Projo Holidays Blog

November 29, 2007 Archives

Updated Saturday: With a new month, all restaurants are again available, and there's a new coupon code to get 50 percent off; enter the word "NEW" in the coupon code field on your shopping cart to see the discount reflected.

Dealnews reported Thursday morning (Restaurant.com coupon: 60% off gift certificates):

Ending tomorrow, Restaurant.com slashes 60% off any gift certificate via coupon code "THANKS". This coupon cuts $25 dining certificates to $4 and $10 gift certificates to $1.20. Restaurant.com's gift certificates are redeemable at local restaurants across the United States. Some gift certificates have restrictions, like dinner-only or a $15 or higher minimum. (Each restaurant lists its individual restrictions.)

Been there. Done that -- three times tonight. These look to me like 84 and 88 percent off face value, respectively.

There are only a few available for Rhode Island restaurants -- just 16 -- and six have sold out of however many coupons they chose to offer this month. (If you're elsewhere, you may see more restaurants, or none..)

You can select how many restaurants to view on one page, something I think every results page needs..

Some do restrict the coupons to lunch or dinner, others have minimums. Terms are clearly stated. Wickford Gourmet, for instance, offers a $10 coupon, "Valid with a minimum purchase of $25 for Catering, Gift Baskets, Cheese's. All services valid."
There are participating restaurants I've never been to -- Feast or Famine 'Wood Grilled Cuisine in Cranston and Warren, for instance, and Uncle Ronnie's Red Tavern in Harrisville -- and there's ($10, lunch only) Rasoi, the Indian restaurant just after Hope Street becomes East Avenue in Pawtucket, where we ate last night. It's in the plaza where Barney's bakery/deli used to be, and the food is distinctly different from that of the two India restaurants, for which gift certificates are also available here.

(Specifics: Crisp pappadums and three dipping sauces/relishes to everyone. We loved the mutton in savory brown sauce, bones and all and the surprisingly sweet-crusted and flavorful cauliflower. Leftovers were just as delicious tonight. Nan, too.)

The restaurant.com interface offers info about each restaurant and its cuisine, with a photo and links to the menu and a map. Use a search engine to find out more, if you're unsure.

The shopping cart is smart. Changes in quantity are reflected immediately. Typing the magic word "THANKS" in the coupon code field immediately applies the additional 60 percent discount to the already discounted price of the gift certificate, and tells you so.

Even after doing that, using Firefox, I was able to use my back button to go back to the search results page for Rhode Island and continue shopping, with the cart remembering it all. Good thing, since the link back to the site from the cart leads back to the front door.

Checkout offers an easy way to opt out of promotional emails , if you like (uncheck the box).

After you pay -- PayPal is an option -- you get coupon links to print now or later in b&w or color. An email reinforces the certificate links, and they remain available in your account. Privacy policy says they don't share your personal info, but you'll probably be an anonymous blip on a demographic profile that includes your zip code.

So far so good. This is as far as I've gotten. Some will be gifts.

If you don't have much money, this could take you -- or people you wrap these for -- to some potentially funky eateries for not much. Me, too.

I look forward to listening to Christmas music during this season. I love the fact that WSNE and WWLI have been playing nothing but Christmas music. Now, you can even play it over your computer while you're at work!

I must own at least 70 Christmas CDs. That's not counting the ones I've recorded for myself. Some are the "oldies" that remind me of my childhood. Some are a little more modern. But over the years, I keep going back to the same tradition of playing The Carpenter's Christmas Portrait. That one is my all-time favorites. I've actually worn through one album (remember those round, black, vinyl thingies?), out grown another album and over-played one CD so it skips constantly during "Little Altar Boy." Last year I broke down and bought another CD.

I can't just play the CD any old time. I have to wait until I put up my REAL Christmas tree. That's my tradition.

This weekend, I'm looking forward to picking out my real tree and listening to Richard and the late Karen Carpenter sing "The Christmas Waltz", "Merry Christmas Darling" and "I'll Be Home for Christmas" while decorating the tree.

My childhood happened long before environmental consciousness took hold, so I know there wasn't any guilt associated with chopping down a live tree. I know that because I remember hearing stories ending in a "Shhh", about people cutting trees wherever they found them, like near the Scituate Reservoir with uncle so-and-so helping out. But suddenly we headed into a period that was anything but natural. We soon discovered the aluminum tree -- ours was white -- and each year we used decorations of one color only, and of course, the colored light wheel. So one year, all decorations were red, the next blue, and so on. (Gold was a particularly spectacular year.) But then we decided to go natural.

