President Barack Obama makes phone calls to 10 American servicemembers stationed around the world from his vacation rental home in Kailua, Hawaii, Dec. 24, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
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President Obama walks with first lady Michelle Obama and their daughters Malia and Sasha into a Christmas morning church service at Marine Corps Base Kaneohe Bay in Hawaii, December 25
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Hope you’re having a perfect day 😉
The Obama Diary 
Merry Christmas, Chipsticks 🙂
Merry Christmas rikyrah, Merry Christmas everyone!
Merry Christmas, Chips! Thanks for keeping TOD updated today … was fun to check in every now and then and see “new stuff”!
Merry Christmas Chips, I give thanks for this site and the family of friends here everyday.
Wishing all the TOD Family a wonderful holiday season. And thank you for keeping us happily sane 🙂 🙂
Very merry holiday season Chipsticks. You are so appreciated and you are my “present” every day, thank you!
oh, how lovely our First Family is looking today 🙂
They really are lovely! 😀
Merry Christmas Chipsticks!
Malia looks so much like her mother with her hair like that!
They are truly a handsome family.
Enjoy your holiday Mr. President. You damn well earned it.
Hurrah! He looks so relaxed and happy today! He and the family look so glad to be together in friendly, loving Hawaii. I know everyone on this site has been sending them a lot of love!
Love my First Family! Merry Christmas to All and especially to Chipsticks for her awesomeness. I just got news from my stepson who is living in London that he got baby booties under the Christmas tree: his fiance is pregnant! At 44 he has been longing for a child. So happy days! My stepdaughter is also in London with 2 children; the new baby will bring grandchildren to 6 (2 in CA)! So a truly exceptional Christmas.
Congratulations, Tracy! Excellent news.
What a cool way to find out!!! Clever girl!
AWsomeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Congrats Tracy!
Congratulation to you and your family Tracy. It really was a Merry Christmas for you all.
Add another pocket to your spoiling apron. 😆
Congratulations Tracy, this is great news!!!
Congrats Tracy
My congratulations to you Tracy. What a beautiful gift to look forward to. Awesome gift. Many more happy moments to come to you Tracy.HZ
Congrats Tracy! Happy grandmothering. 😀
Merry Christmas Chipsticks and TOD family! Our President looks very happy to be in Hawaii with his family – good for him.
Wow! Thank g-d the President has SS to protect his family especially his daughters. Malia is going to be a heart breaker.
On another note, I hope everyone is having a wonderful day with family and friends. As you know I am in an interfaith marriage. My Catholic husband gave me the best gift for the Hanukkah. I live in the radio desert in South Florida. My family chipped in (children included) and bought me a SiriusXM radio with subscription. I am so glad I now have voice of reason here. I will now have progressive radio AND Slow Blues in C anytime I want to listen to it.
Well, I am off to feed my family. Merry Christmas to my TOD family!!
Shalom, (Peace)
Sue
Important accessories, especially with the coming nonsense in 2012. Good thinking family, you’ve got there! Enjoy the evening. I’m off to start cooking, too!
My advice…stay away from Alex Bennett in the morning on America Left radio. He is putrid. Bill Press wasn’t the best, but he used to be on at the 7am-9am time-slot (maybe earlier), and then a few months ago Alex Bennett replaced him, and even took an hour away from Stephanie Miller, who used to come on at 9 (now she starts at 10). I don’t know who he knows in the upper echelons of Sirius XM, but he has prime radio time for folks going to work, and he sucks. He’s not even an emoprog…I suspect he’s a libertarian. He claims he hates Repubs, but he doesn’t hit them half as hard as he does Democrats and especially the president. I seriously can’t stand him.
Try Joe Madison on 128 the Power. He’s kind of rude to his callers, but a better discussion for the most part.
OUR FIRST FAMILY LOOKS FRESH,HAPPY AND READY YO ENJOY TIME AWAY FROM…’YOU FILL IN THE BLANKS!’
Excellent post by Eclectablog at TPV:
Our4thEstate Bobfr
“No, @SpeakerBoehner, it’s NOT “hard to do the right thing”” http://t.co/b2pH9fb7 @SpeakerBoehner, what is clearly hard is your being honest
His suggestion of a 30 sec video is likely to find many of you talented folk ready to make it happen 🙂
Merry Christmas!
#YesWeCanDoMoreTogether – We Must!
Just coming home from having dinner with my family, had a lovely time, did my best not to eat to much. So nice to see the First Family, they look lovely as always.
