No Christmas shopping today. No Thanksgiving shopping, either. Get your remote control warmed up and tell the family they're on their own for dinner, because there's a lot of sports to be watchin' today.

The fun starts at 2:00, when the Revolution try to get from "happy to be in the championship game", which is old hat, to actually winning the thing. They're matched up against Houston for all the marbles again; goalie Matt Reis and scoring machine Taylor Twellman will try to keep up their sublime march through the MLS postseason and bring another title home to New England.

Then at 6:00, fresh from their scariest finish of the season, the Celtics visit the 2nd best team in the East when they tip off in Orlando. The team dined together last night at Maison Doc Rivers, and prepare to see old friends tonight - Doc, of course, used to coach the Magic, and Ray Allen faces off against his old teammatte Rashard Lewis for the first time since they both left Seattle. A year before Seattle leaves Seattle.

The arguable Main Event for most fans starts at 8:30 when the Pats finally take the field again (doesn't the Colts game seem like it was three months ago?) in Buffalo. The Bills have won four in a row, so the Patriots aren't taking them lightly, as if the Patriots ever take anyone lightly. The Western New York press is trying to figure out where this would land on the greatest upset list in Bills history. We'd be a little more uneasy about this game if it weren't coming off the bye week, when Coach Belichick has two weeks to put the full "Manchurian Candidate" treatment on his players. Or if we could name the Bills' starting QB without help from the Internet. (It's JP Losman, back from the injury he sustained in Foxboro weeks ago).

Yesterday was a mixed bag for local teams. BC, which is out of the national title hunt (or are they? Top ranked teams keep dropping like plague victims this year), put together a remarkable comeback to beat Clemson last night, giving them a shot in the ACC title game. Matt Ryan, finding his late-game mojo again, hit Rich Gunnell for the game-winner with 1:43 to go after the Eagles struggled for most of the game. The Bruins? Not so lucky. Tim Thomas' golden streak wore off, and the Canadiens pelted him for a 7-4 victory that was marred (or enlivened, depending on your POV) by a whole bunch of fights. Zdeno Chara was especially frisky, pummeling a few Habs on his way to 19 penalty minutes. But, hey, you've got to get your spark somewhere.

Even Harvard got in on the action, whupping Yale 37-6 and clinching the Ivy League title. Any mathematical chance they can play for the national title?

Flickr photo from adifromusa.