Being a HS teacher with 4 kids, there are few days that I look forward to more than the last day before Christmas Break, (not Hanukkah Break or Kwanzaa Break).  We just moved to San Diego, and with this beautiful weather, I was really looking forward to the two weeks off so that I could relax, watch football, and spend time with my kids.  (On a side note, how can you not love the weather in San Diego?  I can golf 365 days out of the year and my wife reminds me that she can shop 365 days out of the year.  I think that is what is called a win-win situation.)   

So what happens, the first night of the break?  I am awakened in the middle of the night.  Not by Santa with a sled pulled by 8 tiny reindeer, but my middle child "puking" all over our stairs.  It is very hard to be sympathetic at 2 a.m., but I tried.  The next day, this abominable stomach virus began to spread.  Now instead of visions of sugar plums dancing in my head, I saw two weeks of wiping kids' noses and cleaning floors, (my wife does not deal with "vomit" very well, but who does?) 

Now the way I see it, the only way I am going to get to watch football for the rest of this holiday, is to actually come down with this bug myself.  Then surely, I will get pampered also and get to spend the better part of two days on the couch.  If I could just time my illness so that I could catch it around the New Year, that would be heaven.  But alas, I feel the nausea even as I finish this post. 

So as I pull up a trash can next to me, literally, and actually begin flipping channels on Cox Cable, I suddenly am reminded of the whole BCS debacle and what I used to enjoy called "Bowl" games.  In the old days, the winner of the SEC always went to the Sugar Bowl.  The winner of the Big Ten met the winner of the  PAC Ten in the Rose Bowl.  You could always count on those games on New Year's Day.  Now, bowl games are spread around starting tonight with the New Orleans bowl and ending on January 4^th with the Rose Bowl.  There are also the usual Blue/Gray classics and various Senior Bowls that follow, but I count 28 Bowl Games with names like GMAC Bowl to Emerald Bowl.  My favorite is the Meineke Car Care Bowl because you can never get enough of George Forman. (Complete Bowl Schedule)

Today you can be pro BCS or con BCS, but no matter which side of the aisle you fall on, I am thankful for all of the bowl games.  If it were not for the bowl games, we would be relegated to watching figure skating, poker, more poker, billiards, more poker, and the NBA.  Need I say anymore?