Merry Christmas everyone! Thank God for this loving, supportive family here and for Chipsticks who makes it all happen.
Wonderful to see the first family relaxing together. Malia and Sasha look so cute (guess they are probably getting to the ages where they don’t like cute anymore, but…). What great dresses and what a loving family!
Thank you for bringing these pics to us!!!!!!!!!!!
test again 🙂
Is their a picture of the Palin family going to church today. You know the idiot ex- Alaska Governor who was so upset about the Obama Christmas card with Bo the dog on the cover.
Forget hr family, where is the tundra twit today ?
Hi amk, I should have said in reply to your kind question on the Pete Souza post (very tired here from too much cooking) that I greatly appreciated the support of the “faithful few” who showed up to read my diaries at the orange place and were not discouraged by the troll nonsense.
Hi Kat. You posted some of the informative diaries on this admin in that all meat site. Lotsa of effort you put into them. Enjoy this place.
To Tracy and to Sue – what wonderful gifts you both have received this holiday season!
Also wonderful news from Amelia (3Chics) – she has a brand new baby boy grandson!
I’m happy because I HAVE ENOUGH
Good family, good friends, good TOD family, and good food 😀
I meant Ametia (too much good food) LOL!
Oh – it’s just good news after good news today! Marvelous!
Isn’t is great, Theo? 😆 My face will soon start hurting from the continuous smile! Merry, Merry Christmas fellow ‘northerner’ and thank you for your many wise words this year. Best of Wishes for 2012!
Hello to all you great folks on this site. I hope you are having a wonderful Christmas. Greetings from an avid Obama supporter here in Barbados.
The same to you Robert (I just listened to the MerryMen’s lovely Christmas album this morning!) 🙂
Merry Christmas to Chips and the TOD family. I give thanks to this wonderful site and the wonderful people here. Fired up and ready to go for an awesome year 2012!
Merry Christmas, Chips, & The Obama Diary Family~ That was really a beautiful Thank You you gave to everyone on your site, Chips. I’m so thankful you all are here!
Speaking of which…Doesn’t the Obama Family look extra fine in all their Hawai’ian Sunday Best going to Services at The Marine Corp Base at Kaneohe Bay! And, President Obama calling 10 Services Members Stationed Around The World! Priceless!~
Best Christmas EVER!
Chips, thanks for this. Now go and enjoy your lovely family and friends and relax. You deserve it so much. We love you so much, Chips. Thanks for these photos. The girls look so lovely. I love the lovely white dress on Malia. So gracefully worn, and daddy’s hand around his first lovely baby girl makes the statement, oh, boys, do not dare put your hands around this lovely waist. You see? Okay, you got that? Love it. We have such a lovely and thoughtful First Family. I love my President and First Lady.
Chips, go and relax with a cup of tea and enjoy family there. We promise to be very nice tonight. I promise. Love you so very much.HZ
There probably isn’t anything that annoys me more than “some” suggesting that the president’s more aggressive tone, specifically related to jobs and income inequality, is as a consequence of OWS. That drives a sista crazy. The man has been talking about fairness in taxation and the like since he started running, and AJA was proposed before OWS started their occupations…remember the Joint Session address to Congress???? Ugh…just had to vent that out.
vero804, I agree with what you said concerning OWS.
vero804, some people have selective hearing and there is no cure for that.
Me too, and I have noticed. Reverend Al days that all the time. He must have a reason, but I hate hearing it!
I agree. And it’s a disingenuous tactic of not giving the President credit for initiating any activity without suggesting that he’s being pushed by the “left.”
It’s also a way for OWS supporters to elevate their “movement” and give it more juice…by saying they’re so important they’re even influencing the president. In reality – I don’t think the WH is doing more than just keeping an eye on them. They’re not parroting their talking points or positions, that’s for sure.
And half the time the Left, is really the libertarian far right.
Brings to mind DADT. Never mind that he had to make sure Military, others were on board. Some claimed they made him do it. Just yesterday I heard same nonsense on Up with Chris. To his credit he disagreed with his guests. I still tweeted him and told him his guests were spewing bunk and I did not have enough space to educate them.
I agree with you. Just like one day I looked up and Markos on twitter was crediting OWS for making Congress agree to take up the tax debate. Nevermind PBO had told GOP if they didn’t step up, he was going to take it to the American people, which he did.
Just plain nutty.
It’s how the libertarians get attention, they take credit for doing something they had nothing to do with.
