Two weeks after the 2008 election, George W. Bush's family gave Barack Obama's family a tour of their new home, the White House.
It was part of a long American tradition, of the outgoing president's family meeting with the incoming family, just as the Clintons had done for the Bushes eight years before, and the Bushes had done for the Clintons eight years before that.
It's a symbolic start to the beginning of the presidential transition, where the current president meets with the president-elect, and, importantly, helps the new administration into their new positions, ensuring a smooth transfer of power.
The presidential transition usually starts right after Election Day, in November, and it ends when the new president is inaugurated, in late January.
And why does America take so long to switch presidents?
In 1932, President Herbert Hoover lost to Franklin Delano Roosevelt in a landslide.
It was the middle of the Great Depression, and Roosevelt had campaigned on his "New Deal" ideas.
But Hoover didn't like those ideas.
And he used the transition period to keep FDR from getting started on them.
At the time, this gap was even longer.
