Don't forget about the little ones this season

During the hustle and bustle of buying gifts for friends and family, going to parties, and donating clothes or money to various charities, it's easy for one cause to be forgotten this holiday season — animals.

In particular, animal shelters. These are sometimes the most poorly funded portion of a budget. We get focused on taking care of quality of life and forget about the creatures people have taken in and discarded.

Of course it's tantamount to care for our fellow man and ensure people are first on the list of priorities, but these homeless animals have very few looking out for their best interests.

And I've heard the argument that only "bad" animals end up at shelters. I've volunteered my time at shelters and gotten all my pets from shelters. I've never come across a bad pet. A rambunctious or needy one? Yes. But what wouldn't be when getting affection after being thrown away and ignored?

If you can't spare a $20 bill, the best thing to do for man's best friends is to donate a bag of food, cat litter, toys, essentials — such as paper towels and cleaning supplies — or even your time. Sometimes the best thing for these pets is to give them a little care for what may be the last time they receive it while they're alive. And you get the instant return of love for your investment.

Isn't that what the Christmas season is all about?

It's the most wonderful time of the year

As Branson staple Andy Williams once crooned, "It's the most wonderful time of the year." 

And while he was talking about the goodwill of men and their predisposition to peace and love during Christmas, I'm talking about something way more important — college football.

It's bowl season, people. By far, the best month of sports you'll come across. I've missed going out on New Year's Eve and gone to bed before midnight just to be able to watch games that night and New Year's Day. For the next three weeks or so, I will be parked in front of my TV or at least have it on at the office.

I know, I know...The BCS is crooked and a waste of time. They all have ridiculous names. You get terrible matchups sometimes (on paper). But we don't get playoffs, so this is as good as it gets. Besides, I love all the strange matchups, it gives me a chance to see teams play that I have or will never watch. And sometimes, those are the best games.

So without further adieu, here are my predictions of all 175 or so bowl games.

Gildan New Mexico

Albuquerque, N.M.

Dec. 17, 2 p.m.

Temple vs. Wyoming

It's a shame one of the D-I New Mexico colleges couldn't be here. Temple.

Famous Idaho Potato Bowl

Boise, Idaho

Dec. 17, 5:30 p.m.

Ohio vs. Utah St.

Competing to have the most ridiculously named bowl, I expect this one to actually be very watchable. Ohio.

R+L Carriers New Orleans

New Orleans

Dec. 17, 9 p.m.

San Diego State vs. Louisiana-Lafayette 

ULL is bascially playing a home game. That's gives them the edge.

Beef 'O' Brady's St. Petersburg

St. Petersburg, Fla.

Dec. 20, 8 p.m.

Florida International vs. Marshall

WE ARE MARSHALL! And you'll lose. Florida International.

San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia

San Diego

Dec. 21, 8 p.m.

TCU vs. Louisiana Tech

Tech wins the WAC and gets a vacation to San Diego, that's about as good as it gets. TCU.

MAACO Las Vegas

Las Vegas

Dec. 22, 8 p.m.

Arizona St. vs. Boise St.

Never doubt Boise...Unless field goal kicking is involved. Still taking the Broncos.

Sheraton Hawaii

Honolulu

Dec. 24, 8 p.m.

Nevada vs. Southern Miss

Don't know a whole lot about these teams, except Southern Miss beat Houston. That's good enough for me.

AdvoCare v100 Independence

Shreveport

Dec. 26, 5 p.m.

Missouri vs. North Carolina

It's pretty cool to live in a place where I can watch a bowl game. Go Tigers.

Little Caesars

Detroit

Dec. 27, 4:30 p.m.

Western Michigan vs. Purdue

The best bowl if you love cheap pizza. Purdue.

Belk

Charlotte, N.C.

Dec. 27, 8 p.m.

Louisville vs. NC St.

Will winners get some bargain clothing? Louisville.

Military Bowl presented by Northrop Grumman

Washington, D.C.

Dec. 28, 4:30 p.m.

