Bittersweet Christmas for Mrs Obama
US First Lady Michelle Obama flung open the doors of the White House to the media on Tuesday to give people a glimpse of her family's final Christmas in their presidential home.
After eight years in residence, the Obamas will make way for President-elect Donald Trump and his wife Melania in the new year, with his inauguration set to take place on Jan 20.
OFFICIAL TREE
It was a bittersweet moment for Mrs Obama over the weekend, reported Vogue magazine, as she took delivery of her final official White House Christmas tree.
She once again enlisted the help of event designer Bryan Rafanelli to create environments partially inspired by her Let's Move! campaign and by her various education initiatives.
The gift of good health was represented inside the Red and Green Rooms with fruits and vegetables.
Educational tools like rulers, crayons and pencils were added to the decorations in the house library. Ornaments spelling out "girls" in 12 different languages paid tribute to Mrs Obama's Let Girls Learn initiative.
The decoration highlights include tens of thousands of lights, giant replicas of the Obamas' two dogs, Bo and Sunny, and a large amount of Lego.
Mrs Obama, who will be 53 when she leaves the White House, is the first African American first lady in US history.
Her husband, President Barack Obama, is 55.
A Harvard-educated lawyer, Mrs Obama enjoys sky-high ratings - approved by 79 per cent of the US public, according to a recent Gallup survey, reported AFP.
That makes her more popular than her husband, the first African American US president.
Mr Obama, in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, said his wife will never run for president.He said: "She is as talented a person as I know.
"You can see the incredible resonance she has with the American people.
"But I joke that she's too sensible to want to be in politics."
Asked about her ambitions in the past, Mrs Obama has repeatedly said she would not follow in the footsteps of Mrs Hillary Clinton, who ran for the presidency her husband Bill held from 1993 to 2001.
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