Harry: Let's see what the White House has in store for the holiday this year. CBS News senior White House correspondent Bill Plante is inside with a very special tour guide, First Lady Laura Bush, good morning.

Bill: Harry, good morning to you, good morning to all, and First Lady Laura Bush, welcome as always.

Laura: Thank you for having me.

Bill: Christmas decorations at the White House?

Laura: That's right. It's the most favorite time of the year and we've just, last night, all the decorators who've come from around the country to decorate left and I will set up today to show it off.

Bill: I have to, I have to tell ya, I'm used to seeing something much more elaborate in this East Room.

Laura: That's right. This is a simpler...ur...year, really is, we, ur, you have the theme: all things bright and beautiful and what I really wanted to use were fresh, all fresh things, so we have real roses on the tree, aren't they beautiful?

Bill: Real flowers on the tree in. . .

Laura: Some pieces're, that are (with those) up high, with those so we don't have to change those as so often.

Bill: In water, in little vials of water.

Laura: In water, that's right, in little vials of water. And then we are using a lot of fruit, we have the beautiful color of pears on the center pieces for the East Room, this is the, a table that will be set up during receptions here in the East Room, there will be one here and then one in the dinning room, of course.

Bill: Wait a minute, where's the food?

Laura: The food will be here. You are gonna get it this afternoon oh~ this morning. Um, in fact that will be our new chef that would, this would be her debut to the press. Cris Comerford, our new White House chef, the first woman chef.

Bill: First woman chef, right.

Laura: Chef and she will, about 10:30, will be serving all of the press, ur /, the big buffet that we will be having at our parties.

Bill: Well, now you got the White House Christmas card of course right here.

Laura: The White House Christmas card is in the mail, and it's done by Jamie Wyeth this year, the, um, very renowned American artist Jamie Wyeth, the son of Andrew Wyeth, grandson of NC Wyeth. And it's the beautiful south portico of the White House. And we have Barney and Beazley and Kitty down there in the snow. Of course, we had to put them in the card. And then, if you come to visit the White House during the Christmas, you get the~um~Christmas brochure, all the guests that come, / including all the tours, so we should, we expect about 45, 000 people and, on White House tours over the Christmas holidays and every year we've asked a children's book illustrator to illustrate the decorations of the White House. And this year the illustrator is Donna Green. And I think she did a really beautiful job of showing how pretty the White House is when it's decorated for Christmas.

Bill: It's always pretty, but it's very different this year. What're these different things to see?

Laura: It's very different. It's much simpler and everything is fresh and real, I think it's really, really pretty and, especially, I think this sort of decoration shows off how elegant the White House is.

Bill: Let me ask you this. Your husband today is giving a major speech (That's right. ) about Iraq (Uh uhm), to prove that he has a plan(uhm) because he has been so criticized(uhm) by many people, (uh-em) because the war keeps dragging on,(uhm) because that means that there are troops (Sure. Can harm somewhat. ) away from Christmas.(yeah) Does it, first of all, does it bother you when he is criticized the way he has been?

Laura: Well, sure, absolutely, you know, no one likes to see anyone they love criticized, but on the other hand when you look at what really has happened. It's only been three years. Iraq has come a very, very long way. They've ratified a constitution. This month, they will elect their leaders for the next four years. More and more Iraqi troops have been trained. As more Iraqi troops are trained, more of our troops will be able to stand down. It's really a quite amazing transformation in the heart of the Middle East, and all of the other things that happened as well, Lebanon, with Syria leaving Lebanon.

Bill: This is quite a year.

Laura: Libya. You know, what really is amazing and I know we're impatient and I know it's difficult, it's very, very difficult to watch those images from Iraq, to see and to be so fearful for our American troops that are there all the time, which I know all Americans are - not just the families that have been deployed, but all Americans have a very difficult time watching our troops over there and worrying about our troops over there. But at the same time. . .

Bill: Especially I think at the holiday season.

Laura: Sure. At the holiday season it's always the hardest when you think about the families who have an empty place at the table, either because they lost their loved one in Iraq or Afghanistan, or because their loved one is deployed. Um, it's the most difficult time, a holiday season. And so it's especially a time for Americans to reach out to our military families around the world.

Bill: One quick question on another topic. Are you disappointed your husband didn't pick a woman for the Supreme Court?

Laura: Well, he did pick one (Well, yeah), but now I mean I think Samuel Alito will be terrific, I'm very very excited about him and his highly qualified so. . .

Bill: We are so happy you could be with us (Thank you very much Bill. ), thank you so much First Lady Laura Bush. Harry.

Harry: Hi, Bill, Mrs. Bush, thank you so much show. Love the tour, love the scenes at the White House this time of year. You can check out even more decorations by heading to the website at the White House, that's whitehouse.gov.

All right.