Chesterton and Gingerbread men

 The House of Christmas

 - G.K. Chesterton

There fared a mother driven forth
Out of an inn to roam;
In the place where she was homeless
All men are at home.
The crazy stable close at hand,
With shaking timber and shifting sand,
Grew a stronger thing to abide and stand
Than the square stones of Rome.

For men are homesick in their homes,
And strangers under the sun,
And they lay on their heads in a foreign land
Whenever the day is done.
Here we have battle and blazing eyes,
And chance and honour and high surprise,
But our homes are under miraculous skies
Where the yule tale was begun.

A Child in a foul stable,
Where the beasts feed and foam;
Only where He was homeless
Are you and I at home;
We have hands that fashion and heads that know,
But our hearts we lost - how long ago!
In a place no chart nor ship can show
Under the sky's dome.

This world is wild as an old wives' tale,
And strange the plain things are,
The earth is enough and the air is enough
For our wonder and our war;
But our rest is as far as the fire-drake swings
And our peace is put in impossible things
Where clashed and thundered unthinkable wings
Round an incredible star.

To an open house in the evening
Home shall men come,
To an older place than Eden
And a taller town than Rome.
To the end of the way of the wandering star,
To the things that cannot be and that are,
To the place where God was homeless
And all men are at home.

Today won't be a long post, and tomorrow's mayn't be either. Amidst work and general craziness, I inexplicably got next to no sleep last night, and so am playing all sorts of catch-up with brain and life. It was one of those nights where you go to bed on time, feeling exhausted, only to find yourself still tossing and turning hours later. About three hours into this, I pulled out Winter Solstice and read for an hour, but it was still a very long time after before I dropped off. I snagged a brief nap this afternoon, after work and a grocery run (ingredients for Christmas baking!!). And then managed a bit of gingerbread to spice up tomorrow evening's work meeting with my two lovely assistant managers. 

 

A bit of good news from work! A local news source came by and gave us first prize posters--we won reader's choice for Best Cup of Coffee, and Best Customer Service! We are happy about this. Next week I'll give you a tour around our cozy little coffee spot.

I've thought of another festive read, too. Madeleine L'Engle's prequels to Meet the Austins are short Christmas stories. I think they're out of print now, but we used to get them from the library. I remember Vicky was supposed to be the angel in a pageant, so she practiced walking around with an encyclopedia on her head: shu - sub.

If you'd like to make these gluten-free, dairy-free, naturally sweetened gingerbread cookies, I generally use Elana's gingerbread men recipe, but with my own variations. I always use real molasses, and usually coconut oil. This time I halved the recipe, (I'll be making another big batch next week to frost), and I also used a different flour, because someone has a nut sensitivity. This caused the recipe to come out a bit cakey-dry, but they'll be excellent dipped in a soothing drink.

 

'Till tomorrow then!