The Bear Facts
December 22, 2018

(Jngle bells ring)

Good morning! Season’s greetings, happy holidays, and Merry Christmas! I’m Abbi Heying!

I’m Amanda Miller!

I’m Emma Fogarty!

I’m Meredith Tigges!

And I’m Reese Rosenmeyer! Welcome to a special episode of the “Bear Facts”, where we’re getting ready for Christmas here at Bishop Garrigan High School.

Christmas is always a time of giving and helping out those in need, and we’ve done a lot of that here at school. Last Friday we packaged thousands of meals that will help out needy people in the South. We’ve also raised money to send goats to Haiti in a project to help our twin parish at St. Jeanne de Chantal. Student council members joined kids from all over the Top of Iowa Conference in sorting toys for the Salvation Army in Mason City, and at the basketball games with Algona High last night we helped raise money for those who are fighting cancer.

The whole building at Garrigan has been decorated for the holidays, and some of the displays are really interesting. Science teacher Beany Bode had a display that showed the difference—both in looks and energy use—between old Christmas lights and new LED lights. He also had a tree where the decorations were models of DNA produced by the biology students. There’s more traditional displays elsewhere in the building, and they’ve all gotten us in a festive mood.

For the past twenty years on the “Bear Facts” we’ve done a Christmas survey, where we’ve asked students questions about the holidays. We asked people what they’re doing over Christmas vacation. Some people have big plans. Abbi and Logan Heying are heading for Ireland, Mr. Burrow is going to Canada, Bailey Kollasch will be in Texas, Andrea Pacheco is off to California, and Carlie Langerman will be spending the holidays in Utah.

A lot of people are staying around home or maybe visiting relatives who live close by. Kellen Murphy says he’ll be eating KFC. Jordan Hansen will be busy working at Bear Care, doing clinicals at Good Sam, and visiting with family and friends who are home from college. Kiana Book says what she’ll be doing is thanking God she doesn’t have to wear a uniform for eleven straight days. The single most common activity over Christmas vacation, though, will be sleeping.

Our next question was “What do you want for Christmas?” Money was by far the number one answer, with clothes coming in a close second. New headphones were also a popular choice. Ashley Franklin says she wants a bag of potatoes, Bryce Capesius wants a pole for ice fishing, Collin Casey said he wants cattle supplies, Marguerite Fakler wants a dog, and Marcus Plathe says he wants to be Mr. Burrow’s favorite student.

Several people put an Apple watch on their Christmas list. At the other end, Mr. Bode said he doesn’t want anything for Christmas, because he’s spoiled already. Then there’s John Joyce. He said he wants world peace for Christmas, but we’re pretty sure he’d be happy if he could get the big boot off his foot and get back to playing basketball.

We asked people the strangest food they’ve had for Christmas. Carolyn Hough said that would be either rabbit or dove. Kelly Baade’s weirdest holiday food was squirrel, and Sean Davis remembered one year when they couldn’t make it to the family Christmas, so they ended up having pizza.

While a lot of people said they never eat anything weird, some other strange foods included liver paté, pickle wraps, oyster stew, herring, and pig brains. White jello, olives, fried ice cream, and Irish soda bread. Some other unique responses came from Jack Snyder, who said “candles”, and Samantha McIntire, who said her strangest Christmas food was “whenever my aunt decides to make something new.”

The next question was “What’s your favorite Christmas song?” Alex Mammen spoke for many people when he said “I hate them all,” but there were a lot of other answers. Kelle Bormann was one of many who selected the often criticized “Baby, It’s Cold Outside”. Derrick Kirsch said “Jingle Bells—the death metal version”, and Julia Berte said “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas”.

Hollis Bode’s favorite song was “Blue Christmas”, Jenna Heinen likes “Go Tell It on the Mounain”, and both Halle Menke Angelo Winkel prefer “All I Want for Christmas Is You”. Other popular holiday songs included “What Child Is This”, “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire”, “White Christmas”, “Silent Night”, and “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch”. We’d like to join Isaiah Plathe, though, in wishing all of you a “Holly, Jolly Christmas”.

Our final question was “What’s your strangest Christmas memory?” For Kyle Schaaf that was having his parents put up the Christmas tree in the kitchen instead of the family room. Gabe Trainer said his weirdest memory was leaving fudge in the oven so long that it started on fire. He also said his strangest Christmas food was “burnt fudge”.


Aric Laubenthal’s strangest memory was putting five layers of frosting on a cookie, and Andrew Arndorfer remembers being sick on Christmas as a kid, and Kurt Condoleon once got sick at Christmas while swimming in a public pool. Cade Winkel was one of several people who recalls getting coal for Christmas.

Colby Graves’ weirdest memory was waking up under the Christmas tree, while Austin Von Bank remembers jumping off a roof into a snowbank. Cora Ricke remembers kittens climbing up in her Christmas tree and hiding, and Veronica Capesius remembers her brother getting a BB gun for Christmas and earning the nickname “Ralphie”. Then there’s both John and Joseph Meis. For both of them the weirdest memory was when the Christmas tree fell on their grandma.

Because of the holiday, we’re skipping our Senior Spotlight this week. There’s two weeks of events on our calendar, but it’s light because it’s Christmas vacation.

There’s nothing at all on the calendar all next week, except for Christmas Day next Tuesday. Basketball practices will resume toward the end of the week.

January 1st is New Year’s Day, and classes will resume on Thursday, January 3rd. Friday the 4th we’ll have a basketball quad, with the Bears traveling to Britt to play West Hancock.

That’s our last “Bear Facts” for 2018. We’ll be off next week because of Christmas vacation, but be sure to join us again on Saturday, January 5,for our first “Bear Facts” of 2019. Until then …

MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYBODY!

(Jingle bells ring)