On the eleventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me……Ah, tis the season for shopping and baking. Christmas parties at work, school, church. Outreaches to the community, Salvation Army bell ringers, Angel trees, coat and canned food drives. I led worship last night for the senior high students at my church. My dad was speaking about the angels in the Christmas story and how they were the “messengers”. He challenged the students at the end that we have been told this amazing story of Christmas. It’s our job to give that story away to someone else. Today, December 11th, I want to challenge you by asking “Who in your life can you tell this story of Christmas? Who can you give the gift of Jesus to this Christmas season? It’s easy for us to think about right now as we’re in the season but it’s a question we should ask ourselves all year long. We are messengers to tell His story everyday with everyone.

“O Come All Ye Faithful” is definitely the worship anthem of Christmas. More than any other carol we sing this one truly is a song of worship. That’s why I’m sure at church and many events you’ll attend this season you’ll sing the words “O come let us adore Him, O come let us adore Him, O come let us adore Him Christ the Lord”. The song was immediately on my list of songs to record for the CD. I’ve always enjoyed singing and leading others in this song because at the end of every day, and at the end of our lives all that really matters is if took part in “adoring Christ the Lord” by the things we did and said. The way we treated others…did we make His story glorified? Whatever you’re doing today I hope you’ll take a moment to worship our Savior. He was born as a baby so He could be the sacrifice for our sins. We have hope, peace, joy and love because of what Jesus has done for us. He is Christ the Lord and deserves every ounce of praise we can give.

Thank you so much for reading my blog the past week or so. I hope you’ve enjoyed. We’ve added some new videos on the media page of my site where you can see a couple acoustic performances of Christmas songs and also my interview on The Harvest Show. I hope you’ll take a few moments to watch them.

My Day 11 Special is all about Christmas. Order a “Have A Fancy Yancy Christmas” CD and a “Christmas T-Shirt” for $29.95. Enter the code day11poster and you’ll receive the Christmas Hatch Show Print poster absolutely free. ($12.95 value) What a great gift for someone (or yourself). This offer is only good today 12-11-09. So hurry.

I truly hope you have a blessed day. Keep a smile on your face!

YANCY

It’s Day 10….that means there’s only two days left of my 12 days of Christmas…I think I’ll shed a tear right now. I’ve had a fun time sharing with you. Yesterday was a great day, I got to be a part of my church’s outreach to the community. They have a storefront at the mall where they provide free gift wrap. It’s a great way to show love to our community. I got to be one of the gift wrappers which was fun for me since I actually like to gift wrap plus I got to get to know a few people from my church that I didn’t know before.

My Day 10 special is a great one. You’ll want to spread the word to your friends about this one. Save $20 off of any 10 pack of CD’s. That means you get 10 CD’s for only $79 but only today 12-10-09. Use code: day10cdpack at checkout to receive the discount. You can choose any title:

Have A Fancy Yancy Christmas
Rock-N-Happy Heart
Loud & Clear!
Little Praise Party-My Best Friend (for preschoolers)
Rock-N-Happy Dance Party REMIX
So take a look at your gift list, use these CD’s as gifts, stocking stuffers, giveaways at school or church. The options are limitless.

Let’s take a look at “Angels We Have Heard On High”. I’ve grown up singing the song at church…it’s one of the great carols for worship so I know I’ve used the song many times in years past planning worship sets around Christmas for both kids and adults. I had a few arrangement ideas going into this which was stretching out the time in the verse and then I wanted to simplify the chorus which resulted in me writing my own “Gloria” chorus. The song is a mid-tempo acoustic rock song but one thing I loved in the early stages of recording is how easy people could jump in and singalong after just hearing the re-write shortly before. (That’s always a really good thing for a songwriter). Then I decided to use the “in excelsis deo” lyric as a bridge. So it’s kind of like a wedding good luck charm. Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue (the blue can be the minor chord used in the verse So, if you haven’t listened already you should. You can listen to the record on the media page of my website just skip ahead to track 8. Happy listening.

Let’s join in with the angels and let our lives sing “Glory to God in the highest….Gloria today.”

Until tomorrow,
YANCY

Wow, it’s day 9. We are already almost a third of the way through December. Time is flying by. Today I’m going to serve with my church at an outreach they do in our community. Free gift wrap at the mall. That’s right they have a booth at the mall where they will provide free gift wrap for anyone’s gifts just as our church’s way of saying “We love you….Merry Christmas”. I’m pumped about being a part of it today and tomorrow (and let’s be honest, I like wrapping presents too.)

