Hoda Kotb is preparing for her first Christmas in her new home – and she gave fans a peek at her festive decorations on Sunday.
The Today star, 60, appears to be excitedly counting down the days as she shared a look inside her transformed living room, captioning an Instagram photo: “It’s all happening! Merry Everything!!”
Hoda’s ceiling-high tree sits in one corner of the room and is decorated with twinkling lights and multi-colored baubles.
There are already stacks of wrapped presents sitting under the tree, and six snowman-themed stockings hang above her fireplace.
Hoda relocated her family from their Manhattan apartment to Westchester County earlier this year and she admitted it was a bittersweet moment.
“Both Haley and Hope came home there, and I remember them trying to crawl up the stairs,” she said of her adopted daughters. “And I remember now how they race up and down. I was thinking about the very first time we brought them home and carried them up those stairs in that car seat.
“I mean, it’s like you want to hold onto things and you want to let go,” added Hoda — who shares her children with her ex, Joel Schiffman.
“I can’t believe I have a seven and a five-year-old, and I can’t believe all those memories. There were so many things that we have built there.”
Hoda first revealed her moving plans in March 2024 while talking to author Arthur Brooks on her Making Space podcast.
© InstagramAt the time, she said: “I was thinking about moving. My kids and I are going to move somewhere to a new school, and I was reflecting on my life and how many times we moved when I was a kid.”
Thinking back to her childhood, she continued: “And I remember once my parents moved us to Nigeria, I was in fourth grade, I was horrified. We get to this place, the language was different, everybody seemed different, and it was hard. I moved again in sixth grade.”
© InstagramWhile the home is still in New York, it is an upgrade for Hoda, who has gone from a two-bed apartment to a home with at least three bedrooms.
“The kids will have their own rooms, it’s three bedrooms upstairs — mine and then one for Haley and one for Hope,” she told her co-hosts Jenna Bush Hager during an on-air discussion.
“And they’re so excited to have their own space, they’re excited about a reading chair, they’re excited about having a beanbag chair, and their bed — that kind of stuff.”
© InstagramHoda added that all she really wanted from the home was for “the kids to be warm and cozy and [to be] a place where they can hang”.
Hoda has since adapted to life in the suburbs and in November she made a “big announcement”, telling her co-host Jenna Bush Hager that she was getting a new car.
© Instagram“Guys, I’m getting a minivan! A Toyota Sienna!” the mother-of-two revealed. “I’m so excited. I have wanted a Toyota Sienna for a long time.”
She added: “You push the buttons, click! And the doors go woosh. And, let me explain, me and a minivan is like a dream. I’ve wanted it and I haven’t had it. Also, I am sometimes carpool mom. I can only take three kids because there’s no other room. Not anymore! I cannot wait for it.”
Read the full article here
