Hello. Would you like a free Xbox? Yes, I thought you might.
I’m partnering with Xbox to do a giveaway around the theme of “staycations.” The idea is that we should stop waiting for some distant day when we have the time and money to “get away,” and start having fun now, right where we are. By playing video games, for example. Up for grabs is two packages for two winners. It’s $500 worth of good stuff:
-An Xbox console
-Three Family Fun Games
-A Gold Subscription to Xbox for a year
For more about the rules, read the italicized bits at the bottom of this post, but the gist is this: Leave a comment about your plan for your perfect day at home, and you’ll be entered to win. Here’s mine:
Snacks and Chick Flicks that Don’t Suck
The best days are days that don’t require pants. This is why I became a writer.
My perfect day at home is all about pajamas, movies, and snacks. As a woman, I prefer movies with women in them, and I particularly enjoy it when those women have speaking roles. (Hollywood, take note! Female audiences are fickle.) If you have a free day, allow me to lay out your gluttonous movie fest:
Breakfast with a plucky Reese Witherspoon. It’s hard to resist a smart movie about high school politics where Ferris Bueller plays the teacher. This movie pairs well with bite-sized waffles.
Bacon and He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not. It’s in French, so get to it early while your synapses are still firing. Amelie aside, this is my favorite Audrey Tatou movie. I would prefer you not know anything else about it before you watch it. Please obtain a copy. And some bacon.
Make some hot cocoa with tiny marshmallows and settle in for a play. I’ll watch anything with Julianne Moore; the woman has excellent taste in scripts. (We’re all just going to pretend Safe never happened.) The Vanya on 42nd St. plot synopsis explains it all: “New York actors rehearse Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya” in a rundown theater.” It is arty.
Speaking of arty, have a little olive oil popcorn with your Parker Posey. I love House of Yes for its stilted, whip-smart dialogue. Plus, Tori Spelling in surprising turn as “not bad at playing that guy’s girlfriend.”
Olive oil popcorn and Maggie Gyllenhaal in heat. If you haven’t seen it, I don’t want to ruin it — though the movie poster pretty much says it all. Let’s just say Secretary is about power dynamics.
Sundae bar with fresh whipped cream, spicy hot caramel sauce, and slivered almonds, plus Kicking and Screaming. We’ve talked about this before. Noah Baumbach? Call me.
That’s my ultimate day at home. I’m beginning to wonder why I haven’t made this happen yet. Now your turn! Outline your day in comments, or tell me what would make your movie-day lineup if you were plotting a day like mine.
But wait! This is the contest fine print. Here’s how the giveaway works: You must be 18 or over to enter and live in the U.S. I’ll pick two commenters as potential winners (to be verified by ePrize). Please include your perfect day at home in your comment, and multiple entries will be disqualified. Comments will be open until tomorrow December 9, 2009 at 9 p.m. Eastern. Winners will be chosen randomly using Random.org, and announced on Friday, December 11. Good luck! Read the official rules here
Mighty Girl 
Bed, books, and food I don’t have to cook.
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My perfect staycation? Pizza, plenty of treats, a good movie or book, some knitting, and good company.
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For my staycation, I’d re-create the Sisters’ Beach Weekend: my sis would come over and we’d pretend to be at the cabin by sleeping in, going out to eat, watching wretched trash tv, painting our toenails, reading magazines, and maybe (if we’re feeling particularly motivated) go for a walk or do a little window-shopping. The only thing missing is the ocean!
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Much like the Mighty Girl herself, I find myself at the mercy of the perfect movie, the perfect snack, and the perfect company.
Behold, my perfect staycation:
Movie: Pretty In Pink, Better Off Dead, or Say Anything.
Snack: Have you ever had Popcorn with crumbled bacon mixed in? Delightful.
Company: My husband, of course, and the cuddliest dog in all of Dogdom.. our 4 year old Chocolate Lab named Molly Brown.
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My house would start out clean and then my husband and I would cook something fabulous and drink a bottle or three of a wonderful red. We’d cuddle up on the couch, the dogs wouldn’t bark and we’d watch hours of HBO shows.
Then someone else would clean up after us.
