Kids Pay it Forward, Christmas Dinner to Take Home, Santa Crawl, More

Kids Pay It Forward with Gingerbread Houses: ‘Twas mayhem in the Valley Ballroom this past Monday as over a zillion kids were scurrying around at our CVI/Bodines/Sharkey’s Employee Family Christmas Party. One of the many fun activities was decorating gingerbread houses which were delivered yesterday to the Brookdale Gardnerville Assisted Living Facility. Lots of interest when we brought them in – including one schnauzer who had a “street level view” from his owner’s lap!

We'll do the Cooking,
You Enjoy Christmas Dinner at Home

Have Christmas Day Dinner at Home – We’ll Do the Cookin’ 

We’d love you to come to the CVI on Christmas Day and enjoy one of the Christmas Day Specials in CV Steak or Katie's. But, if a family gathering at home is more to your liking, how about letting us do the cooking!? The Inn's Turkey Christmas Dinner to Go for up to ten people includes a fully-cooked 18 - 20 pound turkey plus all the trimmings including mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, green beans amandine, cranberry sauce, a pumpkin pie, rolls and butter all for $89.00 plus tax. The Roast Prime Rib of Beef Dinner to Go serves 8 – 10 people and includes mashed potatoes, beef au jus, creamed horseradish, green beans amandine, a pumpkin pie, bread and butter for $109.00 plus tax. Christmas Dinners to Go can be ordered in person at the Katie's cashier counter or call 775-783-6664 and ask for the Katie's supervisor. Orders may be placed until noon on Thursday, December 22 or until sold out and dinners will be available for pickup on Sunday, December 25 between 10 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. at the Valley Ballroom doors just inside the hotel entrance. The turkey or prime rib will be hot and the rest is cooked and will simply need re-heating per the enclosed instructions.

Sorry, Jessica, We're Giving This All Away Monday

Ultimate Tailgate Package Giveaway Monday . . .  And you can still get in on it! Two or three more people will qualify this Monday for the drawing for the Ultimate Tailgate Package at halftime of the Panthers-Redskins game. Five winners at the CVI will receive prizes and the grand prize winners (one each at the CVI, Sharkey's Casino and Bodines Casino) each receive two tickets to any Oakland Raiders home game in 2017, a BBQ grill, a $50 Costco Gift Card, a Bud Light 5 x 5 Pop-Up Tent, a couple of cases of Bud Light, a case of Shock Top, assorted Bud & Bud Light promotional items and our gracious assistance in loading it all into your car after the game. You have to be present to win so we'll see you here on Monday night!

Elf and Santa after a Little Crawling at Sharkey's

Sharkey’s Part of Saturday Santa Crawl – and it’s for two good causes, Austin's House & Carson Valley Community Food Closet! Here’s how the Gardnerville Santa Crawl works: bring a $10.00 donation to the JT Basque Bar & Dining Room, Battle Born Wine, Overland Restaurant & Pub, Buckaroos, The French Bar or Nevada Ugly and you’ll receive a participation ticket (no, not the same as a participation trophy!)  You can then enjoy drink specials at any or all of the participating businesses (Sharkey’s has a Jägermeister concoction) from 6 to 10 PM Friday. All the donations collected (you can go in for more than $10 if you wish) will be split between Austin's House & the Carson Valley Community Food Closet. Turn your ticket in at the end of the night to any of the bars to be entered for a drawing for raffle prizes! The Best Costume Contest will be at Buckaroos at 10 PM Saturday . . . but please be careful crawling back to Sharkey’s when you’re done. Dress Up! Spread Cheer! Merry Christmas!

A Versatile Gift Option: This time of year the most common questions we receive by phone, email or in person have to do with gift certificates. Yes, we do offer them and here's a quick guideline:

• You can purchase or reload Carson Valley Inn Gift Cards:
• In person: at the Hotel Front Desk at the Carson Valley Inn or at the Guest Services counter at Bodines Casino or Sharkey's Casino.
• By phone: please call the Hotel Front Desk at 775-783-6670.
• You can use Carson Valley Inn gift cards for:
• Dining in Katie's Country Kitchen, CV Steak and Jobs Perk at the Carson Valley Inn.
• Bakery items at the Katie's Bakery Counter
• Dining in Bodines Restaurant.
• Dining in the Jackpot Cafe at Sharkey's Casino.
• At the bars in all three properties.
• Accommodations in the Carson Valley Inn Hotel, Motor Lodge or RV Resort.
• Merchandise and gas at the Carson Valley Market.

