(1) President Obama with Akira Cooper at the Community Children’s Center in Lawrence, Kan. (Photo by Doug Mills)
(4) President Obama’s wave aligns with a rainbow as he boards Air Force One at Norman Manley International Airport prior to departure from Kingston, Jamaica (Photo by Pete Souza)
(6) President Obama kisses Vice President Biden after delivering the eulogy during funeral services for Biden’s son, Beau at St. Anthony of Padua Church in Wilmington, Del. (Photo by Kevin Lamarque/AP)
(7) Dancing with sister Auma Obama, President Kenyatta, and others at the State Dinner in Nairobi (Photo by Pete Souza)
(8) President Obama and daughter Malia arrive at the White House on the first family’s return from vacationing on Martha’s Vineyard (Photo by Olivier Douliery/Getty)
(9) President Obama and the First Lady wait on the North Portico for the arrival of President Xi and Madame Peng (Photo by Pete Souza)
(10) The President and First Lady react to a child in a pope costume and mini popemobile as they welcomed children during a Halloween event on the South Lawn of the White House (Photo by Pete Souza)
(11) President Obama smiles next to his daughters Sasha and Malia at the pardon of the National Thanksgiving Turkey event (Photo by Carlos Barria/Reuters)
(12) The First Family attend the national Christmas tree lighting ceremony on the Ellipse south of the White House (Photo by Olivier Douliery/Getty)
(13) Family Portrait (Photo by Pete Souza)
(14) President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama join hands with Rep. John Lewis as they lead the walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday and the Selma to Montgomery civil rights marches, in Selma, Ala. Malia and Sasha Obama join hands with their grandmother, Marian Robinson (Photo by Lawrence Jackson)
****
The Obama Diary 
😎 😎 😎 😎 😎 😎
Damn, you’re in my spot!
six nails, see?
You distracted me with Parade float nonsense – drats! 😀 😀
you gotta see below.
No. 1. I’m a kids’ librarian.
whatjer mean Thank you, we have already counted your vote?
😆 YOU CHEAT!1!1!
HA! you got the message too! LOL!!!!!!
#4
5th! ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
Love each and every photo, of course!
my poty.
what? … photos of the year. sheesh.
Do you want to enter these in our Parade???
Seriously?
why not? Look at the cute baby locker.
Okay, now post a pic of you riding one of these with Jack
with that fecker, prolly I will be the one sitting in the baby jail.
😀 😀 😀
Curosity got the best of me, so I tried to place another vote, and I received a most embarrassing message 😀
OMG, you people have NO respect for democracy!1!1! How many times exactly did you vote for Mitt in 2012????
Damn.
Post the picture of the poodle with the red mess on it’s face. I iz innocent!
Heading out – Happy New Year America
Love the photos even though Ms Chips didn’t let me vote on the last few. I will never forget
Ha, sorry 99ts, I was squeezing in so many posts today!!!! Happy New Year to you, and tell Mr 99 to let you near that telly soon! 🙂
OMG! Just checked, my choice is only in THURD!1!1!1!
See? this is what I was really trying to do – see the results – and something went wrong
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.
That’s my story and I’m sticking with it 😀
That IS what happened to me.
I wanted to see how the polling was going.
Not trying to cheat!
Hmph
Stick to your story Vicki 😄
aaand on that note, I’m outta here.
You have to return – twice – once to wish the East Coast Happy NY and then again for the West Coast cheers, okay?
Thrice – let’s not forget us in the Central zone, honey bunch!
J’OB, my bad, three times 🍾🎉
(After I wrote that, I remembered all the other time zones … my bad, too!) Happy New Year’s Eve, GGail!
And to you, Jacqueline, your son and the rest of your family 💕🎉🎉
{{{GGail}}}
{{{J’OB}}}
Happy 1973!
Could be my favorite tweet of New Year’s Eve!
🙂 Happy New Year, you lovely person!!
Right back atcha, loveliest person!
{{{{{J}}}}}
LOLOLOLzzzz!!
This message must be from 2000.
Seriously!
I’m no fan of D Wasserman Schultz, but I dislike the racists clowns on the right worse.
Chips, this is torture.
It totally is, Meta, loved them all but narrowed it down to 6 and 14 and my life was temporarily ruined while trying to decide (6). Damn, this is meant to be fun!1!1!
I think I prefer the live action version of #7!!
Thank you, Meta. I can watch this all night. PBO’s got those steps down. I just love, love it.
Those were my finalists also. In the end, the Selma wideshot won. I think that photo will live after all of us are long gone.
If a video clip competition was held, “Amazing Grace” would win easily.
+ 1,000,000,000 Vicki, the moment of the year for me.
Agree.
I voted, but unable to see the results…Glad that I exercised my civic duty nonetheless…. 🙂
And I tells ya, this group of photos was EXCEEDINGLY hard to choose from.
