With the holidays come many get togethers with our friends. It seems like we are always going somewhere for an open house or dinner. We like to arrive with something in hand so we often bring a bottle of wine as a hostess gift. I stock up a few times a year on wine to make sure we have enough in the house for such occasions. The great thing about this time of year is Safeway's wine sale - 30% off bottles that are $20 or more (excludes champagne and sparkling wine). And, if you buy 6 or more bottles (at any price) you get another 10% off - that's a 40% discount on some great wines! What I love about this is it gives me the chance to buy & give wines that are typically outside of my price range. I love great deals like that! 
This year we find ourselves going to a friend's house again for Thanksgiving. I have to confess, while I miss the leftovers and I kind of miss putting everything together, I also love not spending the entire day in the kitchen. There are three families getting together and I've been assigned "non-traditional" stuffing (has some added ingredients beyond bread), Brussels sprouts, and pumpkin pie. Pretty straight forward but of course I'm doing a lot of research to look for recipes with a "twist" that sound like they taste great. I already have a favorite Brussels sprouts recipe (this one has been known to convert sprout non-eaters), and I found a pumpkin pecan pie recipe that I want to try. The one that I need help with is the stuffing - there are so many variations out there! The sausage and artichoke recipe on the Safeway website sounds awesome - what are the "secret ingredients" in your favorite stuffing?
For those in a grocery delivery service area, Safeway.com has a fabulous offer this Thanksgiving. Place a $200 or higher order on our website and receive free delivery and a free turkey. Simply order your groceries, include a Safeway turkey (value up to $7), and enter two promotion codes at checkout (“SMART” and “FREEBIRD”) to take advantage of this offer.
See the website for offer details. http://shop.safeway.com/superstore/default.asp?bra
One year ago today this blog was launched! Hard to believe it’s been a full year already. A big “thank you” to the readers, and those who’ve taken additional time to post comments along the way. Your feedback has been helpful in shaping the direction of this blog! I’d love to hear more about what you would like to read – please share!
The girls have been on me this year to get our house ready for Halloween. Some of our neighbors started putting their decorations up at the end of September, so in my kids’ eyes I’m “way behind”. I thought all was going to be ok when I finally hung our ghosts and spider outside only to find that some of our neighbors have decided to kick it up a notch and create elaborate scenes on their front yards – graveyards, ten foot inflatables – Halloween is starting to approach Christmas with all the outdoor decorations! For us though, simplicity drives everything so we’re going to stick with our ghosts, cobwebs, and spiders. Carved pumpkins too once we get to the pumpkin patch. What do you do for Halloween?
I am pleased to say that I checked off another New Year’s resolution this month, having run my second half marathon this year. It’s definitely getting easier; while I’m not necessarily running any faster I am recovering more quickly which I am thrilled about. And, I think I’ve finally figured out my “nutrition plan” pre, during, and post race which has made my runs more comfortable as well. Nothing is better than seeing the girls and Max cheer me on at the finish line and now that the twins understand that I’m not running away from them when they see me, I just need to cross the finish line and then we can all be together, the finish is getting easier too (there were many tears with my first race as we had forgotten to explain that beforehand, oops)! How are you doing on your resolutions?
Tuesday, September 15th is the final day of the Safeway 10% Goes Back to Schools program, so get those last yellow bus tagged item purchases in to make the most for your school! Then, beginning Friday September 18th, look on your register receipt to see a print out of your earnings. To donate, simply bring your redemption receipt to your school or enter the redemption code on the Safeway website (Escrip members’ earnings automatically redeem to the school of their choice). Earnings will stop printing on October 9th and all donations must be redeemed no later than October 13th. I’d love to hear how much you earned for your school!
I wanted to make sure you were all aware that the fuel discounts you have accumulated will expire on Saturday, September 12th – so don’t forget to get to your Safeway fuel station to redeem your rewards at the pump! And, in an effort to provide even more value inside of our stores there will be some changes to the ongoing program effective September 13th - keep an eye out for the details in your area.
