WE WOULD LIKE to express our appreciation to all of you who have come out to the airport and have given us such a wonderful welcome as we return home to California.
I noted that a few of you wore coats. I can't understand it. We just came from Washington and we have a wonderful white Christmas there. It feels very warm to me here in California, not only because of the weather but because of the warmth of your welcome.
And too, I want you to know that on this trip we are going to participate in only one public event. It is one we have been looking forward to, and it is something which I think you, because most of you are residents of Orange County and of California, will be interested in. While we are here on this trip, the three of us are going to register as voters in California, our home State. So I wanted to be sure that my Congressman, Jimmy [James B.] Utt, was aware of the fact that he better be nice to me and answer my mail from now on, all the letters that I send to him. And here he is--Jimmy.
So we simply want to say that after 4 months it is very good to be back here. We know that returning to California has always meant a great deal to us but particularly now in the middle of this holiday Season.
We want to take this opportunity to wish every one of you a very Happy New Year, and we hope we can make it a peaceful new year, too.
Thank you.
Note: The President spoke at 4:35 p.m. after he arrived with his wife and daughter Tricia for a 12-day vacation at their home in San Clemente, Calif.
Richard Nixon, Remarks on Arrival at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, California. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/240460
