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 
My perfect day at home consists of my boyfriend, me, a bed with freshly laundered sheets, a few good movies and snacks, and lots of napping in between.
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My ideal day includes sleeping without any alarms, a fully stocked bar and fridge from which to cook many delicious high-maintenance recipes, many movies, a nap, friends over for dinner and then out to see a fab concert or some theater.
And please please please I hope I win. Because my boyfriend’s perfect day is an X-box 360. Period. 🙂
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I think my perfect day would be me and my husband spending the whole day together not really doing anything we would probably spend it in bed together reading snuggled up with our cat. I’d probably ask for hot cocoa at some point and then we would order pizza or chinese food for delivery because why leave the house if you don’t have to.
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My perfect staycation includes the following:
– a stack of new books
– a roaring fire
– chess games that last for days
– a huge pot of soup simmering on the stove
– walks at sunset
– ice cream sundays with real hot chocolate
– a huge organization project (like sorting photos or wrapping presents) while watching my favorite movies.
– Trivial Pursuit
– Bailey’s for coffee, Scotch for sipping, and microbrew for the homemade pizza I plan to make.
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My perfect day would be sleeping in, waking up to lots and lots of portrait orders on my website, paint said orders effortlessly and awesomely, then ride my horse all afternoon. Then? Eating a wedding cake. Yum.
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If I’m staying at home all day I’ll throw a pork roast in the slow cooker to have pulled pork for dinner, bake cookies, watch TCM, nap in the sunshine and finish my current book. It would be all about me. No phone or computer.
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My perfect staycation is actually planned for the Saturday after Christmas. My best friend in the entire universe is coming over (for an overnight! Oh middle school fun, you do not get old!), and we’re going to marathon all eight episodes of the British TV show Spooks.
We will bake a pie, and also some cookies. Then we will eat pie, cookies, popcorn and ice cream, while catching up on all the cool things we’ve done that we haven’t shared in the last year.
Then, we will make commemorative t-shirts. Between the gocco, sequins and a shoe box full of fabric paint, they may even be cooler than the shirts we made last year.
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Perfect day at home for me would have my girlfriend and her homemade brownies, the couch and a few seasons of Lost.
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My perfect staycation would have to be a fully stocked fridge and an entire season of some tv show I need to catch up on or want to revisit.
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Right now, all I want to do is eat Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Caramel and wtach episodes of The Wire. That is my perfect staycation. 🙂
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My perfect staycation would involve lots of chocolate, comfy clothes, and rewatching every season of Sex and the City and The Wire.
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My perfect staycation involves wine or margaritas or BOTH, my couch and Sex and the City episodes! What a great day!
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My perfect staycation would be lounging in bed with my husband, the paper and a pot of mint tea while the kids entertained themselves donwstairs. Then we’d get up and dressed and go on a bike ride along Miners Ravine and stop for a picnic lunch. After returning home we’d make a big plate of nachos and watch a favorite family movie like Ella Enchanted or The Princess Bride before the kids nodded off early leaving my husband and I some precious alone time. What a perfect day!
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My perfect day would involve non stop knitting and crafting, watching my fav BBC shows – Doc Martin, Midsommer Murders and Kingdom (all canceled – sob!) and dinner cooked by a lovely woman from Sichaun.
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This list is hanging on my fridge right now – I see it everyday and reminds me of the things I want to do on my next day off. Updating it and crossing items off the list makes me happy.
-Make a hearty soup from scratch.
-Learn to make fresh pasta.
-Audrey Hepburn movie marathon.
-Organize my photos (it’s mostly reminicing).
-A long walk with my dog.
-Mani/Pedi or a massage.
-Triple Latte from my local coffee shop.
-Visiting an art museum on a weekday.
-Play Radiohead on my iPod all day long.
The list is longer, but this is all I remember right now….. Thanks!
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My perfect day would be laying on the couch with the toddler letting me watch my stories. Having the husband cook my something with cheese> lots and lots of cheese.
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I’d be curled up on the couch under my super soft paisley blanket with a mug of hot chocolate, a couple of magazines, a book and the TV remote.
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Sleep. Lots and lots of sleep.
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my perfect staycation would involve being snowed in, fire in the fireplace, my dog, my husband, a blanket, our couch and some lord of the rings movies and/or any meg ryan movie (depending on who got the remote first). 🙂
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Cozy pants, lots of yummy food, embroidery, funny movies, husband at the other end of the couch laughing at my jokes. So ummm…Thanksgiving. That is my perfect day home.
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Ahhh, golly a staycation sounds dreamy right now. It would include some combination of napping, tea and cookies, crafts and good movies. Most importantly, I would only do what I feel like doing at that very moment–that is my idea of relaxation!
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Watching chick flicks, knitting, with my 2 cats and dog on my lap (with a blizzard coming down).
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Perfect staycation: bottle of Red, long, long bath while I read a great book and a great Cohen Brothers movie. Take your pick, they’re all awesome.
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Getting lost in the woods with lot of snow, snowhoes, my husband and the dogs. Coming home and snuggling up with hot cocoa!
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My perfect day at home would involve a clean house (so I didn’t feel guilty about not cleaning it), a sinful dessert, my husband, and a new season of the Wire.
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Kicking and Screaming. Best movie ever. No one has ever heard of it. Definitely on my perfect day list, perhaps while wearing a pajama top.
also on the list: coffee, and snacks, and naps, and wine.
