Sophmore Season

The State Dinner for President Calderón of Mexico got off to a slippery start for White House veteran and current State Department Chief of Protocol, Capricia Marshall. Both of the Obamas admonished the press NOT to print the picture of her falling in a lovely pink gown on the White House steps. That fall is nothing compared to Desiree Rogers freshman and final State Dinner featuring the security gaffe seen round the world. This is Take Two in the Obama Administration on many fronts. But there is one dessert that is making a first appearance: Goat Cheese Ice Cream. One thing that remains a trend for the Obamas is a guest Executive Chef that specializes with a particular type of cuisine. In this case a hometown fave of the president's and first lady, Chef Rick Bayless. He last tweeted about his sauces and mole earlier this morning before rushing off to the siren call of his pots and pans at the White House.

Another signature hallmark that is appearing from the first lady for her state dinners are bold color palettes for the table settings. This state dinner is half the scale of the November Dinner for Prime Minister Singh of India. Two hundred guests for dinner in the East Room with the historic paintings of George & Martha Washington overseeing the festivities from their gilt frames and then a fabulous switch to the outdoor entertainment tent/building which will see a glamorous Beyoncé. This dinner has a better weather forecast than the November diplomatic soirée that took place on one of DC's most rainy fall days. Prickly pear is making an appearance in the floral arrangements along with fuschia and delicate roses.

Photo courtesy of Getty

Another signature hallmark that is appearing from the first lady for her state dinners are bold color palettes for the table settings. A mix of rectangular and circular tables allow the room to squeeze in a couple hundred perfumed and tuxedoed guests. The gold rimmed table settings look like the Clinton china which will be filled with Wagyu beef in black mole sauce with grilled beans. This will be Juliana Smoot's first time out on managing a State dinner as the new Social Secretary with a much lower profile. This also a first for the Francophile, new White House Chief Florist, Laura Dowling who breached protocol by announcing her new high profile job on facebook before the first lady released a statement.

President Calderon, his wife Margarita Zavala with President & Michelle Obama in the North Portico of the White House.

First Lady Pat Nixon was the most active with dinners beating out all others since the first state dinner held on behalf of the King of the Solomon Islands which included the now state of Hawaii back in the days of Ulysses S Grant. The guest list includes a two-time appearance by Gayle King - accompanying avid tweeter and Newark's mayor, Corey Booker. Mayor Villaraigosa of Los Angeles was present as was the resplendent Eva Longoria Parker sans hubby. Another 100 people get in for the after dinner entertainment on the South Lawn.

More to come...
Confirmations: saw up close it IS the Clinton China.
This was the first State Dinner where the Obamas as First Couple descended the Grand Staircase for a State Dinner in public view. The Staircase was designed specifically by President Truman for formal entrances of the American Head of State

Missing History & Opportunity in the Obama East Wing

What a heady and tumultuous eight months that whirled by with the first biracial president and African American first lady. My focus is the East Wing of the equation. For the Obamas, two cute and curious kids, an internationally famous puppy and so many inspirational firsts or twists on the past such as the incredible Michelle Obama Kitchen Garden that are now part of the American presidential fabric. But not the electronic strand that marks a spot for the current generation or future ones. It also takes time to coalesce all the moving parts of a White House experience in the first year especially with appointed staff learning the history of the People's House, its contents and all who lived there since the muddy time of John & Abigail Adams. The White House is an eighteen acre bubble shared by an energetic family, military trained attack dogs, eagle eyed snipers, priceless antiques, a rambunctious puppy, incredible works of arts, thousands of daily visitors, vintage trees, a one hundred member staff dedicated to the Residence and now, the newest first lady's bees. That's just the stuff you see if on the premises. It is for those who are not on the premises that my post encompasses.

After leaving the Vatican, the First Family heads to Air Force One to go to Ghana.

The only way to understand the White House is to read voraciously or look at the pictures or if one must, suffer through the soundbites the traditional media thinks are important. What endures is the White House legacy. To that end if one is reading this post online, one should also be able to go to the White House website and find the riches and beauty of the house. It takes a while before new first ladies find their sea legs. Only two first ladies had a relative to call upon to get a multitude of details on the operations of a White House, Louisa Adams had her mother-in-law Abigail Adams as Laura Bush had Barbara Bush.