One memorable winter in my early teens, during one of my family's first "real-tree" years, we netted a big one, but I don't remember seeing any Tree Farm signs -- and I recall it was a really long ride to and from the place. The tree was a lot bigger in the car than it seemed while still standing, needless to say. We didn't even bale the thing, shoving it trunk first into the back of our Ford LTD Station Wagon, the top end hanging out of the back quite a ways. I do remember an air of secrecy as we were all just anxious to get home with it. The car was unbearably cold on the way home with the back hatch open and hence the windows open to let the fumes out. And the sap was unreal -- and lasting! The cut end was nearly touching the dashboard, so with the breadth of the tree and six people, the car was packed. We literally dragged it upstairs to the cathedral-ceilinged attic we'd just done over as a family room and it reached the ceiling (and wrecked a few door moldings along the way). My dad estimated it to be 14 feet tall, but I think that was a stretch.

Nowadays, my husband and daughters and I head to Connecticut to get a real tree about 2 weeks prior to Christmas. Then we decorate it right before Christmas Day. The scent of a fresh cut Fraser Fir in the house is just plain beautiful and at night, with only the tree lights on, it's absolutely magical. On top, we place a huge cardboard painted and glittered star that the girls made when they were only three years old. In my mind when I look at it, always the same thought -- imagine, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 years ago they made this. I'm preserving it for them.

This is the painted cardboard star I made with my daughters when they were just 3.

They'll probably hide it away when they get it, just the way I did with the one my parents gave me when I moved away, because then they'll have their own special family star. I'll bet my parents even forgot they gave it to me!

This is the star my parents gave me. It needs wiring, but I still love it.

Here's a close up of the angel!

But I keep it packed away and look at it every year when I haul out the decorations, to remind me of the massive tree that made it look so insigificant way up there, 14 feet off the floor -- and the happiness that always filled our home at Christmas time.

Ticket to Ride
Tops: "It's familiar (much of the play is based on rummy), appealing (who doesn't love trains?), easy to learn (figure five minutes for explaining the rules, tops) and competitive without being confrontational. Read my full review here" -- defective yeti Matthew Baldwin

The defective yeti's all-time favorite Good Gift Games. These are board games, not computer games. He offers links to other roundups of best games as well, so if you're looking for a new way to bring the family together for fun, this is the place to start.

The yeti -- Seattle programmer and board-game fan Matthew Baldwin -- also points to his annual roundup of good gift games for 2007, now up at The Morning News (2007 Good Gift Games Guide), and to those of earlier years.

I was never a girly-girl. I was the last of five kids; three older brothers and an older sister. The majority of my family was males; so I took their side.

But one Christmas, I asked Santa for a doll. Not just any doll. I asked for a Drowsy Doll. She had the cutest expression and could ttalk! My favorite was "I want another drink of water!" So demanding. Just like a real kid.

That Christmas Eve, I must have awakened very early in the morning. Hey, for a kid on Christmas Eve, there is no time. I sneaked past my parents' bedroom. The lamp over their bed was lit and my Dad was sitting up reading. I froze in my tracks. I was afraid he'd hear me and send me back to bed. I figured I got "this far", why not keep going? And so I continued on into the livingroom.

The house we lived in was an old Victorian-style home. The windows in the livingroom were nearly 100 inches long. No exaggeration. At Christmas, my Mom would open the drapes for all to see our poor-thing silver tree sitting on top of an ottoman draped under a plastic tablecloth. How kitch! To me, it still was beautiful.

I made it into the livingroom undetected. Everything was SO bright even though it had to have been about 2 a.m., I'm assuming. It took a few seconds to realize where Santa left my stash. There she was. Drowsy in her box. The street lamp was reflecting off the plastic wrapping around the box. I fell to my knees in front of her. I rememeber not knowing what to do. I just stared at her sleepy eyes. When I came out of my shock, I picked up the box. Big mistake. I guess my Dad heard the rustle of the wrapping. From the entryway to the livingroom, he startled me with a "GET TO BED!" Needless to say, I left Drowsy until later that morning.

Years later, when I was in my early twenties, my first Boxer, Butkus, found Drowsy in our attic. He tore her apart. There was stuffing everywhere. It really wasn't a pretty sight. Tears welled in my eyes remembering that wonderful Christmas. But I loved Butkus and tried to let go what he did. Obviously, I still hold that grudge. Since Butkus is no longer with us, I forgave him.

When eBay became popular it dawned on me to search for Drowsy to see what I could find. I really never expected to see anything even remotely similar. I was surprised! There she was! And no, not the later version that came out briefly in the late '70s / early '80s. The early 1960's version! The auction battle was brief and $40+ later, I owned another Drowsy. She was a tiny bit dirty and her voice box doesn't work (I plan to have it fixed some day) but she's still huggable.

With today's technology, you may be able to get back that child-like Christmas spirit by searching for a long lost toy. Maybe one that Santa forgot to leave? Or one that was destroyed by a lovable pet? Or even one that was destroyed by you! You can either use a search engine like Google or go straight to the source on eBay.

Don't forget to share your story with us: What was your best Christmas present?