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Flannel jammies, a freezer full of Ben & Jerry’s and My So-Called Life beginning to end. At heart, I’m really just a 14 year old girl.
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My perfect day at home? America’s Next Top Model marathons, a few cans of PBR, my boyfriend and dog with me on the couch and a box of pizza. YUM.
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My perfect day at home right now involves cleaning out the “craft” room that currently exists solely to torture me, as it is currently unenterable.
In a world in which I am not the slobbiest human being alive? That day would be about baking bread, making soup, sitting in front of my fireplace with a roaring fire, wearing fleece pants, and watching all five hours of BBC’s “Pride and Prejudice” while drinking endless mugs of mulled wine.
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My perfect day at home would be a snow day… one where I thought I had to go to work and then unexpectedly got to stay home, sleep in, wake up and make a big breakfast and coffee, spend the morning reading books and magazines, the afternoon watching movies, and then cook a big dinner and share a bottle of wine with my boyfriend. I’d also want to spend some time organizing my apartment…doesn’t sound fun but always make me feel so good when my place is clean and organized.
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You’re day at home looks pretty ideal, but I’d add in lots of chocolate covered espresso beans, murder she wrote, and up the bacon level. I have an inability to sit still during movies so I’d like to work on craftiness while watching movies too. all this talk is making it difficult to sit here at work!
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My perfect day is me home all by myself, the house is clean, watching some horror films, with a Pat Obriens Hurricane! oooh and some Thai food!
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Perfect staycation…absolutely no phones or email…husband and I play tennis in the morning, get totally relaxing deep tissure side-by-side massages, eat a delicious late lunch with wonderful wine, then go home, start a fire, and watch movies into the night…with more wonderful wine and clothing optional! FUN!
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My perfect day home would be enjoying play time with my one year-old son, and watching movie after movie. I am due for a chick-flick marathon!
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Perfect staycation perhaps not in this order: a couple of episodes of Prime Suspect, crisp vegetables with anchovy mayo and tall glasses of lemon iced tea. Is there anything better than Helen Mirren as DCI Jane Tennison?
A long hot bath with lots of good smelling soaps and lotions and perhaps an issue of Vanity Fair to read. Unless Stewart is taking the day off as well.
Nearing dinner? Watch a couple of episodes of Jacques and Julia, Cooking at Home for ideas for dishes. Cook up a feast, complete with gateau and/or trifle and/or galette.
Eat dinner watching Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes.
This day will be considered a success if jammies, robe and slippers are not abandoned and the sink is full of dishes the next day.
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A Christmas tree, a novel, tea and three hot meals. Rain outside. Bonus if my dog was recently bathed.
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My perfect day would look a lot like yours, Maggie, in that I’d be lounging under a blanket in my pjs and fuzzy slippers while watching, say, 14 hours of movies. The lineup would include: Lars and the Real Girl, Junebug, Heartburn, Valley Girl, and 9 to 5. I’d be knitting the whole time, only stopping to nosh periodically on corn chips and seven-layer dip that magically appear, followed by a yummy pot of cheese fondue with apple wedges and crostini. My husband would share in the fun too, but he’d let me take up the entire couch while he camped on the less-comfy recliner. We’d nurse glasses of whiskey by a roaring fire when night fell.
Oh, and despite the sloth and gluttony, I’d not gain a pound, this being the perfect day and all.
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While You Were Sleeping, Gilmore Girls Box Set, Smart Puffs, and Trader Joes mini peanut butter cups. And my cats.
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My perfect staycation would start with a hot shower that lasted an hour with no interruptions including, but not limited to, the water heater being weak, the baby crying or a cat vomiting. Then my memory of watching The Wire will be erased painlessly and I can watch it again. With snacks. Lots of snacks. And sodas with sugar, not corn syrup, in them.
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I agree with all your movie choices. I think I would just add Amelie. Sitting at home all day watching movies and eating great food sounds absolutely wonderful.
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THE DAY BEFORE THE STAYCATION: Clean the entire house. STAYCATION DAY (includes my husband): Sleep in. Have a big breakfast that includes bacon. Walk around the house, enjoying the clean smell and lack of clutter. Piddle around with my sewing projects. Watch Pride & Prejudice (the most recent one). Have friends over to play Settlers. Have sex.
