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I look like you, I talk like you, and I dress like you, except I’m different. I’m enlightened. My Christmas sweaters are brighter, my carols are louder, my Christ-mas trees bigger, and my jingle bells are… jinglier. I know the truth. These are the confessions of the teen-ager who still believes in Santa Claus. Can you believe it? No one believes in Santa Claus anymore. Not even my own family. It’s preposterous! But that’s why, this Christmas season, I’m going to save them. So I started operation Save Everyone from Their Ignorance Because Santa is Totally Real, or Operation SETIBSTR, as I like to call it. What? It’s catchy. Anyway, I launched The Plan as soon as possible: Thanksgiving. The moment the table was cleared, I pulled my uncles away from the football game; I locked my cousins out of the ping-pong room, and I bribed the women who “couldn’t possibly have another bite of food” with eggnog. Once I had them all in front of the TV, I announced that we were going to watch my all time favorite movie (and the absolute truth), Miracle on 34th Street. Luckily, none of them were on to Operation SET-IBSTR yet, though my Uncle Sheldon told me to lay off the caffeine. I’m still not sure what that was about. Once the movie ended and I had stopped crying (it’s such a

beautiful story!), I looked around eagerly for everyone’s reaction. What was more convincing than that? But I got nothing. No tears. For goodness sakes, my dad was asleep! What? They left me with no other choice. I had to pull out the power point. The best method of persuading people is just to throw the cold hard facts in their faces. So I did. Exhibit A: The reindeer food I leave on my lawn every Christmas Eve is always gone the next morning. The reindeer ate it. Obvi-ously. Reindeer = existence of Santa Claus. Exhibit B: The Naughty and Nice List. It didn’t just write itself, you know. Exhibit C: The delicious cookies and 1% Milk and also Lactose-free milk (just in case) that I always leave out are always gone the next morning. Santa, for some reason, drinks both milks. I assume he gets thirsty flying around the world in one night. Exhibit D: Why on earth would the world make so many wonderful movies about Santa if their inspiration wasn’t real? I looked around, expecting to see their awe-struck faces. Except…I didn’t see anyone. They left. How ridic-ulous is that? Some people are just so determined to not to see the truth, even if it’s staring them in the face. But at least I can spread the word… at least you believe… don’t you?