Well, I know I’ll be able to check at least one item off my resolution list this year – running two half marathons. In fact, I’ll actually do three this year assuming my legs hold up! Hmmm, does that give me a pass on some of my other resolutions 
? To be clear, I wasn’t intending on running two halfs within two weeks of each other, I’m not that ambitious. I had signed up for one the first week of October and then learned that Safeway was sponsoring the Nike Women’s Half/Full Marathon in mid October so I entered that one as well, I thought it would be fun to run with some workmates as part of a team. My goal is to finish both events and be injury free when I’m through – no record breaking time for me. I’ve been extra diligent about doing some focused stretching after each run and I’ve spent some time icing after the long runs as well given my history of shin splints. I’m going to start doing some research on nutrition to aid my performance as well – any tips please share!
Have you seen the yellow school bus tags in the store? They are on items that are participating in the Safeway 10% Goes Back to Schools promotion. This program has donated over $11 million dollars to local schools over the past four years it’s been running! The promotion started August 12th and ends September 15th. Ten percent of the sales from participating items will be donated to the school of your choice when you purchase them with your Club Card. The top 200 earning schools will also get a $1,000 bonus! Look for details on the bottom of your receipt or find additional details on our website at http://www.safeway.com/IFL/Grocery/BackToSchool200
This is County Fair season; the fairgrounds are only a couple of miles from our house so it’s become an annual event for us. My mom and sister were in town for a few days so we took the kids on a weekday to avoid the crowds and take advantage of the “Kids Free Fridays” promotion. We had a blast, and everyone enjoyed the rides (even Nana – what a trooper!). The girls love the fair – the rides, the crafts, the games, and the animals. The girls made sunflowers out of paper plates, colored & painted on easels, and enjoyed watching the baby animals. We spent most of our time in the “kiddie area”, Gabby and Maddy are the thrill seekers, Mae prefers slow and steady rides with absolutely no spinning (clearly my genes at work for Mae, although I loved riding the kiddie roller coaster with Gabby). We limit the games to keep costs manageable, but I do give the promoters credit, the kids always leave with some small toy – and they were very flexible in negotiating 3 smaller versions for a larger one so everyone walked away with something. Apparently attendance was up this year too, over 432,000 attendees, who consumed nearly 89 thousand corn dogs and 27 thousand funnel cakes (someone should consider setting up an antacid booth next year). I know we accounted for 4 of those corn dogs (Max and the girls, I’m not a huge fan). What summer traditions do you enjoy with your family?
The girls got such a kick out of sleeping in the tent in our backyard. We were prepared for the worst - whining, multiple trips to the house, never getting to sleep but I am happy (and relieved) to report that none of that materialized. We stacked the deck a bit letting them stay up until it was dark so they were good and tired. We lucked out too as it was a little cooler that evening. The combination of fuzzy pajamas and light weight princess sleeping bags created a festive atmosphere for the girls. I think the thing they liked best of all was that we all went to bed at the same time and slept in the same “room”. The only one who was a little out of sorts was Wrigley, our dog. You could tell she was confused by the fact that we were sleeping outside. The highlight for me was how easy it was for Max to put up the tent – only 1 step required having a 2nd adult to help. Now that we’ve had our dry run we’re ready to venture a little further out and try a real camping trip!
The girls and I made a cake for Max’s birthday, and Maddy, who has a sweet tooth even bigger than mine, took every opportunity to swipe at it so there were a few finger marks on the side when we presented it to Max (if you look closely at the “before” photo you can see them). So I suppose it should not have been a surprise that the next morning, the day after our celebration, Max went into the kitchen and found the cake, semi-wrapped in plastic, halfway off the edge of the counter (instead of neatly wrapped up against the wall where it was the evening before), and the dog rapidly cleaning some fairly large crumbs off the floor. Maddy was with him and decided that Wrigley, our short, ten year old, arthritic dog, must have gotten into the cake, and they ran upstairs to tell me about it. Despite Maddy’s clean hands I knew she was the likely culprit and after a few questions we were able to get her to confess. Later that day we found a bathroom towel covered in cake and frosting which further confirmed that Wrigley was not to blame (I wish our dog was that neat!) and Maddy shared with us her motivation - she had dreamt about the cake, wanted some, so went downstairs to help herself. Life is so simple when you are 3!