Toledo vs. Air Force

The rockets take on a team that is trained to fire rockets. Air Force.

Bridgepoint Education Holiday

San Diego

Dec. 28, 8 p.m.

California vs. Texas

This is a bowl you can usually depend on for a quality game. So much for this year's edition. Longhorns.

Champs Sports

Orlando, Fla.

Dec. 29, 5:30 p.m.

Florida St. vs. Notre Dame

I hate Notre Dame.

Valero Alamo

San Antonio, Texas

Dec. 29, 9 p.m.

Washington vs. Baylor

The Heisman winner or a team that completely underwhelmed in a weak Pac 12? Baylor all day.

Bell Helicopter Armed Forces

Dallas

Dec. 30, noon

BYU vs. Tulsa

This bowl is notable that it will actually take place on a giant helicopter...No? Oh. How disappointing. Tulsa.

Pinstripe Bowl

Yankee Stadium, NYC

Dec. 30, 3:20 p.m.

Rutgers vs. Iowa St.

This game should be as boring as baseball. How appropriate. Rutgers.

Franklin American Mortgage Music City

Nashville, Tenn.

Dec. 30, 6:40 p.m.

Mississippi St. vs. Wake Forest

Should be a defensive game. I'll go SEC.

Insight

Tempe, Ariz.

Dec. 30, 10 p.m.

Iowa vs. Oklahoma

Should be interesting if I can stay up past my bed time to catch it. Oklahoma.

Meineke Car Care of Texas

Houston

Dec. 31, noon

Texas A&M vs. Northwestern

This should tell you my respect for the Big 10: I'm picking a team with underachievers and no coach.

Hyundai Sun

El Paso, Texas

Dec. 31, 2 p.m.

Georgia Tech vs. Utah

Is this a bowl game or a new type of car? Georgia Tech.

AutoZone Liberty

Memphis, Tenn.

Dec. 31, 3:30 p.m.

Cincinnati vs. Vanderbilt

Who would have thought I would be picking Vanderbilt to win a bowl game? Weird season.

Kraft Fight Hunger

San Francisco

Dec. 31, 3:30 p.m.

Illinois vs. UCLA

How did these teams sneak into a bowl game? Couldn't we just have the D-II final in their place instead? Illinois.

Chick-fil-A

Atlanta

Dec. 31, 7 p.m.

Virginia vs. Auburn

My favorite bowl because I love waffle fries. Virginia.

TicketCity

Dallas

Jan. 2, noon

Houston vs. Penn St.

This isn't fair. Dallas hosts like a million bowl games. Houston.

Outback

Tampa, Fla.

Jan. 2, 1 p.m.

Michigan St. vs. Georgia

A lesson on branding in bowls: When reading the name of the bowl, I thought, "Finally, one that doesn't have the name of a sponsor in it." Georgia.

Capital One

Orlando, Fla.

Jan. 2, 1 p.m.

Nebraska vs. South Carolina

South Carolina should win, even if they kick their starting QB off the team and lose their best player to injury. Oh, wait...Still picking Cocky.

Taxslayer.com Gator Bowl

Jacksonville, Fla.

Jan. 2, 1 p.m.

Ohio St. vs. Florida

Rename this one the Urban Meyer bowl. I'll take the Gators because I don't want to get fired.

Rose Bowl Game presented by Vizio

Pasadena, Calif.

Jan. 2, 5 p.m.

Wisconsin vs. Oregon

The biggest question in this matchup is what Oregon will show up wearing. Thanks for turning college football into the Oscar red carpet. Badgers.

Tostitos Fiesta

Glendale, Ariz.

Jan. 2, 8:30 p.m.

Stanford vs. Oklahoma St.

Will the Pokes be hungover that they were overlooked for the national title? Who cares. This is your scoreboard explosion special of the season. OK St.

Allstate Sugar

New Orleans

Jan. 3, 8:30 p.m.

Michigan vs. Virginia Tech

I am demanding a rule change. You have to think the bowl commissioners and neutrals would much rather have seen two-loss Arkansas & K St. here instead of the Cotton. Oh well. Denard Dog rules the day. Go Blue!

