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 is sleeping in, yummy breakfast (that someone else cooks) with my daughter and hubby. Then I get a massage while someone cleans my house. In the afternoon I read books and play games with my 2-year old. Dinner is take-out (either Indian or Thai food), and watching a romantic comedy (how about Notting Hill again?) with my husband. My perfect day definitely does not involve any cleaning, football or dirty diapers.
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My perfect staycation involves warm, fuzzy socks, a blanket, two or three episodes of Top Chef to plow through, a chapter or two of some books on early child development, and a pot of nice hot tea, especially double bergamot earl grey. Ahhh!
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Leather couch, big down comforter, several bottles of wine, good movies (possibly on Netflix Instant Queue on the new xbox?), and the boyfriend! And the neighbors downstairs wouldn’t be poorly playing their instruments.
I suppose ordering some take-out chinese food if we HAVE to eat
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Dec 11 is my birthday so my perfect staycation would be to NOT have to answer my business phone for 12 hours. I hate to say it but I would be so thrilled to be able to ignore customers, read a good book and take a bubble bath in the afternoon, then dinner and a romantic evening with my DH. Not too much to ask but t’is the season to not have any time to enjoy each other. I think I should change my birthday to a Half Birthday on June 11! X-on!!
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Snow on the ground, sleeping in, a nice big breakfast, lots of tea, a great book curled up on the couch with a blanket, a fire, chocolate, and maybe a movie thrown in for good measure. That would be heaven.
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Ultimate staycation would involve a bottle or two of tasty wine, a huge stack of interesting movies and books to pick through, and a fridge full of ingredients to cook meals with at leisure.
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Mine would be having 5 movies from the top ten list of last year or this year (I am behind) with lots of chocolate and potato chips.
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My perfect day at home (or at least near home):
A snowy morning spent snuggling in bed with Husband and Cat. A long run on the trail near my apartment. Then a hot shower, coffee, and oatmeal with peanut butter and brown sugar (oh my gosh, yum) and some quiet time reading. A walk in the snow later in the day, and then maybe some hot chocolate and a fire in the fireplace. Inviting our friends over for a game of Catan (because we are a little geeky), wine, and dinner, and then listening to Hearts of Space on NPR, with more snuggling and reading and whatnot on the side. That sounds Perfect.
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Lemon drops, cheeseburgers and a fresh, steamy romance novel on my Kindle.
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Divine Design marathon, baking cookies, reading chick lit, not having to dress up!
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My perfect day would have to start out with some fresh pastries and a hot cup of coffee. I would curl up on the couch with my two cats and read the morning away. Meanwhile, my boyfriend would be cleaning the apartment until it sparkled. We’d have some lunch. I’d bake some bread. We’d watch a movie. I’d make an elaborate dinner. We’d watch another movie and go to bed early.
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omg, so many of these sound so good. mine: it’s snowing outside, i magically have a fireplace in my house, and my girlfriend and i stay in and watch scary movies, get chinese takeout, shovel the walk at some point, and drink a lot of delicious beer.
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Breakfast in bed. A few hours to read a great book and watching hours and hours of Battlestar Galactica while snuggling with my sweets and a fire in the fireplace.
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my perfect staycation consists of:
the baby sleeping in till 7:30am
family snuggling before my husband makes pancakes
roast a chicken for lunch (it warms the house and makes it smell heavenly)
play video games while the baby naps
make some sort of creamy concoction with pasta for dinner
early bedtime for all!
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Completely uninspired, but mine is same as yours. PJs, good food, and chick flicks. Though I prefer lowbrow for this purpose. None of this highfalutin’ thinkin’ stuff your movies require. On my staycation, I’ll watch movies with waistcoats and weddings and cheesy, cheesy declarations of love.
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It varies with the seasons but in December, right before Christmas, my perfect staycation is snuggling on the couch with the husband. Watching cheesy Christmas movies and eating lots of horrible food, wearing jammies and drinking hot cocoa. I think it might be time for another couch date!
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start the morning with a chai latte, someone magically arrives to clean my house, a couple of hours alone to play on my computer and install some fonts (without people rolling their eyes at me), then lounging around for the rest of the day watching BSG, SYTYCD and other assorted shows with acronyms.
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Pomegranates, sister, pride & prejudice
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My perfect staycation involves a back rub from my fiance, German chocolate cake, and a dish we call chicken crack (so addictive!). Snuggling under the covers in bed watching some serial drama like Mad Men or Breaking Bad. Awww yeah. I could use that right now!!