I wanted to share with you about the medley of the song on the record. It’s a mix of “Jingle Bells”, “Rocking Around The Christmas Tree”, “Feliz Navidad” and “We Wish You A Merry Christmas”. The medley is all about having fun and I’m hearing that kids are loving it which is awesome. I just picked a few songs that I thought would be fun for this. When Stephen (my producer) and I were working on the medley arrangement there was lots of laughs and musical challenges. There’s several time changes like the intro being in 3/4 moving into 4/4 at the top of “Jingle Bell” and key changes. I was more than pleased when we figured it all out and put it together. “Jingle Bells” is a Christmas song everyone knows. I think it’s one of the first songs kids learn. When I was in Romania a couple years ago they were singing “Jingle Bells” and it was such a joy to sing with those precious orphan girls as they celebrated Christmas.”Rocking Around The Christmas Tree” is a fun song that I’ve done in many Christmas concerts before so it felt like putting on an old pair of jeans especially recording the background vocals. “Feliz Navidad” is a salute to all my latino friends at some wonderful churches I’ve met over the years. I’m not eloquent in spanish at all but it was fun getting to learn and make sure I was pronouncing it. I’ve always been a fan of “We Wish You A Merry Christmas” and thought it was the perfect finish to this medley of songs.

The Day 9 special is an awesome one especially for churches because it includes my singalong DVD’s which are perfect for leading worship for kids or choir performances. It’s simple: Order the Kids Worship Trio (3 Cd’s and 3 DVD’s) and receive the “Have A Fancy Yancy Christmas” CD/DVD Ministry Combo absolutely free. You get a Free CD and a Free DVD ($35.00 value.) Amazing. So at checkout enter the code: day9combo and we’ll automatically send you the Christmas combo. If you pay with google checkout send us a followup email to orders@yancynotnancy.com to let us know that you are using the coupon code. Spread the word to others you know about this exclusive one day special that won’t be repeated.

Another fun thing in case you didn’t hear. I was on the Harvest show on LESEA this week and you can watch the interview and performances of “Merry Christmas, Happy Christmas” and “The Greatest Gift” at http://www.harvest-tv.com just click on the December 7th show.

Many blessings to you and yours this Christmas.
YANCY

It’s December! The month of Christmas is finally here. I decided to help kick off December I’d do a little something special here on my blog. It’s “Yancy’s 12 Days of Christmas”. For the next 12 days I’ll be sharing my thoughts on Christmas, stories behind the songs on my “Have A Fancy Yancy Christmas” CD and maybe even a few recipes. It should be alot of fun. Another exciting thing I think is the specials I’ll be offering. These will be one day deals that I’ll be offering so make sure you check back everyday.

Remember to think of those young and old on your Christmas list too. So here we are it’s Day 1 of Yancy’s 12 Days of Christmas”. Today’s special is buy a “Have A Fancy Yancy Christmas Ministry Combo” which is the CD/DVD set and you’ll get a “Have A Fancy Yancy Christmas” T-shirt for free. Make sure you add the t-shirt and desired size to your shopping cart then use the code: day1tshirt to get your t-shirt for free. This special is only for December 1st so don’t wait, the clock is ticking.

I love Christmas. I really do. It’s most definitely my favorite holiday. Obviously it’s more than just a day or even a season. Christmas is what our lives as Christians are all about. God loved you and me so much He gave! He gave His son to come and live a perfect life. Jesus is why we celebrate. I love all the attention that His birthday brings especially from believers and even non believers.

I think a huge factor in me loving Christmas so much is my parents love Christmas. It’s always been a really big deal at our house growing up. Lots of decorations….we’re talking multiple trees. My mom has a tree in the kitchen with cookie cutters all over it. Another tree which is a crowd favorite that has old jewelry on it: necklaces, broaches, etc. Me and my sister both had trees in our rooms we’d decorate with our ornaments so the love for the season started early at our house. My parents were married in November so as they tell the story they didn’t have a lot of money back then and on their honeymoon all the Christmas decorations were out so they bought a couple ornaments as souvenirs and those couple ornaments have turned into a whole bunch of ornaments and quite a big collection some thirty-one years later.

In the past six years that I’ve been married our collection that started off with my little 4 foot tree from growing up has turned into a pretty decent collection. I’ve had a smaller pink tree for a number of years but a couple years ago bought the full size pink tree that you see on the cover of “Have A Fancy Yancy Christmas”. That tree this year is in my music room. The same room where I wrote “Christmastime” and “Merry Christmas, Happy Christmas” the two songs that I wrote on the CD.

I love life.
I love Christmas.
But most of all I love Jesus.

Remember Him in everything you do this season from trimming the tree to baking pies. The celebration is all for Him.

Talk to you again tomorrow for day 2!