$45 Dollars a Weekend

Rachael Ray may be able to out perky me by about a million miles, but she has nothing on her $40 a day plan for eating out on vacation, we pulled off a whole weekend of fun for $45. Jakey and I are trying to get in all the fun local stuff for Christmas this year before we leave on the big Disneyland trip, so we’ve had some busy weekends. Last weekend we did the lights down at Temple Square with grandma, grandpa, and Nikki & Clint and the boys. This weekend we decided to venture out and do the Festival of the Trees. It’s been at least 8 years since I last attended the Festival of the Trees, but I thought it might be fun for Jake. Considering it was all the way in Sandy, and I can’t turn down the excellent $20 a night rates at Marriott, we booked a room at the Sandy Residence Inn, which is one of our favorite hotels.

So in true Rachael Ray style, here’s how to do a weekend for 2 for $45:

Work for Marriott, and hope they offer half off associate rates for the holidays, room with a kitchen + full buffet breakfast= $25
2 Easy Mac’s, some treats, and 2 Marie Calendar’s dinners= Free already in food storage (this will be lunch and dinner).
2 tickets to Festival of the Trees= $7
15 tickets for the “kid corner” at the Festival= $5
1 treat filled felt Ernie (from Sesame Street) stocking= $1.50
2 cinnamon rolls= $3.00
Cotton Candy= $1.00

We had a really good time, the last time I went to the Festival of the Trees I just remember everything being ridiculously expensive (not quite Circus expensive, but pretty close), but either they changed it to get more donations, or I just remembered wrong. We were there for almost 6 hours. The “kids corner” was a lot of fun, we bought 15 tickets (3 for $1.00) and they had craft stations set up all around for kids to do, Jake made 2 different kinds of reindeer, a stain class picture, painted a ceramic ornament, had his face painted, and made a sand art necklace with his 15 tickets. Then we had cinnamon rolls, and went and watched the kids perform for a couple hours (Jake LOVES that kind of stuff, I had to tear him away, I’m not quite as interested in general kids performing, it’s more fun if you know a kid). After we walk around looking at all the trees, and the big hit for Jake was the gingerbread houses. It was a lot of fun, and a great Christmas activity, it’s definitely a good cause, so the money you do spend you really feel like it’s going to a good thing. We ended our day with some cotton candy, and I think we will try to make this a yearly tradition.

After the festival we headed to the hotel which was only a mile away from the Festival, where Jake spent the rest of the evening swimming, and I did some reading. Then back to the room for dinner, and sleep. We got up early Sunday and had a great breakfast at the buffet (Residence Inn definitely has the best breakfast), did a little more swimming, and then headed home. We must have worn ourselves out because at 3:00 Sunday afternoon, Jake got up, and turned off the T.V. and asked if we could go have a nap. When your 5 year old turns off the T.V., and asks for a nap, after recovering from the shock, that is an offer you can’t refuse. There is nothing better than a Sunday afternoon nap, actually I’m getting old, there is nothing better than a nap at anytime.

This has been a really great Christmas season so far, most of my shopping was done early (or online which is a life saver), I did some early baking, but I’m keeping it simple this year (meaning the few things I did are what is going to be our treats this year, and we’re eating them as we go, the last few years I threw a whole bunch of stuff away that just didn’t get eaten), so we are just doing a lot of things to enjoy the seasons. I’m sure we won’t get a big trip every year, but I definitely want to make the weekend activities leading up to Christmas a tradition, it’s a lot of fun, and has kept me in the spirit.