Confessions of the teenager who still believes in Santa Claus

by Megan Cantwell and Avery Harriman

Are you lonely? Do you lack Christmas plans? Have no worries! We are here to save your holiday! This year, think of it as socially acceptable to invite yourself to one of your friend’s family dinners. This will not only be a pleasant surprise for your friend, but will most likely lead to an even stronger friendship (aka Holiday plans for the next 10 years). Think of it as saving your friend from the horror of a boring, awkward family party. With you, it will make it so much less awkward and create an interesting diversion from the usual family feuds that inevitably occur during such events. Here are 9 ways to spice up your friend’s family gathering: 1. Wear a flashy sweater. Light up sweaters display-ing Santa and his reindeer are perfect for this occasion! Make sure that it blinks a lot because most of the family will be decked out in equally flashy, attention-getting sweaters and you want to stand out and look just as wel-coming. 2. Bring food--but not just any food. Go out and man wrestle something from their front yard in clear view of neighbors and bystanders (avoid adored family pets). This will impress not only your friend but also his or her family. Proudly drag your new find inside the home and pat yourself on the back.3. Arrive early. Make sure that you stand at the door and greet everyone. Administer a thorough ID check. Ask for driver’s license, social security numbers, and credit cards. Implement a weapons search at your own discretion (if anyone looks a little a shady or becomes testy when you ask for an ID---ask them to please step aside for a full-body patdown). There is nothing that can crash a family party like an intruder. Also, it is ab-solutely tedious to be greeted by a familiar face at such family affairs; thus everyone will be delighted to see your strange, unfamiliar face upon opening the door. Talk vivaciously to them and shake their hands but be sure to put on hand sanitizer while doing so. This will ensure that they know you are most concerned about staying healthy this holiday season.4. Carve the turkey, do not let the dominant male member of the family who has been doing it for cen-turies carve it. Let’s face it. He has done it at least 998 times. Gently suggest that he needs a break and that someone else needs a turn. In fact, just bring your own knife and tell someone to carve it before he has the chance to wobble over there!5. Administer a speedy weight check! Once the tur-key is carved and everyone is beginning to form a line around the food, insist that everyone get their weight checked beforehand. This will make for many happy campers. It is extremely thoughtful of you to help them keep their New Year’s resolutions from last year.6. Insist upon absolute silence. Make sure that the only sound heard is the clanging of forks and spoons. The sound of you chowing down on your food is neces-sary to fully demonstrate your appreciation. If you are having trouble getting in the act, start with the question “How do the little piggies eat?” and demonstrate this for your audience.7. Refuse to participate in family traditions. No one likes that family dictator who insists that everything must be done as it has for the past five centuries. Insist that you create your own tradition. For instance, not eating desert with utensils, singing everything instead of talking, and when the wishbone comes your way, just break it (wishbones cause family problems, just go ahead and remove that obstacle). Creativity with these traditions is encouraged.8. Shower everyone with gifts. Espresso machines for young children, cymbals and drum sets for children un-der four or teddy bears that continuously sing catchy songs like “It’s a Small World” are highly recommend-ed. To top it off, present that adorable small puppy, that (although it is small now) will surely grow into a gigan-tic Beethoven (parents will love it). Hide these gifts in random places (pockets of jeans, shirts, jackets or even your shoes). When the conversation finally begins to get interesting, break it off and suddenly reveal your gift. You should announce casually through a megaphone that there is something hiding beneath your jacket. At first, be calm, then start freaking out saying things like “Oh my goodness! Santa must have put this here!”9. Give everyone hugs--bear hugs. After all, you don’t want to leave without being noticed. It also might be extremely rude to just come to a family gathering and not show the full depth of your gratitude. After giving EVERYONE hugs, make sure the family repeats step 5 to ensure that they kept their New Year’s resolutions.

by Calicia Wilson and Emilee Ayers

How to make new friends this Christmas

Just follow these four steps to achieve the perfect level of completely appropriate Christmas cheer. Step One: Choose your theme. There are so many to choose from—chubby Santas, frolicking rein-deer, teeny elves, light-up Christmas trees, heavenly Jesus and his angel companions…the list goes on and on. The most important thing you need to do is make sure your sweater has a clear focus. It keeps your festive sweater viewers from getting confused. Step Two: Choose your décor. Once again, the options are truly limitless. You could go for robustly fluffy pom poms, dazzling light-up flare, charm-ing hand-sewn felt characters, a heart-warming family slide-in picture, embroidery and lace feel for that vintage, hand-knitted feel. And of course, a lovely mu-sical tune—such as, say, “The Little Drummer Boy,” on your “musical sweater” is a great way to sport high technology along with holiday spirit. Step Three: Add charisma-inducing enhance-ments. What are these aforementioned enhancements, you might ask. Simply put, these are anything that makes your Christmas sweater that much more loveable and homemade-looking. These can include any/all of the fol-lowing: holes, it doesn’t matter where- in fact, they’re better everywhere; over-stretched sleeves, preferably ones that billow out to your sides as you walk; non-in-tended swoop necks, seeing as fitted clothes are so last season; and, of course, no sweater would be complete

without the seductive aura of old mothballs. Step Four: Show off your fab find. Now that your shopping experience is complete, the time has come to unveil your latest, what we like to call, state-ment piece. Obviously, an eggnog-filled friends and family Christmas party is a great start, but it’s not the only place where your gorgeous new top would be ap-preciated. School would provide for a wonderful audi-

ence, and some of your Christmas cheer would be sure to brighten up those dim hallways. Also, we’re sure the rest of your church’s con-gregation would love to see what holiday spirit your sweater has to bring to the table. But wait! Don’t you go thinking this is a season-exclusive piece. Sure, Christmas (and the months preceding…and maybe one or two following) is when most chose to dun their fes-tive apparel, but what better to

remind everyone that winter’s a’ coming than a Fourth of July picnic! No one would see it coming, and in fact, they’d most likely end up thanking you for reminding them of them favorite time of the year. Trust us, no mat-ter what the season, your new Christmas sweater will be turning heads. And there you have it: four easy-as-pie steps that will boost your holiday pizzazz through the roof! You know what to do. Get out there and find that perfect Christmas sweater. No excuses!

