{"id":24360,"date":"2016-08-20T21:35:18","date_gmt":"2016-08-21T03:35:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/?p=24360"},"modified":"2016-08-20T21:35:18","modified_gmt":"2016-08-21T03:35:18","slug":"going-home-for-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/going-home-for-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"Going Home for Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Have you ever spent a <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> away from home? <\/p>\n<p>Sooner or later we all do. It is an experience I wouldn&#8217;t wish on anyone. But at the same time I consider it one of those crucial life experiences. A <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> away gives the gift of gratitude. It centers you on what is really important at <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Once upon a time I was a young man. My life and its adventures took me away from home at <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a>. And I can recall well the feelings of isolation, of time lost and wasted in solitude on <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a>. And just as true I can remember a hero&#8217;s welcome when I later returned. I can recall the tears and the sense that I had survived and conquered. <\/p>\n<p>Times have changed. Home as I knew it is no more. I am home now and those who leave are my young &#8212; many of them adults now and on adventures of their own. And when they are not home for <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> I feel that other side of loneliness that comes from <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> away. And the tears of anticipation of their return are my own. <\/p>\n<p>The ebb and flow of <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> home and <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> away will forever be a part of life. But the feelings are always there. <\/p>\n<p>This video from Home Free singing I&#8217;ll Be Home for <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> does not give us a unique turn of this timeless classic. And I&#8217;m glad it doesn&#8217;t. These guys play it straight and just let their talents &#8212; and some home grown video tell the story. If you can get through it without tears&#8230;well, you&#8217;re stronger than I am. But it is a good reminder that good <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> music goes far in describing the deeper, truer meanings of <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> and life. <\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/no2ErxNojyo\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Have you ever spent a Christmas away from home? Sooner or later we all do. It is an experience I wouldn&#8217;t wish on anyone. But at the same time I consider it one of those crucial life experiences. A Christmas away gives the gift of gratitude. It centers you on what is really important at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24361,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","iawp_total_views":88,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,15],"tags":[440,575],"class_list":["post-24360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christmas-music","category-christmas-video","tag-home-free","tag-ill-be-home-for-christmas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}