Hoda Kotb will always have a friend in co-anchor Savannah Guthrie.
Ahead of her final broadcast on Today, Kotb, 60, spoke with PEOPLE on Jan. 9 about the weeklong sendoff the show has deemed a “Hoda-bration.”
The journalist has been receiving memorabilia and gifts all week long from fans and colleagues — and she’s appreciating every bit of it.
“I love it — I’m taking it, I’m wearing it, I’m drinking it, I’m eating it, people are making cookies,” she gushes. “I’m reading it. I mean, these cards, I can’t with the cards. The cards are my favorite part.”
Kotb’s co-anchor Guthrie also left her with a parting gift. “Savannah just gave me a box, and it said, ‘Open me now’ and and it had two pom poms in it. She said, ‘You’ve been cheering everyone on, so now I want you to take these pom poms for you.’”
That wasn’t all. “She put in a clock with a shattered face, and she said, ‘Charlie broke it,’ which is, you know, I don’t need an alarm clock anymore! And the last thing she gave me was this bracelet. She gave me this ring that says, ‘Love.’ And she gave me this bracelet that says, ‘With you.’”
“Let me tell you something about her: she always shows up,” Kotb adds of Guthrie. “She always shows up. That’s what she does the best. She shows up for people, for her friends. She shows up.”
After 17 years at the network, Kotb says knowing the end is coming has not been easy. Although she is happy to move on, she admits she has been taking in all the small moments she won’t get to experience again.
“I’m trying to slow it all down, that’s what I’m trying to do,” she tells PEOPLE. “On Monday, I used to wish for Wednesday, so I could wish for Friday, the weekend. And I was thinking about it, in all the weeks, this is the first week that I don’t want Friday to come just yet. Because that Friday is going to be a big marker. ”
“So I was thinking to myself, slow down, slow everything down,” she continues. “And nobody says, ‘I love you,’ like the Today show. Nobody.”
Kotb, who also hosts Today with Hoda and Jenna alongside Jenna Bush Hager, announced her departure from the NBC morning show in September. It was later revealed that Craig Melvin would be taking on her role of co-anchoring with Guthrie.
Kotb plans to spend more time with her daughters, Haley Joy, 7, and Hope Catherine, 5. She also is starting a wellness app and company, which will involve retreats and a podcast launching this spring.
Ahead of her departure from the show, she’s been embracing the next phase of life.
“Someone said to me, ‘When you jump… imagine yourself on the other side. Imagine what you feel like. Feel it,’” Kotb explains. “‘It’s like when you jump out of a relationship into a new one, imagine what his hand feels like. How do you feel, standing next to him? Do you feel seen, respected, loved? That’s the relationship you want to be in.’”
She adds: “‘It’s like that with the job too. Imagine how you feel there. You’re nourishing people, you’re helping them with this wellness company. That’s good. And how else do you feel? You feel lighter, you feel inspired, you have more creativity, you slept better. And more importantly than all of it is, you became a better mother every day because you got to be there.’”
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Kotb’s final episode of Today will air on Friday, Jan. 10. The Today show airs weekdays on NBC beginning at 7 a.m. ET.
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