A few days ago Tim Horton, running backs coach and recruiting coordinator for the Arkansas Razorbacks, was asked about his Christmas plans.

He said it was nice to be home with his wife and two kids but quickly added: "There's something special about getting ready for a bowl game. We will be back in a bowl game next season and for many years to come."

So it is no small wonder your trusty scribe feels a little out of place. Since 1980, 19 times Christmas was the day to leave for a bowl, or the day before leaving for a bowl game.

From San Diego to Miami and many stops in between.

I've seen great games, heart-breaking losses and players mostly having a great experience.

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The bowls are all about the kids, and they should be.

Each one can spend up to $500 per player in gifts, and some find some really creative ways for the kids to get the most bang for their buck.

A recent story listed what 33 of the 34 bowls were giving to the players and coaches. Only the Cotton Bowl deferred, with bowl officials saying they wanted it to be a surprise when the players reported Christmas night.

It is a good thought.

That doesn't mean the media is totally left out of the festivities, and over the years yours truly has collected stuff from a cheap shaving kit to a $12 knife with a rose on it to a Cotton Bowl fleece to so much stuff from the Fiesta and Sugar bowls that I needed an extra suitcase.

That, of course, has nothing to do with why reporters go to bowls. We don't go for the gifts; we go for the games.

Like 1982, when we discovered Gary Anderson was almost Superman as he led the Hogs to a 28-24 victory over Florida in the old Bluebonnet Bowl. (Incidentally, I was at the 1978 Orange Bowl victory over Oklahoma, but not as a reporter).

Or like the late field goal by Kendall Trainor in 1985 that gave the Razorbacks an 18-17 victory over Arizona State.

Or the 27-6 victory over Texas in the 2000 Cotton Bowl.

Yet, if I were to write my memoirs, the one bowl that has lived with me personally was the 1981 Gator Bowl, and what set it apart was a couple of days before the loss to North Carolina in what became known as the Fog Bowl.

It was so foggy that we had to leave the press box and go down to the field to be able to see anything.

What happened before that was a memory.

The bowl folks hadn't done much for the media (the shaving kit), and when they announced there would be a river cruise just for the media, we - thenphotographer Clay Carson and I - decided it would probably be a 12-foot party barge with diet sodas.

We were trying to decide whether to go when they delayed the trip by two hours, so we took off to see the oldest continuous city in the United States, St. Augustine, which is a neat little place.

When we returned we heard them announce the transportation was leaving for the river cruise, and since the bus was full we traveled in a motor home.

The party barge was an expensive yacht (my first and only time on one), but the cruise was too short so we talked the owner (he invented Rid-A-Bug) into letting us ride it back to the dock (everyone else got off at a spot near the hotel).

He even sent his limo to get us. One of the guys who stayed behind told us he had been a reserve for the Pittsburgh Steelers and was friends with former Hog Dennis Winston.

For some reason he knew all the words to "I Hear Little Rock Calling," and we drove around Jacksonville, Fla., singing that over and over.

Five times the driver asked where we were staying, and five times he was given the name of a different hotel (it was the first time in a limo, too), only to tell him when we arrived that, no, that wasn't it.

Finally, after two hours of our singing, he parked and got out of the car and told us we were on our own.

Someone - Clay, I think - showed him his key that had Sheraton on it, and he did drop us back at our hotel.

Now, 27 years later, that first yacht and limo ride still rank high, and starting next year there will be more bowls to remember.