Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With Allie Bice. Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Alex | Email Tina | Email Max In early November, JASMINE KAIDBEY walked into her mother’s West End floral shop in the nation’s capital with a bottle of champagne tucked under her arm. Days earlier, Kaidbey had secretly sent a heartfelt letter to first lady JILL BIDEN and her press secretary MICHAEL LaROSA, urging them to consider her mother, SUHA KAIDBEY, to be among this year’s group of volunteers selected to help decorate the White House’s many historic rooms for the holidays. Her mother had tried to volunteer years before, but never made the cut. “As a floral designer in Washington D.C., it has been my mother’s dream for decades to help decorate the White House for Christmas,” she wrote. “It would be a special honor to do so for an administration that has made history in diversity and inclusion, and for a President that has set an unparalleled example in never giving up on a dream.” In great detail, Jasmine Kaidbey wrote of her parents’ path to the U.S. from Beirut, Lebanon, where they had left prominent careers to escape a civil war. They opened Le Printemps — French for “spring” — in 1983 at 1255 23rd Street NW. The shop — tucked away almost secretly among the edifices on an otherwise unremarkable street, its inside bright, colorful and fragrant — still stands there today. Since then, Suha Kaidbey has arranged flowers for ambassadors, governors, members of Congress, Supreme Court justices and former first ladies, her daughter wrote in the letter, noting how proud she was of her mother’s talents and perseverance. The letter, sent on November 8, made its way up the chain fast. Just four days later, she got a green light in the form of an email from the White House visitor’s office. Jasmine Kaidbey rushed to tell her mother the good news — urging her to take a seat and warning her that she might cry. Her mother thought she was crazy, telling her, “There’s nothing that will make me cry today,” she recalled to West Wing Playbook. “She said, ‘Sit down. Look at this.’ She showed me the letter that she wrote to Dr. Biden, and then she showed me the response of the White House telling her, ‘Let your mom tell us when is a good time for her to come,’” Suha Kaidbey said. “And really I was in tears right after that for sure. I said, ‘Wow, this is incredible.’ She wanted to surprise me for Christmas, and she really succeeded in doing so.” The Kaidbey family, like many other small business owners, has experienced hardships during the pandemic. In March 2020, the floral shop lost some of its most crucial client base. Hotels across Washington canceled their weekly floral contracts because there were no guests to see the arrangements. Jasmine Kaidbey, a PhD student in public health at George Washington University, stepped up her part-time efforts at the store, adding on extra responsibilities, like managing the store’s social media accounts and helping to ensure contactless pickup for customers. The floral shop, like many other businesses, has also experienced supply chain issues, but theirs came with a grim twist. “We were running out of supplies, especially wreaths, because there had been so many funerals,” Suha Kaidbey said. And so, Jasmine Kaidbey thought her mom deserved a little joy during another bleak year. And what better way to bring joy than to have the First Lady as a client? The veteran Washington floral designer spent three days at the White House in late November — decorating the Christmas trees and wreaths in the East Room, apple topiaries in the State Dining Room, wreath bows for the first lady’s office and floral arrangements in the China Room. She had a say in the design — as did the other volunteer florists — in coordination with the White House’s chief floral designer, whom Kaidbey met with upon first entering the White House. In all, the White House invited more than 100 volunteers to decorate the outside and inside of the White House with 41 Christmas trees, 6,000 feet of ribbon and more than 78,750 holiday lights. Jill Biden also hosted the volunteers at a reception, where each took pictures with her. At the White House, Suha Kaidbey told staffers she was only there because of her daughter’s letter. They said they knew exactly who she was and what was in the letter. “Apparently the letter was circulating among them,” she said with a laugh. OUT OF OFFICE: West Wing Playbook won’t publish from Friday, Dec. 24 through Friday, Dec. 31. We’ll be back Monday, Jan. 3. We hope absence makes the heart grow fonder. Merry Christmas to all who celebrate! Do you work in the Biden administration? Are you in touch with the White House? Are you JOE BIDEN, president of the United States? We want to hear from you — and we’ll keep you anonymous if you want to be, Mr. President. We know this is a long shot but ‘tis the season for miracles! Give us a call at (818) 324-0098 or email us at westwingtips@politico.com. | 
