas and being with family.

What’s your favorite Christmas carol?  I love “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.”

What’s your favorite Christmas album?  The Elf Soundtrack

What’s your favorite Christmas movie?  Elf & Home Alone

Are you the type of person who likes to peek at your presents or do you hold out?

This could be incriminating!  I peek…. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve gotten better about waiting.  But as a kid, I would sneak in and unwrap the presents – and then tape them back up!  I do not recommend that!

What do you want for Christmas this year?  I want the new kindle touch.  I love to read, and it looks awesome!

Share one of your favorite Christmas memories.  

I was in high school saving up for a guitar, and it was the guitar of my dreams!  I wanted it more than anything.  It probably would have taken me a year to save up for it.  Every day, I would go into the store and play it.  Then, one day, it was gone.  I was devastated.

Well, fast forward two months later… Christmas morning rolls around and I walk into the living room and there was the guitar!  My dad bought it because he knew how much I wanted it, and he was afraid someone else was going to buy it.  So he snatched it up and didn’t tell me.  I’ve now had this guitar for 10 years, and it still goes everywhere with me!

What do you enjoy most about Christmas?  

Being with my family – there’s such a warmth and safety about being back home. I love the memories and also creating new ones.  It’s so fun digging out old photo albums or digging through the closet in my old bedroom, which still has stuff from my childhood in it — just to relive some of my life.

As I’ve gotten older, the emphasis has gotten away from the gifts that I would get and is now more about giving gifts to others.  Every once in a while, I come up with a creative gift idea and I love giving those gifts to my family.  I just love having all my family under one roof.

What’s your favorite Christmas food?

You know those little cookies where they put a Hershey’s Kiss or a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup in the middle – those!!! Especially, the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup ones!  I know it’s not a full meal, but I love them!

What’s your favorite Christmas carol?

“O Holy Night” – I put it on the album, and I love how this song captures the sentiment and wonder of Bethlehem.

What’s your favorite Christmas album (besides your own)?

The first Amy Grant Christmas album.  I have the actual record on vinyl, and I love playing it throughout this season.

What’s your favorite Christmas movie?

Home Alone – just because that movie was so big when I was growing up.

Are you the type of person who likes to peek at your presents or do you hold out?

When I was a child, I totally peeked! I remember when I was probably about 6 years old, going downstairs before anyone else was awake and unwrapping presents with my name on it and then wrapping them back up as discreetly as possible so no one could tell!  But I have such a strong conscience that I’m sure I told my parents at some point during the day about what I did….

Now days, I want to be as surprised as possible!  I steer clear of all possible hiding spots!

What do you want for Christmas this year?

There are two things that I currently want, but they are really boring.  I want some red hiking boot laces. I got a new pair of hiking boots, so I want to put some red laces on them.  I also want the biography on Steve Jobs.  You can tell Santa that’s what I’m asking for….

What’s your favorite?

- Christmas food:
Michael: Mincemeat Pie
Sean: Turkey and stuffing

- Christmas tradition:
Michael: Christmas Eve Communion (and my wife’s corn casserole)
Sean: Eating Christmas dinner with family

- Christmas movie:
Michael: It’s a Wonderful Life
Sean: A Christmas Carol

What do you enjoy most about Christmas?

Michael: The festivities that point to the doctrine of the Incarnation and the exposure of the human heart’s need for a Messiah; this is the perfect opportunity to present Jesus.

Sean: Seeing the excitement my daughter has.

Share one of your favorite Christmas memories.

Michael: I think back of being a child, going out into the woods, in south Louisiana, to cut down a pine, and dragging it to a very humble home. There, an older widow woman and an orphan boy, set it up, and then enjoyed the sense of mystery and the very scent of glory in our 100-year-old home.

Sean: Christmas Eve sitting around the fireplace

Are you the type of person who likes to peek at your presents before Christmas morning, or do you hold out?

Michael: Well, I can hold out…but I love to hint to my wife. I often give the surprise away! No one in our family trusts me with secrets!

Sean: Hold out.

What are you most looking forward to this Christmas?

Michael: I cherish the quietness and stillness of Christmas and the days following in which we read, enjoy board games, rest, and frequently take a little trip back to Kansas City for a few days. Then, we go see the lights at the Plaza, and worship with the church we planted there.

Sean: My 4 old year daughter opening gifts.

What are your plans for 2012?

Michael: Listen. Learn. Love.

Sean: Relax and spend time with family.

For more information on Mosaic, check out www.mosaicworship.com

We recently caught up with them to find out their favorite Christmas traditions and memories!

Favorite Traditions:

One of our favorite holiday traditions as a group is to hold an annual secret Santa among the members of Mosaic. Considering that there are only five of us and the fact that we are around each other almost constantly, pulling of secret Santa is a bit of a challenge. But the challenge is what makes it so much fun because we have to be VERY secretive and sneaky.

Favorite Christmas Carol:

Our favorite Christmas song has got to be “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” for a few different reasons. The most obvious reason is that this particular song is what started Mosaic in the first place. We were really just a group of college friends that had met together to eat a Christmas dinner before our Christmas break. We decided to start singing some songs together and came up with a version of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” that was full of six part harmony. That night we decide to record a Christmas album as a group over that next year before graduating from school.

The recording was meant to just be for us and our families, but the Christmas album that formed from that night ended up being Mosaic’s first album. So, this song played a crucial part in guiding us toward the ministry that God had prepared for us. Also, over the last few years of singing the song, we have come to really treasure the content and cry of longing for the Savior to come. It is a great reminder of the longing God’s people felt before the birth of Christ, and that longing is echoed in our hearts as we cry and long for His return.

Favorite Christmas Album:

Andrew Peterson is a favorite amongst all of the Mosaic members. We all especially love his Christmas album titled “Behold the Lamb of God.”

