Its the most wonderful time of the year!
As a sportswriter, this is kind of what you live for, dashing to and fro, writing stories at a record pace and at the same time, going Christmas shopping.
Life is good.
Busy, that's for sure.
Tuesday night, I had the pleasure of being in Ledyard watching the Colonels advance to the Class M state championship game doing what the Colonels do best, run the football and play great defense.
Wednesday afternoon, I was in Cheshire for the CIAC football luncheon for all of the state championship participants. You will see plenty of stories from that over the next couple of days.
We're busily working on the Norwich Bulletin All-Area section which will be released soon and girls basketball previews come out next Wednesday.
In the middle of all of this, there's the UConn men and women playing, UConn mens soccer is in the round of 16 and we have prep basketball underway. And of course, on Saturday, state championship football with New London vs. Ansonia at West Haven and Ledyard vs. Berlin at CCSU.
What can I tell you, it's the most wonderful time of the year!

We've come to the end, at least, for most of the high school football teams.
The final games of the season begin tonight with Montville playing host to St. Bernard in the precursor to a Thanksgiving morning full of football.
The Saints and Indians play tonight at 6:30 p.m. on the turf and it will be the last chance to cheer on seniors like Taylor Lewis of Montville, the area's leading rusher, who has opted to go to college and play baseball at the University of Maine.
The New London Whalers will have another game beyond their showdown with Norwich Free Academy Thursday morning as that old rivalry continues. The Whalers have assured themselves a playoff berth in Class S. Ledyard needs to beat Fitch just to be sure it has a playoff game in hand. A win for the Colonels also gives them the ECC Large Division crown.
The other games on the schedule don't have that kind of impact as all the titles will have been decided but the fun of two generally close, geographically, schools playing one another is the drawing card.
That's true in Griswold where the Plainfield Panthers meet the Wolverines and in Killingly where Putnam comes to town. Can Tourtellotte/Ellis Tech and its new-fangled double wing offense pick up its first win of the season against Woodstock? The Windham Whippets need a win over E.O. Smith and a little divine intervention for them to make the state playoffs, Stonington caps off its season with Westerly and East Lyme tackles Waterford.
Take it from me, what's Thanksgiving without a little football as an appetizer and a good afternoon nap after Thanksgiving Dinner.
See you on the sidelines!

As seniors, they had been to a pair of Class LL semifinals and had enjoyed an undefeated season but as Keesen Howe quickly pointed out, there was only one thing that they missed out on and it was the thing that they had wanted the most, a state championship.
The NFA Wildcats were denied again Wednesday night by their nemesis, the Glastonbury Tomahawks, who shut them out 2-0 at Rocky Hill High School.
"They had a tremendous season," Coach Rob Briones said afterwards as he looked at senior sweeper Anthony Restivo, prone on the ground, shirt pulled over his head, not wanting to see another NFA season end.
"Honestly, I think I have the best sweeper in the whole state, Restivo was an oustanding player. But they did a good job of shutting down players who were key for us offensively like Andre Nicholas and Keesen," the NFA coach added.
It made it a little easier for Glastonbury when they scored just 2:01 into the game too as NFA was back on their heels early and never recovered, losing to Glastonbury for a third consecutive season in the state tournament.
Keeper Nick Migani watched the first two of those losses from the bench as he played behind Brendon MacFarlane.
"You see it and you're like 'maybe I can change it' and you can't," Migani said. "It's just horrible to go down to the same team over and over again."

You have to give credit where credit is due and that was certainly the case with Bacon Academy Tuesday night in the Class L girls soccer semifinal.
First, their leading scorer Liz Middleton was tripped up and had to be removed from the game just 8 1/2 minutes in with what coach Christine Taylor described as a badly sprained right ankle.
After that setback, the Bobcats had to deal with another 17 minutes later when they were whistled for a penalty in the box that resulted in a penalty kick which Farmington converted on.
Still, Bacon hung in there and the game was in doubt until the Indians scored again with a little under 13-minutes left to play.
A good effort for a gutsy team making its first semifinal appearance.
The Norwich Free Academy Wildcats make the similar trek to Rocky Hill tonight to play Glastonbury at 6 p.m. in a boys Class LL soccer semifinal.
NFA coach Rob Briones would have rather played on a natural grass field like New Britain's Willow Brook Park as the Wildcats haven't had the chance to play on turf this season. It does speed up the game and NFA will have to adjust.
The game is also being played in Glastonbury's back yard. Although Norwich is only about 45 minutes away up Route 2, Glastonbury is just about next door to Rocky Hill.

You had to wonder what was going through Simsbury coach Ed Lynch's mind on Monday because he didn't say anything the entire game.
Lynch stood behind the bench as his team lost to Norwich Free Academy 1-0 in overtime in a Class LL state quarterfinal at Fontaine Field.
It was hard to pick his brain afterwards too as he sent assistant coach Tyler Webb to talk with myself and another reporter.
One thing was clear, the Trojans didn't like the pitch.
"Honestly, with a field like this, it's a travesty that we play a quarterfinal game, the best eight teams in the state, to play on a field that is three yards too narrow and it's dirt. You would hope that we would have a more even playing surface. In this kind of situation, it's hard to have skill be the determining factor, it's more of how the ball bounces," Webb said.
Sorry but Norwich may not have the budget that a Simsbury does to care for and maintain its fields either.
Quarterfinal games used to be played on neutral fields but, because no one wants to host them and deal with the issues that go along with them, crowd control, staffing, etc..., you play on what the higher-seed has. The only thing the CIAC cares about is that it is properly fenced so that it can charge admission to the game.
And because it is played on a home field, the home team's soccer officiating board is also used, giving fans of, generally, the visiting team another cause to complain.
We've already heard from some of them.

Windham High School football coach Brian Crudden had a question this past Friday.
Could he use a barefoot kicker?
The Whippets have tried just about every other form of kicker this year. Receiver Tyrece Nickson, quarterback Spencer Beaudreault, offensive and defensive linemen, the water boy, even Windham High Principal Gene Blain volunteered.
In fact, Crudden used a different kicker on almost every kickoff in his Whippets win over Stonington Friday night.
So, how about a barefoot kicker?
Although Crudden didn't identify who it was, he said there was a youngster practicing who looked pretty good, there's only one catch- he kicks without a shoe.
Crudden questioned whether that was legal under Federation rules and the answer is 'yes'.
I spoke with referee Jack Barclay at the East Lyme- Killingly game and he said there was nothing wrong with it. In fact, he recalled the Vikings had a player who kicked barefoot just a few years ago.
Why do I get the feeling that we may see this barefoot kicker in a Windham uniform relatively soon.