It’s hard to believe, but yesterday marked the 27th year of going to Chili’s on University for an Xmas Eve celebration.
I explained it all last year, so here’s some historical photos and text from last year because it’s Xmas, I overslept and I don’t feel like doing a lot of work today!
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.
n 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.
Below is the group photo from last year.
Clockwise from left: Amber, Joe, Steve, Clare, Yours Fooly, Kathy and Bebe.
And check it out, Bebe’s on TV too! An Xmas miracle!
2020 Curbside Pick-Up Edition
Due to the pandemic, we can’t eat in the restaurant this year, so I took this shot from the MBIP Mobile yesterday.
Our meal was delivered by “Fatty” who was very friendly and remembered me from past Xmas Eve celebrations when we could actually eat inside!
I decoraated the MBIP coffee table for this year’s Chili’s celebration at the MBIP World Headquarters.
There’s the food for this year’s Xmas Eve party.
Due to the fact that we’d have to be socially distant, I invited the original Chili’s crew of Bebe and Clare.
Clare wasn’t feeling well and so this year it was just myself and Bebe that clebrated this year’s Xmas Eve.
We had a socially distant fun afternoon and agreed that 2021 couldn’t get here soon enough!
It was great to see Bebe and we had a fun celebration!
Oh and the MBIP dumpster is still on fire.
Ho, ho and ho! Merry Xmas everyone! Have a fun hollerday!
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Related Posts: Christmas Eve @ Chili’s: The 26th Year!, The 23rd Christmas Eve @ Chili’s and Ho Ho Ho, Mothercluckers!