Last year I documented my history of going to Chili’s on Christmas Eve and you can read that by clicking right here.
Yesterday marked the 26th year and below are some photos from the Ghost of Chili’s Christmas Eve Past and then below that a few from yesterday!
This Christmas Eve tradition started back in 1993. I had moved to New York that year and my friend Clare was living in Chicago. We were working on the very first issue of fishwrap, a fanzine that I published from 1994 to 2001. I called Clare to see if she was going back to Peoria for Christmas and she said she was. We decided to meet at Chili’s on Christmas Eve to have lunch and talk about our upcoming debut issue of fishwrap.
Little did we know that we would continue to meet here every year for over two decades! After a couple of years, our friends Bebe and Toni joined us for this yearly lunch and festival of beers. In 2012, Toni was diagnosed with Leukemia and she made it to the Christmas Eve lunch in spite of the fact that she wasn’t feeling that well. After lunch I hugged her and she told me it was the most fun afternoon she had had in a real long time. I was happy to see her smiling and told her we’d get together soon. We never did and she died a few months later. I always think about Toni on Christmas Eve and I’m happy we were friends. She was an artist and a really nice person.
Various people like Paul from the Fish House, Bob Gordon from Acme Comics and Aaron have popped up as special guest stars but now the usual suspects for the Christmas Eve lunch include myself, Clare, Bebe, Amber, Joe, Kathy and Steve and that’s who showed up yesterday. Below are photos from the 26th year at Chili’s!
The 26th Year @ Chili’s On Christmas Eve!
Here we are at Chili’s and check out the sign! It’s a Christmas Eve miracle!
This is our pretty and friendly waitress for the afternoon, Amy. She delivered me an ice tea (I switched to beer later) and said, “You’re the Christmas Eve guy, right?”
Ha, ha, ha! That cracked me up, she said she’s worked here for 13 years and had seen us every year she had worked there!
Amy took a photo of all of us at the table. Clockwise from left: Amber, Joe, Steve, Clare, Yours Fooly and Kathy. Well, it’s all of us except for one…
Bebe showed up shortly after the photo was taken. I told her I’d Photoshop her into the group photo…
And here we are, all together! And Bebe’s also on the TV, another Christmas Eve Miracle!
There’s always a lively conversation at lunch with people telling various stories, but I declared Bebe being the winner of the best story so far in the 26 years we’ve been going there. This story was told sometime in the late ’90’s, I believe and I had asked Bebe if she had been on any interesting dates through the year.
I’m not going to tell the details but Bebe proceeded to tell Clare, Toni and myself about a date she had been on that was truly a date from hell! She went on and on with one horrific detail after another. This date from hell had gone on all night for her and the whole story was one that can just make your skin crawl!
While she was telling us this harrowing tale, I had assumed it had happened in the summertime because of some of the details involved in the story.
When she was done telling us about this frightening date, I said to her, “Jesus Christ, Bebe! When in the hell did this whole thing happen?”
Bebe had a sad expression on her face, paused as she looked at all of us and said, “Last night! And I’m really tired!”
We all burst out laughing and that’s one of my favorite stories of all time!
Chili’s chili is beanless (as all chili should be) and delicious!
And a final obligatory Christmas Eve mirror shot from the Men’s Room at Chili’s.
Thanks to Amber for the XMAS shirt and thanks to everyone for coming to another fun Christmas Eve lunch at Chili’s! We’ll see you all next year. Ho, ho and ho!
Related Posts: The 23rd Christmas Eve @ Chili’s and Ho Ho Ho, Mothercluckers!
Happy Trails to you, until we meet again…
Surprise link, click on it…I dare you!
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P.S. Uke Jam This Saturday @ The Rhythm Kitchen!
Kathy is hosting a Uke Jam at The Rhythm Kitchen this Saturday. This is a monthly event and you can read all about it in the PJ Star article written by Phil Luciano.
Here’s the details from the facecrack events page. I’m going and hope to see you there!