The West Wing side of the Obama Administration shows savvy at the White House website with a blog, policy briefs, and a YouTube channel. Nothing like it exists readily for the Obama East Wing. Yes, there are a couple of photo albums for the first lady, Michelle Obama, but no blog, no fulsome history of each of the State Rooms, the extensive White House American Art collections, no White House Residence senior staff profiles, no details of events hosted by the first lady that resonate - the music series, the output of the $200 investment of the Kitchen Garden or the choices of China, silverware or floral arrangements used at events. Those things must wait for chronicling by a haphazard news media that misses points for posterity. These details are important and will be part of the record of Michelle Obama's tenure as first lady, especially as the first African American. (Photo courtesy the White House of Michelle Obama meeting the retired Chief Florist Nancy Clarke's new granddaughter at a staff party in the mansion.)

Content on the White House website is important and even the West Wing is struggling to capture everything and get pieces filled in. The East Wing should join alongside the West in providing rich, detailed content about state or official events at the People's House. A great piece has been the live streaming of events on the White House website by both the president and the first lady. Time marches rapidly and before we know it, a year will float by before attention turns to making information available on the website.

The Lincoln Sitting Room off the Lincoln Bedroom on the second floor of the Residence. Cataloging once again the art works for the public is critical.

Certainly Laura Bush had some gaps, but one thing about her being n ex-librarian is that it was extremely thorough on her side of the White House web ledger. It was beyond outstanding and a model that future first ladies should follow with attention to detail to pieces of furniture, pre-scheduled Ask the Staff live chats, individual first ladies portraits and biographies, 3 D tours of renovated spaces - including the Cabinet Room and the Situation Room. Interesting and shocking that President Obama can be comfortably ensconced in the Oval Office decor of President Bush but not the technology savvy displayed on his website. A news sighting of the changing of the White House fountains to Celtic Green for Saint Patrick's Day was duly noted by the press, but its not captured as part of the new thinking the first lady is bringing to White House traditions. I'm waiting, but patiently not so much, as too much history is going by too fast.

Michelle Obama oft repeats that she wants to bring the White House to people who have never seen it and offering up a robust web presence would do that for millions in this nation and millions if not billions more outside of it. Nothing has captured the imagination of global interest like her garden and the implications for nutritional value of home grown local food. Prince Charles waxed ecstatic about the Kitchen Garden and members of Congress along with other guests plus the family eat the fruits of the labor of the kids at Bancroft Elementary, Mrs. Obama, the White House chefs and the landscape crew. It would be great to talk about the garden in terms of healthy eating right at the site - rather than through the occasional news article prompted by a photo op.

Every White House Pet is special. There was a Barney Cam - yeah, he bit a reporter for which first lady Laura Bush wrote a handwritten apology, Socks was a superstar cat and Bo is threatening to need his own reporter assigned to him because he garners so much attention. It was a wonderfully weird presidential picture as the Obamas went on vacation to see a baby car seat (for Maya's infant daughter) and Bo leave a helicopter in the same image. The East Wing smartly came up with a Bo piece that went into bags for the troops. It was pretty cute to watch Malia intently read the doggy bio information before she placed it in the backpack she was supposed to be filling at a service event.

Malia is reading every detail.

All great things in good time, I suppose. Please, Obama East Wing staff - please pay attention to the mound of details about the White House, its environs and the furniture of history that many in the public are acutely interested in for the first time. It is an opportunity so many want and few have have to make such a lasting impact on learning about the White House and its internationally famous first family. The archives of what Laura Bush did is an excellent example from where to start and innovate. We need more information, history lessons and access on the White House website - Please, Please, PLEASE with a vermeil candelabra on top. (Michelle Obama in her East Wing office with her new Chief of Staff, Susan Sher.)

