Let the festivities begin...

It is a feastive crowd gathered at the Rayburn House Office Building as constitents from Connecticut's 2nd and 5th Congressional Districts gathered to watch the swearing-in ceremonies on closed circuit TV.
"I'm here because of the realization of it," said Cathy Osten of Sprague. "We finally did it, and had to come and see it. It's the reward for all the hard work."
Osten, president of the state Correction Department Supervisors Council, was one of many union workers from eastern Connecticut working on behalf of Congressman Joe Courtney's campaign in last year's mid-term elections - and not being in Washington this week to celebrate the victory today was something she couldn't bring herself to miss.
Several hundred Connecticut residents attending the "viewing" party, gathering around the lone television set broadcasting the House ceremony at the Capitol.
A separate, private ceremonial swearing-in ceremony will be held in the Rayburn Room on the second floor of the Capitol later this afternoon. Courtney, who made a brief appearance at the viewing party, brought his father's old Bible with him.
"It's sentimental," he said.
His father passed away in 1997.