Congressman-elect Chris Gibson called me from D.C. just now to check in and talk about his Congressional orientation, which wraps up tomorrow.

"I'm looking forward to getting to work," he said, with wind audible over the line.

"I don't like to compare and contrast that," he said when asked to compare his Congressional orientation to his military experience, adding that he put the two in "totally different categories."

During orientation week, incoming reps voted designate House leaders - among them Ohio's John Boehner as Speaker of the House and California’s Kevin McCarthy as Majority Whip - and today they voted to extend the moratorium on earmarks into next year.

Gibson said the week has been filled with, "briefings on all the procedures," from setting up a D.C. office to lease requirements for district offices, and "a series of conference meetings for the 112th Congress," which he said has brought all the freshmen representatives (over 100) from both sides of the aisle to meet and greet before getting down to business in Jan.

He mentioned his meeting with outgoing Rep. Scott Murphy, who he spoke to about making D.C. family friendly (both have young children) and, "going about constituent work and good transitions in terms of cases."

Gibson's family will maintain residence in Kinderhook, and he will commute from there to D.C. His wife, Mary Jo, left D.C. today after being there since Sunday.

"We're really enjoying spending time together," Gibson said of the entire NY delegation, mentioning talks with GOP Rep.-elects Richard Hanna (NY-24), Nan Hayworth (NY-19), Tom Reed (NY-29) and Michael Grimm (NY-13).

This morning Long Island Rep. Peter King hosted a coffee session for the NY GOP delegation and another NY GOP event will be held this evening.

He also said NY-1 and NY-25 GOP candidates Randy Altschuler and Ann Marie Buerkle have been in attendance, despite their respective elections being embroiled in re-counts. [NBC]

"I'm very encouraged," Gibson said, speaking of meetings with the NY GOP delegation that have addressed some of his campaign points as upcoming legislative priorities, which include extending the Bush-era tax cuts, regulatory reform, and the biggie, repealing and replacing the Obama health care bill.

He said he was confident the House would pass legislation consistent with "the will of the people" that flipped the chamber to Republican control, with the caveat that they would, "need to manage expectations," with the reality that the Senate will be under a competing "philosophical control."

"All that's going to require is patience," he said, of navigating House bills through the Senate and up to President Obama for passage.

After tomorrow, Gibson will be on vacation until the first week of December.