Michelle's First White House Christmas Tree

Lynda Bird Johnson Robb celebrating Christmas in the Blue Room with the presidential grandchildren in 1968. Photos courtesy the White House

Plans proceed apace as the Sundbacks of Sheperdstown, West Virginia won the White House Christmas Tree Sweepstakes or better yet, are now known officially as the Grand Champions of the National Christmas Tree Contest. Since 1956, the couple, Eric & Gloria Sundback, now in their eighties, have discouraged deer and fought hard against Mother Nature's more harmful weather whimsies to keep the trees growing strong while some are tall. Their tenacity won spots to have their trees ferried to the White House several times over the decades. Horticulture and forestry experts, they started because they could never find a tree that suited them, so hence their own orchard. Rosalynn Carter & Nancy Reagan also decorated trees from the Sundback farm. Michelle Obama's first Christmas in the White House will see her taking receipt of a Fraser Fir tree from a lifetime of hard work finding better needle retention and increasing branch strength on a horse drawn sleigh. This is the third year in a row the Fraser Fir has beat out the Pines, Spruces and Nobles.

Hillary Clinton had a spectacular tree skirt from 1993 as part of her A Visit from St. Nicholas theme.  The ornaments were from architecture students that was pretty spectacular under this 1995 Fraser Fir. For comparison below, the 1993 Tree which was Hillary's first at the White House.

There are exactly 118 days until Christmas, but the Obama White House must have the up to nineteen foot tree (and no higher) selected from Eric & Gloria Sundback Trees delivered a few days after the presidential turkey pardon on the picturesque sleigh. The tree will have a special topper that cannot brush the ceiling directly below the gilt ceiling medallion to make the holiday tableau wonderful for what will be one of the most highly photographed and trafficked areas for the Obamas first Holiday Season. The velvet ropes around the tree keep people form handling the sometimes delicate or antique ornaments. Pat Nixon sent waves a shock through the choice of an atomic symbol rather than the sedate star normally used. As discussed on White House Christmas in July post on the volunteer elves need three days to trim out the place with decor that follows the theme which remains a closely guarded secret for the Obama White House. Sasha, Malia and Bo will have some definite ideas about what goes on the tree and under the tree. A gingerbread house is in order for this year and perhaps Michelle will ask Roland Mesnier to consider making one and decorating it as he has in the past for Laura Bush.

President Kennedy & Jacqueline Kennedy displayed this official tree as part of the Nutcracker Theme of 1961 inaugurating the idea of a theme. Barbara Bush repeated the Nutcracker Suite theme in 1990. Hillary Clinton took another swing at the popular Nutcracker theme in 1996.

In 2002, Laura Bush had an almost nineteen foot Noble Fir delivered from Hedlund Christmas Trees from the northwest in Elma,Washington. They too were experienced with the rituals of White House Trees having made the trip a few years before after winning the honor to give first lady Hillary Clinton the tree. You have to win the contest from the National Christmas Tree Association (NCTA) first. Next, the tree selected for either the White House or The Vice President's place at One Observatory Circle is a direct result of a full scale competition complete with airline reservations, refrigerated trucks and professional tree handlers. My best analogy is its like the Westminster Dog show for elite, carefully bred living trees with 5 categories and a gnarled tree twist. One American farm gets to enter their top two trees and if selected the winner by a panel of outside judges, that farm is retired from competition for the next three years.

This is the 2007 delivery of a Fraser Fir with Laura Bush as she kicked off the Holiday in the National Parks theme that required an ornament to commemorate each of the 391 National Park Service sites.

The trees take almost a decade to get to the required height, but that may be more accidental than planned. Since 1966 the NCTA has presented the tree. The first lady's team in the East Wing strive to come up with a theme that the Residence staff of exemplary pastry chefs, carpenters and electricians work to implement. In 2008, the Obamas spent Christmas in the Aloha State before changing climates to arrive in an icy DC in time for the girls to start a new term at a new school in their new home city. This is Michelle Obama's maiden Holiday season and it will be interesting to see how many fresh and exciting new ideas she can come up with to celebrate a cherished part of the Season! We shall be eating a few sugar plums with joyous anticipation as snugly in bed as the laptop allows and watching ... closely just like Santa Claus does for the Obamas. It will be so different from 2008 getting the tree.

Malia & Dad go searching for their last tree in Chicago as a family before entering the White House. A new level of entertaining ahead as the White House has not had presidential children to celebrate the Holidays in decades.

Update:  Here is another link explaining a bit more about the White House Holiday planning process that picked up steam in July.

Washing, Waxing & Cleaning the President's House

Mary Kaltman works with chef on 1965 Christmas Cookies in White House Kitchen. Photo courtesy White House Historical Association.

