MacBooks for Charity Among Gifts Obama Gives Royal Family

Toby Melville - WPA Pool/Getty Images(LONDON) -- Newlyweds Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, received a present from President Obama and the first lady Tuesday: six donated MacBook Notebook computers to Peace Players International in Belfast Ireland, a charity of the Duke and Duchess' choosing.

The White House said that the president and Mrs. Obama gave Queen Elizabeth II a collection of rare memorabilia and photographs in a handmade leather-bound album that chronologically tells the tale of the Queen's  parents' visit to the United States in 1939.  That trip by King George VI and his wife, Queen Elizabeth, was the first to the U.S. by a reigning British monarch.

As for Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, the Obamas gifted him a custom-made set of Fell Pony bits and shanks, as well as original horseshoes worn by recently retired champion carriage horse Jamaica.

Prince Philip has a keen interest in equestrian sports and specifically in carriage driving.  Designed in Colorado and made in Ohio, the set includes several interchangeable bits and each shank is engraved with the Presidential Seal.  A slaughterhouse rescue horse, Jamaica rose to the top of carriage horse competition and was named the 2008 United States Equestrian Federation Horse of the Year.

The president and first lady also gave the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall a special selection of plants, seedlings, and seeds from the gardens of Mount Vernon, Monticello, and the South Lawn of the White House, as well as jars of honey from the White House beehive.

This one-of-a-kind collection was presented in a specially handcrafted wooden box made from a Magnolia tree that fell on the grounds of the White House during the snowstorm of February 2009.  Magnolia trees have been a fixture on the South Lawn of the White House since the mid-nineteenth century.

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