Sports and Race Book:

• On the Board: This week you can bet NFL Football, NCAA Bowl Games, NBA and College Basketball and NHL Hockey.  Also on the board: futures bets on who will win the NCAA Football Championship, Super Bowl (the list gets smaller each week), NBA Championship and NHL Stanley Cup.
• The PRO PK’EM Parlay Progressive is now at $4,213 – pick all 15 NFL props straight up on the $5 card and it’s yours!
• Around the Sportsbook with Mike and Alan:
• Last Week, 4-2: Alan picked the Buccaneers at -2½ over the Saints (squeaked in on this one) and the Giants at +3½ over the Cowboys (Giants won outright). Mike picked Navy at -6½ over Army (lost that one outright) and the Steelers at -2½ (yep, they covered) over the Bills. Greg went with the “overs” (46½) on the Chief-Raiders (nope, only hit 34) game and the Falcons at -6 over the Rams (easy win).
• This Week:  Alan likes the Cardinals at -2 ½ over the Saints and the Patriots at -3 over the Broncos. Mike tabbed Texas San Antonio (+7) over New Mexico in the New Mexico Bowl and (get ready for this one) the 49ers (+13 ½) over Atlanta. Greg’s picks are with two favorites, the Chiefs at -6 versus the Titans and the Texans at -6 versus the Jaguars  

Blues Monsters in the Cabaret Lounge

Free Entertainment in the Cabaret Lounge:  George Pickard performs tonight, The Blues Monsters entertain Thursday through Saturday, there’s NFL Football on the Big Screen in the Cabaret on Sunday and Monday nights and Jamie Rollins appears next Tuesday and Wednesday. The Blues Monsters is a popular red-hot rockin' blues band from the North Lake Tahoe and Reno area. The quartet performs a powerfully unique combination of R&B, funk, jazz, and Chicago-style blues. Whether paying respects to the masters of traditional blues, or rockin' out other tunes, The Blues Monsters get the whole house up and dancing!  An upbeat and experienced entertainer, Jamie Rollins performs a variety of music from country to rock, to classic oldies and R&B – plus a few his own songs.  Click here for the upcoming lineup of free entertainment in the Cabaret Lounge.

In the Casino

• Ladies’ Night Tonight: Join us 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. with free Nevada Wreath Ornaments the first 150 ladies, World Market Gift Baskets as hot seat prizes, games, drink specials, FREE Bingo and earn entries for next Wednesday’s drawings for a free $500 Holiday Cash Prize.
• Bingo Thursday: Come in and play Bingo on the even  hour 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and win $50 - $100 instantly!  Simply be in the casino playing slots or table games using your INN Club card and watch for our staff bringing around Free Bingo Cards. 
• Holiday Giveaway Drawings Friday: A total of $10,000 in cash and prizes in guaranteed between CVI and Bodines Casino every Friday through December 16 in our $70,000 Guaranteed Holiday Giveaways. Friday drawings are at 5, 7 and 8 p.m. with plenty of chances to get in on your share. Use your INN Club card while you play!
• 5X Points Saturday: 5X Points means five times the benefits!
• Ultimate Tailgate Giveaway Monday: See article above.
• Penny Progressive Over $43,000 . . . someone will win this jackpot on one of the Triple Red Hot 7's slots at the CVI, Sharkey’s or Bodines.
• Poker Room: Featured Games, Tournaments and Special Promotions with something going on every day of the week - Click here for all the poker room info.
• Here’s a Handy Page with all our Current Casino Promotions!

In Our Restaurants

• Wednesday is Italian Day/Night in Katie’s – three specials for $6.99 each! Check all the Katie’s Daily Specials at this link.
• Our Friday special in CV Steak is Braised Buffalo Short Ribs for $30.  Saturday night’s special is Garlic Studded Prime Rib for $26 and Sunday's special is one pound of King Crab Legs for $32. All three specials are served with fresh vegetable, choice of rice or potato (au gratin, baked, or a one-pound, twice-baked), tableside tossed salad and warm demi-loaf of bread.
• Click the restaurant name for more info, specials and links to menus for Katie’s, CV Steak and Jobs Perk at the CVI . . . or our nearby sister property restaurants, the Jackpot Café at Sharkey's Casino and the Bodines Restaurant at Bodines Casino.

Planning a Stay at the CVI? You will always get the best rate by booking directly with the Carson Valley Inn either online or by calling our Reservation Department directly at 775-783-6629 or 800-321-6983.

