Christmas At The Nixon Library December 2010

Christmas, children, is not a date. It is a state of mind. ~Mary Ellen Chase

Rainy Day So To The Nixon Library We Go (12/2010)

Cats and Dogs

We Started The Day With Breakfast at Old Ranch

Richard Nixon Library December 17th 2010

It Was A Rainy Day In Yorba Linda

The Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum is the presidential library and final resting place of Richard Milhous Nixon, the 37th President of the United States. Located in Yorba Linda, California, the library is one of twelve administered by the National Archives and Records Administration.

From its original dedication in 1990 until becoming a federal facility on July 11, 2007, the library and museum was operated by a private foundation and was known as the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace.

The nine acre (36,000 m²) campus is located at 18001 Yorba Linda Boulevard in Yorba Linda, California and incorporates the National Historic Landmarked Richard Nixon Birthplace where Nixon was born in 1913 and spent his childhood. The facility is now jointly operated between NARA and the Richard Nixon Foundation.

Richard Nixon Library   December 17th 2010

Richard Nixon Library   December 17th 2010

Richard Nixon Library   December 17th 2010

On a clear day

We Had Been Having Days Of Rain

Richard Nixon Library December 17th 2010
The weather forecasters told us this would be a dry winter!

Nixon Library Visit
Carri kept her shoes and feet dry

Many Many Christmas Trees On Display

Christmas Trees
The docents decorate many trees with themes from Nixon's activities

Richard Nixon Library   December 17th 2010
The Presidents Tree 2010

Old Ranch Country Club

Did You Know? - At Whittier College, the annual bonfire was a point of class pride. Each year the fire was fueled with scrap wood topped by an outhouse. The competition was to see which senior chairman could top the pile of debris with the largest outhouse-a 2-holer, say, or even a 3. Young Nixon scored an immense and well remembered triumph when his diligence turned up a 4-holer! As writer Garry Wills suggests: "Picture the systematic intensity that went into this achievement."

Richard Nixon Library   December 17th 2010

Did You Know? - Perhaps the most reluctant of recent political wives, Pat Nixon nonetheless will be remembered for conducting herself with dignity during turbulent times. How much do you know about the Irish girl born in Ely, Nevada, Thelma Catherine "Pat" Ryan Nixon? 

She graduated from high school in 1929, then attended Fullerton Junior College and later the University of Southern California. She paid for her schooling by working multiple jobs, including pharmacy manager, typist, X-ray technician, and retail store clerk.

Richard Nixon Library   December 17th 2010

Lego Train Tradition Continues

Did You Know? - The Lego Group had humble beginnings in the workshop of Ole Kirk Christiansen, a carpenter from Billund, Denmark. The word lego is an abbreviation for two Danish words leg and godt meaning play well. In 1916, Christiansen purchased a woodworking shop in Billund which had been in business since 1895. He earned his living by constructing houses and furniture for farmers in the region, with the help of a small staff of apprentices.

His workshop burned down in 1924 when a fire, lit by two of his young sons, ignited some wood shavings. Undaunted, Ole Kirk took the disaster as an opportunity to construct a larger workshop, and worked towards expanding his business even further; however, the Great Depression would soon have an impact on his livelihood. In finding ways to minimize production costs, Ole Kirk began producing miniature versions of his products as design aids. It was these miniature stepladders and ironing boards that inspired him to begin producing toys.

Richard Nixon Library   December 17th 2010

Richard Nixon Library   December 17th 2010
Magnificent detail

Richard Nixon Library   December 17th 2010
No flash allowed so we followed the rules... a high rules

Richard Nixon Library   December 17th 2010

Richard Nixon Library   December 17th 2010
Quite a switching yard

Nixon Library Visit

Did You Know? - It was in 1934 that the company name Lego was coined. Ole Kirk held a contest amongst his staff to see who could come up with the best name for the company, offering a bottle of homemade wine as a prize. Christiansen was considering two names himself, "Legio" (with the implication of a "Legion of toys") and "Lego", a self-made contraction from the Danish phrase leg godt, meaning "play well." Later the Lego Group discovered that "Lego" can be loosely interpreted as "I put together" or "I assemble" in Latin.

