The Obamas Celebrate the Holidays with Christmas Card: 'Let's Continue Working to Become Even Better'

The Obamas are wishing everyone a “holiday season filled with friends, family, and joy!”

On Christmas Eve, former First Lady Michelle Obama shared her family’s heartwarming Christmas card, which reads, “We wish you a holiday season that sparkles with magic and wonder and a new year that’s filled with peace and hope.”

The sweet card was signed by Mrs. Obama, former President Barack Obama, their daughters Malia and Sasha and of course the family’s dogs Bo and Sunny.

Mrs. Obama further elaborated on her holiday message in the caption of the post, sharing, “Wishing you a holiday season filled with friends, family, and joy.”

“Thanks to so many you for sharing your hopes and goals with me these past few weeks in the comments and on my Instagram Story,” Mrs. Obama wrote.

“This type of positive and thoughtful engagement from my ‘Becoming Family’ is a reminder that there are millions of us out there constantly striving to become more mindful, compassionate, and caring people.”

Mrs. Obama concluded the post by encouraging the country to “continue working to become even better — for ourselves and for each other. #IAmBecoming.”

It’s been a life-changing year for the Obamas that saw the family send their youngest daughter Sasha off to college while Mrs. Obama broke records with her best-selling book Becoming.

Mr. and Mrs. Obama became empty nesters back in August after dropping their youngest daughter Sasha, 18, off at college and buying a $11.75 million mansion on Martha’s Vineyard. The Obamas opened up to PEOPLE this month about the emotional moment they dropped Sasha off at college and the readjustment period the former first couple needed to get used to living alone again — for the first time in nearly two decades.

“We’ve rediscovered all these little pockets of time, just me and Barack, that for a couple decades have been filled with school events or sports practices,” Mrs. Obama, 55, told PEOPLE last month. “We’re taking full advantage of this new normal, simply spending time with each other and remembering what brought us together in the first place.”

Mrs. Obama used her time to fill a busy 2019 with a sell-out book tour for her 2018 memoir Becoming and a recent trip to Vietnam alongside Today co-host Jenna Bush Hager and actress Julia Roberts to promote young women’s education around the world.

The former first lady also notched her first Grammy nomination for Becoming‘s audiobook, getting the nod for best spoken word album — an award her husband has won twice in the past.

President Obama, 58, has been working on drafts of his own memoir, which is expected to hit shelves next year ahead of the 2020 election.

In addition to their writing, the Obamas have been working on film projects with their Higher Ground production company, which struck a deal with Netflix in May 2018 for a slate of films, documentaries, and TV shows that will be released over the next few years. The first Obama-produced documentary American Factory hit Netflix in August.

“One way of looking at what we’ve both been doing for the last 20 years, maybe most of our career, was to tell stories,” Mr. Obama says in a clip promoting the film. “You want to be in relationships with people and connect with them and work together with them.”

The Obamas have made an effort to travel and connect with people around the world since leaving office in 2017 through their eponymous foundation. On their recent trip to Asia, both Mr. and Mrs. Obama met with local leaders from around the globe to promote an array of conversations touching on everything from young women’s education to climate change.

But during a Q&A session in Malaysia in mid-December, Mr. Obama touched on how he balances spending time with his family while also being one of the most powerful figures in the world.

“On my deathbed, I am confident I will not remember any bill I passed. I will not remember any speech I gave, any crowds. I won’t be thinking about the inauguration,” President Obama said. “I will be thinking about holding hands with my daughters and taking them to a park or seeing them laugh while they’re playing in the water. That is going to be the thing that lasts.”