Picture courtesty of www.buyuglysweaters.com

How to pick out that perfect Christmas sweaterby India Allen and Alicia Humphrey

Welcome to yet another installment of Tales of the Insanely Weird. Christmas time is upon us, and for most people that means another round of toys, candies, Christ-mas TV specials, and (hopefully, for the adult members of society) eggnog. Of course, Christmas is not without oddities, with legends and traditions you wouldn’t think could be associated with the birth of Jesus, as well as being an unexpected source of other legends. One might even say it’s a little…weird. Apparently, there was a time where candy canes were perfectly straight. According to worldofchristmas.net, we owe the more recognized “J” shape to a German choir-master, who gave the candies to a rowdy group of chil-dren to keep them still for a Nativity ceremony. In order to avoid being sacrilegious, the candies were bent at the end so as to resemble a shepherd’s staff, and thus attach religious importance to the candy by referencing Jesus-the ultimate Shepherd. Believe it or not, the idea of Rudolph did not originate with the ABC holiday special. There once was a poor Chicago copywriter by the name of Robert May, whose wife was in failing health. To cheer up his four year old daughter, he invented the tale of Rudolph and his struggle to overcome the mockery of his peers. The tale proved popular not only with the four year old, but with Robert’s office friends, and soon what started off as a lowly poem meant to entertain a child became a hit, selling 6 million copies in 1947.

We’ve talked about candy canes and reindeer, but what of storks? The old cliché of storks bringing babies to couples actually originates from an old Christmas leg-end. As the legend goes, a multitude of animals came on the night of Jesus’ birth to get a glimpse of their new Lord. Among these creatures was a long-legged stork, who was so moved by the sight that he plucked his own feathers in order to make a pillow for the newborn. The gift pleased Jesus, and the stork was blessed and made a symbol of births. Have you ever questioned why you put tinsel on a Christmas tree? According to socyberty.com, the tradition comes from the story of a poor German woman unable to provide a proper tree for her family during the holiday. On Christmas Eve, spiders supposedly spun web around the scrawny tree to decorate it. A passing wise man saw the decoration, blessed it, and the next morning the webs turned to silver. Not only did the family have a beautiful Christmas tree, but the woman was able to sell the silver to buy food and gifts for her children. Unfortunately, I don’t have the space to share all of the little oddities I’ve discovered. Even so, you have to wonder how a flying reindeer with an unnaturally lumi-nous nose, sticks of candy meant to distract rowdy choir children, storks carrying babies, and spider webs turned into silver by a magical wise man are associated or origi-nated about a holiday celebrating the birth of the Savior of mankind. Personally, I blame the TV specials.

Tales of the Insanely Weird: A Christmas Conundrum

by Zach Winfield

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It is a classic tradition to bake cookies for Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. Christ-mas tree shapes, candy cane shapes, reindeer or stocking or present shaped cookies in many different flavors are prepared all across the world for Ol’ Saint Nick to nibble on as he delivers his gifts. But what about his helpers? Rudolph and all his friends fly thousands and thousands of miles all night carrying that heavy sleigh—they work hard! It is only right that they be treated too. This yummy reindeer recipe is perfect to sprinkle across your snowy lawn on Christmas Eve. Once you wake, you’ll be sure to find reindeer crumbs across your lawn, as well as the remains of Santa’s midnight snack.

Reindeer FoodTotal Time: 5 minutesIngredients:• 1/4 cup oatmeal • 1/4 cup sugar • Red or green sugar crystals or glitter Take the three ingredients and mix them all up in a large bowl. Sprinkle across your lawn for a scrumptious reindeer snack. For the younger be-lievers, separating the reindeer food into baggies and giving it as a Christmas Eve gift would make it even more special. Write out this poem and tie it to the bag to pass on the tradition:

Sprinkle on the lawn at night,The moon will make it sparkle bright!

As Santa’s reindeer fly and roam, This will guide them to your home!

Of course, you can’t forget to make Santa’s snack just as delicious. This sugar cook-

ie recipe will be sure to delight him—and any other in need of a Christmas treat.

