At first sight it looks like a summer camp for kids—until you spot the three Marines armed with submachine guns at the entrance. I've had the chance to do a lot of interesting things as PEOPLE's managing editor, but visiting Camp David, the President's 143-acre hideaway in Maryland's Catoctin Mountains, for our year-end interview with the nation's leader was a high point. From the Scottish-terrier welcome mat outside the simple green-shingled cabin where the Bushes get away from Washington worries, to the First Lady's half-finished jigsaw puzzle on a living room table, this was a view of the President's private world that few journalists have ever glimpsed.

Of course, PEOPLE's annual Year End issue tips a hat to many other noteworthies who touched our readers in 2007: Patrick Dempsey and other stars who hit it big this year, the haunting loss of little Madeleine McCann in Portugal, a gaggle of stunning celebrity meltdowns and the far happier arrival of so many sets of Hollywood twins.

It's been an eventful year. After our interview at Camp David, standing with the Bushes out on their terrace overlooking the chipping green installed by Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon's swimming pool, I thought back to what the President had said just a few minutes before when I asked how he'd changed in the past seven years. He laughed, looked at me and said, "My hair is about as white as yours."

At least I'm in good company. With best wishes for the holidays, and the coming year, to all of you.