Candles

We went through a lot of candles during the second lockdown. Theo had just turned two and he was obsessed with them— the flickering lights transfixed him and blowing them out delighted him beyond measure. He wouldn’t let us blow them out until he had decided it was time— and then he would turn to one of us and choose who would be the “lucky” one to do the candle extinguishing honors. It mostly fell to Ed. And then Theo just cackled, cackled, cackled with glee. I looked back at my Amazon order history just now— it’s actually kind of astonishing how often we were ordering new tapers. But it was the depths of winter, and we were indoors, and we were all by ourselves, and, like everyone else, searching for light, joy and brightness during dark times.

This is a picture of our Noruz dinner in March 2021. Simple dover sole from @hendersontohome, my 🐟
saviors. Sabzi polo with not-so-perfect-looking gazmakh/tahdig. Daffodils with a few hyacinth peeking through. Wedding china and silver. Crystal candlesticks. The start of spring, the start of a new year.

Our dear friends Michael and Sage bought us these candlesticks as a wedding present. I don’t remember most of the wording on the cards that came with our gifts back in 2014, but I do recall Mike’s saying something along the lines of how he and Sage hoped Ed and I would enjoy many a romantic candlelit dinner together as a married couple. I doubt they could have imagined our 2021 lockdown candle and candlestick usage though— not quite romance, but most definitely light, love and laughter.

“Candles” for today’s @thegfw challenge. Bring on the poutine!