Unfortunately, they are inbeded in our MSM liberal beltway types.
So, they have power.
That website is totally in the tank for OWS…it’s craziness. I don’t read them often, but when I do, it’s like all OWS, all the time.
I am so proud of myself. Before BWD and finding TOD, even though I’d grown disgusted with that place, I could not tear myself away from there. Not anymore.
Yeah, I was pretty addicted to the website too. But it has truly been changing and becoming more and more hostile to the Democratic Party, not to mention the president. Plus, it’s just way too cliquey for my tastes…if you’re not part of the in crowd of usual suspects, you cannot get heard.
Agreed.
May be it’s not true, but I found this toon funny.
LOL…awesome!
His “American Jobs” speech to a joint session of Congress was on September 8th. OWS started 9 days later on Sept 17th and the protest didn’t get any news coverage until the end of the September.
Bravo, Vero804 for SPEAKING TRUTH! I totally share your sentiments. I wish some one with technical know how would piece together, a video, of the Presidents speeches about jobs and taxation fairness that go as far back as 2009; but especially his speeches in all of 2010 and 2011, way before the staging of OWS!
I just came across this when I was looking up Malia’s age..I knew Sasha is Ten~
“Before his inauguration, President Obama published an open letter to his daughters in Parade magazine, describing what he wants for them and every child in America: “to grow up in a world with no limits on your dreams and no achievements beyond your reach, and to grow into compassionate, committed women who will help build that world.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_of_Barack_Obama
Forgot to sign in, Chips. Sorry. Had to shutdown and forgot I needed to sign in after doing that.
And to ALL a good night! Thank you for a wonderful Christmas weekend! Bless you!
Senator Bill Nelson expected to win overwhelmingly-
http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/the-buzz-florida-politics/content/fla-insider-poll-bill-nelson-connie-mack-running-away-w-expectations-game
That’s an important hold for us, right? The race here in VA for Webb’s seat will be close…the poll numbers are always within the margin of error. I feel good about Kaine, though.
Me too! Liz Warren will be key for us to hold senate!
Liz Warren winning will technically be a flip – although it’ll be back to what it should be.
That is what we need, 1 flip ti hold the senate!
Good to know. I’ll definitely be voting for him.
So, being the dork that I can be, I bought Just Dance 3 for Wii, since the president picked it up too at his Best Buy shopping trip. Well, it was quite a work out. I’m in pretty good shape, but man, it kicked my booty to be dancing around like that. Didn’t help that I had quite a few mimosas beforehand.
Lol!
I rate this pants on fire and a good job by dws-
http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/stateroundup/politifact-did-wasserman-schultz-deny-a-rise-in-unemployment-under-obama/1207519
What do you guys think?
I think she was just trying to refute the idea that unemployment has been skyrocketing since the president took office.
Yup! She was good. Btw- if we can somehow get unemployment under 8.2, when he took office, that would be outstanding talking points!
SIOUX CITY, IOWA — The alarms are sounding in Iowa.
Conservatives and Republican elites in the state are divided over who to support for the GOP nomination, but they almost uniformly express concern over the prospect that Ron Paul and his army of activist supporters may capture the state’s 2012 nominating contest — an outcome many fear would do irreparable harm to the future role of the first-in-the-nation caucuses.
In spin rooms, bar rooms and online forums, the what-to-do-about-Paul conversation has become pervasive as polls show him at or near the top here just weeks before the Jan. 3 vote.
Paul poses an existential threat to the state’s cherished kick-off status, say these Republicans, because he has little chance to win the GOP nomination and would offer the best evidence yet that the caucuses reward candidates who are unrepresentative of the broader party.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/stateroundup/the-gop-establishments-biggest-fear-ron-paul/1207055
The Republican Party is a mess right now. They are only “for” beating and disrespecting this president. Their ideas – whether the Reagan faction or the Bush II faction have proven to be failures. They got nothin’ but hate and negativity right now. No surprise that they don’t know what they want in their candidates or in the process they have to select them.
And Romney lies about everything!
http://twitter.com/#!/BorowitzReport/status/150929021167861760
Sorry, I am trying to see if I can post direct links from tweeter.
Merry Christmas Ms Chips, and thanks for all you do! Wishing everyone in our TOD family a beautiful holiday season.
Lol! Looks like Morning Joe is taking another day off Monday, instead, we all get treated to msnbc award winning-caught on camera.
Oh boy, oh boy!
Jovie, Don’t you mean Morning joke?