Lady Bird Johnson had Mary Kaltman as food-coordinator-housekeeper and for a while she did the same for the Nixons in the White House. She wrote a book Keeping Up With Keeping House: A Practical Guide for the Harried Housewife for those female denizens against dust (known in the day as homemakers) who wanted the information on how to perform the domestic arts in grand style. In school, the subject used to be called Home Ec (for Home Economics), which made cooking and cleaning a subject for mostly girls. In prior years, Mrs. Mary E. Sharpe took upon herself as the housekeeper to make President Truman's waistline trim.

But Mrs. Kaltman was tough enough to send the domestic side of the Johnson white House into domestic hostility, sometimes famous in the East Wing. Seems she and the oo-la-la famed French chef, Verdon René, hired in April 1961 for his epicurean skills, ran into the budget minded housekeeper/Queen of Food at the White House who insisted on frozen foods, recipes from a common book and a president that wanted his fish slathered in sauce with the skin still on. Mon Dieu. They had a similar arrangement to what the Obama Family has now - on the second floor Sam Kass is in charge of the personal meals and he came with them from Chicago while the Executive Chef handles state functions. A hundred years earlier another battle ended as Mary Todd Lincoln had the housekeeping staff report directly to her. Now, that subject is split into two functions at the Executive Mansion, with cleaning it and cooking for it being two different, yet equal professional career paths. (Sasha clearly knows the ropes and speaks to one of the long tenured White House butlers about exactly what she wants while the First Granny looks on.)

Using the latest tools in 1955, the spic and span brigades wore ties while sanding, cleaning and waxing in the East Room during the Eisenhower era. Photo courtesy the White House Historical Association from a series on the Working White House and the national Archives and Records Administration.

The Cross Hall and Grand Foyer getting a thorough polishing in the Obama White House.

Wiping down, waxing a nations antiques, polishing heirloom silver and vacuuming the nap only one way on priceless rugs every day in the White House is akin to auto detailing a pristine parade of 100 Rolls Royces every 24 hours. Mrs. Kaltman believed in good old fashioned elbow grease and did not cotton to fancy tools or words. Her successor Shirley Bailey was of the same mind and used paste wax, one male person polished the brass fixtures and cleaned the little chandelier danglies day in and day out. She had her folks hand ironing all the linen napkins for events after they came out of the industrial strength washers and dryers. (From the Reagan era vacuuming the Blue Room)

There is a wonderful movie, Back stairs at the White House made on the life of an early twentieth century maid. Many of those at the White House worked for the first family while also working with an aunt, uncle, mother, father and brother. No matter the messes made, memoirs and anecdotes focus on the history and the occasions rather than any grist for the mill. Many serve for decades. An amusing anecdote shared by first lady Hillary Clinton came at the hands of an exuberant tween, Chelsea who had entertained friends with a movie. The popcorn did not exactly land in mouths and Hillary was horrified. The White House staff was in shock as Hillary had Chelsea clean up every kernel and they were not allowed to help. Kind of like Sasha & Malia have no bed service in the mornings - bed made with their own hands before leaving for school and they must help carry in the dishes in the morning for their breakfast.

From 1877, the staff/servants during Lucy Hayes' time as first lady. Almost sixty years later the staff was integrated by Eleanor Roosevelt. She felt the need to make White House domestic staff help African Americans only which kept wages lower and reduced any rancor. Photo courtesy Hayes Administration and Bob Cesca.

The Smithsonian has an exhibit, The Working White House, traveling the nation for the next two years about the Working White House and the staff that makes the Executive Residence run amidst thousands of daily events, an active family, and it being the home of the American head of state with an ambitious entertaining schedule. Christine Limerick, the Chief housekeeper during the Clinton years makes appearances to discuss what happens off camera and what the staff does in their daily and special circumstances. There are butlers, ushers, a presidential valet and a small staff of housekeepers who are mindful of the products they use on the nation's antiques. Laura Bush toted up almost 1500 formal events in eight years. That's a heap of cleaning done with dedication and attention to every fine detail. (Shirley Bailey on the second floor residence in the Nixon White house early 1970's.)

