Christmas shopping at the Mall of America

If you were thinking of a nice quiet place to finish up your Christmas shopping on one of the last Saturday's before Christmas, the Mall of America would not be somewhere that I would recommend. Nevertheless, Amanda, Molly and I ventured down to the MOA this weekend. We left Ben and Caleb with Dave and Joni and Matthew stayed with Grandma Shube. (Thanks!) It was actually not as crazy as I thought it might be. We did opt for the valet parking though. ($7 well spent.) When people are waiting for others to pull out of their spots, you know it is a busy day at the mall. I took Molly and walked around the whole first floor and then the whole third floor before we met Amanda for lunch. I had a Nathan's hot dog, mmmm! It was a pretty relaxing morning. Once we hooked back up with Amanda though things started to get stressful. Everywhere that we needed to go either didn't have what we wanted or the line was out the door. We were able to get almost completely done with shopping though. Gregg and Allison come this week and then Christmas will be in full swing. I am looking forward to having some time off of work and being with family.

Winter in Minnesota

Winter in Minnesota is one of those things that must be embraced. It certainly isn't going anywhere. As the boys get older we are getting better and better at this. I always enjoyed winter in Alpena: skating, sledding, skiing, getting into accidents with my new driver's license.

Yesterday we went sledding with Dave and Brad. It was a lot of fun. I got some great videos and photos. Caleb and Ben both loved it. Caleb fizzled out toward the end, but Ben would have stayed for another hour. We are looking forward to doing more outside activities when Gregg and Allison come up for Christmas. Bring your long johns.

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Now playing: Indigo Girls - Tried To Be True
via FoxyTunes

Neko Case

If you like female artists like Patty Griffin, Karin Bergquist (Over the Rhine), Gillian Welch, and Emmylou Harris, but also like a little rock and roll turned up to "11", you'll love Neko Case. She is considered one of the best female alt-country performers around. She croons like Karin Berquist, but howls like Springsteen. I love her artistic expressions. Her songs are not just the typical love songs or topical songs. They are more works of art with great description.

I discovered her through Paste Magazine and found out that I liked her through the music that she and her label give away on the net. (Why don't more artists and labels do this?) If you'd like to check out Neko, get some of her music here, here, here (a great live show), or here (NPR live concerts podcast). On the NPR live concerts podcast you can also download a great show from a band that Neko plays with, The New Pornographers. They are a great band. After you've listened to all of this, let me know what you think.

Matthew

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Now playing: The National - Start A War
via FoxyTunes

Winter

One of the most important things for the sanity of the boys and thus our sanity is that the boys have some time outside every day to burn off some energy. This is really easy in the summer. We just send them outside and say, "Don't kill each other." Since the cold weather has come to Minnesota this has become much more difficult. When they finally do get outside after layers and layers, the boys really love it. The other night while I was out shoveling the driveway, the boys and I played for about an hour and a half. It was great. The funniest part of the boys playing outside is that Matthew can hardly walk once he gets his clothes all on (think A Christmas Story.) You can see the rest of our December pictures here.

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Now playing: The National - Apartment Story
via FoxyTunes

Crazy Caleb

One of the things that we have noticed lately about Caleb is that his little mind is always running. He makes connections with concepts so quickly and it is a lot of fun to watch this happen. Yesterday Amanda told me this story.

Our church recently started a new campaign to pay off our campus' building and to begin some other work. They call it Treasuring Christ Together. We have talked to the boys about this and how we can be involved. Amanda was talking with Caleb about church and money and how we should all try and give some of our money to God. His response was, "Yeah! And then maybe I can have TWO snacks." We got a pretty good laugh out of that.

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Now playing: Los Straitjackets - Sleigh Ride
via FoxyTunes

America's Cheapest Family

When we were in Alpena, somehow Amanda and my mom got on the topic of saving money. Mom, as she is oft to do, went to the World Wide Web. She found the book called America's Cheapest Family. I haven't read the book, but from the book report that I got here are some highlights.

• The family is a mom and dad and their four kids. They home educated their kids. They never come out with it, but Amanda said she thought they were Christians.
  
• The family paid off their first home in 9 years.
• They grocery shop once a month. It takes them five hours, using coupons and walkie talkies to communicate.
• The book outlines lots of ways to pinch pennies, cut corners and get lots of deals.

Amands said that she really enjoyed the book. She whizzed through it. So it looks like its time for some belt tightening at the Gammons house. If you're interested in reading the book, I'm sure Amanda would pass it along.