{"id":1884,"date":"2012-12-25T05:35:35","date_gmt":"2012-12-25T05:35:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.annbarlow.com\/?p=1884"},"modified":"2012-12-25T05:35:35","modified_gmt":"2012-12-25T05:35:35","slug":"merry-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.annbarlow.com\/?p=1884","title":{"rendered":"Merry Christmas!!!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I hope that y&#8217;all have a wonderful, blessed Christmas with your family and friends!<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s a poem that you might like. \u00a0The House of Christmas, by G.K. Chesterton.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;\">There fared a mother driven forth<br \/>\nOut of an inn to roam;<br \/>\nIn the place where she was homeless<br \/>\nAll men are at home.<br \/>\nThe crazy stable close at hand,<br \/>\nWith shaking timber and shifting sand,<br \/>\nGrew a stronger thing to abide and stand<br \/>\nThan the square stones of Rome.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;\">For men are homesick in their homes,<br \/>\nAnd strangers under the sun,<br \/>\nAnd they lay their heads in a foreign land<br \/>\nWhenever the day is done.<br \/>\nHere we have battle and blazing eyes,<br \/>\nAnd chance and honor and high surprise,<br \/>\nBut our homes are under miraculous skies<br \/>\nWhere the yule tale was begun.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;\">A Child in a foul stable,<br \/>\nWhere the beasts feed and foam,<br \/>\nOnly where He was homeless<br \/>\nAre you and I at home;<br \/>\nWe have hands that fashion and heads that know,<br \/>\nBut our hearts we lost &#8211; how long ago!<br \/>\nIn a place no chart nor ship can show<br \/>\nUnder the sky&#8217;s dome.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;\">This world is wild as an old wives&#8217; tale,<br \/>\nAnd strange the plain things are,<br \/>\nThe earth is enough and the air is enough<br \/>\nFor our wonder and our war;<br \/>\nBut our rest is as far as the fire-drake swings<br \/>\nAnd our peace is put in impossible things<br \/>\nWhere clashed and thundered unthinkable wings<br \/>\nRound an incredible star.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;\">To an open house in the evening<br \/>\nHome shall men come,<br \/>\nTo an older place than Eden<br \/>\nAnd a taller town than Rome.<br \/>\nTo the end of the way of the wandering star,<br \/>\nTo the things that cannot be and that are,<br \/>\nTo the place where God was homeless<br \/>\nAnd all men are at home.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Also found in Anne Thaxter Eaton, ed.,\u00a0<em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com\/Text\/welcomechristmas027321mbp.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Welcome Christmas! A Garland Of Poems<\/a><\/em>.<\/strong>\u00a0New York: The Viking Press, 1955.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I hope that y&#8217;all have a wonderful, blessed Christmas with your family and friends! Here&#8217;s a poem that you might like. \u00a0The House of Christmas, by G.K. Chesterton. There fared a mother driven forth Out of an inn to roam; &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.annbarlow.com\/?p=1884\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.annbarlow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1884"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.annbarlow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.annbarlow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.annbarlow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.annbarlow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1884"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.annbarlow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1885,"href":"https:\/\/www.annbarlow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1884\/revisions\/1885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.annbarlow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.annbarlow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.annbarlow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}