Sugar Cookie SnowmenTotal Time: 1 hour 30 minutesIngredients:• 1 box of sugar cookie mix • 2 tablespoons flour

• 1/3 cup softened butter• 1 egg • 21 pretzel sticks, broken in half • 1 container white frosting • Assorted candies To start, heat up the oven to a toasty 375 degrees. Mix the first four ingredients in a bowl. Shape the dough in to small balls—the first 21 should be about 1¼ inch, the next 21 should be 1 inch in size, and the last 21 balls ¾ of an inch. Lay the snowman flat, building it up in size with the edges just touching each other. Flatten them just a bit, and bake for about 8 minutes. As soon as the snowmen are out of the oven, give them pretzel arms. Let them cool, and then deco-

rate them with the assorted candies and icing. You will soon have an adorable group of tasty snowmen to munch on as you watch your holiday movies. Just don’t forget to save some for Santa!Sources:http://www.food.com/recipe/reindeer-food-48773http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/sugar-cookie-snowmen/ e7ab7863-07ef-4031-974d-c22921e25e66

Christmas Eve Concoctions for this winterby Mackenzie Bruce

Happy Holidays! --the Bell Staff

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Hunter (Coach Smith’s son) – Skyliners, they’re a video game just different, a football, football stuff, a basketball, and a 3DS.

What do you want for Christmas?

by Olivia Carner and Susannah Wilson Asking Santa for presents was always more fun than asking Mom and Dad, and the answers were always more fun, too! On the first day of December, Christmas Season has officially opened, and these kindergarten and first graders had great lists for Santa!

Aidan – I asked for a Barbie, a teddy bear, puppies, and a Barbie Castle with Barbies and puppies in it.

Noland – Nothing. Well, I can’t remember, I guess I’ll be surprised-oh and Legos

Sheperd (Mrs. Hancock’s grandson) – Star Wars, Star Wars everything, and a Star Wars Lego set.

Ethan - army set, Lego city, and a pet bird.

Jamiyah – a microphone so I can sing, a Dora house, a car, a dog, a doll and an Easy Bake Oven.

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Ja’Darion Harmon was chosen as athlete of the month. JD, as he is known to most of us, fills his time with the three sports he participates in: Football, Basketball and Track. Coach Wyatt said, “This is deserving. He has done a great job all year with the help of his team, the key is we need him to keep up his good work throughout the playoffs that’s when it counts!” JD has been a member of Tilghman’s Varsity Football team for four years. He has given the Tornado 30 touchdowns over the course of the season, and he received the 2011 Kentucky Football Association Award in Class 3A, Dis-trict 1. He plays the position of re-ceiver, quarterback and safety. JD says if he could be anyone he wanted for a day he would be Coach Randy Wyatt. JD also tells us, “I’m confident in the playoffs. We should win every game by four touchdowns!” Ja’Darion also spends a lot of his time playing Basketball. He plays for Paducah Tilghman’s Varsity Basketball team, but has been playing since sec-ond grade. He is a small forward for the Tornado, and if he could be any WNBA player, he would be Candice Parker,

forward for the LA Sparks. Finally, JD runs track to stay in shape during his off-season. He won state in the long jump and the triple jump but he also runs the 4x1. He states, “It’s excit-ing to see my hard work paying off!” Coach Shanks tells us that, “JD is sor-ry and doesn’t know how to win a ball

game.” just kidding of course, “I started here three years ago when he was just a sophomore, we really worked hard and pulled through to win state. Now as a Senior, he is still going strong.”

Harmon is Athlete of the Monthby Audrey Withrow

Paducah Tilghman has officially added a new team-- bowling. What started as a club last year where members received free bowl-ing has grown into a full on team! This sport is coached by Mr. Beck. The team practices long and hard on Mondays and Wednesdays where they meet at Cardinal Lanes to “get their bowl on.” The game consists of two main strategies, the approach and the throw. The throw is ei-ther a straight ball “beginner” or a hook ball “advanced.” The approach however is the bowler’s preference. Coach Beck had this to say about his young team, “I just want to get people bowling; don’t expect a state title, but they might surprise us.” A disadvantage to such a young team is the lack of supplies. Coach Beck said, “The big schools like Saint Xavier and Trinity have been bowling since the 1970’s, and they all have their own balls, shoes, wraps, and re-placement finger holes.” The teams have been divided into group one and group two for both boys and girls. The teams are led by their cap-tains Alek Rowton and Kortney Beck. The match against Graves County, their only other rival in western Kentucky, on De-cember first, was a close match with the scores Graves Boys- 2585 and Tilghman Boys 2186, Graves Girls 1302 and Tilghman Girls 675. PT looks forward to a great season this year and also to the future.

