"Always Believe"

"You have to believe to receive," was all I ever heard when asking about Santa. Christmas Eve was the big night in our house. The fancy china, Waterford crystal and long stemmed red candles would appear on the table, for our special family dinner. After dinner, our house would fill-up with music, friends and family. Inevitably, the dinner table would clear and the cards would come out, for a game of 25.

I have only seen the card game, "25" played in Irish households. Growing up, we learned how to play and it has been a family tradition ever since. It has also been the cause of many an argument, especially between my Dad and Uncles, over "poor card playing!"

For more information on how to play the card game 25, click here.

Christmas Eve would not be complete without a trip to the Bronx. We would load up a car or two and the "Jersey gang" would head into Sam Maguires! I can recall many great Christmas Eves there, singing and dancing the night away. There may have even been a few Santa sightings leaving Sams...or maybe it was an over indulgence in holiday cheer!

All these memories and thoughts were put down on paper as Patrick and I started writing, "Always Believe." It was late September and on a whim, we decided to write a Christmas song. One of our goals was to write the song without saying "Christmas." Once we had the lyrics and a melody, it seemed like the parts just fell into place. Frankie came up with the opening hook and John and Ken played just the right parts to make it sound like Celtic Cross. Within a month, we were in the studio recording.

While in the recording studio, we thought a tin whistle would really add to the song. Ken's 10-year-old son, Kenny Vesey, was more than willing to take a 1/2 day off school to come in and play the tin whistle part for us. He is an amazing talent and was able to record his part in one take. The same week he made is recording debut with Celtic Cross, Kenny was asked to share the stage with Eileen Ivers during her upcoming Christmas concert in Ramsey, NJ, this December. Wow...what a week.

You can hear the new song at CelticCross.com.   Stay tuned for more infomation about how to buy it on iTunes and CD Baby.   

Merry Christmas to you!

Cheers-Kathleen