Al Roker Shares His Favorite Family Tradition for the Holidays After Return from Hospital
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Al Roker is feeling good this holiday season thanks to his adult children.
The Today show weather anchor, 68, revealed on the NBC morning show what his favorite family tradition with his wife, Deborah Roberts, 62, and their children — daughter Leila, 24, and son Nick, 20.
"My favorite family tradition is not everybody fighting. That's a great thing," he said. "If that happens — you can get your adult children together and their significant others and everything is fine? Win-win."
Roker, who is home recovering from ongoing health issues, added that he's even more excited to not have young children that require him to search the stores for the latest toys or wake up early on Chirstmas day.
"My kids — look, it's different now that they're older," Roker said. "Holiday shopping becomes much simpler. They're not looking for the hot toy or anything like that."
He even boasted that he's no longer "getting up at 6 a.m. in the morning because the little ones are up."
"Now it's, 'Oh, we'll get up around 9 o'clock.' And that's just great," Roker said.
Al Roker/Instagram
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Last week, Roker also appeared virtually on the Today show and gave his colleagues an update on his ongoing recovery. He called into the program from his kitchen after returning to the hospital, where he spent 4 weeks being treated for blood clots in his legs and lungs.
"It's been a tough slog, I'm not going to deny this," Roker told Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb, Craig Melvin and Dylan Dreyer. "This has been the hardest one yet — and you know, I've had my fair share of surgeries. But it gives you a profound sense of gratitude for this outpouring of prayers and thanks. I'm a very fortunate person."
"I feel good, I feel strong. And every day, I feel al little bit better," he added, noting that he made dinner one night.
Asked when he would be returning to work, Roker explained he needed a little more time to recover.
"You lose a certain amount of muscle mass for every week you're in the hospital, and I was in the hospital for 4 weeks. So it's just a certain amount of weakness," Roker said, adding he's doing physical and occupational therapy every day. "I've got to just get my strength back. And in the meantime, I was thinking in January of getting my knee replaced, so I've got to push that back. So I've got a number of issues."
"I just feel like, it's going to be a little bit of a slog but a lot of people have to deal with a lot more with a lot fewer resources," he said. "I'm very fortune, very blessed to be able to have these resources."