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Yay! My perfect staycation would involve pajamas, ice cream, a sleeping kitty on my lap, and watching old WKRP episodes 🙂
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My current tastes are really simple, perhaps because as a grad student I have zero free time right now: Arrested Development and The Office over and over, some nonviolent video game action, amazing food delivered, great beer, tiramisu, puppy chow (?!), sleep, gelato…huh. Heavy on the food. Oh, and my husband. Right. Him too.
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My perfect day at home:
-sleep in
-wear flannel pajamas and fuzzy slippers all day
-catch up on the last season of How I Met Your Mother while cuddling up with my boyfriend
-make cookies and eat them with icecream
-paint my toenails and nails
-read through my magazines
-nap
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jammies, The Graduate, a veggie pizza, and my adorable 5 month old daughter to snuggle in between slices.
i may have to do this tomorrow, xbox or no xbox.
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Waking up early, heading to a farmer’s market, sampling through the stalls with my husband and daughter. Lunching behind the farmer’s pickup trucks and feeding fruit in the most darling little mouth I know makes me grateful. Oh wait. staycation ideas…if we’re staying home, making tea, eating comfort food, and watching a really good movie or playing a quest on WoW with your friends is hard to beat.
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I love you, M!!!
My perfect staycation: a good red wine, True Blood marathon and maybe a footrub. 😀 I’m a simple girl.
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My perfect day at home involves lots of sleep, lots of delicious delivery food, and a fair amount of wine. Also, multiple seasons of the Office on DVD.
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My staycation involves cocktails, friends, and possibly being snowed in! It would at least be very snowy, but maybe not so snowy that we couldn’t go to the store for more cocktail ingredients if needed, you know?
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My perfect day at home would involve waking up later than usual, which would be around 10am. Then having a pancakes for breakfast and settling in on the couch to watch a mini marathon of one of my favorite tv shows. Read one of the many novels I have on my waiting list, play a few levels on a Playstation Game, take a nap, eat some cake/cupcakes, fix a big dinner for myself. And then settling back on the couch to finish the rest of the mini marathon.
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My perfect staycation involves laying in bed catching up on my dvr-d shows for the week (or month, depending).
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My perfect staycation involves some serious daytime relaxation involving a long massage and plenty of sunshine in the park. At night, I’d toast the day over cocktails at the bar on top of the W Hotel overlooking the city.
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I love the movie choices! Secretary was a seriously freaky movie, but I loved it too lol.
As far as my perfect staycation, it involves a breakfast movie (last weekend it was Cocaine Cowboys- a must if you live in Miami), football from 1-11 pm, and many pancakes. 30 minute naps in between games. The end.
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wine+movies+bed+no work=awesome!
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A couple 16″ BBQ Chicken Pizza, some Sam Adams, and a few of my friends over for a game of Texas Hold’em. That’s my staycation.
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Hell Fire Pepper Jelly on toast and crepes with chopped seasonal fruits and whipped cream for breakfast. (A PERFECT day would mean mangoes would be available in bulk!) Crepes and good jam on great toast (or bagels!) always start the day off right. I would have several books to choose from for reading, and it won’t be too warm for lounging around all day just reading, reading, reading. The kittens would refrain from knocking anything down for once. If I’m not reading, then I’m watching some movies like Delicatessen or Coraline, or reruns of Project Runway or Xena. Lunch would be light, probably just a salad, or anything with broccoli in it. Dinner will be either take-out Thai or unagi donburi. A late-night trip to Yogurtland for some Taro and Coconut yogurts topped with lychee. When I drive back home, traffic will be so minimal that driving will be a restful, invigorating experience because I love driving at night. Then I’ll wrap things up with more reading until I fall asleep.
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My perfect day is lounging around in pajamas with my girl during winter, playing video games until our eyes are sore, and cuddling up to stay warm.
It would be even more perfect if I could ever beat her at Soul Calibur… but then I’m crossing into the realm of impossibilities 😉
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My perfect staycation: wood for the fireplace, hot chocolate, cheeses from around the world, fondue, bread and all of the movie on the “on demand” channel are good – mostly comedies and nothing that will make me cry. 🙂
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One word: DVR!
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Perfect Day at Home: Dawson’s Creek marathon with snacks. Milky Way and Hot Tamales a must…other snacks negotiable.
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Ahhhhh, a long dog walk, not a dog stop and sniff every three feet walk, a yummy brunch with bacon, eggs, crispy hassbrowns and cream cheese and strawberry preserves french toast. ( A stomach to digest all those items ) A long day of movies, reality tv and my man candy. Ahhhhh man candy.
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The perfect staycation day would be a never ending pot of hot tea that is perfectly sweetened the way I like it. Lots of cookies of different flavors. A good book to read. And rain because than I do not feel guilty about not leaving the house.
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I actually was lucky enough to have a perfect day at home on Sunday. A light snow was falling in the morning so, after a romp in the yard with the kids and the dog, I made hot cocoa, started a the first fire of the year in the fireplace, and dug out the holiday music cds. The whole family gathered in the living room to decorate the tree, taking multiple strolls down memory lane as we pulled out the ornaments, stopping occasionally to dance and sing (badly) along with the music. My oldest is a teen now, so we don’t have many opportunities for family fun like this without it dissolving into some kind of drama. Dare I say, a Christmas miracle.
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Perfect day? Grandma comes and gets the kids and takes them out for a fabulous day anywhere outside of the house. (Love them, but c’mon — this is a fantasy, right?)
Meanwhile the husband and I have Eggs Benedict and Mimosas, naps, movies, sushi, and plenty of reading time. In bed. Wait, that’s a glimpse of life before children, huh? 🙂
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Pajamas, electric blanket, a pitcher of kalimocho, and Guitar Hero.
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