The couple and Biden’s young sons Hunter and Beau received numerous Thanksgiving invitations at the time. But Biden realized that “no matter which family we choose (to go on vacation with), we’re going to hurt someone’s feelings, which is the last thing Jill or I want to do.”
“I was in the Senate office that fall one day, explaining this predicament to my chief of staff, and he said, ‘What you need is a nuclear Thanksgiving. .’ Meaning the nuclear family is alone. Only Wes Barthelmes is a Boston man, so what he’s really saying is ‘Nuclear Thanksgiving,'” Biden wrote.
“I wasn’t sure exactly what he was trying to say, until he explained that it was easiest for everyone if the four of us – me and Jill, Beau and Hunt – went alone. He suggested out to the island of Nantucket, an hour ferry ride south of Cape Cod. Jill and I have both never been there, but we decided to go ahead and go on an adventure there.”
And so a new family tradition has begun – and will continue on Tuesday when President Biden and the first lady head to the island.
Whether it’s been a great year or a bad year, Biden wrote in “Promise Me, Dad,” “we put it all aside and celebrated Thanksgiving in Nantucket.” He said that the annual trip to Massachusetts has been “a constant in our grandchildren’s lives since they became aware, and they have made it clear how much it means to them.”
That tradition didn’t stop when Biden became vice president in the Obama administration. But instead of the long drive north, the second family passed through Air Force Two.
Along with many of the Biden family traditions that take place in Nantucket (like taking family photos each year at a Scotset beach house that has been washed away in recent years), Beau proposed to his future wife at the town’s 2001 Christmas tree lighting and marry her. at a church in the city center.
The president also wrote in his memoirs that when Beau’s health was becoming cause for concern, his sons used a trip to Nantucket to urge him to run for president in 2016.
“I know there are a lot of good reasons not to run, and the uncertainty about Beau’s health comes first. And I really doubt that’s my sons who I’ve evaluated. tall and lean, didn’t want me to put my family. through the test of the last presidential campaign,” Biden wrote.
“Dad, you’re all wrong,” Beau said as we settled into the kitchen in Nantucket. “You have to run. I want you to run.” Hunter agrees: “We want you to run,” he continued.
In 2020, the Biden family also decided not to visit Nantucket for a large family gathering on Thanksgiving because of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Instead, he and his wife spent the vacation at their home near Rehoboth Beach in Delaware with their daughter, Ashley, and son-in-law Howard Kerin.
“This past Thanksgiving, for the first time, it was just the four of us – my wife and I, my daughter and son-in-law,” he said in early November. “Later this month, the table and our hearts. we will be filled, thanks to the vaccine.”
Despite the annual visits, Biden doesn’t own a home on the island. It is not clear where the family will be.
The president’s visit is expected to have a major security footprint, but so far, local authorities have largely appeared unfazed by the arrival of senior experts.
But he added, “I mean, we’ve visited the Kardashians in the past, so the island is used to this kind of thing.”
And before departing for Massachusetts, the President and first lady will participate in a service project Tuesday in Washington, DC, with their second family.
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