“H” is for heartfelt, a perfect way to describe the gift that the friends from Sesame Street gave Hoda Kotb during her last week at TODAY.
Joined by Carson Daly and Savannah Guthrie, Hoda welcomed Elmo, Abby and Grover on Jan. 9 to discuss the upcoming 55th season of “Sesame Street,” which premieres Jan. 16 on MAX.
Carson asked the Sesame Street friends how to deal with big feelings sparked by their friend Hoda leaving. In response, they surprised Hoda with a sentimental book to recall their memories with Hoda titled “H is for Hoda.”
“We made something a little special and magical just for you because we have so many beautiful memories with you,” Abby told Hoda after Carson revealed the handmade book.
The book, which contains a page made by each of the Sesame Street friends, shows a word on every page that each friend associated with Hoda. Elmo, whose page was the first in the book, read ”H is for Humor,” written against a red background with a googly-eyed Elmo laughing.
“That’s for you, Ms. Hoda!” exclaimed Elmo.
Abby’s page read “‘H is for heart,” featuring a multi-colored heart made from layers of pipe cleaners and featuring smaller heart stickers on the page.
“You made that?” Hoda asked Abby.
“Yes, because you have the biggest heart, and that you let us all in and you’ve touched our hearts,” Abby responded.
The third page, made by Grover, featured an “H” insignia referencing Grover’s superhero alter ego Super Grover.
“‘H is for hero because YOU, you are a superhero,” Grover told Hoda. “Not just to me, but to everybody here!”
The trio from Sesame Street also showed off their other friends’ pages in the book. The pages included an “H is for Home” from Big Bird featuring an egg; “H is for Hope and Haley,” featuring a drawing of Hoda’s two daughters, from Rosita; “H is for hundreds” from The Count and “H is for Humbug” including some trash drawings from Oscar the Grouch (of course).
The final page of the book had a message from all the Sesame Street friends: “Love, Elmo, Abby, Super Grover, Cookie Monster, Big Bird, Rosita, The Count, Oscar and all your Sesame Street friends!”
“Tell all your other friends that I’m going to treasure this book, and I’m going to keep it in my little office,” said Hoda, thanking the friends from Sesame Street for the gift.
“Don’t sell it, OK?” Elmo replied jokingly.
Elmo also surprised Hoda with an invitation to visit Sesame Street.
“Elmo knows everybody here at the TODAY show is sad, Ms. Hoda, but we’re really happy, because guess what? Ms. Hoda is coming to Sesame Street!”
“Is this for real?” Hoda said, surprised by the news. “Look, I’ve always wanted to go to Sesame Street, so I would love that.”
The trio then teased some of the guests appearing on the show’s 55th season, a list that includes SZA, Samara Joy, Reneé Rapp and Michael B. Jordan.
