The Bird Whisperers

So there's a common theme around the Skertich family for the past 40 years that the cardinal is the Skertich family bird. Wherever we have lived, we have had families of cardinals living within our yards and surroundings. Now this is not really all that uncommon, I wouldn't think, because there are a lot of cardinals in Chicago, but nonetheless, it's been labeled the family bird for a generation or two.

And now, we've got two families of cardinals in our very own back yard.  There are two moms and two dad cardinals and they frequent our yard and our back porch quite often, whistling about and just doing their thing.

So here's what happened the other day - we're chilling in our backyard and one of the dad cardinals comes through and hangs on the wire.

So Mae has this great idea of getting our cardinal stuffed animal that has this amazing cardinal whistle when you press his wing so she runs and gets that and we start whistling with it and then more cardinals start to come.

So then Mae goes in and gets her bird's nest and eggs that she made out of clay and brings that into the backyard.

2-3 minutes later we've got four cardinals singing sweet music in our yard... and the tradition continues.

Christmas Morning 2013

Where've I been for the last two weeks? Around, off of school, busy as a bee and not particularly feeling like a blog post. But that has passed, so here I am.

We left off on Christmas Eve. So Christmas morn came and we were ready to roll. Down the stairs we came...

to notice that Santa had, in fact, arrived. And what could that gigantic present on the right be???

But first stop was the food we left behind, which Santa and his assortment of sooted sidekicks took care of pretty well.

One problem though, good golly big jolly apparently couldn't stay away from the donuts. I'll let it slide this time, Santa, because, well, you done good. (did you notice, on the photo above by the oranges, he left the "no munching" sign that I put on the donuts? Kind of rubbing it in there, Santa, I'll be watching you this year.)

Got some good stuff, among them a stuffed cardinal that I REALLY wanted (long story, but did you know the cardinal is pretty much officially the Skertich bird?)...

And the movie Brave, which is flipping awesome!

Also scored this fancy vest.

And Mae? Well, she pretty much only needed her chap stick to be happy. He could've shut her off after that and I don't think she would've even noticed.

Pax did some opening as well from old St. Nick as well, and then it was on to our big present that was addressed to all of us.

Looks like there are gonna be some ballers in this house.

Lastly, this holiday season I'll leave you with our Christmas Card Wall of Fame. Thanks to all of you who sent one our way, we just LOVE Christmas cards.