Pastry Chefs with 2002 Holiday Chocolate Buffet Display

This photograph shows staff members from the White House Pastry Shop posing in the East Room with a handmade chocolate eagle and a dessert buffet they prepared for the 2002 White House holiday season. The room is decorated for the season with multiple Christmas trees and an 18th century crèche, visible in the background. The 3-foot tall chocolate eagle was designed to complement First Lady Laura Welch Bush's "All Creatures Great and Small" holiday theme, but was so well received that sculpted chocolate eagles by the pastry shop became a tradition for the remainder of the George W. Bush administration. Pictured here from left to right: Jessie Betts, Noree Hathaway, Lindsay Michel, Susan "Susie" E. Morrison, Lynn McCartin, Marlene Roudebush, Roland Mesnier, Susan Limb, Patrick Musel, Donna Cellere, and Patty Stimmel.