Kevin Lamarque / Reuters President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama leave from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland to spend the holidays in Hawaii.

With a warm Hawaiian holiday vacation on his mind, President Barack Obama finished his year-end press conference Friday with a Christmas sign-off that no doubt made the Aloha State proud.

“Thank you, everybody. Mele Kalikimaka,” Obama said, the Hawaiian greeting for “Merry Christmas.”

Obama leaves his final press conference of 2016 before heading to Hawaii for vacation: "Mele Kalikimaka" 🌴 https://t.co/HIBhYfo45G — CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) December 16, 2016

If you look closely, Obama appears to be on the brink of tossing up a shaka ― a hand gesture common as a salute in Hawaii and in other surf cultures.

Friday’s press conference ― likely Obama’s last in office ― was a bit of final presidential business before the first family departed Washington for Hawaii.

And the Obamas head off to Hawaii. pic.twitter.com/Dp0XZzv861 — Mike Dorning (@MikeDorning) December 16, 2016

Obama spent much of his childhood on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. Since being elected to the White House in 2008, he and his family have traveled back each year for Christmas vacation.

According to a White House press pool report, the Obamas boarded Air Force One just before 6 p.m. Friday. Both the president and first lady “made a brief wave at the top of the stairs and then bade farewell to winter for the next 2.5 weeks,” pool reporter Gardiner Harris of The New York Times wrote.

In a statement earlier this month, Obama said the meeting would serve as a “testament that even the most bitter of adversaries can become the closest of allies.”

Watch Obama’s full sign-off below. His Hawaiian Christmas greeting can be found at the very end.