Prior to the Thanksgiving holiday, Barack Obama participated in his final turkey pardon as our president, and much to the dismay of his daughters, he is promising to continue the festive tradition as a private citizen.

During the annual tradition, a turkey is "pardoned," receiving a blessing to continue leading a long life and keep a safe distance from being served on someone's Thanksgiving dinner table. This year, Obama brought along his adorable nephews to participate in the tongue-in-cheek ceremony. 

"Of course, Thanksgiving is a family holiday as much as a national one," Obama addressed those gathered with a grin. "So for the past seven years, I've established another tradition: embarrassing my daughters with a corny-copia of Dad jokes about turkeys."

From there, the president elaborated that his daughters were happy to miss this year, mentioning that they had a scheduling conflict.

"Malia and Sasha, by the way, are thankful that this is my final presidential turkey pardon," he says. "What I haven’t told them yet is that we are going to do this every year from now on. No cameras. Just us. Every year. No way I’m cutting this habit cold turkey."

Obama definitely didn't let up on the pun-filled dad jokes, and his nephews, Austin and Aaron, got a kick out of what their uncle had to say. Each also took turns petting the 40-pound turkey, even though four-year-old Aaron was hesitant at first.

Take a look at their adorable reactions to Obama pardoning the lucky turkey in the clip below.