12 Days of Christmas---Day 1!

Hey everyone! I'm sure some of you have noticed how I have been strangely absent from the blog the past two weeks. The truth is. . .I've been taking a break. ;) It wasn't official or anything, but after NaNo I felt like I needed a break, so I took one. :)
Anyway, I hope y'all are having an amazing December! Christmas, gifts, shopping, snow. . .well, okay, we haven't actually got any of that last one. :P (But I am dreaming of a white Christmas. . .;)
Did you all have a good weekend? I did. On Saturday I went Christmas shopping with my mom and one of my sisters. We went to a used bookstore (of course!) and then there was the very long, crazy, busy trip to the mall. Which left us all exhausted but happy; we'd had a fun time! :) On Sunday we ended up not going to church in the morning, the reason being a totally unexpected ER visit the night before. Thankfully, there was nothing serious! So we listened to a sermon on the radio and then sat around the living room and talked for a while. After lunch we had quiet time and all of us girls sat around the dinning room table with cups of hot cider or cappuccino and played some games while we listened to Christmas music. Then we went to a Christmas program that night. :)  So yeah, we had a nice weekend. And can y'all believe Christmas is only 12 days away???

Be sure to check out each of these blogs; sometime during the 12 days of Christmas they'll all be doing some christmas-y posts! :) 

Okay, now the explanation for the above picture. A week or so ago, Faith P. from Stories by Firefly ran a great idea by some of us bloggers. . .a 12 days of Christmas blog series! I was excited! I mean, 12 days with nothing but Christmas??? Yes please! :) (Be sure to stop by Faith's blog; she has some pretty fun posts planned!)
And so. . .this is my "Introduction" post. Which means it's the post where I tell you what I'm planning on posting even though it may change at any random point in the future Got it? ;) Well, here's the "tentative" schedule.

December 14th--Introduction, Christmas song (and the story behind it)
December 15th-- Christmas movie review
December 16th--Christmas book review
December 17th--A favorite Christmas tradition and/or recipe in our family
December 18th--Surprise post. B-)
December 19th--Christmas song and the story behind it and/or Christmas book/movie review
December 20th--Random post I have yet to decide on. ;)
December 21st--Part one of a Christmas story I've written, "I'll be Home for Christmas".
December 22nd--Part two
December 23rd--Part three
December 24th--Part four and maybe something else. . .not sure yet!
December 25--Conclusion to the story and Merry Christmas!

As you can see, there are still some posts I'm trying to decide on/am not sure of quite yet. Like I said, it may change at any time! Well, without further ado, here's the Christmas song and background I chose for today. And with the title of my Christmas story. . .is it any surprise? ;)

"I'll be Home For Christmas"
The song is sung from the point of view of a soldier stationed overseas during WWII, writing a letter to his family. In the message, he tells the family he will be coming home and to prepare the holiday for him, and requests snow, mistletoe, and presents on the tree. The song ends on a melancholy note, with the soldier saying, "I'll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams" (found on Wikipedia)
The song was written by Kim Gannon, but when he first pitched the song to the music producers, they turned it down, saying it was to sad for those separated from their loved ones by the war. However, not to much later, Gannon showed the song to Bing Crosby, who decided to record it. It was soon a huge hit as it was a song that touched the hearts of many Americans, civilians and soldiers alike, in the midst of WWII.

Well, that's it for today! I know this post is a bit different, but as I was writing my story I became fascinated by the story behind the song. I mean, I hear it every year in nearly every place we go at this time of year, but I had never actually heard the story behind it. I hope you enjoyed it. :) 

I pray you all are having a wonderful "first-day-of-the-12-days-of-Christmas! 

Will you be back tomorrow for the Christmas movie review? What is your favorite Christmas song?