Richard Nixon Library   December 17th 2010
The main terminal

Did You Know? - Even though heads of state have traditionally exchanged gifts as expressions of goodwill, the Constitution (Article I, Section 9) prohibits anyone in the US Government from receiving a personal gift from a foreign head of state without the consent of Congress. Today, the handling of gifts from a foreign official to any Federal Government employee, including the President, is largely governed by the Foreign Gifts and Decorations Act of 1966 and further legislation passed in 1977. Congress has allowed Federal employees to retain any gift from a foreign government, as long as the total US retail value of the gifts presented at one occasion does not exceed an amount established by the General Services Administration (GSA).

Foreign official gifts over this “minimal value” are considered gifts to the people of the United States, which the recipient must purchase from GSA, at fair market value, in order to retain. The White House Gift Unit sees to the disposition of foreign official gifts that the President and First Lady do not retain

Any gift not from a foreign government official is considered a domestic gift. Domestic gifts to the President and/or First Lady may be disposed of in any manner the President and First Lady wish. If they want to keep a domestic gift, they do not have to purchase it from the Government.

Richard Nixon Library   December 17th 2010

Richard Nixon Library   December 17th 2010
The Law

From The Shaw Of Iran

Richard Nixon Library   December 17th 2010

Richard Nixon Library   December 17th 2010

From The King And Queen Of Thailand July 1969

Richard Nixon Library   December 17th 2010

Did You Know? - The Monarchy of Thailand (also referred to as the King of Thailand or historically as King of Siam) (Thai: พระมหากษัตริย์ไทย) refers to the constitutional monarchy and monarch of the Kingdom of Thailand (formerly Siam). The King of Thailand is the head of state and head of the ruling Royal House of Chakri. The king's power is limited to being a symbolic figurehead, but the institution commands the respect and reverence of the Thai people.

Many Gowns/Clothes Were Given To The Nixons

Richard Nixon Library   December 17th 2010
Traditional dress of foreign countries

Richard Nixon Library   December 17th 2010

Richard Nixon Library   December 17th 2010

Richard Nixon Library December 17th 2010
From the President of Liberia

Did You Know? - The history of Liberia is unique among African nations because of its relationship with the United States. It is one of only two countries in Africa, along with Ethiopia, without roots in the European Scramble for Africa. It was founded and colonized by freed American slaves with the help of a private organization called the American Colonization Society in 1821-1822, on the premise that former American slaves would have greater freedom and equality there.

Carved Tusks

Richard Nixon Library December 17th 2010

An Amazing Painting By Emanuel Leutze From 1851

Crossing the delaware

Did You Know? - The flag depicted is the original flag of the United States (the "Stars and Stripes"), the design of which did not exist at the time of Washington's crossing. The flag's design was specified in the June 14, 1777 Flag Resolution of the Second Continental Congress, and flew for the first time on September 3, 1777—well after Washington's crossing in 1776. The historically accurate flag would have been the Grand Union Flag, officially hoisted by Washington himself on January 2, 1776 at Cambridge, Massachusetts, as the standard of the Continental Army and the first national flag.

Richard Nixon Library   December 17th 2010
Made from the bark of trees

Richard Nixon Library   December 17th 2010
Meeting with the Queen Of England

Off To See The His Home

His boyhood home
Too rainy today

Richard Nixon Library   December 17th 2010

Richard Nixon Library   December 17th 2010
The scale model was fantastic

Did You Know? - he Richard Nixon Birthplace is where Richard Nixon was born and lived from 1913 to 1922. It was built in 1913 in the California style with "Bungalow elements" by his father, Francis A. Nixon from a home building kit.

