{Ristorante da Maria - Best Italian Food in Central Georgia!}

Last year we did start already the tradition of having a delicious Italian Christmas Eve Dinner at Ristorante da Maria. Since our family on this side of the ocean consists of only the two of us, that's the very best we can do. It was again a great evening. We enjoyed for about three hours the five-course, elegant Christmas Eve Dinner, cooked by Lady Chef Maria Runggaldier. Next we went to Church for great organ music with caroling before the actual Midnight Mass. A perfect Christmas Eve for us. Pieter got sick the next day with the flu but right now he's doing much better. For all those living near Macon, Georgia or anywhere near Central Georgia, there is still the option for New Year's Eve to have such delicious five-course dinner. What better ending of the year 2011?! Just to show you how the menu for Christmas Eve looked like, for making you mouth water... Everything on the menu is made from scratch; using the best quality fresh ingredients!

Sure, for both of us having lived and worked near Venice, this is HEAVEN! Maria is from the city of Bolzano, the northern part of Italy and she is quite a Lady Chef!

Guess my readers from Italy will recognize these yummy dishes!

It makes us quite happy and that's why I want to mention Lady Chef Maria here.

By the way, it is her husband Heinz who helps serve her delicious food... Heinz is from Innsbruck, Austria.

Do you also have such a great favorite restaurant nearby?

Related article:

Buon Natale - Our Christmas Eve Dinner at Ristorante da Maria | previous post by me

{Our Camellia Nuccio's Gem & Christmas Angel Gift}

For Christmas we did have some perfectly white Camellia 'Nuccio's Gem' from our garden. Enough to fill a small vase. Often when it rains hard, they turn brown right away but this time they were perfect. Love to share them with you, as well as a beautiful Crocheted Christmas Angel Ornament that I received from dear blogger friend Olga, who has the blog Lacy Crochet as well as Olga's Home and Garden Blog. Just click on the two hyperlinks to visit Olga's great blogs.

• Perfectly crocheted angel ornament by Olga from Lacy Crochet with golden ribbon loop for hanging.

• Used my Christmas place mats with napkin that I've sewn a couple of years back.

• Three Nuccio's Gem Camellias in a vase on the kitchen table.

• The place mats are machine quilted and the borders are done in a decorative DMC metallic gold thread with the Serger.

• The place mat reverses to different fabric with tiny holly leaves.

• Detail of the decorative DMC metallic gold thread stitching.

If you need some Classes from Mariette, 'A Stitch in Time' just holler...

{After Christmas Sales: Humility - Tolerance - Patience - Integrity - Compassion}

On Sunday morning, March 6, 1988 we did go to a Moorish, Byzantine style Church with Venetian Gothic influence. That was in New Orleans, Louisiana, across from the historic Roosevelt Hotel then called Fairmont hotel. We just had arrived the previous day for the 7th North American Mushroom Conference where Pieter would present a paper as Vice President Training & Development of Campbell's Soup Mushroom Division. We'd driven the 600 miles (965 km) from Fairmont Drive in Dublin, Georgia. We just moved from one Fairmont to another Fairmont... 

The Immaculate Conception or Jesuits Church was a beautiful building. You also can find info  here: Jesuit Church in New Orleans. We did meet with Fr. Tonnar after Mass because his short homily was one I wanted to bring home for my writer friend to use for his weekly columns. Quite appropriate for after Christmas I share it here with you as well...

I am flat broke from overspending at Christmas. But I need to go shopping again soon because I am completely out of self-respect. I've said a few things I wish I could take back, and I am not feeling very good about myself.

I also want to exchange a carton of self-righteousness for an equal amount of humility. I hear it is less expensive and it wears better. And while I'm at it, I'm going to check on tolerance and see if there is any available in my size.

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I must remember to try to match my patience with the little I have left. My neighbor is loaded with it, and it looks awfully good on her. I was told the same department has a repair shop for mending integrity. Mine has become frayed around the edges from too many short-cuts and too much compromising. If I don't get it refurbished soon, there won't be any left.

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I almost forgot the most important thing of all -- compassion. If I see some, no matter what the color, size or shape, I'm going to stock up heavily, regardless of the price. I have run out of it so many times and I always feel ashamed when it happens.

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I don't know why it has taken me so long to get around to shopping for these items. They don't cost nearly as much as some of the frivolous things I've bought on impulse and I'm sure to get a lot more satisfaction from them.

Yes, I am going shopping today and I can leave my credit cards and checkbook at home. The things I am looking for have no price tags.

~~0~~

After my friend wrote the column with this text, I did write Fr. Tonnar again and I received a very nice card back.

Unfortunately he died about 8 years after we'd met him, in 1996...

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