Meowy Christmas from Tiger Lily

Drinkin' with Lincoln

'Tis the season for holiday parties--and when you work at the Lincoln Home, those parties include none other than Abraham Lincoln! Greg and I attended the Lincoln Home Christmas party last Friday night at Mariah's, one of my new favorite Springfield restaurants. We had a really great time, and the food was delicious. Abraham Lincoln even made a cameo appearance to present our superintendent with a "Presidential Pink Slip"--since the superintendent is retiring at the end of the month. Unfortunately the pink slips that the superintendent hands out--of which there have been many lately--are no joke! But anyway, it was funny that Abraham Lincoln came to the party and put on a crazy Santa hat. Santa was also at the party. It was actually just Jim (one of the rangers), but he looks exactly like Santa--beard and all. Greg and I did not take advantage of the cash bar offerings, but many of my coworkers did, so everyone was pretty funny by the end of the evening. Even Lincoln's cheeks were getting a little rosy :-)

On Saturday night we had Greg's work Christmas party. Everyone at the Lincoln Home kept asking me if a funeral home Christmas party involves Santa in a casket. No, there were no caskets--just a lot of nice people and some delicious food. Speaking of funeral people, Greg and I were listening to Conservative talk radio yesterday evening, and the guy filling in for Mark Levin said that Harry Reid looks like a funeral director. Greg was offended :-)

Things are coming along with our condo. Today, probably as I am typing, the carpet is being installed! It will seem like a totally new house. We are done with the painting--except for in the bathrooms--so we're pretty close to being ready to move in. We won't make it by Christmas, but hopefully we can be in by the end of the year.

The Look of Lincoln Home

Since all of our staff here at the Lincoln Home is getting fired, I am now the official webmaster for the park. I have had web experience, and I helped create the website for Natchez National Historical Park, so it's not a totally crazy thing--but our other web guy Matt was awesome. So I can't take credit for the awesomeness of the website, although I have added a few little things to enhance the image of the Lincoln Home. If you'd like to check it out, you can visit the Lincoln Home website at: http://www.nps.gov/liho/index.htm. Thanks to Matt, it is one of the coolest NPS websites I've ever seen.

On a more important note, December is birthday month! Happy Birthday today to Sidney, and Happy Birthday on Sunday to Mom and Mary Lincoln!!! December is truly a month of happy celebrations. I hope Mom had a wonderful birthday and that Sidney has a great day today.

Ice is Not Nice

Even though it is not yet officially winter according to the calendar, I think most people across the country would contend that winter has officially arrived. It is SO COLD outside!! My drive to work this morning was the worst ever. It was snowing a little when I left the house, but it didn't seem too bad on the roads. I left a little earlier than usual and drove a little slower than usual just in case there was ice on the roads. You couldn't see any ice, but I figured that since it had been snowing through the night and it was below freezing, chances were good that ice could have formed. Everything was good until I was driving up the hill past Oak Ridge Cemetery. I was driving in the left lane when I saw the guy in a Ford Explorer next to me hit a patch of black ice. He started to spin out and then slammed on his breaks--which caused him to spin 180 degrees. I immediately started tapping on my breaks--because I could feel that there was ice under my car too--but there were cars behind the Explorer in the right lane, so I couldn't swerve out of the way. He started to slide head-on towards me, and I knew I was going to get hit. At that point I totally freaked out and basically gave up driving so I could brace myself for impact. The only way I can explain what happened next is that someone was watching out for me and took over driving at that point. One moment the Explorer is coming right at me, then I felt my car swerve, and the next minute I was untouched and safely past the Explorer. The Explorer guy hit the median, and it looked like he was going to flip over, but he just bounced up onto the median and stopped. It was totally crazy and I was shaking for the next 30 minutes. That was one close call, and I am grateful to have gotten to work unscathed.

When I arrived at work, an Illinois State Policeman was there for our monthly safety meeting. The topic of the meeting was . . . defensive driving. :-) Someone asked the policeman what to do about black ice. He said, "Well, the first thing is, don't panic." Ooops! That's the first thing I did.

Julmarknad

Hooray for a three-day weekend! Since I am transitioning to my new work schedule (Tuesday-Saturday), I got an extra day off this weekend--which was especially helpful because Greg and I were able to get a lot done at the condo. We still have a lot left to do, but we're making good progress. The place will look awesome when we're done.

Over the long weekend I was also able to go on a fun outing with my friend Crystal (a fellow ranger). One day she and I discovered that we both have Swedish ancestors (mine is Great-Grandpa Gustave Fredrickson). So, in celebration of our Swedish heritage, we took a trip up to Bishop Hill, Illinois, which was founded by Swedish immigrants in the late 1840s. My last trip to Bishop Hill was with my friend Linda when I was her intern at the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. That was a rather sad trip because we were going up there to help the people at the Bishop Hill State Historic Site prepare to close (due to budget cuts). But the site was reopened earlier this year, and life has returned to Bishop Hill. Crystal and I went there for Julmarknad--the annual Christmas Market. It was so much fun! All of the shops were decorated for Christmas, and we had some amazing Swedish meatballs (and pie!) at the cutest restaurant: The Red Oak.

There were also some traditional Swedish Christmas characters running around town. Our favorite was the Julbock or "Yule Goat." He was so funny. We learned that the Julbock runs around bringing presents to kids. He was walking around Bishop Hill ringing a bell and making sheep noises. He also liked to hide behind trees and jump out to startle unsuspecting visitors. He was followed around by two little "tomtes." A tomte is a little elderly man who has a long beard and also brings Christmas presents to kids. The Bishop Hill tomtes, however, were little kids with fake beards. They were really funny too. Crystal and I had a great time celebrating both our Swedish heritage and the Christmas season!