Sara Evans photo courtesy of Sony Music Nashville.

Seventeen months after she moved in with husband Jay Barker in Birmingham, Sara Evans is now the matriarch in a household with seven kids, which requires a lot of planning. Especially since she spends much of her time on the road.

That scenario is particularly extreme this December as Sara delivers a holiday concert tour. Most American adults are stressed by shopping, work, parties and/or planning out-of-town trips. Sara’s family has some of those issues, too, but she didn’t skip out on her motherly Christmas duties. She joined the whole crew on Thanksgiving to decorate the tree before embarking on the 12-city tour. She still plans to do it up big-time at home once the shows come to a halt.

“We have so many kids, and my whole goal is to make their memories awesome,” Sara told The Arizona Republic. “I love to cook, put on Christmas music, have a fire lit, the whole deal.”

This year, the music could include her own four-song EP, I’ll Be Home For Christmas – a digital-only release. It includes Sara’s take on the title track, plus “O Come, All Ye Faithful,” “Go Tell It On The Mountain” and “New Again,” a duet with Brad Paisley. And last year she was matched with The King on a version of “Silent Night” for the album Elvis Presley Christmas Duets.

Those songs and others are part of the set list for her holiday shows, which run through Monday in Greeley, Colo.

“It was a huge challenge to arrange these Christmas songs,” Sara said. “We wanted them to be different. We tried to find [new] chord progressions and different harmony vocals and arrangements.”

Once the new year arrives, Sara will have new music and a novel to keep her occupied. She hopes to get an album out during 2010, and her book The Sweet By And By — originally due last August — is now slated for release in January.

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