Talk about the best Christmas gift ever!
After a year apart, TODAY's Al Roker and his wife, Deborah Roberts, are reunited with all three Roker children: daughters Courtney, 33, and Leila, 22, and son Nick, 18. The gang was able to get together because Leila recently returned home from Paris.
Roberts shared the exciting news by surprising her fans over Instagram Live over the weekend. She initially pretended that she and her daughter were catching up from separate continents for their Instagram series, "Call Your Mother."
“So many of us are thinking about family," Roberts said. "I, of course, cherish my family as all of you do, and I’ve been thinking about Leila. So I thought I might just impromptu have an Instagram Live with her."
“As everybody knows, I just miss you so much and I can’t wait to see you,” Roberts told her daughter.
After a brief back and forth between the pair, Leila said she was hanging up so she could go retrieve a food delivery. With Roberts alone on the screen again, she revealed the prank to her followers.
“So much for Instagram Live," she quipped. "I can’t wait to see Leila, though. But guess what? She’s here!”
Leila then joined her mom in the same room, with both wearing masks, and they hugged. Roberts called the rest of the family into frame, including Al, Nick and Courtney, who were also masked.
“Best news ever! We wanted to share our family reconnection with all of you," Roberts exclaimed. "Happy holidays, Merry Christmas, and we’re so thrilled. Ours just got a lot merrier.”
Al shared the clip to his Instagram, writing, “The best #christmasgift ever!!! A special #callyourmother when @cleilapatra makes a local call and reunites with @ouichefroker @nick.roker155 @debrobertsabc and me. Testing has been done. Mask wearing mandatory.”
The beloved weatherman also posted a photo of the reunion a few hours before.
Leila has been in France, which went into lockdown while she was studying abroad. In October, she shared some of her experience on TODAY.
During the coronavirus pandemic, Leila and Roberts have been teaming up for their Instagram Live series, "Call Your Mother."
“Mom and I decided to get together because we think so many people will talk about the fun parts of quarantine, but they don’t really talk about the hard parts, like missing each other,” Leila said of the idea. “For us, I haven’t seen (my parents) in person in almost a year now, so that was really hard. We looked at that as a point to at least make sure we check in twice a month.”