His last presidential vacation behind him, Barack Obama returns to Washington on Monday from Hawaii with just two-and-a-half weeks left. His final days will largely be consumed by a bid to protect his endangered health care law, a major farewell speech in Chicago and the ongoing handover of power to Trump.

In an email to supporters on Monday, Obama said he'll deliver a valedictory speech on Jan 10, following a tradition set in 1796 when the first president, George Washington, spoke to the American people for the last time in office.

The speech will take place at McCormick Place, a giant convention center in Obama's hometown of Chicago.

"I'm thinking about them as a chance to say thank you for this amazing journey, to celebrate the ways you've changed this country for the better these past eight years, and to offer some thoughts on where we all go from here," Obama said.

Obama's chief speechwriter, Cody Keenan, traveled with Obama to Hawaii and spent much of the trip working on the speech. The Chicago trip will likely be Obama's last outside Washington as president and will be include a "family reunion" for Obama's former campaign staffers.

The final days are Obama's last chance to define his presidency before his loses the bully pulpit and cedes his legacy to historians.

For Obama, helping Americans understand how his two terms have reshaped American life is even more critical amid concerns that Trump may undo much of what he accomplished, including the health law.

Though Obama remains president until Jan 20, the White House can't process the departure of all its staffers on a single day. So this week Obama aides will start "offloading," turning in their Blackberries and shutting down their computers for the last time, leaving a smaller staff on hand for the final days.

Obama must also prepare to become a private citizen for the first time in two decades. An office of the former president must be stood up, and Obama's family will be making arrangements to move into a rental home in Northwest Washington where they plan to stay until youngest daughter Sasha finishes high school.

(China Daily USA 01/03/2017 page2)