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The house is perfectly clean. The kids are safely ensconced elsewhere, it’s a little cold, a little gray and a little rainy. And I have a regular soda, a stack of new magazines to read, good movies to watch and the dog is curled up with his furry butt warming my feet.
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It’s a rainy Sunday (which I have off – I normally work, and it’s my favorite day), my best friends have stayed the night and we wake up hungover and silly. We have breakfast, mimosas and bloodymarys and watch movies all day. In pajamas. Then we watch cartoons. Oh and my house is cleaned up from the night before. And I didn’t do the clean up!
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It’s winter where I am, with snow on the ground and a storm due tomorrow. For the purpose of this conversation, I’m describing a winter staycation, too.
So:
A leisurely late breakfast at home: maybe scrambled eggs and toast, maybe waffles. Definitely a huge cappuccino for me, a huge glass of OJ for The Fella.
Phone turned off. Spend a few hours on the sofa, snuggled in blankets.
We each have a great new book to burrow into. I might read mine in the bathtub, taking a nice long soak.
Dinner is simple, something we can make without much work. Maybe we order takeout, maybe we pull a homemade lasagne from the freezer.
Movies are necessary, or maybe revisiting some favorite shows. We don’t get any cable or broadcast TV, so we only watch what we seek out on DVD or online. We might have a day of “30 Rock” or “The West Wing” or “Spaced.” Or maybe a day of film noir. My favorites are Double Indemnity and The Maltese Falcon, which I can watch over and over again.
Popcorn. The Fella makes it in a wok, and it pops up so light and fluffy! I’ll never make it another way.
Why, golly — a gaming system would fit right into this schedule, wouldn’t it?
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My perfect staycation would be to enjoy all the things I love to do that I don’t normally have time doing. Such as…finish that book that’s been sitting on the stand for weeks! And going to that step aerobics class that happens to fall within your work hours. Or trying to cook that one dish that you said you’d “eventually get around to.” What a perfect staycation!
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Sleep in, bubble bath, cuddle with my boys (2 dogs) while watching Netflix…. LOTS of Netflix, hopefully streaming Netflix on an XBOX 360…. all meals would be delivered, no phone calls, no interruptions, no family crisis, a cleaning service would stealthily come in while I was napping to tidy everything up and deep clean the crap out of my house (all dog hair? GONE!), also a fleet of gardeners and landscapers would come in to get me caught up on all of the yard work and landscaping that I’m so woefully behind on.
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Staycation: wake up and the house is hotel clean. And it stays that way -while I am very still and extremely appreciative.
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Ideal day at home?
* With my family.
* Wearing my favorite jeans and tee OR my Aeropostale sweats.
* Eating a big salad with lots of fixins’ and homemade NY cheesecake.
* Going on a long walk.
If we were going to watch movies, I would pick…
* Fools Rush In
* the new Harry Potter movie
* the new Twilight movie
* the new Babies documentary
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It all begins where I sleep in because my husband actually hears baby’s morning calls before me and attends to her needs. Then they surprise me with breakfast in bed where I watch ‘The Princess Bride’. Afterwards, I enjoy some meditation time on the back deck followed by a long bike ride on one of the bike trails near my house. When I return home, I cuddle up with my favorite blanket, drink some homemade hot cocoa and watch a double feature of BBC America’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and ‘Lost in Austen’. Finally, my day will end with a nice, long hot bath. I might even get to sneak in a few hours of ‘World of Warcraft’ before bed. :^p
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My perfect staycation can only happen in the summer since it’s currently cold and snowy here in Ohio, but it would include the family hanging out by the pool, swimming when it gets too hot, drinking kool aid slushes, eating ice cream, and having fun without any cares in the world! I could really go for a day like that! 🙂
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My perfect staycation involves large quantities of snow, a fully stocked kitchen and bar and the complete series of The Wire to watch in bed under my down comforter. The hubby and dog and cat are more than welcome if they can all lie still and don’t crowd me out of bed.
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Sleep in, eat breakfast, then take a nap. Catch up on my tivo’d shows. Nap again. heh.
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Staycation aside, you know that feeling when you are chatting to someone and they mention that unknown film/show/musician that just sends a ligtening bolt down your spine of kindred spiritness? Well, seeing you reference Kicking and Screaming right now just did that for me.
Lady, you rock!