Comments? Have questions or comments about the CVI? Use the comments section below, shoot us an email or pick up the phone and call us @ 775-782-9711. Hit “0” when the automated voice comes on and you'll go right to the hotel operator who can get you to the correct person or department.  We have a lot more coming up at the Carson Valley Inn so check our Blog posting every Wednesday morning!

Christmas at the CVI: Lights, Action, Food and a Last Minute Gift Idea!

CVI's Annual Transformation to the Christmas Spirit!

Ah, the visual beauty of the Christmas spirit at the Carson Valley Inn! Over 500 man-hours spread over 3-4 intense weeks go into creating the Inn's Christmas look and feel each year . . . here's  just a little piece of the story.

The activity starts right after Halloween - let's say the Monday after the Nevada Day weekend. Our Engineering Department staff makes multiple trips to our off property warehouse to retrieve all of the indoor and outdoor decorations, props, lights and other materials that were stored the previous January.

Eileen Knox - CVI's Decorating Mastermind

The indoor decorating project is then taken over by our Executive Office Manager, Eileen Knox.  Everything is unpacked, cleaned, fluffed, checked for damage, and refurbished and/or discarded if necessary. Eileen buys or orders replacement products where needed and, each year, creates new decorations or a new theme for an existing decoration base. All this takes room, so just about every nook and cranny of office space, storage rooms, and holding areas are used. With the assistance of Lance Draucker, one of our groundskeeping staff, Eileen then starts the indoor decorating process which, over a period of three weeks, has her averaging over 15,000 steps a day on her Fitbit, making dozens of trips up and down stairs and ladders each day, and doing a whole lot of stretching and reaching as the decorations go up, the ornaments go on and the lights bring them all to life.

Lance Draucker - Our Chief Decorating Elf

When not helping Eileen with the inside decorating, Lance is installing all of the outside lights along with his sidekick Robin Edwards. When you add up the lighting on our building, all of the trees along Candy Cane Lane, and the lights on the trees and other base structures along Highway 395, there are well over 10,000 bulbs of various shapes and sizes. Actually, we’d love to have someone volunteer to go out and count them! No matter what the number, that’s a lot of light strip stringing, plenty of ladder moving and climbing and considerable time 15 to 35 feet above the ground on our ManLift . . . With some spectacular views on warmer clear days and some tense moments on cold and breezy days!

Meanwhile, three of our engineering staff (Randy Ross, Larry Stewart and whoever else is handy each day) are unloading, testing, repairing and refurbishing the two large pallets of static and moving pieces and parts that make up Candy Cane Lane. The installation process then starts and, whatever it takes, is always completed so we can “flip the switch” to light up Candy Cane Lane the day after Thanksgiving and keep it running nightly through Christmas. Sometimes the process goes smoothly in balmy fall weather. Often parts need to be ordered and snow needs to be moved out of the way (sometimes more than once).

We asked Eileen why she keeps volunteering for such a wear-and-tear-on-your-body job each year (she’s been doing it for 19 or 20 years). “For starters, I’m very juvenile - that’s why you see so much Disney influence - and I love the flexibility I have to expand and create each year.  More importantly, it is so gratifying to have so many children and senior citizens look at our decorations with broad smiles.  A crowning moment was having a senior couple, sitting on one of the couches in the hotel lobby, tell me they can’t physically do the work necessary to decorate like this in their own home anymore and they so much appreciate what we do to decorate for Christmas at the Carson Valley Inn.

We also asked Eileen if she had any trouble getting approval to spend more money each year on new and replacement decorations. Her answer was simple, “not at all, I really think our owner is a kid at heart!”

What happens when Christmas passes? It all has to be taken down, packed and returned to storage . . . another 300+ hours of hard work! So, soak it all in, take as many pictures as you like, and Merry Christmas!

Gift Cards Are A Versatile Last Minute Gift: Whether you wrap them yourselves or present them in the envelope and "carrier" we provide, CVI Gift Cards are an excellent Christmas gift . . .  or a "thank you" to someone who’s helped you out! We make it easy for you to purchase CVI gift cards and their versatility plays out in that they can be used at the Carson Valley Inn, Bodines Casino and Sharkey’s Casino. We have all the details on one page as to how to buy cards in person or by phone, all their different uses, and how to check the balance on existing gift cards. And here’s a point to ponder: A $50 gift card could easily let someone have breakfast at Sharkey’s, lunch at Bodines, and dinner at the Carson Valley Inn – all in the same day!

