Wild Ponies And Painting On Christmas Eve

...Continued from yesterday:   
     On Sunday, Christmas Eve morning, after 8:00 Mass at my mother's church, Our Lady Of Lourdes, the altar of which was decked out in Christmas poinsettias,

...we headed over to the Stargate Diner for breakfast where, once again, though the restaurant was crowded with the Sunday morning post-church crowd, the ten of us were immediately seated in the back section full of pushed-together tables,

 ...and received prompt service by our friendly  and accommodating server, Tiffaney,

...who kindly took a family pic for us.

     My mom, hamming it up slightly.

     It was generally agreed that our breakfasts were superior.

...especi-ally the hash browns,

...and the omelets.

     Miguel ordered the scrapple omelet, which he said was even better than the scrapple he'd tried at PK's the previous day (see yesterday's post).

     My grand daughter also gave kudos to her fluffy waffle, which I topped for her with some fruit from the breakfast bar that I ordered,  the offerings of which were also really good..

      We all concurred that the Stargate breakfast was a cut above the PK's breakfast (see yesterday's post) and that in future visits the Stargate would be our go-to breakfast choice.

      The Iranian family who owns and runs the Stargate is so nice.

     They also cater my mom's Christmas party every year.

      After breakfast, all of us feeling more motivated than the day before (see yesterday's post), my mom and I went to Walmart to snag some more groceries, Maria drove  to Salisbury, Maryland to find an art supplies store,

...and Tommy, Claire, and Miguel took the girls out to Assateague Island, a national park about an hour away,

...to see the famous wild ponies that run along the beach.

      As soon as my mom and I returned home from our shopping I lit the bayberry candle that I'd ordered online and brought with me.

     It's a tradition of my mother's (and now of mine when I remember to buy the candle) to burn a whole bayberry candle on Christmas Eve, as my mom always said that on Christmas Eve "burning a bayberry down to the socket brings health to the body and wealth to the pocket."

     Maria spent the afternoon working on her painting,

...while I worked on pots of spaghetti sauce, a pan of rolls, 

...and another cherry pie (see yesterday's post), though before I put the pie into the oven Maria topped it with more pecans, as the general consensus was that the more pecans the yummier.

     Our Christmas Eve supper, then, was spaghetti with ground beef and Italian sausage sauce,

...my Linguini Prima Vera,

...hot rolls, salad,

  ...and Cherry Pecan pie and left-over apple pie.

     After dinner we relaxed and waited out Christmas Eve,

...while our bayberry candle burned down to the socket.