Discover Orange

Miami

Jan. 4, 8:30 p.m.

West Virginia vs. Clemson

*Snoring* Huh?  Oh, there was a game on? Clemson.

AT&T Cotton

Kansas St. vs. Arkansas

Arlington, Texas

Jan. 6, 8 p.m.

After the shellacking my Hogs took at the hands of LSU and Bama, I could overreact and take the Wildcats. But I expect Snyder's boys to get exposed in Jerry's World. Woo Pig Sooie!

BBVA Compass Bowl

Birmingham, Ala.

Jan. 7, 1 p.m.

SMU vs. Pittsburgh

The death penalty revival continues. Mustangs.

GoDaddy.com

Mobile, Ala.

Jan. 8, 9 p.m.

Arkansas St. vs. Northern Illinois

Bad news for ASU: the Red Wolves just lost their coach to Ole Miss and are probably a little rudderless for this game. Good news: They upgraded with Auburn Offensive mastermind Gus Malzhan and are probably better than Ole Miss. N. Illinois.

Allstate BCS National Championship Game

New Orleans

Jan. 9, 8:30 p.m.

LSU vs. Alabama

I took Alabama at home last time and they blew it. Now the Tigers are practically at home for all the marbles. I like Saban when he has time to prepare, but I also remember the game against Utah here a couple years ago. laissez bon temps rouler for Tiger nation.

It's a Wonderful Life

It's below 50 degrees, I can't make it up or down Airline Drive in less than 20 minutes, and the Boardwalk is filled with snow that resembles laundry detergent suds. This means only one thing: It's Christmas time in Bossier.

We're not even a week removed from Thanksgiving (and the epic beatdown LSU put on Arkansas, Le Sigh) and I already feel as though the holiday was about a month ago. It's weird how our media and culture makes your brain immediately switch to Christmas around the end of November. I guess it has something to do with the narrow window of prime shopping season.

And this was my first year partaking in Black Friday on my own. But by no means am I a Super Bowl of Shopping newbie. I have been experiencing Black Friday in Bossier-Shreveport for most of my life. My mom and I would make a yearly pilgrimage and hit up Southpark Mall — you know, that mega church in south Shreveport — oh, how times have changed.

I spent most of my time in the northern part of the city where I work and live at Stirling Shopping Center, specifically Best Buy, looking at tablets and talking myself out of going broke to buy an iPad (hint, hint Santa). I did get a few clothing items for work at Old Navy, but by and large, it was just a way to spend my valuable day off and say I experienced it.

Now we're almost into December and I already have my Christmas wrapped up. Due to an early spring wedding, it's a very demure holiday. There will be no grand gestures of love to the tune of a HD TV or shiny jewelry.

No, my gift is the renovation of my office. Ever since my boss decorated his office, we've all had an itch to make our spaces a little more homey. So there you go, big Christmas, eh?

But you know, as much as I love the secular sense of Christmas — Santa, gift giving, cookies, lights, trees, decorations, scented candles, nutcracker Snickers — it's the real reason for our celebration that belies my love of the holiday.

As fun as it is to indulge my inner consumer, letting myself go crazy making wishlists and buying myself (and others) gifts, it's that rush of giving someone something fun. It's the love you have for that other person, either brotherly or romantic, that drives you to the store in the first place. It's that spending time with him or her that makes battling crazed shoppers with mace worthwhile. And it's only an added bonus for your conscience that you can drop a $20 in the Salvation Army bell ringer's bucket outside Walmart.

See, Christmas is wrapped in the shiny paper of gifts and some might even say greed, but it's under that where we find the real gift and it's a heart that cares for his or her fellow man or woman.

It's a microcosm of the giving God gave us of his son for salvation.

While we can NEVER give something of that magnitude, we can remember the sacrifice that Jesus made for us and what it means. And that's where our selflessness and love comes from this holiday.

Now...Can I get a gingerbread man or what?