Jenna Bush Hager Recalls Taking Malia and Sasha on a Tour of the White House – Oprah Mag

Barack Obama's Inauguration Day was on January 20, 2009. But for the daughters of the Bush and Obama families, the "passing of the torch" was on a day in 2008, when Jenna Bush Hager and her twin sister, Barbara, took young Malia and Sasha Obama on a tour of the White House to help them transition to their new lives as first daughters.

While on The Dr. Oz Show, the book club maven, TODAY anchor, and memoirist opened up about the day the Bush sisters met the Obama sisters. Bush Hager said she and Barbara "loved that moment," per People.

We showed them what was our bedrooms, which was going to become their bedrooms. We just had such a beautiful day because, really, we have so much more in common than what divides usespecially the kids, Bush Hager said.

Bush Hager knows the White House better than most. Although she was a teenager when her father, George W. Bush, was elected president, she was similar in age to Sasha and Malia when her grandfather, George Bush, was inaugurated.

The mother-of-three also recently recalled the time her grandmother, Barbara Bush, scolded her and her sister for ordering peanut butter sandwiches to the White House bowling alley. You opened the door, scolding us, telling us under no circumstances could we order food in the White House again; this was not a hotel," she wrote in a tribute letter after Barbara's death.

The Obama girls had a similar incident of adjusting to White House life, which White House interior decorator Michael S. Smith describes in his book Designing History. After living in a D.C. hotel for a few weeks, Malia and Sasha savvily learned to request wake up calls from the White House operator once they moved in. Mrs. Obama then asked that Smith install alarm clocks in their bedrooms, as the White House was not a hotel.

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Given their similar situations, Bush Hager and her sister felt instantly connected to Sasha and Malia. We saw ourselves in those precious little girls, because when our grandfather become president, we were their age, she said on Dr. Oz, referring to George H. W. Bush. So we knew what was magical about the White House.

And on that tour, they showed the Obama girls what was "magical" about the White House. According to Bush Hager, they got up to some hijinks: We taught them how to slide down the banister, which Im sure Mrs. Obama loved, Bush Hager joked. There's photo evidence: Smith included a photo of the girls sliding down a ramp from the White House Solarium in his book.

Bush Hager and Barbara also wrote a letter for the Obama daughters in 2008. "It's your turn to fill the house with laughter. Although it's an honor and full of so many extraordinary opportunities, it isn't always easy being a member of the club you are about to join," they said, per CNN. "Our dad, like yours, is a man of great integrity and love; a man who always put us first. We still see him now as we did when we were 7: as our loving daddy." They included other tips, like cherishing their pets, and "going to anything and everything you possibly can."

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Now, Sasha and Malia are 19- and 22-year-old college students, with the White House years behind them. For Bush Hager and Barbarafellow White House alumnaethe connection remains strong. Were so proud of those girls, she said.

When Sasha and Malia prepared to leave the White House after eight years, the Bush twins wrote them a letterjust like they did in 2008. In eight years, you have done so much. Seen so much. We have watched you grow from girls to impressive young women with grace and ease. And through it all you had each other. Just like we did," the Bush sisters wrote.

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Jenna Bush Hager Recalls Taking Malia and Sasha on a Tour of the White House - Oprah Mag