It has been a long time since there has been such a young family in the White House.

This is our First Family in The Green Room.  While I am confident President Obama would like to be with the troops far closer to the holidays than today, he has a wonderful family that needs him at home for Christmas.  If there is any gift we could give the troops for Christmas, it would be to bring them home, unfortunately, not this year.

I wish the Commander and Chief, his family and our troops the best the holidays have to offer.  We can only hope to improve that happiness in the future by a nation injured and trying to heal.

"I know it's not easy for all you to be away from home, especially during the holiday," Obama told a crowd of nearly 4,000 troops at Bagram Air Base. "We are here to say thank you for everything you do."