In an incredibly creative and interesting collaboration, Ohio bloggers, Tom Barlow, Tobias Bucknell, Katherine Galo, Jamie Rhein (me) and Jeffrey Smith will be bringing you the 12 Days of Christmas, Ohio Blogging style. This was not my idea. It was Tom's and Tobias's but I called dibs on the first day, so I'm starting this off. Each day there will be another entry in the 12 day series, so keep checking back. The last day will be Christmas Day. You can insert the verses we have concocted to end up with another version of this popular yuletide tune.

By the way, we've heard that the 12 Days of Christmas actually starts on Christmas and goes for 11 days after. We're doing ours like a Christmas countdown. The song verse is in the quotation marks.

"On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me. . .

One cardinal that never flies away...."

Of course cardinals fly away, but they don't go far. Yes, this is one bird that stays around for the winter. I know that. I was a cardinal in my second grade play. I had to say some sort of line to the effect: "I stay around for the winter." I remember it well like it was yesterday, and I assure you it was not. I had a red dress on and a yellow beak fastened to my face with string. Since this little scene does not resonate with any bad memories, I assume I made a fine cardinal and left the stage feeling cardinal-like and proud of myself.

Here are a few things I now know about the cardinal-as of five minutes ago when I looked for information: The cardinal didn't become the state bird until 1933 until the Ohio General Assembly deemed it so. Cardinals were not originally plentiful in Ohio. The state was too darned forested when the first settlers showed up--like 95%. Cardinals numbers increased in the late 1800s after farming took away a lot of Ohio's forest. Cardinals aren't forest dwellers. At one time people made cardinals pets.

For more cardinal facts, check out the web pages courtesy of the Ohio Historical Society.