Obama Christmas Shopping With [The Baker’s] Daughter[s]

Given that First Lady Michelle Obama is the author of the organic gardening guide/cookbook American Grown, I imagine Sasha and Malia are “baker’s daughters.” So it seems serendipitous that our reelected leader and his beautiful daughters found themselves standing beneath the book wings of The Baker’s Daughter this past Saturday.

Rewind… let me tell you the brief story of my Thanksgiving weekend from the beginning.

Thursday, of course, was Thanksgiving–our Great American Holiday of gratitude. Doc B and I gobbled a delicious roast turkey at the table of my vegetarian friend and her carnivore husband. God bless her. A more loving hostess I cannot imagine. She kept her eyes on the stuffing casserole while we carved the bird. I owe her a bottle of prosecco for being so hospitable to our meat-eating.

Black Friday, I stayed home. I didn’t even go out on the roads. Instead, I kept my turkey-laden self in elastic-waisted comfy pants at home, giving thanks for leftovers and good digestion.

I spy The Baker’s Daughter over their shoulders…

Saturday, however, was Small Business Saturday. Honestly, this is the first year I’ve known about it, but it’s been around since post-Thanksgiving Saturday 2010. I like it more than Black Friday by far and plan to make it a personal tradition from here on out. For my part, I shopped at a local “Texas western shop.” Forgive me for refraining from telling you the name, but I purchased Christmas gifts for Doc B here and don’t want to ruin the surprise. However, my buying was the least interesting news of the day. The BIG hoopla came when I received a fabulous tweet from my dear author friend, Kelly O’Connor McKnees in Chicago. It was this image:

That is our fabulous American President participating in Small Business Saturday by visiting my beloved Arlington, Virginia, bookstore family at One More Page Books. 

These fine folks were my hosts for The Baker’s Daughter’s “hometown” book release party— yes, the one with the life-sized replica of the novel in CAKE.

The Baker’s Daughter launch party.

Dear bookstore staff friends!

I jumped out of my seat and nearly did a cartwheel when I read that the shop receiving the most dignified and grand patrons in the nation. Then I recognized the lovely red-hatted lady over President Obama and his daughters’ shoulders: THE BAKER’S DAUGHTER poster.

I want to send Sasha and Malia red hats, and a signed copy of THE BAKER’S DAUGHTER for them to give as a gift to… whomever they please. Ahem.

I thought my escalation was at its peak until I saw that The Baker’s Daughter stood alongside more beloved friends. From left to right: Rachel Simon’s The Story of a Beautiful Girl, Erika Robuck’s Hemingway’s Girl, Junot Diaz’s This is How You Lose Her, and Nichole Bernier’s The Unfinished Work of Elizabeth D. I am honored and overjoyed to share the shelf with these amazing authors and their book angels.

I wish I could’ve whispered to President Obama, Look up, look up, kind sir. All of these fine stories will move your mind and heart. Pick up one that stirs your imagination. Or even better– all of them!

These are my visions of sugarplums.

But no matter what books currently capture the Obama Family’s attention, I salute President Obama and am entirely grateful for a national leader who selects an independent bookstore to honor 2012’s Small Business Saturday. As an author and woman devoted to literacy, I applaud you, Mr. President. Whether or not he, Sasha or Malia noticed The Baker’s Daughter and her red hat is inconsequential. What matters is that they brought paper and glue, beautiful books “home” to the White House from their shopping day with their father. Now that’s my kind of American dream. 

Here’s the video link from CBS. 

Enjoy!
Yours truly, Sarah