While I’m not happy about this 2 month payroll tax and unemployment benefit band-aid, the House Republicans really did hurt themselves. I’ve got some middle-of-the-road family members who have voted Repub before, namely one of my brothers. It was interesting hearing him, in particular, got off on the Repubs for the nonsense they just did with the extension. This was a total unforced error and I think solidified the idea that they are 100% reckless and completely filled with Obama Derangement Syndrome.
Should be “go off” on the Repubs…lol.
But but but Chris cristie wants to be VEEP and the republican establishment is thinking about a brokered convention and Donald Trump, Bloomberg and Bernie Sanders might run third party and…
Such a beautiful family glad they got to go to church.
Thank you chips for creating this wonderful site that I come to every day, and makes me realize that we are indeed part of a global community
that really does care about others, and see what a great job the President and his administration are trying to do to make the world a better place for all people.
President Obama looks so happy to be with his wife and girls. I am loving Malia’s dress. For a minute I thought that it was Mrs. Obama. Pretty weather out there in Hawaii.
Merry Christmas Everyone
Special hugs to Chips for keeping the blog fires burning at the holidays.
A day of hooky from the blog.
We are all knitting and crocheting our fingers to the bone. My daughters are both learning how to crochet and knit and it is fun doing a craft together.
Here are a few encouraging stories
Secret Mission Accomplished :: Surprising Family for Christmas
http://www.whatisworking.com/2011/12/secret-mission-accomplished-surprising.html
Is that how you spell crocheting?
Ohhh!
Heartwarming story
For couple with Parkinson’s disease, dance class lifts spirits and may offer more
http://www.whatisworking.com/2011/12/for-couple-with-parkinsons-disease.html
More stories of OFA volunteers
A WH holiday party worth the drive
http://www.whatisworking.com/2011/12/wh-holiday-party-worth-drive.html
Some more slide pictures of POTUS-
http://www.timesunion.com/news/slideshow/Obamas-vacation-in-Hawaii-2402.php
Thanks, Jovie.
Sure!
Backers of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) are urging the White House to use whatever means necessary to get a director in place, and argue that “extreme” Republican opposition has made such moves not only acceptable, but necessary.
A filibuster-proof bloc of GOP senators promised before a director was even nominated they would block any selection unless changes were made to the new agency’s structure. And they followed through with that promise earlier this month, halting the president’s nominee, Richard Cordray.
With Cordray’s pick stalled, rumblings of a recess appointment are picking up steam as a way to circumvent the Senate and get Cordray in place. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) sought to derail that train of thought on the Senate’s final day of work, blocking a number of other nominees until the White House assured him it would “respect practice and precedent on recess appointments.”
http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/1007-other/201325-advocates-press-for-recess-appointment-of-consumer-bureau-chief
So, January 3rd then. I can wait! Watch them all freak out and of course the far left will not have the Presidents back.
Jose Feliciano – Feliz Navidad:
Yesterday, cristie was at the Jets game, today Bloomberg was at the Knicks game.
Both got on tv.
Uh huh, uh huh!
Who care about cridti when you can listen to: Luther Vandross – Killing me Softly
Or Marvin Gaye, I was listening to him earlier?
MARVIN GAYE & TAMMI TERRELL “Ain’t no Mountain High Enough”
I’ll keep Luther Vandross. (RIP)
Luther and Marvin both are pretty darn good. Motown music was the best. They just don’t make music like that anymore. Temptations, Four Tops, Supremes, Smokey Robinson, and on and on.
Last one is a tear jerker
Balloons to Santa found in time to grant Auburn girl’s wish
http://www.whatisworking.com/2011/12/balloons-to-santa-found-in-time-to.html
Back to knitting, then my husbands pie – with get this pie crust that uses vodka. Ever since he retired he watches cooking shows and then makes the recipes. Flakiest crust ever. Vodka – who knew?
Good post Christmas morning family. Hope everyone had a great one.
I got up shortly after 6:00…..turned on small TV in my kitchen/casual dining area. It was still on MSNBC from couple days ago and MTP was replaying. Immediately heard some woman (????–no idea who is was) predict that the AFA will be overturned by 5-4 vote. Obviously, this is the planned meme between now and decision time. They have to repeat it over and over………..SICK, EVIL, MEAN people. btw, I very quickly changed to a local station–no desire to hear any more GOP shills.
Happy Boxing Day! Back to work today, proud to keep the economy flourishing! Will try to peek in at random moments…. Have a great day!