Saturday, November 28, 2009 WASHINGTON: U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama received the official White House Christmas tree on Friday.Mrs. Obama emerged from the White House to inspect the tree with daughters Sasha and Malia, after it was delivered on a horse-drawn carriage.The first lady could be overheard commenting that the more than 5.5- meter tree was the biggest Christmas tree the family has ever had.The tree comes from a West Virginia Christmas tree-farming couple, Eric and Gloria Sundback, who won a contest run by the National Christmas Tree Association to earn the honor.After presenting the tree to Mrs. Obama and having tea with her inside the White House, they described the experience as "wonderful" and "a thrill."The National Christmas Tree Association says this is the 4th time the Sundbacks have won and presented a tree to a U.S. first lady. The group says its members have presented the official tree for display in the White House Blue Room since 1966.
BAGHDAD: Nearly 500 U.S. Army combat engineers who specialize in clearing roads of explosives started shifting to southern Afghanistan."We are probably going to be the beginning of the influx you are going to see to Afghanistan," Lt. Col. Kevin Landers, commander of the Fort Carson, Colo.-based 4th Engineer Battalion, said as crews packed crates and cleaned vehicles for the flight to Kandahar.Obama has ordered 17,000 more U.S. soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan to bolster the 38,000 American troops already battling the resurgent Taliban."We are going to take this footprint out of Iraq," said Landers, whose battalion received word of its reassignment last month just after taking command of clearing roads in Baghdad of bombs and debris.
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