Shirley Bailey in 1970 learned her craft working for hoteliers before setting her keen eye about the executive mansion. The job always has perils such as the hate between the president and the person in charge of the food in the 1930s & !940s. Henrietta Nesbitt as the stern housekeeper overseeing cooking for FDR & Eleanor Roosevelt courted fame for the lousiness of the food served during her tenure. In 1926, single lady Miss Ellen Reilly was hired as the head of housekeeping for the White House and even traveled with President Calvin Coolidge being hired from managing a cafeteria at a retailing outfit in Boston. Blair House, the presidential guest house, has the same attention to excellence and the opportunities to transfer over to the White House when an opening becomes available allows them to serve the president directly.

Its not only the floors, walls, and dishes that get a good scrubbing in the White House. Liberty could usually be found in the Oval Office, but here is Susan Ford with Frankie Blair providing a vigorous doggy bath.

White House Fireworks, Family & the Fourth

Families have celebrated inside the white house for generations as guests and occupants. John and Abigail Adams were the very first occupants to live at a swampland muddy mansion sans any landscaping. Thomas Jefferson, the scholarly widower president, occupied the White House during the White House's first Independence Day, July 4th 1801 being served by slaves. The first tiny public celebration of July 4th, was in 1804 and the tradition is now as much of the White House tradition as is the gilt-framed Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington in the East Room. Three American presidents have died on the Fourth of July, two Founding Fathers on the fiftieth anniversary in 1826 with another, James Monroe passing away on the 55th anniversary. Today is also the 11th birthday of the current First daughter, Malia Obama, who had one whale of a girly party with friends from DC and Chicago at Camp David. President Calivn Coolidge was also born on the fourth of July. (Malia, last month in Paris)

America celebrates this year with hearty and hale tourists mounting the steps in a return to the crown of Lady Liberty, an animatronic President Obama installed in Disney Worlds's Hall of Presidents as a 1,000 immigrants become Americans and with over a thousand US military personnel and their families spread out on the rolling green South Lawn to express delight at the mysteries of powder and powerful rockets that shall light the night sky. The backdrop of the Washington Monument against the tidal basin is clearly seen from the South Lawn and the Truman Balcony. Just beyond, stands the twentieth century's stone wonder of the tribute to America's 16th president and his inaugural words.

In 1941, under FDR, July 4th became a legal, national holiday in 48 states with no shoehorning it to the nearest Monday or Friday. Its still weird to think of our parents being born with less than fifty states. Independence, Missouri is famed for another president, Harry S Truman. (Fireworks explode beyond the Washington Monument in 1986 while President & Mrs. Reagan lived at the White House.)

Michelle Obama has made military families part of her portfolio of missions upon entering the East Wing. In the first six months, military families have been at the White House for a race kick off to aide disabled vets and for working muscled elbow to veteran elbow with the Pittsburgh Steelers and the president to pack support items for the troops. This even allows the White House to carry on the tradiition of being open to all on one of the days most treasured by nation for what it costs to be free. (Will update with images when they become available.)

Update:
President & Mrs. Obama leisurely stroll back to "The Beast" after visiting the troops at Fort McNair on the Fourth.

The South Lawn during the BBQ portion before the Foo Fighters and Jimmy Fallon.

Have A Happy & Safe Fourth!

Love in the East Wing & Paris

Amor. Je te adore. Je t'aime. In the City of Lights & Love - Paris no less. Who has time for romance working in a frenetic White House. The answer is tons of people both fictional and in real life across two centuries of time. Even presidents have found time to date and marry while in office in movies and most definitely in real life. The youngest first lady, Frances Folsom, was 21 years old when she married Grover Cleveland. The West Wing featured the rocky love affair between the chief of staffs of the president and the first lady finally resolving at the end of the West Wing television drama. Donna & Josh mixed roughhouse politics and being anxiety-ridden paramours.

Love in the White House an example from the latest lovebirds.

Congratulations to the White House's newest engaged press couple - the First lady's press secretary, Katie McCormick-Lelyveld and long time aide, Tommy Vietor, the President's assistant press secretary.

The first lady's press secretary received a jaw-dropping, bended-knee surprise wed-me please proposal at the Élysée American Embassy in France from the president's assistant press secretary. A confederacy of conspirators in both the East and West Wings made it happen using Malia & Sasha as the bait to get Katie McCormick-Lelyveld to get cracking on Friday as the message said they were ready to go to the Eiffel Tower now and she was not there. He better check that answer she gave when it quiets down as she was in a state of shock when she said YES. They will always have Paris! Meanwhile, the Obama Girls did actually make it to the Eiffel Tower.

