Bidens spending last Thanksgiving as president on Nantucket, a family tradition

[ad_1] President Biden , first woman Jill Biden and members of their household are spending his closing Thanksgiving vacation as president on Nantucket , per household custom.

Mr. Biden headed to a hearth station on Nantucket, as he has in earlier years. The household is staying on the home of billionaire David Rubenstein, the place they've stayed for the previous three years.

This yr, daughter Ashley Biden and son Hunter Biden traveled with Mr. Biden and the primary woman. Hunter's spouse Melissa and their 4-year-old son Beau, Jr. additionally traveled with them and there could also be different relations staying with the Bidens.

Begin of Biden household Nantucket custom The Biden household has been celebrating Thanksgiving in Nantucket for over 40 years. Mr. Biden wrote in his memoir "Promise Me, Dad," that "we had some nice years in that span, and we had some awful years, however no matter was occurring, no matter bumps and bruises we have been struggling, we put all of it apart and celebrated Thanksgiving in Nantucket."

Jill Biden wrote in her memoir "The place the Gentle Enters," that the Bidens began going to Nantucket when she and the president began courting.

"When Thanksgiving rolled round, we knew we wished to spend it collectively, however we did not know the place," she writes. "My dad and mom wished us to affix them, his dad and mom wished us to affix them, and even Neilia's dad and mom had prolonged an invite. We have been touched and grateful, however it was tense to consider selecting one household gathering over one other, so I mentioned to Joe, 'Let's go someplace, simply the 4 of us.'"

Jill Biden mentioned that her husband's then-chief of workers steered Nantucket, which neither of them had ever been, however she mentioned they determined "it sounded nearly as good as wherever."

President Joe Biden stands with household throughout the annual Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony in Nantucket, Mass., Friday, Nov. 24, 2023. Stephanie Scarbrough / AP

"I packed a cooler with sandwiches and sodas, we loaded the boys right into a station wagon and we drove six hours to the Cape," she writes. "On a packed ferryboat to the island, we chugged previous lovely Brant Level Lighthouse and as much as the pier. Joe and I took deep breaths of salt-tinged air as we obtained our first view of the shingled cottages that lined the coast … That first yr, we stayed in a kind of cottages, proper on the water, paying 100 {dollars} for the entire week."

Jill Biden writes that Nantucket Thanksgiving turned the household custom for the subsequent 4 many years. "With a couple of exceptions, we have made the trek yearly since, creating rituals that might turn out to be a key a part of our household alongside the way in which," she writes.

"As soon as in Nantucket, we spend hours poking round within the outlets, and on the Friday after Thanksgiving, we go to the Brotherhood of Thieves restaurant for lunch. We collect on cobblestoned Predominant Avenue on Friday evenings to see Santa Claus, watch the large Christmas tree-lighting ceremony, and sing carols. And for a few years, we posed for a household picture in entrance of a captivating seaside cottage with the sign up entrance that learn: FOREVER WILD."

Mr. Biden's late son Beau proposed to his spouse Hallie on the annual Christmas tree lighting in 2001 they usually have been married at Nantucket's St. Mary's church the next yr.

"Hallie at all times suspected it was Beau's approach of locking them into Biden Household Thanksgivings all the time," Mr. Biden wrote. "And it labored. They have been celebrating their twelfth anniversary on the finish of the week, and Hallie had by no means missed a Thanksgiving. Even the yr Beau was stationed in Iraq, she insisted all of us maintain the custom and go to Nantucket."

"The vacation journey was a relentless in our grandchildren's lives from the time they have been conscious, they usually made it clear how a lot it meant to them," Mr. Biden wrote.

Mr. Biden's fateful dialog concerning the future with Beau and Hunter Mr. Biden wrote in "Promise Me, Dad," that in Thanksgiving weekend in 2014, with Beau affected by mind most cancers, his determination concerning the 2016 presidential race weighed closely on his thoughts.

Mr. Biden wrote that within the kitchen in Nantucket, Beau informed him "Dad, you have obtained it unsuitable … you have to run. I need you to run." He mentioned Hunter agreed. "The three of us talked for an hour," he wrote.

Mr. Biden finally determined to not run that cycle, and Beau Biden died on Could 30, 2015 — making that yr the final yr the entire household spent the vacation collectively on Nantucket.

"No Thanksgiving would ever be the identical," Mr. Biden wrote.

Bidens return to Nantucket Jill Biden wrote that in 2015, the household went to Rome as a substitute of Nantucket. "Nantucket was simply one other place to remind us of all that we had misplaced, like {a photograph} with Beau's face minimize out."

However she wrote that their grandkids requested to return in 2016. "Thanksgiving was Nantucket. They missed the little outlets, the ice cream parlor we at all times visited, the normal Friday lunch. They wished to look at the Christmas tree lighting and wander the cobblestone streets. They wished to be collectively. To really feel regular once more."

She wrote that all of them "simply fell again into their previous routines."

Nantucket, she wrote, was "the place we discovered methods to be a household — all of the difficult story traces of start and demise, marriage and divorce, harm and therapeutic, love and love and love, coming collectively on this little city on the fringe of the world."

Nantucket's response to the Bidens Jill Biden wrote in her memoir that once they drove down Predominant Avenue in 2016, retailer home windows have been flooded with indicators saying "Welcome again, Bidens!"

In line with the Nantucket Present, "residents have grown accustomed to over the previous three years throughout Biden's presidency" that "downtown resorts and inns are absolutely booked with Secret Service personnel, safety groups, and White Home reporters throughout what is generally a quiet vacation for the island."

"Over the previous three days, large Air Power C-17s have been flying out and in of the airport dropping off automobiles and tools, whereas almost a dozen Massachusetts State Police Troopers arrived on bikes aboard the Steamship Authority ferry on Monday," the Nantucket Present mentioned. "In the meantime at Faregrounds Restaurant, chef Invoice Puder is cooking up greater than 200 turkey dinners for the Secret Service."

Site visitors and safety advisories have been listed for the Christmas tree lighting on Friday. In earlier years, they've participated within the Polar Bear Plunge on Friday as nicely.

Caroline Linton

Caroline Linton is an affiliate managing editor on the political group for CBSNews.com. She has beforehand written for The Day by day Beast, Newsweek and amNewYork.