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Day: Fall. At the lake. Camera. Kid. Bottle of Riesling. Boat ride. Night: Kid in bed at 7pm. Mexican Food. Campfire. Dirty Dancing. Dirty Husband.
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My perfect day at home would involve my favorite meals at various restaurants delivered to my house and being cozy with my husband and baby boy. Most likely some television and cuddling in bed would be involved. And did I mention eating? Of course, we would be doing a lot of that!
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A perfect Staycation would be to stay in bed and read books all morning, cook in the afternoon and watch movies until the wee hours of the morning!
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Holing up at home staycation:
Sleeping in until 8am (!), waking up to a sunny but crisp Fall day. Going for a long walk down to the beach, doing a bit of beachcombing. Grabbing some coffee and getting through my piles of magazines…BrainChild, Sunset, and the like. Yummy lunch of Mexican food…make cookies (lame current goal: make homemade oatmeal & chocolate chip cookies)and begin the TV marathon. If solo, then Sex in the City, the Real Housewives of New Jersey or Atlanta (did I just say that outloud?) or with hubby the Wire or Arrested Development… another walk before dinner. Take-out (Thai?) and a long quiet peaceful bath without the interruption of children.
Reality: Booking hotel for an overnight trip to a nearby-ish kitschy Bavarian “themed” town that goes all out for Christmas: Tree lighting, caroling, etc. We are going in 2 weeks and can’t wait! The kids will love it. Followed by sledding the next day.
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My ideal staycation involves a long hot bubble bath, comfortable clothes (pj’s), spending time with the family playing games and watching movies while we snack and eat good meals. Add a nap here and there and we’re golden!
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blankets, jammies, wine, cheese, magazines, movies, salty buttered popcorn, more cheese, more wine, and a hot tub.
thinking about this makes sitting at work even more of a drag!!
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Perfect staycation? I six-pack of Mike’s Hard Lemonade, a marathon of the show “Clean House”, and eating take out chinese food! So fun….
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An ideal staycation involves pre- or ready-made food, a Sopranos or The Wire box set marathon, some Food Network, some intoxication, and some lovin’!
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Trying a new braising recipe while I listen to Joni Mitchell on vinyl, glass of zesty zinfandel in hand!
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Movies and snacks and the occasional delicious cocktail would make up my perfect at home day. I would need an equal balance of girly movies like Love Actually or Princess Bride mixed with silly action flicks like Transporter and clever fast-talking Guy Ritchie-type movies like Snatch.
Thanks for the chance to enter!
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as a first-year medical resident who gets random weekdays off (4 per month) and no weekend days, I think I’ve figured out what makes a refreshing 24 hours off and at home: waking up late (but not too late), going for a run along the marina and across the golden gate bridge and back, an omelete for lunch, a good book in the afternoon, tea at samovar with a good friend, dinner with the boy, followed by bananagrams and wine by ourselves or with friends (and in a perfect world, the next day off too!).
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My ideal “staycation” would be a week of warm pajamas (including cozy fuzzy slippers), my lovely new living room fireplace, my man, and endless hot cocoa (with none of that sugar creating any consequences of added pounds). Also, good books, a Glee marathon, and yummy comfort food.
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A perfect day at home, for me, would involve at least some of the baking I never get to do b/c running after two kids precludes it (bread! pie! coffee cake! muffins!) and probably a rewatching of Pride and Prejudice (the A&E miniseries, the one with Colin Firth) with my cat keeping my lap warm. And while I love my husband and kids, I would REALLY like a day to myself! 🙂
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Perfect Staycation: Trying out a new off road trail by home – one we don’t know where it leads, taking a chance; one we never do and hoping we will find something cool and unexpected. Packing a cool lunch with all the fixin’s for a picnic in the wilderness (with gps of course, wouldn’t want to get lost)
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I’m 9 months pregnant (due 12/30), so my perfect staycation includes a lot of lying on the couch with my feet propped up. My husband would be available at my beck and call to bring me milkshakes or popcorn or steak…whatever it is I want. And, of course, he’d change the DVDs when the movie ends…because there would be lots of movies. Oh it would be lovely!
