Bidens spread holiday cheer with visit to D.C. children’s hospital

Dec. 20 (UPI) — President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden on Friday spread the season’s cheer with a visit to a children’s hospital in Washington, D.C., meeting with youngsters too sick to spend the holidays at home.

The first couple continued a tradition they have observed during each of their four years in the White House with a trip to Children’s National Hospital.

There they met with patients and their parents privately and also made an appearance in the hospital’s brightly decorated atrium, where Jill Biden gathered youngsters together for a reading of A Visit from St. Nicholas, the 1823 poem by Clement Clarke Moore usually known by its first line, “Twas the night before Christmas.”

During the reading, a toddler in a blue jumpsuit, identified as John “Reuben” Unkovic, drew laughs by cavorting at the feet of the first couple, playing catch with the president and at one point climbing up onto his chair.

“Reading and entertainment!” the first lady exclaimed.

Joe Biden later issued words of encouragement to the hospitalized youngsters in his final trip to the facility as president.

“Keep the hope,” he said. “You’re in our prayers, you’re in our thoughts, and thank you for letting us join you.”