Happy Thanksgiving, Can Turkey's Fly?

Happy Thanksgiving – Here’s What’s Going On:

We wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving and, if you’ll allow us to be self-indulgent for a sentence or two, we would like to thank our 200+ CVI employees who will be working on Thanksgiving Day so that hundreds (actually over a thousand) of visitors and locals can enjoy part of their day in our restaurants, casino and hotel. It makes us chuckle to read about the big box stores and the controversies and criticisms over opening on Thanksgiving Day and how unfair that is to their employees. We in the hospitality industry have a different take: you expect us to be here 365 days of the year, 24 hours a day, so that’s what we do. We are pleased to be here for you as we serve as the unofficial “holiday living room of the Carson Valley.”  And, you thank us in the best possible way by offering your overwhelming support and business! Now, back to our regular and sometimes blatant promotional stuff:

• If you need yet another pumpkin pie, stop in today (Wednesday); earn 50 points using your player card and take home a free pumpkin pie.
• If you ordered one of our Thanksgiving Turkey Dinners To Go be sure to pick it up tomorrow (that’s Thanksgiving day) between 10 AM and 2 PM just inside the hotel entrance. Any turkeys not picked up by 2 PM will be set free to roam through the valley! Speaking of that thought, be sure to read the short turkey quiz at the end of this week’s blog.
• If you’re joining us for Thanksgiving Dinner tomorrow, Katie’s will get you seated as quickly as possible and we’ll be ready for you in CV Steak at the time of your reservation.
• If you plan on joining us in the Poker Room, please do so starting at 4 PM, our special opening time for Thanksgiving Day. 

As the Weekend Continues:

• While you’re here over Thanksgiving Weekend, stop by the 16th Annual Kandy Kane Holiday Craft Fair in our Valley Ballroom Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.  Lots of holiday decorations, gifts and much more - admission is free!
• This Friday, we flip the figurative switch to Candy Cane Lane, our custom outdoor drive-thru Christmas light display, which will then be lit-up nightly through December 31. Kids of all ages are invited to soak in the visual panorama of thousands of Christmas lights and a variety of scenes depicting traditional characters and images getting ready for and enjoying Christmas. Accompanying music can be heard by tuning your car radio to 89.9 FM. 

And to Wrap up the Month:

If you read through our blog fairly regularly, you know we don’t usually use this as a platform to push our day-to-day casino promotions. We are making a few exceptions this week so that we can show the boss that we don’t forget one of the major portions of our business! With that awkward introduction, here’s how we are winding down the holiday weekend and the month of November:

• All day Sunday INN Club members earn 5X Points on our video reel slots and 3X Points on our video poker slots.
• Sunday night brings the grand prize giveaways in our November giveaway promotion with drawings at 6 PM and 8 PM. 
• Monday is the last day to get a free CVI sweatshirt. Earn just 100 points, print out your sweatshirt voucher at the kiosk, bring it over to Guest Services, and your sweatshirt is on us!

L-R: Ryan, Angela, Arianna

KTVN Food Drive Trio: Arianna Bennett returns, Angela Schilling and Ryan Canaday are first timers for the Carson Valley location of the KTVN 22nd Annual Share Your Christmas Drive-By Food Drive on Friday, December 11 from 6 AM to 6 PM. Just two weeks away, our community counts on the money and food collected at this event to stock the Carson Valley Community Food Closet. As a reminder, United Blood Services conducts a Blood Drive from 11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. during the food drive. Sign up on-line or call them at 800-696-4484.

CV Steak Menu Additions: when seasons change, we occasionally make some tweaks to the CV Steak menu (no, we didn’t change prices!). Earlier this week we added a new appetizer, Smoked Salmon and Herb Cream Cheese served with capers, cucumbers, red onion and toast points. For our East Coast readers and transplants: this is smoked salmon, not lox. There are also two new entrees: Pan-Seared Sea Bass and Braised Lamb Shank over Barley Risotto. CV Steak remains one of the very best combinations of value, quality, and service in all of northern Nevada.  Hungry? Check out the full CV Steak menu. And remember, the CV Steak Friday Special is game-oriented, Saturday night its Garlic Studded Prime Rib for $26 and Sunday's special is one pound of King Crab Legs for $32.

Race and Sports Book:

• This week you can watch and bet NFL and College Football, Horseracing, NBA and College Basketball, and NHL Hockey. NASCAR returns in February at about the same time as Major League Baseball players start reporting for Spring Training.
• The PRO PK’EM jackpot is $4,198 on this week’s progressive parlay card.
• On Thanksgiving Day we’ll have just about nonstop NFL football on the TVs in our casino and cabaret lounge area with games starting at 9:30 a.m. (Eagles – Lions), 1:30 p.m. (Panthers – Cowboys) and 5:30 p.m. (Bears – Packers).
• We asked our sports book crew which college football games they were following with “special interest” this weekend and they pretty much laughed at us. Between rivalry week and so many games featuring two top-25 teams, this will be one of the most interesting and playoff-pertinent weekends of the NCAA Football season.   

Cabaret Lounge Entertainment – No Cover, No Minimum – Free! Jonathon “JB” Barton performs tonight; The Vegas Road Show entertains Thursday thru and Saturday nights, NFL Football is on Sunday and Monday Nights and John Palmore returns next Tuesday and Wednesday. The Vegas Road Show delivers music, comedy and crowd participation as they perform a variety of entertainment styles including classic rock, 50's, 60’s, 70’s, country, smooth jazz and pop.  Cody Stevens (vocals, guitar and quick wit) and his wife Barbara Christy-Stevens (vocals, keyboards, bass and trumpet) are both veterans in the music industry having engaged audiences in casinos from Atlantic City to Las Vegas. John Palmore is an accomplished singer and keyboardist who has worked with Jackie Wilson, Mary Wells, ZZ Hill, Wilson Pickett, Joe Simon, Percy Sledge, The Platters and other "name" artists.

Small Business Saturday: Main Street Gardnerville (MSG), the Carson Valley Chamber of Commerce (CVCC) and Main Street Minden (MSM) are working together to make it fun and rewarding for consumers to shop our local retailers this Saturday, November 28^th.  We’re pleased to be members of all three organizations and hope you will support their efforts this Saturday by seeking out the specialized service and product knowledge that you get from the participating local small businesses and to keep holiday shopping dollars in Carson Valley!  Make your plans now to Shop Small on Small Business Saturday!

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 Chocolate Covered Pretzel–Turkey Thingie (Don’t like the name? Take a look at the picture and let us know what you would name it!) and ladies-only drink specials. There are also Hot Seat Gifts from The Chocolate Shop - one of the many local businesses we hope you will support on Small Business Saturday (you did read that article above, didn’t you?).       
• Because we feel like mentioning it:
• In addition to being Thanksgiving, tomorrow is also Cake Day. As the famous French Princess said, “Qu’ils mangent de la brioche!”
• Since we're speaking french,Saturday is French Toast Day   The basic approach is simple: soak bread in an egg mix and then fry it. Turns out, that we take a slightly different approach at each of our three property restaurants: in Katie’s here at the CVI, we bake our own bread for the French Toast. At the Bodine’s Restaurant, we use conventional bread (leaves a lot open to interpretation!). And at the Jackpot Café in Sharkey’s Casino we use brioche bread. 

A Closing Turkey Quiz: Over 37 years ago on Oct. 30, 1978, the TV character Arthur Carlson made the infamous misconception statement shown above. Who was his employer?

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!