All of the Obama ladies made the Eiffel Tower tour including Michelle's 13 year old niece and daughter of brother Craig, Leslie, and her mother Marian Robinson.

The City of Lights, one of my most favorite. Courtesy of National Geographic

The White House is the scene for many romances in real life, many casual acquaintances become life partners in the crucible that is a glammed-up government office building set amidst a rose-filled presidential park. With a broken engagement behind her and a love affair with George Hamilton, presidential daughter, Lynda Bird Johnson met a Marine captain, Charles Robb, and married him in the East Room at the White House. A beautiful June ceremony for another presidential daughter, Tricia Nixon, as she wed Ed Cox June 12, 1971 in a beautiful Rose Garden ceremony. Few remember, Doro Bush, the daughter of a president and sister of a future president married at a first-ever wedding ceremony at Camp David. For staff members there is the political odd couple of Clinton strategist James Carville managing a competing campaign and a love-war-love affair with George H.W. Bush's senior aide, Mary Matalin in the early 1990s. Another Obama deputy press secretary, Jen Psaki, was in her jammies when her fiancé proposed wedded bliss this year after setting the scene by whipping up dinner. (Engagement picture of Ed Cox & Tricia Nixon 1971)

Rediscovering The White House in the Obama Era

School kids visit 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

As a kid the obligatory school visit to Washington DC was to tour everything big: US Capitol, Lincoln Memorial, and the big white house on Pennsylvania Avenue with not one plaid lawn chair out front. To enter the White House first through the East Lobby entrance - white - and into a wood paneled foyer. Lots of velvet ropes, informed tour guides with great anecdotes and then exit out the front door. Gift shop somewhere else. Nobody expects younger students to remember much, except certain rooms were named after colors as the tour guide explains historical bits about torcheres, presidential candelabras and first lady portraits.

In January 2009, it all changed as everyone is eager to know what is inside the House we mostly see from the facade and what or who do you need to know to get an invite into the hippest joint in America. The White House is the same color but taking on a 21st century luster as people want to get to know the house and the priceless artifacts placed throughout the building. Michelle Obama is exercising great control over one of the world's best living museums filled with ornate art and documents central to this nation's promise. Before abandoning the White House as it was about to be seized during supper, it was Dolley Madison in 1814 that took the famed Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington down to save it before the British ate her planned meal for 40 guests, then fricasseed it to the walls. Right: the Obamas things being delivered from a secured storage facility January 21, 2009

Sasha waves as she goes to the White House in the Inaugural Parade. 1/21/09

All five Obamas are in demand for social events with a waiting list. Mrs. Obama lady flipped her sleek wig early in the administration when she had her senior East Wing staff make it crystal clear in the frostiest tones that commercializing Sasha and Malia was absolutely guaranteed to put the company and by extension, its customers, in the deepest Antarctica freeze. The dolls went the way of the DoDo bird. Nobody who wanted to make a good impression on Mama or Papa Obama would be caught in open daylight with that particular stuffed contraband. Now, same company, Ty Inc., has taken the newest Obama's likeness and made it the hottest selling Beanie Baby "Bo" in two sizes, exactly one month after Bo came to live at 1600. Here are some renamed dolls that look suspiciously like the First Daughters. Bo books were fired up and ready to go as soon as the news leaked. (Photo courtesy USA Today)

President & a certain dog play on the South Lawn May 12, 2009 courtesy P. Souza

The flipside of the Obama phenomenon is the amount of vast sincere high interest there is in everything that happens at the White House starring the Obamas as the latest residents in the over 200 year old house. The White House itself is now an object of admiration and interest that knows no geographical or any other boundaries. Something wonderful happens to the house when it is full of young children. Malia and Sasha sleep in the East & West Bedrooms on the second floor of the residence that overlook the North Lawn and Lafayette Park, the very same as Caroline & John Kennedy Jr., which will be part of the future history books. The Obama girls have found the secret staircases, touched the desk where Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, done cartwheels down the Center Hall and bowled with a president and first lady in a grand house where there swing set/castle sits outside the most powerful office in the land. (Photo above left - Commerce Secretary Gary Locke's family in White House Dining Room 2009)

The White House at Christmas is a magical place that will mark their first holiday as the First family as a special one. It is also when a tremendous amount of invites, parties and events take place as the White House is set to its best advantage. The Obamas will find too few days with too many guests vying to land the world's most coveted invitations.

