Hey friend ;) I see you are from Washington. Well, here in south-central Europe, that's an old kind of ritual. Roasted chestnuts are even selling on the streets. If you will try that at home, do not forget to make a cut on every one of them on the side(so while you are roasting, they can open a bit, and roast much better...) and when you are done roasting, put them into newspaper or shopping advertisments you get in your mail....for 5 minutes, so chestnuts "sweat" a little and get additional sweetness plus they lose callousness. Wish you a lot of luck and fun ;)