Savannah Guthrie didn’t let her recent eye injury stop her from hosting this year’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
On Thursday morning, Guthrie and her Today co-host Hoda Kotb kicked off their coverage of the annual New York City parade. Both shared how relieved they were that Guthrie had recovered in time for the show — and addressed concerns that the parade’s iconic balloons wouldn’t be able to fly due to wind concerns.
“It is gonna be a game time call whether the balloons can fly, whether they can fly at full height,” Guthrie said on the broadcast around 8 a.m., one hour before the parade officially started.
“The other game time call was whether or not you were gonna be here, and I have to say, 10 people have walked up to you and said, ‘How’s the eye? How’s the eye? How’s the eye?’” joked Kotb, 55.
“The eye is fine, fine enough to be here!” replied Guthrie, who wore glasses during the broadcast. “I didn’t want to miss this parade for anything, so I’m super happy to be here.”
On Instagram, Guthrie, 47, shared some sweet photos from the morning— one posing with Kotb, and one cuddling up with Sesame Street character Snuffleupagus.
And thankfully, the balloons ended up flying despite gusty winds.
A source confirmed to PEOPLE on Wednesday night that Guthrie would still be co-hosting the show despite her injury, which caused her to temporarily lose vision.
On Wednesday morning, Gutherie called into the Today show to explain her absence earlier this week, revealing that she suffered an eye injury while playing with her 2-year-old son Charley.
“It happened last week, actually, and then I lost my vision in my right eye about 24 hours later,” she said. “It turned out to be kind of serious. They were afraid my retina would detach. They told me to just take it easy and they’ve been doing a bunch of laser procedures to avoid having to do the whole surgery.”
“I really did lose my vision in my right eye,” she continued. “It was so blurry from — not to get too gross — but there was so much blood in my eye that it completely blocked my vision.”
The mother of two said she was working closely with doctors to try and “weld back” her retina, adding, “It’s looking more hopeful.”
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While Guthrie said she was optimistic about her eye, she warned at the time that her attendance at the parade was still up in the air.
“I’m actually still hoping I can do the parade tomorrow,” she said. “I’m not supposed to jump up and down because it’s kind of literally hanging by a thread. But I’m very positive because I think it’s going to be okay.”
RELATED: Today‘s Savannah Guthrie Will Still Host Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Despite Eye Injury
Guthrie also said that Charley doesn’t fully comprehend the situation — which is probably for the best.
“He’s 2, so he doesn’t even know what he did,” she said. “I wouldn’t want to make him feel bad for it. He hears me talking about it and he has no idea. I was FaceTiming with my mom to tell her and he came running in and said, ‘I did it!’”
“He’s a bruiser!” she joked.
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