It's the season for family, friendship, giving, and celebration.

Here's hoping everyone has a happy Christmas eve, and a

wonderful Christmas holiday!

Merry Christmas from Buildingthedam.com to all of Beaver Nation, and even the

Ducks down the road, and the Huskies up the highway!

Oregon St.'s Benny the Beaver competed hard in the Capital One Mascot Challenge, tallying more than 527,000 votes. Unfortunately, Benny fell short in the season long heated competition, which will conclude with a showdown between Georgia Tech's "Buzz" and Nevada's "Wolfie Jr."

But Benny didn't come away completely empty handed, having been named "Most Cunning". Always good to get something out of any friendly, and in this case fuzzy, competition.

Thanks to everyone who supported Benny!

Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com

Happy Thanksgiving Beaver Fans! It's that wonderful time of the year that kicks off the holiday season, when we get to give thanks for our many blessings, not the least of which is the wonderful opportunity to enjoy watching college athletics.

Thanksgiving traditionally features football, followed by more football, and rivalry games and league championships. And then more football, during the bowl season. It also used to signal the impending start to the college basketball season, but impatient types (Connor, we know your true passion!) have moved that up even ahead of Veterans' Day now.

In any event (or is it at any event?), today's the day to enjoy and be thankful for family, food, and then football. Even when one's team is having a losing year, one is still a winner for having the opportunity to enjoy! (And maybe even argue with your brother-in-law over a piece of pumpkin pie about the impending Civil War!)

Thursday night saw the Homecoming parade, pep rally, and finally the traditional bonfire, on the Oregon St. campus, and Orange and Black spirit was still strong despite the disappointing season so far.

There were more products of tree by products than the actual Stanford tree that went up in flames,

but at least Beaver fans were burning something that at one time was a tree!

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Buildingthedam.com readers have doubtless noticed that the seemingly endless stream of great content that Connor has contributed for years has indeed ended.

No, the little guy didn't get trampled by Grant Johnson, or squished by Joe Burton, while covering a Beaver practice (although that could have happened a few times).

Connor has "climbed the ladder", and like Jake, the site's founder, got the chance to move up in the business. It's a different direction than where Jake was able to go, but its a product of the sports business, where opportunities come up. We are doing our job when young men go on to bigger successes.

Connor is now a co-editor of rushthecourt.net's Pac-12 conference site. And while it's a competitor of SB Nation, its also an opportunity for Connor to expand his horizons, and we wish him well in this exciting opportunity.

RVM and I especially will miss Connor's tireless work, and can't express our thanks enough.

And we know Connor will remain a Beaver at heart, and doubtless drop in from time to time.

Go Connor! Go Beavs!