Favorite Christmas Food:

We are big fans of food, but the girls of Mosaic especially love sweets! Christmas is a great excuse to eat more sweets than usual and to try tasty new or rare treats, so our girls make sure and take advantage of that time.

What do we enjoy most about Christmas?

It’s a great time to learn and/or remind yourself about the joy of giving. The Father gave us His Son and the grace displayed through Christ is also a gift from the Father to us. It’s something we didn’t deserve and we didn’t earn it, but He gave His Son to us and for us simply because He is good. It’s an awesome thing to remember during this season. Sometimes traditions can make us feel entitled, which isn’t their intent. Traditions are meant to remind us. That’s why we love the tradition of giving gifts, because it serves as a great reminder that our Father gave us the best and most glorious gift.

Favorite Christmas memory:

Mosaic really has two favorite Christmas memories. We all attended Belmont University in Nashville, TN and as Christmas of 2008 approached we were at that time simply a group of friends that decided to get together and share a Christmas meal. At that small dinner party we all started playing music and singing harmonies together for the first time. That night we came up with our album arrangement of “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.” It was that Christmas that we decided to make an album together as friends, though we had no idea that it would lead to the official formation of Mosaic. The next Christmas was equally as special because we finished our first album together (which happened to be a Christmas album) and we went on our first Christmas tour as a group. Since we each come from a different state, we ended up just visiting the churches we knew and had relationships with at our homes, but it ended up being a full three week tour a fun beginning of our journey that we will never forget.

Do you peek at presents or wait?

We all like the surprise and fun of opening gifts with our family and friends. Part of the fun of giving and receiving gifts is seeing and experiencing the reactions as gifts are opened.

What are you most looking forward to this Christmas?

We are always really excited about our Christmas tour and this year is no different. We’ve been practicing Christmas music for a good while now and we are excited to share new arrangements as we travel around. Christmas is our busiest time as a group and so, as fun as it really is, we are always excited when the tour ends and we get to go see our families and take a small break from travel.

Plans for 2012?

Our plans are to continue in the ministry that God has given us. We are currently booking to fill up our schedule in 2012. Devon Graves, one of our members is actually going to be taking a sabbatical of sorts for a short time because she is actually going to go get married in France this June. The rest of the group will continue traveling and playing during that time, but we are excited because all of Mosaic will be attending the wedding in France next June. Also, there is talk of maybe starting a new album (or two) in the Fall of 2012. It’s going to be an exciting year.

For more about Julie, please visit www.julieeliasmusic.com

What’s your favorite? –
- Christmas food: My mom’s nutmeg cookie bars or pecan tarts
- Christmas tradition: Christmas Eve: We sing in our church’s Christmas Eve service, go out to dinner, open one gift (always pajamas!) then the whole family watches one of the movies listed below…no matter how many times we’ve watched them earlier in the week
- Christmas carol: “O Holy Night”
- Christmas album: It’s been “Merry Christmas” by Mariah Carey since I was in elementary school
- Christmas movie: Close tie between “Christmas Vacation” and “Elf”

What do you enjoy most about Christmas?

The act of giving: not just of gifts, but of our hearts, our time and our joy. It is remarkable to be surrounded by people whose purpose is to make the people around them feel loved. When this happens, I feel that we are experiencing the true spirit of Christmas.

Share one of your favorite Christmas memories.

For me, Christmas day is traditionally a day spent with my family. One year however, we had some friends who had just gone through some major upheaval in their family and we invited them to spend Christmas with us. Their Christmases would never be the same but all day we played games, watched movies, ate way too much and my family laughed as if nothing was any different. I think it gave them hope that they would still find joy in Christmas and be around people they love. It may not sound particularly unique or spectacular, but making them a part of our family that day when theirs had been thrown into chaos was one of my favorite Christmas days ever.

Are you the type of person who likes to peek at your presents before Christmas morning, or do you hold out?  

To this day, my sister and I still sit on the steps while our parents light the tree, make a fire in the fireplace, put on music, boil water for tea, etc….while we wait patiently for the “okay” to go into the living room.

What do you want for Christmas this year?

My sister to be able to get enough time off of work to come home

What are you most looking forward to this Christmas?

Skiing, singing at Christmas concerts, rabid games of “Catchphrase” and quality time with close friends and family

What are your plans for 2012?

To make the most of my time, not wasting a single minute; to strengthen the friendships I’ve made in 2011 as well as rekindle the ones that have faltered, and to continue to make God THE priority in my life as I prepare to release my debut album this Spring.

Legendary recording artist John Schlitt – solo artist, lead singer for Grammy Award-winning Christian band Petra and former lead singer for mainstream rock band Head East – participated in our Christmas Countdown last year and has returned for more Christmas fun!

What’s your favorite?

- Christmas food:  turkey or ham
- Christmas tradition:  having my whole family, including kids & grandkids, over for Christmas dinner
- Christmas carol:  “O Holy Night”
- Christmas movie: Elf  & National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

What do you enjoy most about Christmas?

The opportunity for my family to get together, to eat, have fun and enjoy the time

Share one of your favorite Christmas memories.

I don’t have a specific memory, but I love taking pictures at our family gatherings. It’s like making up for lost time when we capture the moment. It’s neat to have those to look at later on.

Are you the type of person who likes to peek at your presents before Christmas morning, or do you hold out?  

No, don’t like to peek. That ruins the surprise.

What do you want for Christmas this year?

10 million dollars, tax free!

What are you most looking forward to this Christmas?

Relaxing at home, being with the grandkids and having all my children together in one place.

What are your plans for 2012?

I’m looking forward to having a new CD out early in the year called “The Greater Cause.” I’m working on worldwide distribution, and I’ll be looking to tour internationally as well.