on behalf of the entire obama family, me, barack, moliere, sasha -- malia, sasha, sunny, bo.e are grateful for everything you have done for us over the years. so let's give them a round of applause. [applause] so before i get choked up, let me officially kick off our final white house holiday season. and as always, today, we are celebrating with our extraordinary military community, and our military families. we have our service members. we have veterans here. we have wounded warriors. we have our military spouses. [applause] you go, spouses. and of course, we have our outstanding, handsome, beautiful, smart, talented, engaging military kids. are there any here/[laughter] oh, here they are. let's give them a round of applause. [applause] for the past eight years, celebrating the holidays and having you all be the first that see the decorations, this has been one of our favorite white house traditions. it reminds us that, between all the shopping lists and the travel plans and all those big meals, that we cannot forget what the holidays are really about annual help us. our mil