Dickens of a Christmas

Yesterday was the best I've felt in a week and with an impending snowstorm, we decided to do something fun in the evening. I bought us tickets for the evening performance of A Dickens of a Christmas at the Mount Hope Estate & Winery (also home to the PA Renn Faire). Kevin and I hadn't been there since we were dating over 12 years ago and I thought that Zoe was finally old enough to enjoy it and stay seated for all the plays. I highly recommend this show for anyone in the area that loves Dickens, Christmas and a beautifully decorated Victorian mansion (and wine). The show consists of 3 different "plays". The host and hostess that night were a young Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert. Zoe was the youngest person there and all the beautifully dressed women fawned over her. We all had a blast. I wish I could have taken more photos but they do not allow photography during the performances.

Zoe meets the Queen. My husband really liked her (hmmm, I wonder why?).


Hey I know why I had a kid! To hide my body:)


Pretty rocking horse under one of the many decorated trees.


Click here for some photos I took in the mansion last year for a Father Christmas event.


"I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach. Oh, tell me I may sponge away the writing on this stone!"
- A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens

Mount Hope Estate

We made it to the Mount Hope Estate and Winery today for their annual Christmas open house. The mansion is all dressed up for the holiday with ornaments and decorated trees in every room. There are carollers singing and people dressed up like they popped right out of a Dickens story. Around the bar/tasting room were all sorts of delicious cookies, coffee and hot chocolate with marshmallows. All to be enjoyed by a roaring fire. Zoe got to decorate a gingerbread man and make an angel ornament for our tree. If you are in the area and get a chance, they have a wonderful show they put on called A Dickens of a Christmas. Kevin and I used to go when we first met. It's the kind of show that likes audience participation.
Here are a few photos from around the mansion. The one of the fireplace has a painting above that shows the mansion from the outside. During the summer this is the site of the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire.