"nobody can take a selfie with you when you're skiing down a mountain" - Michelle Obama
We're all going to miss the Obamas in the White House. Beyond President Barack's calm, cool and controlled nature while handling the issues of the world, the family was always so open with the public, allowing us to connect with them as human beings. Â They even knew how to use Twitter Presidentially.
On December 12, 2016, Michelle Obama does what she has done for the past 8 years, and visited those at Children's National hospital who would be too sick to be home for the holidays.  Her final Christmastime event at the hospital as first lady, continuing a tradition that dates to the 1940s which Bess Truman began, joined by Ryan Seacrest, Michelle toured the hospital's heart and kidney unit before settling down in front of a large Christmas tree in the atrium and read "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" to a group of children.
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Answering some of the questions of the young patients, Mrs. Obama revealed that her favourite winter pastime is skiing. Â It helps gets her out of a White House that is "basically hermetically sealed" and into the fresh air.
It's well known that President Barack loves to golf. Â Obama plays golf most weekends in Washington. He also plays regularly during the family's summer vacation in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, and during their Christmas vacation in his native Hawaii.
"It's one of the few opportunities he has to be outside, walking around like a normal person for long periods of time," Mrs. Obama said.
"Skiing does that for me in the winter," she continues, Â "And it's great exercise. And it's fun. And it's a little scary, too. All at the same time."
Mrs. Obama is known to have enjoyed skiing Colorado's slopes.
"It just gets messy and complicated" when she and the president venture out in public, she said. "But when I'm skiing, that's, like, one of the few places in the winter where I feel free. Because nobody can take a selfie with you when you're skiing down a mountain," Mrs. Obama said.
After the appearance, the first lady answered several more questions during a brief round-table interview that Seacrest hosted with patients from the hospital's LGBTQ clinic. The program was broadcast to patients throughout the hospital.
Perhaps foreshadowing a future relationship, Dr. Kurt Newman, president and CEO of Children's National, said he looked forward to having Mrs. Obama back at the hospital. He noted she was an executive at a Chicago hospital before she became first lady.
"I can always put her to work," Newman said.
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Source: The Associated Press via ABC
Cover Photo:Â The Associated Press via ABC