And then it was 2010!

2010 snuck up on me! We've been so busy moving that the approaching new year was pushed to the back of my mind. But it's always nice to start a new year, and this year we'll be in a new house! Greg and I spent all day today moving (I am truly pooped), and tomorrow night will be our first night staying at the condo. Poor Greg has to move all of the big furniture items tomorrow with the help of his boss, Rich. I will be working at the Lincoln Home tomorrow, so I won't be much help. The weather has not been much help either. It is SO COLD outside!!!! It is currently seven degrees outside with -9 windchill. But tomorrow the high for the day will be 13 degrees, and the middle of the day temp will be somewhere around -15 with windchill! I am going to wear my warm, fuzzy ranger hat tomorrow. We're only supposed to wear those hats on days when the cold is extreme, and I consider -15 extreme. So the moving conditions are not ideal, but at least we're moving into a warm, cozy house.

Last night Greg and I were going to go to Olive Garden to celebrate New Year's, but it was packed. So we ended up at Denny's and had a fun New Year's Eve dinner there. Moving and working at the same time wears me out, so I didn't make it to midnight, but that's okay. It was nice that the Lincoln Home was closed today, but it's back to the grindstone tomorrow.

Unfortunately Comcast will not be able to hook up our cable/internet at the condo until January 11, so we will be without the internet at home until then. So, I will probably not post anything on the blog until then, but by that time we should be pretty well settled in the condo so I will post a lot of pictures. Happy New Year, everyone!

Belated White Christmas

I was a little disappointed when I woke up on Christmas morning to see that it was raining. A gray Christmas instead of a white Christmas? But then that afternoon it started to snow, and it has been snowy and icy ever since. In fact, they even canceled church today because of the snow/ice. My drive home from work last night was horrible. It took me about an hour to get home, and I couldn't see because of all the blowing snow. But luckily I only fish tailed once. That's what I get for wishing for a white Christmas! :-)

Christmas morning started for us at 1:15 a.m.--not because we got up really early to open presents--but because someone died, and Greg had to go pick them up. He didn't get back home until 4:00 a.m., and then he had to go meet with the deceased man's family later on Christmas morning. So Christmas didn't really start for us until 1:00 in the afternoon, but it's better late than never. We received a lot of fun, nice gifts. Thank you everyone! One of my favorite presents was the Abraham Lincoln Jim Shore statue from Mom and Dad. Richard also sent us some cool Lincoln stamps and portfolio.

Greg gave me a lot of nice gifts, including this signed Jason Heyward baseball jersey! Jason Heyward played for the Myrtle Beach Pelicans, the minor league team in the division just below my Mississippi Braves. He even played for the Mississippi Braves last year, and will play the 2010 season with the Atlanta Braves. He was the 2009 minor league player of the year.

Tiger Lily thought that unwrapping Christmas presents was great fun. "I is de favowite Christmas pwesent?" she asked as she posed for this photo.

And then there was the ferocious Little Spike who is seen here guarding his new blue flamingo toy from Big Spike. Greg's parents sent some fun presents to the animals. The funniest gift was a laser pointer, which is meant for cats, but Big Spike likes it just as much--if not more--than Lily. It is so funny to watch him chasing the elusive red light around the house. He paws at it and tries to bite it. It is so funny to watch! That evening we went over to our friends David and Teal's house for a delicious dinner. Since we couldn't be with family for the holiday, it was nice to be with friends. So we had a fun Christmas here and hope that all of you had a Merry Christmas as well! We've been busy trying to get things packed up here and finish getting the condo ready to move in. Hopefully we can do most of the moving this coming week.

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.