Poem for Sunday

Mistletoe
By Walter de la Mare

Sitting under the mistletoe
(Pale-green, fairy mistletoe),
One last candle burning low,
All the sleepy dancers gone,
Just one candle burning on,
Shadows lurking everywhere:
Some one came, and kissed me there.

Tired I was; my head would go
Nodding under the mistletoe
(Pale-green, fairy mistletoe),
No footsteps came, no voice, but only,
Just as I sat there, sleepy, lonely,
Stooped in the still and shadowy air
Lips unseen - and kissed me there.

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Some anonymous person sent me mistletoe so that we can kiss under it...show yourself so I can snog you! And , thank you for my presents! Those and Taylor's of Harrogate tea from my in-laws were my last-day-of-Chanukah surprises, plus hubby got me a pair of bracelets...one with pirates and ships in the Mount Hope Carriage House Wine Shoppe and one with cats on it at a store along the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

The reason we were on the Pennsylvania Turnpike is that we went to A Dickens of a Christmas at Mount Hope Mansion on the grounds of the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire, where several of the members of the summer troupe were playing Victorian characters instead of Elizabethan ones. I couldn't take photos with flash during the performances -- though I cheated and snatched one of 's father onstage with Charles Dickens when he was seeking someone else to play Scrooge, I did not dare take one of my older son when he was dragged from his seat into the dancing in A Christmas Carol. But I took a couple during the mix and mingle at the start, and I managed one in the well-lit theatre using the bench in front of me as a tripod:


Miss Belle played Christmas carols on the piano in the theatre before she and Miss Daisy told American holiday stories like "Gift of the Magi" and led the audience in singing more carols.


In the entrance hallway, Charles Dickens conversed with Daisy Grubb, his American patron for the holidays.


Dickens attempted to recruit my father-in-law to play Scrooge in the abbreviated A Christmas Carol performed in the ballroom, but was required to take on the role himself by one of his hosts.


Drosselmeyer the Toymaker and the Sugar Plum Fairy greeted guests before performing their comic Nutcracker spread through the dining room and library, in which the two killed the King of the Mice with a baseball bat and was cast in the role of Clara's mean brother Fritz.


The whole house was decorated for the holiday, and there was a bar in the hallway serving Mount Hope Winery's spiced apple cider, holiday wine, honey mead and other locally-grown libations.

On Sunday there is a big model train show somewhere in York, and of course father-in-law cannot resist such a temptation so we are going there. We might also go to the Boyds Bear factory in Gettysburg, though we may wait till Tuesday when they will still be having a sale but presumably there will be no last-minute holiday shoppers.