For Immediate Release
Office of the First Lady
November 29, 2007

Interview of Mrs. Bush by CBS's the Early Show
State Floor

      Holidays at the White House 2007

8:15 A.M. EST

Q And holiday greetings from the White House. We're in the Blue Room with First Lady Laura Bush. Happy holidays and Merry Christmas.

MRS. BUSH: Thank you, Hannah. Happy holidays.

Q Now, let's see, back in March you started thinking about the theme for your --

MRS. BUSH: That's right, what the theme would be.

Q -- seventh Christmas in the White House.

MRS. BUSH: That's it. And so this year we thought it'd be really fun to celebrate our national parks -- "Holidays in the Parks." I hike every year in a national park -- one or more national parks a year, if I can -- and they're very important to me. Plus we're coming up, in 2016, to the 100th anniversary of our National Park System. So President Bush has a national park challenge initiative to the National Park Service, as well as to the Congress, to try to appropriate special money for the centennial so that we can take care of a lot of things that are going on in the parks.

Q I notice that you generate the idea for this on your own.

MRS. BUSH: Yes.

Q It's not a big committee; you sit down and think about it. And so what you did is you sent these ornaments --

MRS. BUSH: That's right, we sent these big ornaments out to every national park -- there are 391 of them -- and we asked them to get an artist to decorate them. So you can see they're everything -- they're everything from our big national parks in Arizona and the far West and --

Q I noticed the September 11th ornament. Where is this from?

MRS. BUSH: This is the newest one -- this is one of our newest national monuments. It's the Flight 93 National Memorial. It'll be in the field where Flight 93 crashed. And they are still --

Q They're still trying to raise money for that memorial, right?

MRS. BUSH: -- in their fundraising mode. Of course, they get appropriations from the United States Congress, but they're also raising money privately. So it's a great thing for someone to give to if they wanted to during the holiday season. My Secret Service gave me a gift in my honor to the Flight 93 Memorial for my birthday this year.

Q Nice. Oh, that's lovely. Now, might you be decorating for something else in 2008? What about a White House wedding? Because your lovely daughter, Jenna, came to the Early Show and told us all about her engagement -- congratulations.

MRS. BUSH: That's right. She's still on her book tour, though, so we haven't settled any of those details. But yes, I am tearing pages out of brides' magazines of flower arrangements and various things.

Q That would be so exciting.

MRS. BUSH: When she gets off her book tour we'll be able to really talk about it, figure out what we're going to do.

Q There's a lot of talk about another First Lady, someone else who had to decide Christmas themes -- Hillary Clinton, who of course is running for President. And your husband recently said that he thinks she is going to get the Democratic nomination. Do you share that sentiment?

MRS. BUSH: Well, I don't have any idea. And I really have not watched that many of the debates of the Democrats, so I just don't have any idea what -- who will get it. But we certainly know that she's been under the pressure of living here.

Look who's come in to the Christmas tree.

Q Oh, hi.

MRS. BUSH: It's Miss Beazley.

Q Hi, Miss Beazley.

MRS. BUSH: Miss Beazley.

Q Are you going to smile for the camera? Wow, Miss Beazley has serious timing there.

MRS. BUSH: I know it.

Q That's great.

MRS. BUSH: And here comes Barney. (Laughter.)

Q And here's Barney. Can you guys get a shot, because we love this.

MRS. BUSH: Miss Beazley and Barney, and they love to --

Q Do they follow you everywhere?

MRS. BUSH: Well, no, they don't follow me anywhere, but they do come around whenever they can. (Laughter.) They love balls, and so they're very interested in the ornaments on the tree.

Q Well, these are very fragile, so we'll keep them away from that. Mrs. Bush, Merry Christmas again.

MRS. BUSH: Thank you so much, Hannah.

Q And thanks for bringing us into your lovely home.

MRS. BUSH: Thanks a lot. Thank you very much. Happy holidays.

END 8:18 A.M. EST

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