{"id":34759,"date":"2021-12-25T00:01:23","date_gmt":"2021-12-25T08:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/?p=34759"},"modified":"2026-06-06T10:19:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T10:19:09","slug":"what-merry-looks-like","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/what-merry-looks-like\/","title":{"rendered":"It&#8217;s Christmas &#8212; And This Is  What Merry Looks Like"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_34757\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-34757\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/2021\/12\/25\/what-merry-looks-like\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"https:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/2021\/12\/25\/what-merry-looks-like\/ noopener\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-34757 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/File0229-4.webp\" alt=\"what-merry-looks-like virgin-and-child-toledo\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-34757\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The 700-year-old alabaster statue of the Baby Jesus and his mother Mary can be found up in the choir balcony of the Toledo Cathedral in Spain. The statue is known locally as the Virgen Blanca &#8212; the White Virgin. <em>Photo by Barbara Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>It&#8217;s Christmas, and for me <em>this<\/em> is what merry looks like.<\/p>\n<p>I could write a lot of words here, throw some synonyms around &#8212; blithe, bright, joyful, happy, equanimous.<\/p>\n<p>But nothing says merry quite like this <a href=\"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/2017\/12\/03\/virgin-blanca\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">700-year-old<\/a> mother and child tucked away in the choir loft of the Toledo Cathedral in Spain.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s Christmas. May you find some merry in your day today and in all the days that follow.<\/p>\n<p><em>Need some levity during these dark days of winter?\u00a0 Read about <a href=\"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/2010\/02\/13\/an-aging-case-of-the-human-condition-a-child-is-born-and-like-it-or-not-my-friend-is-now-gramps\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">&#8220;A Child Is Born &#8212; And So Is a Grandpa.&#8221;<\/a>\u00a0 Or, <a href=\"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/2009\/12\/18\/the-writing-room-what-does-it-have-in-common-with-the-bedroom\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">&#8220;A Feng Sui Tip for the Bedroom &#8212; Your Mother&#8217;s Not Allowed, and Neither Are the Kids.&#8221;<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/2021\/12\/25\/what-merry-looks-like\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"https:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/2021\/12\/25\/what-merry-looks-like\/ noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-34757 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/File0229-4.jpg\" alt=\"what-merry-looks-like\/ virgin-and-child-toledo\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Want to know what merry looks like? Climb the stairs to the choir loft at the Toledo Cathedral in Spain. A merry scene awaits you.\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/2021\/12\/25\/what-merry-looks-like\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49380,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1139,35,2542,2543,2061,2062],"class_list":["post-34759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-my-rocky-spiritual-journey","tag-baby-jesus","tag-christmas","tag-merry","tag-toledo-cathedral","tag-virgen-blanca","tag-virgin-blanca"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34759"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49382,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34759\/revisions\/49382"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}