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Holiday Tradition … Chili Party
Ray Kujawa and I have been married 14 years. Every year except one (when he was recovering from surgery), we have had a holiday open house on the first Saturday in December. We invite friends and neighbors to drop by and share food, drink, and Ray’s Famous Chili.
But this tradition was started by me, back in 1997, when I lived alone in a small condo, which I was lucky to have kept through some years of unemployment and under-employment (I signed a mortgage, and two weeks later was laid off from my job, and it took me over a year to find a new full-time job). I had just started a new job and wanted to get to know my new co-workers. So I decided to throw a party, and invite co-workers and friends to come over and share cheer. I have another tradition, where each year I buy a new CD of unusual Christmas music, so I had accumulated a goodly stash of interesting music to play. I cleaned up the place, bought and prepared finger-food, wine, and hot cider (which made the house smell wonderful), and awaited my guests.
Well, the party was a resounding success. I was ticket manager for a small chamber orchestra, and the conductor came to the party. He was the center of attention and had an attentive group listening to his interesting stories of orchestra concerts, personnel, and politics. Many of my co-workers came, and we got to know each other under the favorable conditions of good food, drink, and music. It was fun introducing my music friends to my work friends, and a great time was had by all. The last guest didn’t leave until nearly 9 PM, and I didn’t mind doing all the cleanup since I had had so much fun. So this was the start of a yearly tradition.
I discovered that I loved to entertain, and had marvelous time choosing food and drink, and looking for new music. I had a different group of people who showed up every year, and everyone had fun. Sometimes, my music friends and I would play Christmas music on whatever instruments we had — I played in a string quartet for a number of years and we all looked forward to our informal performances.
In 2000, I moved to a bigger place, and that year’s party had a new group of guests since I had also changed jobs and had new co-workers to get to know. Ray helped me with the parties in 2001 and 2002 when we had started dating, and the Chili Tradition started. So now, I had another hook, to give people a new reason to drop by. The Chili proved to be a big draw, and some years we literally “sold out,” with guests consuming over a gallon of chili, and leaving us with no leftovers! I now, also, had a helper for the setup and cleanup, which was nice since the bigger place and new furniture left more room for food on the dining-room table.
The next big change was our joining Ricochet. We discovered that there are a bunch of Ricochet members living in the Seattle area, and we invited anyone who wanted to come, to partake of our Famous Chili and fellowship. We were thrilled that we now had friends with whom we had a point of view in common. Very rare in Deep Blue Seattle, and very welcome. This year’s Chili Party is tomorrow, December 2, and we hope many of our local friends will come by. Here are pictures from last year’s get-together Chez Kujawa.
I recognize some of those peuples in the photos. Wish I were closer by.
This conversation is the start of a new month in our Group Writing Series and with a new month is a new theme. Our December theme is Holiday Traditions and Treats. If you have a tradition or treat related to any holiday in any part of the year, perhaps you would like to join Group Writing and tell us about it? Our schedule and sign-up sheet is here.
I have a brother in Seattle. I plan to visit once I retire. I’ll have to plan the timing carefully.
Fantastic, heart-warming story. Thanks for sharing!
What fun! Is there a secret ingredient in that festive chili – or just full-hearted holiday happiness? :)
The chili is distinctive for what it does not have-beans. What it does have is two kinds of beef and lots of chili powder. And vegetables. And there’s another story. Ray made chili when we were first dating. Just by coincidence, the recipe is from a cookbook that we both have! It’s Dogs’ Breath Chili from the Seattle Classic Cookbook, put out by the Junior League of Seattle in the 1980s. My mother gave me a copy, and Ray had a copy. One of the authors of that cookbook is a high school classmate of mine. Connections…
My father-in-law would submit his chili recipe for judging at the county fair, and he never used beans. Sometimes he would win a prize. I’ve heard many people (especially in Texas) explain that chili shouldn’t have beans. Maybe it’s due to this famous scene:
Do you still make the hot cider?
When I have lots of guests, I make cider. Probably not this year.
Mrs. Hoplite and I attended last year. A GREAT TIME was had by all! For any Ricochetti anywhere within driving distance, it’s well worth the effort.
If I have finished my work for this weekend in time, I’ll be going this year. If not, I’ll be looking forward to next year.
How lovely!
@trink and @vectorman, it’s agreed, the secret non-ingredient is beans. I wouldn’t know how to cook them anyway if I wanted to, so best leave them out.
@postmodernhoplite, if traveling and with multiple seasonal obligations, people can stop by anytime during the party, and as usual we had enough chili made that lasted to the end of the party (lucky guess, we had very few RSVP’s this year). When people come at various times, it makes it better for catch up, greet and talk.
Final Guest Tally:
One Ricochet Member (@thecynthonian)
One of RushBabe’s coworkers (with his girlfriend)
One of Ray’s coworkers (with his wife)
A couple who are our friends (wife went to high school with RushBabe)
One ISM friend of RushBabe from way back, (with her husband)
One cat who owns RushBabe and Ray’s house, and was a great icebreaker. Everyone wanted to play with her, and she was pretty social most of the time.
If only I lived in a center-right hotspot…like Seattle.