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A snowy day (as we are having today in CT), a Law and Order marathon (which you can find pretty much any day if you look hard enough), good coffee, and no responsibilities!!
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My perfect staycation would probably involve some combination of recreation, a little mastication, and some hibernation. Oh, and the absolute minimum of transportation and perspiration.
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My perfect day would be one free of guilt. I would not feel guilty about sleeping in. I would not feel guilty when I poured that second cup of coffee and watched the news instead of yet another episode of Imagination Movers. I would get a massage, freeing myself of all all the physical knots left by feeling daily that I am not doing enough, well enough to be as good as I could be if I just tried harder. I would take time for myself. But not just take it, I would enjoy it, savor it, and, most importantly, for once not feel guilty about putting myself ahead of my husband and four children. On my perfect day off, I wouldn’t be a guilt laden caboose.
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Perfect day =
rain outside +
pot of Earl Grey +
fave blankie +
CALM puppy (hey, it’s my utopia, stop laughing) +
great book +
no other plans for the day
ahhhhhhh…….
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My perfect day would require pajamas, a cold rainy day, 80’s movie marathon and a big warm fuzzy blanket.
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My perfect staycation day would be to work my hometown like a tourist. I would love to get into the nooks and crannies of what makes my city so great, and uncover those hidden gems that are just sitting there for the taking. Of course “touristy” photos would be a must! Nobody needs to know that we are local…right??
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My perfect day at home involves being home with the family having something fun for breakfast like ableskivers, playing board games, watching movies like Spaghetti Westerns are great day at home movies. Later making a nice dinner with good wine. And all of this involves not getting out of our pjs.
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If this were a tweet: “As a woman, I prefer movies with women in them, and I particularly enjoy it when those women have speaking roles.” I would retweet it, maybe even twice.
Staycation? I work full time, and sometimes take days off to get the house Super Cleaned Up and Organized. I LOVE the feeling afterward, so it’s time well spent.
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My perfect day at home would be sunshine streaming through the windows, my husband and my kitty cuddled up with me on the couch, watching an entire season of Lost all at once. Or maybe Dexter. With a coffee table loaded with chips and salsa, and beer. Okay, and kitty treats, also. 🙂
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I LOVE The House of Yes!
My perfect day at home would be in bed, piled under my blankets with a good book and nowhere to be.
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Hmmm…my perfect staycation would involve lots and lots of napping.
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A picture of me on my perfect day at home (alone) would find me cuddled up next to my doggies on the sofa, watching the complete series of VERONICA MARS and surrounded by various snacks and some thai food.
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Ahhh… simple: lots of books, ranging from trashy romance to serious fiction, peace and quiet to read (therefore… a sitter :)), an endless supply of Soy Delicious peanut butter fudge ice cream, and a cozy blanket to snuggle under on the couch… heaven 🙂
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My perfect day: Sleeping in late, and I mean LATE, like 11 or even noon – there is nothing like a morning of rolling over, ignoring the clock and falling back asleep over and over again. Upon waking, make home fries with lots of onion and rosemary, paired with mimosas, scrambled eggs with cheese, mushrooms and pickled jalapenos and english muffins with homemade jam. An afternoon of movies on the couch with lots of blankets, comfy jammies and pillows. Evening would include some sort of Asian takeout (delivered) and more movies (many of which are listed here!). A reading and internet break of at least 2 hours to break things up. Back to more movies with bedtime well into the wee hours. Bliss. Oh, and maybe a hot bath in there somewhere.
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Perfect day..
An afternoon fire in the wood stove, a burger for lunch grilled in the middle of winter, NPR on the radio and my husband and son’s lincoln log megacity all over the floor followed by an evening glass of wine, a new issue of the New Yorker and bed by 9.
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Sleep late. Hubs makes his special brunch. Leave computer off all day. Cook with my daughter. Watch a flick, eat popcorn and drink cocoa.
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My perfect staycation would be me, alone, in the summer (not the blizzard we’re having today) with lots of books and tropical drinks. Floating in the backyard pool, drinking and reading in the sun. Good times!
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Wow, I can’t believe I’ve never heard of that Audrey Tautou movie! I love her.
My day would be like yours, minus a few movies and plus a few books. I can only handle two movies a day before I start feeling brain-melty. There is something to be said about getting brain-melty on vacation, but going back to work is always worse after that. Oh, and I’d have to cook something! of course someone else would do my dishes.
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The best staycation would involve books, wine, and peace and quiet. And maybe some baking 🙂
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