Barack Obama is the first president in more than 20 years to escape the confines of the White House and Camp David for x-mas. But when you are commander in chief, the White House has a way of finding you anyhow.

Barack Obama has no relatives remaining in Hawaii since his grandmother died last year and his sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, moved to Washington, D.C., this year. But he has brought his family for this occasion nearly every Christmas since he and his wife, Michelle, had their daughters, Malia, 11, and Sasha, 8. This year, Obama brought his sister and close friends Eric Whitaker and Marty Nesbitt and their spouse.

Valerie Jarrett, another friend who currently serves as a senior White House adviser, also joined the relatives and friends staying in two neighboring rental houses in Kailua. Jarrett said the setting had a rejuvenate effect on Obama. "His visits allow him to reconnect with his roots and cherished childhood memories," she said.

President barrack obama and First Lady Michelle Obama spent about half an hour on x-mas shaking hands with about 100 Marines, military members and their families at Marine Corps Base Hawaii's Anderson Hall chow hall as they enjoyed a mid-day Christmas meal.

The presidential motorcade arrives at Anderson Hall at about 3:43 pm. The president was dressed in brown slacks and blue shirt sleeves when he entered the mess hall from a side door, greeting the family with "Hi guys, Merry Christmas."

The First Lady wore flats, a white sleeveless graceful dress that came to her knees, and gold hoop earrings. The two moved to dozens of tables, shaking hands, asking service members where they were from, and thanking them for being present. At one point the president obama said "I'm proud of you guys." The president also talks to a small child and signed an autographed picture. The motorcade left the base at 4:25.

One of the most important Christmas presents President Obama ever received was a basketball from the father who was largely absent from his life, the president told Oprah Winfrey.

Asked his beloved Christmas gift as a child, the president recalled a 10 speed bike and then said, "I do remember the one time I met my father he was visiting during Christmas and he gave me a basketball and - the degree to which I came to love basketball - it was not until much later in life that I realized, ‘Actually, he gave me that basketball.' I think there was some cause and effect there in conditions of the degree to which I just ended up taking up the sport as a kid who didn't know his dad."

This year U.S. President Barack Obama became the 120th receiver of the Nobel Peace Prize. President Obama's job toward a nuclear weapons-free world; his plans for combating climate vary; his insistence on multi-lateral diplomacy and maintain of the United Nations; and his ability to give new hope to people around the world, be some of the reasons that prompted the Nobel Prize Committee to award the Peace Prize to a man who had only just begun his term in office.

President Obama officially accepted the Nobel peace Prize with expressions of "deep gratitude and great humility," while acknowledging the seeming paradox of the commander-in-chief of a country fighting 2 wars being hailed as a peace maker.

Yesterday morning on December 19th, Michelle Obama made her way to the Marine Corps Reserve’s Toys for Tots Stafford County Distribution Center in Quantico, Virginia. She helps to deliver over 500 Christmas toys donated by the White House staff, during Mrs. Obama’s East Wing toy drive.

Delivering the toys, Mrs. Obama looked stunning in the always classy colors of white and black. She wore a checkered blouse adorned with black ties, a black trousers and black cardigan. To finish her look, Michelle obama kept warm with a salt and pepper tweed pea coat.

As she presented the toys, she stated "On behalf of the President, Malia, Sasha, Bo and Grandma, we wish everyone a happy holidays, Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukah, anybody who's out there celebrating anything: happy!"

Michelle Obama has also asked for extra toy donations from our country. She has informed us that the Marine Corps is lacking on present for older children, ages 11 to 14.

Nobel Peace Prize speeches are regularly filled with soaring rhetoric and grand humanitarian gestures. President Barack Obama will accept his prize Thursday with a speech that aims at historical resonance but is forced by his status as a new, wartime president.

Administration officials say the speech, which the president is sketching himself, will address the irony of receiving a peace prize a week after ratcheting up the war in Afghanistan, and the require for continued leadership on nuclear disarmament.

The prize is awarded not often to a sitting head of state; not in 90 years has it gone to a sitting U.S. president. Mr. Obama's nomination was based on his outreach to other nations and the Muslim world, his maintain for nuclear disarmament and election as the first African-American president.

For reporters covered President Obama, there’s only one party in town that matters: The White House Holiday Party is a rare opportunity to walk around parts of the White House and meet the president and first lady. In the past, the highlight of the event has been the chance to get your image taken with the president in the receiving line.

This year, however, the White House seems to be doing things a slight differently. The invites went out late – and didn’t include journalists who have been invited in the long-ago. And those who have been invited seem possible to be denied the traditional receiving-line photo.

US President Barack Obama faces the equal level of threat as that of his two predecessors, George W Bush and Bill Clinton, a senior Secret Service official has said.

"The threats (to Obama) right now and inappropriate interest that we are seeing is the same level as it has been for the earlier two Presidents at this point," the Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan said in response to a question at a Congressional hearing.

The US Secret Service is in charge for the protection of the first family of the United States.

"They are not," Sullivan said when Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton asked him if the threats to Obama were higher or not, during a inquiry by House Committee on Homeland Security on the security breach in the White House last week.

Former President Bill Clinton on Wednesday said he support President Barack Obama's plan to send an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan.

"I decided several weeks ago I would support whatever he decided," Clinton said to a standing ovation at the New Hampshire Democratic Party's yearly Jefferson-Jackson Dinner in Manchester. The appearance marked the first time Clinton returns to the state since attending several rallies two days before the 2008 general election.

Clinton praised Obama for carefully studying options and strategy for Afghanistan, despite criticism he was moving too slowly.

The former president noted that many things have altered since he first became president, but one thing that has remained the same is the Republicans' criticism of Democratic policies. He urged the audience to fight false statements about the recent health care proposal before Congress and efforts to fight global warming by talking to friends and neighbors about Obama's policies.