Christmas Day at the CVI:

• Katie’s Christmas Dinner Specials (Traditional Roasted Turkey Dinner or Apple Wood Smoked Molasses and Five Peppercorn Crusted Pork Loin) are served from 11:00 a.m. to 10 p.m. all regular menu items will also be available. Katie’s will not be serving the usual Friday night Captain’s Platter and Charbroiled Salmon specials. However, Katie’s $5.99 Chicken Fried Steak & Eggs will definitely be available!
• CV Steak opens at 4:30 PM as usual.  Christmas Dinner Specials (Garlic-Studded Slow-Roasted Prime Rib of Beef or Fillet of Sole Stuffed with Crab, Shrimp and Scallops) will be served along with the regular menu. We will not be serving the usual Game special on Christmas night.
• If you ordered one of our Christmas Turkey Dinners To Go for Up to 10 People, be sure to come by between 10 AM and 1 PM to pick it up. Please pull into the valet entrance as the turkeys will be distributed right inside the hotel entrance doors.
• We will have our December Friday night Giveaway Promotion Drawings as usual at 5, 7 and 9 PM.
• The poker room will open at 4 PM on Christmas day.
• As for the casino: We’re open 24/7 with 4X Points all day on Christmas! 

Race and Sports Book:

• This week you can watch and bet NFL and College Football, Horseracing, NBA and College Basketball, and NHL Hockey.
• College Bowl Games: 8 down, 16 over the next 7 days concluding with Nevada vs. Colorado State in the Arizona Bowl on Tuesday. Then, 16 more crammed into 4 days starting next Wednesday. Click for the full schedule and remember you can bet ‘em here and watch ‘em here!
• The PRO PK’EM jackpot is $4,4668 on this week’s progressive parlay card.
• On the NFL front, the CVI crew is watching a few games with interest:  Thursday’s Chargers-Raiders game could be the last game in Oakland for the rumored-to-be-moving Raiders; Saturday night’s Redskins-Eagles game could decide the NFL East winner; Sunday morning’s Patriots-Jets game has impact on whether New York will have a playoff team this year; and Monday night’s Bengals-Broncos game has big playoff implications for both teams as they battle in the last Monday Night Football game of the season! Bet ‘em here, watch ‘em here! 

Cabaret Lounge Entertainment – No Cover, No Minimum – Free! George Pickard performs tonight, The Nighthawks entertain Thursday through Saturday nights, NFL Football is on Sunday and Monday Nights and Dale Poune returns next Tuesday and Wednesday.  The Nighthawks are a local (Gardnerville/Wellington) country and rock band specializing in popular dance tunes from the 60's and 70's. The group performs a wide variety of styles covering artists from Alan Jackson to ZZ Top, including great classic country tunes and expert performances of classic rock songs.

As Always, Interesting, Helpful and Even Useful Tidbits and News

• Tonight is Ladies’ Nights and the first 150 ladies to sign up receive a Free Bag of Peppermint Bark. Also on tap: ladies-only drink specials and Chocolate Shoppe Christmas Baskets as hot seat prizes.
• Days Are Getting Longer: Winter solstice was earlier this week so the days are getting longer . . . that’s a good enough reason for us to cover some early-season 2016 golf events either next week or the week after.
• Prime Rib Saturday, King Crab Sunday in CV Steak:  Our Saturday night special in CV Steak is Garlic Studded Prime Rib for $26 and Sunday's special is one pound of King Crab Legs for $32. Both specials are served with fresh vegetable, choice of rice or potato (au gratin, baked, or a one-pound, twice-baked), tableside tossed salad and warm demi-loaf of bread.
• Because We Feel Like Mentioning It:
• Today is Festivus Day. If you are a Seinfeld fan, this is a big deal. If you were never into Seinfeld, or are too young to remember Seinfeld, we suggest you move along – there’s probably nothing here for you.
• Thursday is Eggnog Day which we bring up only because the link has an incredible recipe which you may find helpful if you are called on to make eggnog at the last minute on Christmas Eve.
• Monday is Card Playing Day. Blackjack or poker anyone? Not that motivated?? How about Video Poker?

Comments? Have questions or comments about the CVI? Use the comments section below, shoot us an email or just pick up the phone and call us @ 775-782-9711. Hit “0” when the automated voice comes on and you'll go right to the hotel operator who can get you to the correct person or department.  We have a lot more coming up at the Carson Valley Inn so check our Blog posting every Wednesday morning!