We Threw a Party
Here's to the People Who Show Up
Yesterday, we threw a party. Friends arrived from all over Southern California, some from as far away as Big Bear and Lake Elsinore. We called it “Novemberfest,” as it represented a postponement of our original Oktoberfest plans. (I told my husband, “2024 has been the Year of the Plot Twist. Just when you think your plans are set, bam! You’re spun in a new direction.”)
In this case, it was just as well. Out of an expected 20 to 22 guests, 18 made it. By 2:00 PM, our house seemed to expand as if drawing in new breath. Coats and purses were tossed on the guest bed (ah, a holiday tradition!), and the walls reverberated with the happy burble of overlapping conversations, Mt. Vesuvian eruptions of laughter, the eager popping of wine and beer bottles. We got to sample the season’s 2024 Beaujolais Nouveau. Our feast was catered by our local butcher shop, Laird’s, and delivered in two great boxes: green salad, potato salad, barbecued chicken, tri-tip, chili, buttermilk bratwurst, garlic bread. Enough food to feed the Fifth Fleet. (Cody, you are the man!) For dessert: German chocolate and orange Grand Marnier cupcakes from Rabalais’ Bistro.
These autumn fests have been a tradition for well over 50 years now, observed by friends who have known each other since the days of long hair and bell bottoms. They initially came together over a shared passion for stein collecting. They’ve since celebrated births and marriages together, mourned the loss of loved ones together. My husband grew up with this large extended family, some of whom remember bathing and caring for him when he was a baby. Though I am a late-comer, I’ve never felt anything but welcome. When the original hosts of Oktoberfest had to step aside after 50 years, and the group cast about for new ones, my husband and I exchanged looks. “You wanna?” “Sure!” We’re doing our best to keep and honor the tradition. We’re still coming down from the party high. The afterglow of revelry.
It’s a much-needed respite after an autumn of disappointments, of plans that fizzled out or went ka-flooey, after a ho-hum turnout for our Halloween party. (At a whopping 9, the number of trick-or-treaters outnumbered our party guests.) Novemberfest has restored our sense of community and connection. For those few bright hours, there were no politics, no smart phones or doom scrolling, no financial worries, no environmental crises. The rest of the world melted away with the season’s first real rain. Fog billowed in the from the coast and sank low over the valley. What had been planned as an outdoor party became an indoor party. Again, just as well. We had plenty of room, and though our guests were welcome to spread out, everyone packed into the dining and family rooms. Warm, cozy, intimate. We wanted to be together.
These are the people who continue to show up for each other, year in and year out. People whose connections were forged long before the age of smartphones and social media. Not all of them hold the same beliefs or hail from the same backgrounds. But they also don’t expect to. What they do value is a good stein. A good time. Great company.
Here’s to showing up for the people you love. Wishing you all a safe and happy Thanksgiving!