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My perfect day at home: a tall stack of comic books, a medium thin-crust pepperoni pizza and a block of uninterrupted time. And then, once I had finished catching up on the X-Men, I could stretch out on the couch and slip into a pizza coma.
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I’m with you: good food, good movies, good cocktail. I could also replace movies with a stellar board game with friends. The food and cocktail stay.
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This morning, my pipes froze. And since these things come in threes, my car got a flat, AND wouldn’t shift into first gear.
So, my perfect staycation starts with a bath. A really, really hot bath, with a good book and a cup of delicious coffee. And then I’ll get dressed in something warm warm warm and meet a friend to see a movie, in my beautiful Subaru that works just fine. And then we’ll have an early dinner, followed by sitting in front of a fire and having a singalong. Oh bliss.
I’d settle for the shower at this point, though. 😉
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My perfect staycation involves a fully stocked kitchen, a pile of recipes I’ve always wanted to try, and my boyfriend as my sous chef/taster.
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First off, any day at home is a-okay in my book. I like to sew/quilt, so I would spend the day sewing, with the tv on in the background — possibly tuned in to the Food Network or maybe a favorite movie. Also, dinner in the crock pot so I wouldn’t have to cook. Hmmm. Sounds good. I wonder if I can pull that off this weekend…
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My perfect staycation would be home on the couch with some good old movies on, probably something with Katherine Hepburn in it, an interesting knitting project a fire in the fireplace & my husband roasting a chicken for dinner.
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My ultimate staycation is staying in my pjs all day, ordering in Chinese takeout, and kicking my husbands butt in Monopoly.
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What staycation would be complete without Mimosa’s? A wonderful breakfast served in bed, a lovely walk in the park with my husband, and movies, movies, movies. I would begin with the original Star Trek movies, all the way to at least Star Trek IV, because they are not, the hell, your whales. And finish the day with a long bubble bath, some Thai food for dinner and (since ’tis the season) Elf. That movie just cracks me up.
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My staycation–would have to start with waking up next to the most beautiful people in the world, my kids and my babe. Someone other then the 4 of us would have to make us breakfast in bed!!! After a full belly and the smell of brewing coffee, we would make it to the couch. Lots of movies and peanut M&Ms. Pizza would have to be delivered at some point. Just the joy of nothing else then to hold and love the ones that are closest.
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My husband and I would sleep in, then make brunch for our 2 boys. All afternoon I’d work on a knitting project while the “boys” (husband included) played with their toys! A warm meal of corn chowder and good chewy bread would be followed by introducing our kids to a couple of our favorite teen flicks – maybe “Say Anything” or “Some Kind of Wonderful”. We’ve got quite a snow storm rolling in, maybe we’ll have a snow day tomorrow and I’ll get my staycation sooner rather than later!
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No kids, gourmet popcorn, house recently cleaned, piping hot cup of tea, Mad Men marathon, husband to cuddle. Perfection.
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My perfect staycation involves an airbed on the living room floor, a carefully timed netflix delivery, and snacking on whatever sounds good. (Also known as a Sunday.)
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Perfect day at home includes: chocolate for breakfast, bottle of wine, non-stop pajamas, Arrested Development, take-out, and my boyfriend who lives far away.
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One of my best friends moved a couple hours north of where I live a couple of years ago. I’m bummed that we no longer live in the same city, but have so enjoyed the mini vacations visiting her. It’s my perfect day. It starts by sleeping in, allowing myself the luxury of waking up naturally. Then enjoying a couple cups of coffee while making lemon ricotta pancakes. Eating said pancakes. Then lounging around, watching a great movie/show or reading the paper. Then we’ll bake something delicious and elaborate for dinner or dessert or both while listening to podcasts of our favorite public radio programs. Then the wine drinking starts and we dig in to our home cooked goodness. Sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? I need to plan a return trip soon!
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Perfect day at home includes either a really good or really bad cd downloaded from iTunes and a dance party and cocktails with my fiance.
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