WASHINGTON — (AP) — President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, brought some Christmastime cheer to patients and their families at a children's hospital on Friday but a toddler in a light blue jumper entertained, too.

The president and first lady visited privately with patients and their families for photos at Children's National Hospital before Jill Biden read "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" to a group of patients in the atrium. As she read, the president, seated beside her in a matching red chair, played a game of catch with the toddler. Biden made faces at the child and at one point briefly got him to sit up on his chair.

“Reading and entertainment,” Jill Biden said after she finished reading. The audience laughed.

The president then asked permission to make a brief statement and sought to lift the children's spirits, saying he knows it's a “tough time” for them to be in the hospital.

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

The visit continued a tradition, dating back to first lady Bess Truman, of presidents’ wives bringing holiday cheer to children who are too ill to be at home for Christmas.

President Biden has joined his wife on all four of her annual visits. It has not gone unnoticed.

“We've never had a president join for four years in a row straight, so you have set a high bar,” Michelle Riley-Brown, president and CEO of the hospital, told him.

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