Richard Nixon Library   December 17th 2010
His Mom and Dad's room

Richard Nixon Library   December 17th 2010
The brothers slept upstairs

Richard Nixon Library   December 17th 2010
The home was about 900 square feet in total

Richard Nixon Library   December 17th 2010
Nixon played five musical instruments

The 1950's Tree

Richard Nixon Library   December 17th 2010

Richard Nixon Library   December 17th 2010

Richard Nixon Library   December 17th 2010

Richard Nixon Library   December 17th 2010

Richard Nixon Library   December 17th 2010

Richard Nixon Library   December 17th 2010

Richard Nixon Library   December 17th 2010

Richard Nixon Library December 17th 2010
Exploring the library

The World Leaders

Richard Nixon Library   December 17th 2010
Life size and the clothes are real, just painted to look bronze

Richard Nixon Library December 17th 2010

Richard Nixon Library December 17th 2010

Richard Nixon Library December 17th 2010

Did You Know? - Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive, but sometimes with other elements such as phosphorus, manganese, aluminum, or silicon. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal. However, since "bronze" is a somewhat imprecise term, and historical pieces have variable compositions, in particular with an unclear boundary with brass, modern museum and scholarly descriptions of older objects increasingly use the more cautious term "copper alloy" instead.

The word Bronze is believed to be cognate with the Italian: bronzo and German: brunst, perhaps ultimately taken from the Persian word birinj ("bronze") or possibly from the Latin name of the city of Brindisi (aes Brundusinum -Pliny).

Richard Nixon Library   December 17th 2010
Nikita baby was short and dumpy

Richard Nixon Library   December 17th 2010
"I'm introvert in an extrovert profession."

China

Richard Nixon Library December 17th 2010

Richard Nixon Library December 17th 2010

Richard Nixon Library December 17th 2010

Richard Nixon Library December 17th 2010

The Lincoln Sitting Room

Richard Nixon Library   December 17th 2010

Did You Know? - The Lincoln Sitting Room is a small sitting room located on the second floor of the White House. It was used as the White House telegraph room from 1865 to 1902 (until the West Wing was built). It is furnished in Victorian-style to match the bedroom. The overstuffed sofa and matching chair were formerly furnishings in the Green Room. The Kennedy restoration in 1963 restored it to Victorian-style, and it has been maintained in the same style since. The room became a favorite of President Richard Nixon who had it replicated in his presidential library.

Richard Nixon Library   December 17th 2010

Quote: "I won my share of scholarships, and of speaking and debating prizes in school, but not because I was smarter but because I worked longer and harder than some of my more gifted colleagues."

Nixon Supported The Space Program

Richard Nixon Library   December 17th 2010

Richard Nixon Library December 17th 2010

Richard Nixon Library   December 17th 2010
Lunar Lander

Richard Nixon Library   December 17th 2010

Richard Nixon Library   December 17th 2010

Quote: - "Frankly, most people are mentally and physically lazy. They believe you can get places by luck alone. They fail to do the hard grinding work required to get all the facts before reaching a decision."

Richard Nixon Library   December 17th 2010

Richard Nixon Library   December 17th 2010

If Only His Car Could Talk

Richard Nixon Library   December 17th 2010

Richard Nixon Library December 17th 2010

Richard Nixon Library   December 17th 2010

Back To The Foyer

Did You Know? - A foyer (French: [fwaje], English: /ˈfɔɪər/) is a large, vast room or complex of rooms (in a theatre, opera, concert hall, showroom, cinema, etc.) adjacent to the auditorium. It is a repose area for spectators and place of venues, especially used before performance and during intermissions, but also as a place of celebrations or festivities after performance.

Usually a foyer is a large, specially designed hall, but sometimes it is a corridor surrounding the main hall. It is furnished and big enough to enable spectators to stroll, get together and rest. Foyers are commonly adorned with art works, permanent or temporary exhibitions related to the activity of the institution, and a refreshment room or buffet. Moreover, the foyer can be the main place of some events such as vernissage, meetings with the artists, actors' benefit, etc.

Richard Nixon Library   December 17th 2010

Richard Nixon Library   December 17th 2010

Richard Nixon Library December 17th 2010

Richard Nixon Library December 17th 2010