The Obama Family & Mrs. Robinson enjoy the spoken word Poetry event May 12, 2009.

Everyone wants to see the Obamas enjoying the house and to reassure themselves there is an abundance of happiness inside. The first outdoor pool party should be coming shortly before they join their dad in the flying White House - Air Force One as its wheels up for the summer. Luci Johnson collected dolls from around the world and the Obama girls have a chance for some international collections as well.

White House sign No Tours Beyond This Point, Just as well its the West Colonnade into Palm Room.

For compelling in-depth historical narratives of the White House, EWR compiled a list of great books & DVDs.

White House's Fire Engine Red Hot Room

(East Wing's Movie Theater, Interior Design Blasingame for Laura Bush photo Architectural Digest)

Bold. Daring. SCREAMING RED!!! That was the overwhelming effect Austin, Texas Interior Designer Kenneth Blasingame was aiming for to perk up the room used for a few R-rated performances in the White House to compete with that other Red Room. It is a bit of a throwback to the sophisticated plush movie theaters of yesteryear replete with the gilt accents and fluted woodwork. Each room in the White House complex has a purpose of either or both being the omnipresent political and the tactical practical. High end homes in America feature robust media rooms with large screens and serious lounging chairs with surround sound. The White House has had a movie Family Theater since FDR converted a cloakroom. For decades it had the feel of a chintz filled living room even after President & Mrs. Reagan had the elevated stadium style seats brought in for their much lighter more floral rendition of the movie theater. The film screening history of the First Movie Theater is captured in green ledger books detailing what films presidents watched. Its fascinating!

An invite to Movie Night at the White House is special because there are less than 40 cushy seats. If the president attends, everybody wants a seat and a little bag of popcorn. The first four chairs down front are resplendent with matching back pillows, pleated skirts and footstools embellished with brass nailhead trim. All the other seats are similar to a local upscale local theater minus the dubious cupholders. Located in the East Colonnade section,the movie theater opens with double doors that lead in/out from the hall that overlooks the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden.

East View facing the projectionist - photo courtesy Architectural Digest

One of the presidential perks is the ability to order any film or movie, even the ones that are top secret and not released yet, and premier it at the White House. The Obamas used the room to turn it into a giant TV screen for watching the SuperBowl with a bi-partisan audience. After a frigid day watching their father become president,the official opening of the Obama White House Movie Theater happened a week earlier when Malia & Sasha and assorted guests, enjoyed High School Musical 3 and Bolt. Chelsea Clinton had a little bit of a Freaky Friday disaster when her tween and teen guests spilled popcorn and whatnots early on in her days in the White House and the residence staff watched helplessly as steel magnolia Hillary made her clean up the mess. President Clinton enjoyed a superbowl party as well right after his inaugural in 1993.

Governor Richardson, Chelsea & Socks, President Clinton, Governor Cuomo -AP

The other use of the room is serious presidential business. It is set up with the presidential podium and teleprompters for past presidents to work out the kinks in their State of the Union Address. The first row of chairs is removed and staff sits in the seats to critique the style and delivery of the address. It is the one serious surefire annual foray of West Wingers into the East Wing preserve because there is no other room that fills the purpose in the West Wing. The movie theater is not a room that has the stringent requirements of a Room of State in the executive mansion, allowing for extensive refurbishing according to taste and function. Woodrow Wilson screening the abominable and racist Birth of a Nation at the White House is among the most offensive acts a president has done since the dawn of the movie age. (Family Theater prior to its reworking in Red as President Bush practices in 2003 WH Photo)

The Obamas have watched Oscar nominated films such as The Wrestler, Slumdog Millionaire as their more notable current choices. No doubt, a new Star Trek appearance for the Comic Book Collector in Chief inside the White House Family Theater. Michelle and her girlfriends with a few close staffers enjoyed He's Just Not That Into You. The beauty is the favorites are usually seen by first families more than once and often at both the White House and Camp David

President Obama serves cookies at Superbowl Party

3D Super Bowl Fashion in First Theater - can you spot the Attorney General? Photo Pete Souza