Merry Christmas Crimson Tide 9:56 AM

These are tough times. Financial and family pressures pull at us from all sides. Christmas is a wonderful holiday, but it often magnifies these strains as we balance getting our kids enough items so we don’t feel like bad parents with paying the power bill and putting gas in the car. Many times we find ourselves not only living paycheck to paycheck, but day to day with our to-do list growing faster than our done list. We think back to earlier Christmases. We remember Christmases when we were kids and the joy and excitement of that wonderful day. We think of the faces that are no longer with us. We think of Christmases when things were better, Christmases that came before mistakes we have made. Each day in December we inch closer and closer to Christmas. The days get shorter and the air gets cooler with a mixture of hope, fear, and regret.

So how in the world during this hectic season would group a young men, who are part of a football team make me smile? It’s simple, they are winning. I don’t personally know a single player or staff member on the Alabama Football team. I have no control over how well they play, their game scheme or even what flavor Gatorade they have in the cooler on the sideline, yet I’m happy when they win and whenever I think about this season, I smile. Why would I attach any emotion to a group of people I don’t know and to a game that I have not input or control in? It really doesn’t make sense.

Through years of cheering for Alabama, I have somehow connected myself in to their success. I haven’t contributed to their accomplishments in any way, unless you count my cheers at the North Texas game, the one game I got to attend in person this year, but somehow I think they would have pulled that one out without me. I would say that maybe they have benefited from my prayers, but that opens a whole other theological issue about praying for your team to win. I mean, I can see where it is okay to pray for Lane Kiffin to lose, but what about Tebow? Not sure I want to go there.

I’m not alone. Thousands of Alabama fans are smiling in the midst of stressful, difficult times, when they think about “The Drive” or Julio’s big play in the LSU game, or Ingram’s heartfelt acceptance speech at the Downtown Athletic Club. These fans, who are often disparaged for, “not ever having set foot on campus” should not be looked down upon, but should be celebrated. I think they should have full permission to find joy and encouragement from the endeavors and success of a team of players who they may not know, but for a Team they do know. While they (we) may not have individual bearing whatsoever on Alabama’s success on the football field, collectively we do. Without the millions of fans who never lift a weight, run a pass route or make a tackle, Alabama football as we know it wouldn’t be possible.

So this Christmas, in a way we’ve already given the Alabama Football Team our gift, it’s our support and passion, and while they have unfinished business in Southern California, they have already given their gift to us too. They gave it one game, and many times, one play at time each Saturday this fall. “Thank you Terrance for the blocked field goal, it’s just what I wanted!”

A&E's Hoaders 12:51 PM

I have recently been watching a new show on A&E called Hoarders. It is produced by the same creators Intervention, so it has that reality-crisis type feel to it. It is sad, disgusting, and fascinating all at the same time. It is not easy to watch, but like Intervention, it can be a tool for learning from the mistakes of others. These are some messed up folks! However, it is sad because, they don't want to be the way they are and they are embarrassed over how bad their hoarding has gotten.

The concept is that the show provides help to a person or family in crisis. The crisis has arisen from the person's compulsive hoarding. Homes stacked from floor to ceiling with clothes, keepsakes, trash, decaying food, and even (in one episode) soiled adult diapers! Help comes in the form of professional organizers, house cleaners, and usually a psychologist. But, there is not always a happy ending.

These people have a mental illness and you just want to shake them and say wake up! Get rid of this junk and live your life! However, before I judge them to harshly, I need to examine my own life. Do I have a drawer, a closet, a garage that has junk in it? Yep.

Now the folks profiled on this show have a serious mental problem and their hoarding is extreme and far more than a cluttered closet or junk drawer, but it had to start somewhere, right?

Hope you are ready trash-man, cause I'm going to be kicking some junk to the curb! I've been scared straight. Who's with me?

The show comes on at 9pm central time on A&E.

Chick-fil-A - Please Get New Commercials 6:00 AM

Okay, I like Chick-fil-A as much as the next person. I love their biscuits and their nuggets actually taste like real chicken. Best of all, their customer service is a cut above above other fast food establishment. It is amazing what eye contact, a smile and and of air of I'm not miserable can do for a place.

Also, I do think the whole cow "Eat More "Chikin" thing is really clever. HOWEVER, please, please get new commercials! If I see those cows sneaking into the office building after hours again I'm going to go eat my weight in hamburgers and I'll specify that the beef is to come from black and white cows, preferably those who have had some TV experience. They are milking the CBS SEC Game of the Week slot for all its worth (get it milking). These same commercials play week end and week out over and over again.

Oh yeah, the cow on the sun roof of the car stealing the burgers ("Yes honey, cows.") and the cows parachuting into the football stadium, I've had enough of those too.

So, Chick-fil-A ad executive (I know you are reading this), please pull these old commercials. You have my permission to brainstorm on this project on Sunday afternoon. I know you have the day off.

ABC's "V" 10:18 AM

There back! The "Visitors" from the 1984 NBC show "V." Well this isn't a continuation of the show from the 80's, but a remake that weaves in the global recession, the flu pandemic, and the threat of terrorism into its clever plot.

I was a fan back in the 1980's and definitely wanted to give the new show a try. I wasn't disappointed. It has a Lost type feel, maybe because of the one of the main characters is played by Elizabeth Mitchell, Lost's Juliet. The show does a good job of taking what worked from the original series and mixing it in with the fears and concerns we deal with in 2009.

The casting is excellent and it is easy to get attached to or creeped out by the main characters. Father Jack Landry and head Visitor, "Anna" are played extremely well.

The show also has a sense of humor. In the pilot two teenagers are talking about how Independence Day ripped off so many previous alien movies as they are watching the enormous alien space craft hover over New York City (an obvious rip off of Independence Day). Also, on the last episode ABC incorporated a clever promo between commercials of Scrubs as Jack Braff's image appears on one of the mother ships promoting Scrubs and informing us that the Visitors are lizards!

The show's pace is solid and they seem to have a good balance of giving you background and detail without bogging down the plot. Unfortunately the show is off the air until March, but this was a remake worth remaking!

A&E's Intervention 8:27 PM

Just got finished watching A&E's Intervention. What a sad show, but Ironically I leave the show encouraged. My problems seem small compared to the life and death struggle that these folks are facing with addiction. I don't know why it is human nature to compare ourselves with others and when we see others struggling we somehow find encouragement, knowing that we are not the only one.

Remember when you were in school and you took a really hard test. Were you more encouraged when your classmates complained about the test and talked about how hard it was, or when some kid said that it was so easy? Maybe there is some truth to the statement that misery loves company.

Going back to Intervention, I think it is interesting to watch the drama because unlike normal TV entertainment it is real. The people are not all in shape and attractive. There are not always happy endings and we can relate to the struggles, tears, and pained faces of the families on these shows. Part of me feels guilty for feeling encouraged that I don't have it as bad as the individuals who are the subject of that show, but I know but for the grace of God there go I.