Bowling team strikes a good start

by Alex Boyd and Brock Sigler

PT Wrestling crushes theiropponents

by Alex Boyd

Tilghman wrestling is underway and head-ed by Coach Allen. The team started the sea-son with the Takedown Tournament in Trigg County on November 19, but long hours of dedicated training started long before then. Seniors, Justin Wynne and Anthony Pina, will lead the young but talented squad this year, and hopes are high. “We should do re-ally well individually and most likely send six or seven wrestlers to state. I’m also ex-pecting the team to do well as a whole and have a really good season,” said senior Justin Wynne. The Tornado’s hard work seemed to pay off in as Tilghman hosted the Tri Dual match on December 1. The boys went 2-0 as a team, defeating both Graves County and Calloway. Individually Tilghman won 11 out of 12 matches. The wrestling team will be playing in the Armstrong Tiger Invitational on December 17 and the Five Star Classic Invitational December 21-2.

At the start of the season, the Blue Tornado has been working hard on being a regional contender and defending their title. In their first official game against Trigg Co. at Trigg, the Tornado came up short, losing the game in overtime. Coach Stieg says it was a disappointing way to start the season and they have room to improve. With too many turnovers but a lot of points given up from defense, the Tornado needs to play smarter and harder in order to beat good teams. Michael Smith, a starting senior, commented that “we didn’t come out ready to play as much as they did.” Since this was the first game of the season, some leadership is still to be found. JD Harmon thinks the Tornado is going to be a senior led team.The team chemistry is what

needs to be looked for in the games to come. In the second game of the season, the Blue Tornado came out hard, hungry for a win. They pulled through a dog fight with the May-field Cardinals, and after days of practice came out with a win. The Cardinals played the Tornado back into the paint because of their lack of a “big guy” presence, but Cody Schultz and Donald Overstreet (Ju-nior) excelled with their three point-ers. This game proved that the Blue Tornado is a force to be reckoned with. I am sure the devoted Tilgh-man fans are ready and waiting for what the Blue Tornado does next!Upcoming games: Lone Oak @ Lone OakTilghman’s Annual Christmas Tour-nament

A Force to be Reckoned withby Ngodoo Itiavkase

photo by Max Curry

photo by Michael Langston

The Lady Tornado starts off the season with the result they thought they would, a win. Though meet-ing Calloway County, number two in the 1st Region, for the first game is always tough, the Lady Tornado came out and showed themselves, the school, and the community how all their hard work paid off. Starting off the game the Lady Tornado brought full court pres-sure that really bothered the Lady Lakers who turned the ball over a lot, and the Lady Tornado got out to a big lead. Later the game went back and fourth, with the Lady Lakers trying to make a run and the Lady Tornado trying to keep up the good work they were do-ing. Head coach, Rod Thomas explains, “I feel really good about winning, it gave us a good mea-suring stick and we saw where we were.” With great bench play and

the good defense we played, Lady Tornado held Cunningham who is one of the top players in the region at the center position to 4 points and a foul out. Deep in the second half the Lady Tornado got into foul trouble and a key player Chelsey Shumpert fouled out around the five minute mark in the fourth quarter. “When I fouled out, I was a little upset but then I realized that we were still going to win this game. Lady Tor-nado got up 20 points and lost it within’ 9 and ended the game only winning by 12. “I was disappoint-ed a little at the way we kind of slacked a bit with the defense but we kept playing hard and came up with a big victory”. Thomas says. The Lady Tornado finds ways to win and plays hard day in and day out. “Offense Sells Tickets, De-

fense Wins Championships” is the motto they stand by.

Lady Tornado’s hard work pays offby Michael Smith

photo by Max Curry