dinner by candlelight: an unplanned blessing

all the candles we have in our house

Last night, after we got back from Mass, our whole family had Sunday dinner by candlelight. It was so nice - the soft, warm glow of the flames from the mish-mash collection of candles. What a nice surprise to have to use them to be able to see our dinner. You see, our chandelier fell from the ceiling. Yep. That's right. Fell!
The 15-light behemoth of a fixture was dusty and had recently acquired a few too many spider webs. And, since we are out of the Halloween season, where they might be a little more appropriate, King decided he would vacuum it off while #1 and I fixed dinner. standing in one spot, he would vacuum one of the "candles" of the fixture and then spin it around to get the next one. Halfway through the process, it all came tumbling down onto the table below, smashing my flower vase filled with lovely spring flowers, a gift from my beloved because the roses he bought earlier had faded.
The littlest ones, 4 and 5, were quite startled and it took #3 awhile to get them calmed down. Stepping into the role as a team player, she whisked them away to the living room and read them a funny story. The rest of us sopped up water, picked up shards of glass, wiped off the table, searched the house for candles, then a lighter, and finally brought dinner from the kitchen into the glowing dining room. Bathed in the beautiful glow of candlelight, we had dinner together and enjoyed the moment.

And the best thing? We had been looking at replacement chandeliers earlier in the day! Which means that this project gets moved up to priority status. Score!!