On a chilly Saturday night last February, my family and I splashed in the pool and warmed up in the hot tub at the Westin Galleria Hotel in Edina, then spent a night in one of its cushy bed -- and all for free. Well, almost. It cost us $1,000 of spending at the Galleria to qualify.

During the Galleria Holiday Open House (Friday, Nov. 9 through Sunday, Nov. 11 this year), if you spend $1,000 at Galleria stores and restaurants, you get one free weekend night stay at the Westin, which is adjacent to the Galleria and connected via an underground tunnel (which is convenient for children with hair still wet from the swimming pool).

Last year, my husband and I received eye exams and purchased glasses -- unwittingly during last year's event. As we were paying up, our salesperson told us to show our receipt at the customer service desk in the middle of the mall for the Westin coupon. What Westin coupon, we asked? When he told us we would get a free night's stay, we understood why the mall was so busy on a random November weekend so far ahead the of the holiays. We might have been the only shoppers unaware of the deal.

Never mind that the deal worked out well for the Galleria, where we had lunch and dinner on the first day and breakfast the next morning and got in a little more shopping. It worked out pretty well for us, too. A top-notch get-away, five miles from home.