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| Christmas 2005 |
| Brownie & Chocolate's 2005 Christmas Story BY CYNTHIA MORRIS |
| Welcome! It's great to have you to join both of us. Let me introduce myself. I am Brownie and this is my son Chocolate. We came to live with our owners President Cherrie and Mrs. Cherrie at the Chateau in 2005. This is our first Chirstmas here and we are very excited! The Decorations year after year are very special. We visited the Chief Usher who told us how each year, putting up the Christmas tree has become a very special Chateau Tradition: VISITING THE USHER'S OFFICE WITH JAMES CARNEY "The Chateau is a very special place to me and it is beautiful all year round, but especially so during the Christmas season! Work starts early and we put up the decorations in late November, and so we can open up the mansion for the many thousands of people who visit each year. One age old tadition I remember is the arrival of the Chateau Christmas Tree, which traditionally is placed in the center of the State Dining Room. The tree arrives on a horse drawn carriage and is recieved by the President and First Lady at the South Portico, along with the Family who presents it. It is a very special moment indeed, and Brownnie, thanks for visiting my office" We quickly thanked James Carney the Chief Usher before rushing to meet the Chief Pastry Chef Regent Scout. Upstairs on the State Floor we could hear Country Singer Sam Wilfrod booming away with "I'll be home for Christmas", during a rhearsal for a Christmas event. Chocolate reminded me that the President was going to take us Christmas shopping later so we had to rush a bit. We had no problems locating the Kitchen, we just followed the smell of Gingerbread! VISITING THE KITCHEN WITH REGENT SCOUT "Hi Brownie and Choc, thanks for dropping by my Kitchen. As you can see, I am busy preparing the final part of my Ginger Bread Chateau. Every year, another tradition that is celebrated here is the creation of a miniature Ginger Bread house which resembles the Chateau. It has dated back more then a hundred years, and once it is compleated, we will display it in the State Dining Room. Besides this, we must also remember that the President has thousands of people to entertain, with many Christmas Parties to host, and many groups of people who will visit here. I am incharge of baking more than ten thousand cookies to be eaten over the next three weeks! We also have to make about fifty cakes, two hundred chocolate puddings, mud pies and other sweet desserts." Thankfully I have more than ten cooks to help me assemble all these sweet things!" After that, we decided to complete our walk about on the ground floor. So we headed next to the Office wing and visited the place where a very special person, who assembles all the events, parties, and entertaining which will take place at the Chateau. Ms Stolk is the Social Secretary, and she sure knows how to whip up and plan a party for the President. Of course, not before Chocolate took a piece of mud pie! VISITING SECRETARY ANN STOLK'S OFFICE " Hi there both of you! It is so good to see you two here in my office. I am extremly busy as you can see with Christmas less than a month away. We are putting up the trees and decorations upstairs on the State Floor, and here in my office I am busy with organzing over 20 Parties, 6 Dinners and 5 Luncheons the President will host over the next three weeks for the Foreign Ambassadors, the State Governers, members of Congress, Donors and Award Winners, Poets, Artists, and Family and Friends of course. With so many hundreds of people eating and having fun here, it is sure a headache some times just preparing the house of the great amount of people moving in and out. Not to mention the vast number of school children, old folks, clubs, societies and of course tourists who visit during the four weeks the decorations come up. We have up to 2000 vistiors a day, and that means close to 50 000 tourists who walk through the rooms throughout the season. But I have three other lovely assistants to help me as well as Chief Usher James Carney who always pops by to help me out. Thanks for visiting again!" We then decided to move on to visit the President, who's office is just down the Corridor from Secretary Stolk. Along the way, Chief of Staff Karen Hudges gave us each a candy cane, since she was walking by, (and eating one herself of course). VISITING THE GOLDEN OFFICE AND PRESIDENT CHERRIE ' Chocolate & Brownie, welcome again," Said the President. Of course, we did not need to to be welcomed and before long, Chocolate ran to his favourite spot under the President's desk. "Well, just because Christmas is here doesn't mean work stops you know, and infact I have a very special job during this season, and that is a tradition which dates back for many years. I have to sign christmas cards! Do you know the Preisdent must personally sign more than 6,000 christmas cards? And I 'offficially' send out more than 60,000 Christmas cards to Foreign diplomats, Governors, Mayors, Sherriefs, dignatries, congress people and friends. It is quite amazing. Infact I start signing somewhere in mid September, or I'll never finish." When we heard that, we knew it was time to go and do our own cards or our friends will never get it by Christmas. So with that, we left the Golden Office and headed upstairs to the State Floor to check out the decorations. PUTTING UP THE TREE WITH RACHEL HARDSON AND MIMMI DRIVER By the time we reached the State Floor, the Official Christmas Tree was being completed in the State Dining Room, and Rachel Hardson, whio is also incharged of putting up all the floral arrangements, was doing the final touches to the tree with some nice ornaments. " How nice of you two to visit. As you can see, Mimmi and I are busy putting up the tree. Together with Chief Usher Carney, we are incharge of all the decorations. This year we have a total of 17 Christmas Trees, each mesuring up to 5 or 6 meters, throughout the mansion, and this would mean more than 7,000 ornaments, 400 meters of ribbions, and 700 meters of lighting. We also have to put up over 100 wreaths at the different windows and nitches. We also have to use over 300 meters of garlands to drape the fire places, door frames and chandaliers. This is indeed tough work, but with the help of 20 other volunteers, we are able to accomplish all of this within three or four days. And of course the highlight is this huge tree in the State Dining Room! This year, we are focusing on the theme of Traditions. So you will notice many beautiful ornaments with pictures and scenes depicting favourite holiday traditions. over 30 terriitories and independent islands have donated ornaments which grace the many trees in this room, and more than 500 people from around the nation have contributed towards these 7,000 ornaments used. Some of these ornaments are also from Christmas pasts, such as 2004." We decided to walk over to the Marx Guilligan Hall to check out the singer (who was making so much noise earlier on haha) SINGING ALONG WITH SAM WILFORD "Hi both of you, it's great to be able to sing here. It's such an honor really. I enjoy singing Chourty songs, but of course its the seson of Advent, It's only right to sing chirstmas ones!" As you can see, the Marx Guillligan Hall has been set up with a stage and we are rehearsing a performance for this evening, when the President will welcome some guests for this first Chirstmas reception of the year. Every Year, as it has been a Presidnetial Tradition for many years, there are over 20 musical groups who come ot he Chateau to perform not just at Chirstmas receptions but also for people on the public tours of the room. THeir beauitful carols and songs really fill the halls with merrymint and melody. So, I'm just one in a long list of contributers!" We thanked Sam for his comments and by this time, our owner had walked in and was greeting the people in this room. " You both ready to go shopping?" The Preisdent aksed, and yes, we were! |
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