Just to inform you, my tri tip smells AWESOME
I’m sure it does! My son does all the cooking at his house, when he’s able, and sometimes I’m invited (interest in cooking skipped a generation, in my case). Today, I told him I’d treat us to a pork roast (my German-American grandmother’s New Year’s Day good luck dinner with sauerkraut), if he’d cook it … but I mentioned if he didn’t feel like it, I’d get some pork chops and bake them, or something, and then maybe add some sauerkraut, or whatever … and he e-mailed me this (I think the CAPS said it all):
YOU ARE NOT MAKING CHOPS AND PUTTING SAU…NO NO NO. I AM COOKING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(I was just trying to be nice, son. Ha!)
hahahahahaha…love that!!
I’m gonna love that dinner! 🙂
Chips, this isn’t fair. We can’t vote a second time. I want more than one.
Ha! You can tell that the camel feels super important; feels that something big is happening and that he/she is a PART OF IT!!! 🙂 🙂
Good end of the year tweet Chips
I love our President! And once you think about how good he is, it reminds us all – I think – to try to find the good in everybody. Well, everybody who isn’t a RWNJ, that is! I cannot stomach those Neanderthals! 🙂
Great tweets, Chips! And there’s something so majestic about that photo.
meta! Happy New Year’s Eve to you, my O’friend!
HEY, JO’B!! Happy NYE to you, my dear! Here comes 2016!
Can’t wait for it!
This has been SO WONDERFUL! I loved every photo and had a very difficult time in some line-ups, and other times BOOM — instant certainty. What a sweet, uplifting, delightful reminder of the abundant goodness, hilarity, dedication, and humor with which our First Family and VP Biden and family moved through this extraordinary and challenging year. Missed a few votes today but going through each month is a great pleasure. And distraction! In a good way. Thankful.
I just saw Armstrong Williams on NBC Nightly. He’s the cause of the people leaving Carson’s campaign. Armstrong said that a new Carson will emerge soon – one that will win the White House.
I almost fell off my bed laughing
I love them all, but I’m voting for 14.
I love anyone with POTUS, FLOTUS, Malia and Sasha.
Oh shhhhhhhiiiiiiiiii————-!!!!!!!!!! Do I REALLY have to choose one?!?!?!? This is tooooooooooooooooooo hard! Yes, I’m whining. Oh well, looking again. I WILL decide.
Happy New Year TODVille!
I wish you good health, success, love around you, peace in your lives, joy everyday, and a Democratic President-elect.
Happy New Year to everyone:) I rarely make it until midnight (in my own time zone) so just in case….I wish all of you only goodness, and happiness and strength to do what has to be done….I wish for huuuuuuge voter registration drives and good surprises from SCOTUS…..the way to ASSURE that we get good rulings from SCOTUS, is to VOTE! 🙂
Hugs, love and good wishes to all! Back to lurking…
Fireworks. That means my dog will bark all night. WTF is wrong with these people??!!
Thanks for all your work and the laughs.
Happy 2016 and all the best to everyone here!!
Best Prez, First Lady and Family…EVAH.
Wishing Ms. Chips, all “assistant blog tyrants”, and everyone on TOD a fantastic New Year, 2016!
May health, happiness, and prosperity for you and your family/friends be among the best gifts you all receive in this new year;
Keep holding, PBO, Team Obama, and each other, up through the challenges and victories that await us.
Although I looove #3…the Michelle Snuggle, I had to go with #14 as that captures history in a nutshell.
Happy New Year TOD. May Love, Happiness,Peace and Health surround you all for 2016.
Chips thank you for being you 🙂 and for all that you do.
Happy New Year to all of TOD. Thanks Chips et al for keeping this the home of PBO. Peace and blessings !!
Just read that Wayne Rogers aka Trapper John died, age 82. Loved Trapper John. RIP
That can’t be right! Trapper John – 82????
New post:
http://theobamadiary.com/2015/12/31/2015-amazing-grace/
Happy New Year Everyone!
I got my black-eyed peas going-(for good luck in the new year)
The collard greens (for prosperity) are cooking as well
Rice (for abundance) and ham (for living high on the hog) are doing their thing also!
I wish each one of these New Year blessings to each and every one of you. Add Peace, Happiness, Joy and Great Health and we will have an Amazing 2016!
May God Bless Our Beloved President and First Family!
Now after the difficulty trying to choose photo of the year, we will be settling in for another New Year’s tradition, watching “Black Orpheus, 1958 version.
Happy New Year, TOD ohana.
Unfortunately I always start a new year afraid for my life because i live in an area where the backwards idiots shoot guns (so terrible that a new year is greeted with instruments of violence and death). Every year someone is injured or killed because of stray bullets and each year I cower on the floor waiting for the sound and fury to end.
Health and happiness to everyone and may this year bring more PBO led victories for the betterment of our country and the world. May wiser heads, GOTV, and fact-checking prevail so that a candidate who will build upon the groundwork of progress, prosperity and equality that PBO has built, be elected as the next POTUS.
That was Damn difficult, but I went with lucky #13.