Food Drive Friday, Christmas Day Dining Specials, What Happened to Our Pool, More

Food Drive and Blood Drive Friday . . . We’ve pumped this the last few weeks so here are the basics: The KTVN Share Your Christmas Drive-By Food Drive is Friday from 6 AM to 6 PM at the entrance to our RV Park and the Blood Drive runs from 11:30 AM to 5:30 PM.  Santa will be arriving by Care Flight helicopter at 9:30 AM and in the video above we caught the Care Flight crew (great at their profession, not necessarily at singing) getting his Blue Sleigh ready in fair weather a few days ago at the Gardnerville base. If weather grounds the Blue Sleigh Friday, Santa will arrive by Red Sleigh from the East Fork Fire Protection District. Please stop by!

Christmas Day Dinner at the Inn:  CV Steak and Katie's are serving their regular menus plus Christmas Day Specials. CV Steak will open at 4:30 pm and Christmas Day specials are a Garlic-Studded Slow-Roasted Prime Rib of Beef served with your choice of giant baked potato, garlic mashed potatoes, twice-baked potato or au gratin potatoes for $29; and Stuffed Fillet of Sole, stuffed with crab, shrimp and scallops and served with béarnaise and wild rice pilaf for $28. Christmas Day reservations are strongly recommended (basically a must) by calling 775-783-6650. Katie's is offering a Traditional Roasted Turkey Dinner from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Christmas Day with  giblet gravy, sage stuffing, fresh mashed potatoes, glazed yams, green beans Amandine, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie, soup or fresh garden green salad, fresh bread and creamery butter all for $14.99. And yes, Katie’s will also be serving the usual Sunday Chandler Chicken Dinner Special on Christmas Day. 

More About Christmas:

• More Christmas Decorations are in the accompanying picture and here’s some interesting trivia:
• There are a total of 15 Christmas Trees in the Carson Valley Inn including  themed trees such as Frozen, Disney, Cowboy and Wine! Why a wine-themed Christmas Tree? Santa made us do it after reading this Food and Wine article about pairing wine with cookies!
• All the Christmas decorations around the Carson Valley Inn are original creations - most if not all by our chief elf, Eileen Knox!
• The old-fashioned wooded theme Christmas Tree at Sharkey’s (see slide movie above) is 9 ½ feet tall, it took 2½  hours to create the top and 4 ½ hours to decorate.
• A Toys for Tots box is located inside our hotel entrance – feel free to drop off a new unwrapped toy on your way in to check out the decorations.
• Candy Cane Lane – our drive-by Christmas display – is lit up nightly through December. Pull in at the entrance between our big sign and the Carson Valley Market. Tune your radio to 89.9 and listen to music while you watch the elves and other characters! 

What Caused This in our Indoor Pool??

No, We Didn't Find A Baby Ruth Bar Floating In Our Pool!  We kicked around whether this headline would offend anyone and decided anyone over 45 would totally get it; anyone under 35 wasn't even born yet . . . and it's hard to offend them anyway.  That left the 35 - 45 age group so, for you, we are referring to the classic "Doodie!" scene from the 1980 movie Caddyshack.  We took the picture a few days ago as workers were totally refurbishing the surface areas of our indoor pool and installing a new UV filtering system  . . . one of the many "behind the scenes" updates and improvements happening every year at the CVI.  It’s all part of  Mike Pegram's ongoing commitment to making sure we have the maintenance, furnishings, equipment and other tools to keep the CVI up-to-date and moving forward. As for the pool project, it will be finished in the next day or two and the pool will be open for our guests this weekend!

Let's Talk Sweets (seems like we do that a lot!): Tomorrow (Thursday) is Brownie Day and we make them every day in our bakery and you can buy ‘em at the Katie’s Bakery Counter.  Friday is National Pastry Day and - you guessed it - we also make pastries every day in our bakery and they are for sale at the Katie’s Bakery Counter or Jobs Perk. Wait, it keeps going: Saturday is Gingerbread Decorating Day and Monday is Gingerbread House Day. No, we don’t make gingerbread in our bakery but catch this: We have put together a few gingerbread houses and will have them available at our Employee and Family Christmas Party on Monday afternoon. One of the many kids’ activities will be decorating these gingerbread houses. And when they’re all done, we're taking them down to the Brookdale Gardnerville Assisted-Living Facility so their residents can enjoy them - probably for the first day or two by looking at them . . . but within a few days we imagine they will be devoured!

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, NBA Championship, and NHL Stanley Cup.
• The PRO PK’EM Parlay Progressive is now at $4,122 – pick all 15 NFL props straight up on the $5 card and it’s yours!
• Around the Sportsbook with Mike and Allen and now Greg:
• Last Week, 2-2: Mike picked the Dolphins at +3½ over the Ravens and Georgia State at + 6½  over Idaho . . . wrong on both. Alan tabbed the Packers at -6 over the Texans and the Lions at +5 over the Saints and he got ‘em both!
• This Week:  Alan likes the Buccaneers at -2½ over the Saints and the Giants at +3½ over the Cowboys. Mike picked Navy at -6½ over Army and the Steelers at -2½ over the Bills. He wanted to pick the Saints, but has too much respect for Alan after last week’s results! Greg in our Sales Department has been watching these weekly picks from the sidelines and jumped in this week with the “overs” (46½) on the Chief-Raiders game and the Falcons at -6 over the Rams. 

Free Entertainment in the Cabaret Lounge:  Steve Lord performs tonight, Justin Lee entertains Thursday, the John Dawson Band takes the stage Friday and Saturday, there’s NFL Football on the Big Screen in the Cabaret on Sunday and Monday nights and George Pickard appears next Tuesday and Wednesday. Justin Lee is an up-and-coming musician who has gone from playing in a cover band with his buddies to performing on the same stage as acts like The Band Perry, Parmalee and Jake Owen and he has performed at Night in the Country, Nevada’s largest country music festival. The John Dawson Band is a Reno based group of five fun-lovin' guys who like to play music and entertain with a variety of modern country and classic rock. According to John, “The Washoe County Parole board took matters into their own hands on a wistful spring evening in 1999, and placed these 5 repeat offenders in a working band, demanding we concentrate on Country Music.” 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 Slot Machine Ornaments for the first 150 ladies, Shelly Camp Gift Baskets as hot seat prizes, games, drink specials, FREE Bingo and earn entries for the December 21 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 thought 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!
• Penny Progressive Over $41,000 . . . 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 - 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 Roasted Rack of Venison with Cherry Brandy Demi, for $32.  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!