🎄 Home for the holidays: Parents of newborn twins, who spent months in neonatal intensive care, are excited to celebrate their first holidays together at home.
🚓 Traffic enforcement: The Dayton Police Department is increasing patrols during the holiday season, targeting impaired and distracted drivers as part of National Impaired Driving Prevention Month.
🏥 Hospital visitor restrictions: Local hospitals are limiting visitors to curb the spread of respiratory illnesses amid rising hospitalizations.
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After months in the NICU, local twins are celebrating their first Christmas at home
After a pair of newborn twins spent the first months of their lives in neonatal intensive care units, their parents are looking forward to starting holiday traditions with their babies now that they are both home.
• The family: Cody and Halee Rudduck are parents to twins Jonah and Drew, who were born in Jan. 24, 2025.
• Twin-to-Twin Syndrome complications: During her pregnancy, doctors discovered that her babies had Twin-to-Twin Transfusion Syndrome, which is a complication involving identical twins in which one twin receives less blood supply than the other.
• Overcoming health challenges: Jonah spent 229 days in the newborn intensive care unit at Dayton Children’s. Drew also spent 74 days in the NICU at Kettering Health Main Campus.
• Living duel lives: They were balancing their life at home with a newborn while also worrying about their baby still in NICU. “We’re living life at home with one, and we’re living life in the hospital with the other,” Rudduck said. “It just felt like two different lives happening at once.”
• Finally home: Jonah made it home in September. Both boys will turn 1 on Jan. 24, are now home and will be celebrating their first Christmas.
• What they are saying: “We’re just really excited to have them home and get to experience what it’s like to have a family and get to share them with our family and start all the new traditions,” Rudduck said.
FREE CONTENT: Annual Nativities exhibit at University of Dayton has ‘Seeking Shelter’ theme
One of the Miami Valley’ s most popular Christmas traditions is the annual Nativity display at the University of Dayton’s Marian Library. The free exhibit features a different theme each year — this year’s is “Seeking Shelter: Beyond the Stable.”
What to know today
• Dayton Food & Dining: For those who aren’t planning a meal today or don’t celebrate Christmas and want to go out to eat, the Dayton area is home to many restaurants open on the holiday.
• Person to know today: Troy High School sign language teacher Jessica Burris is also an advocate for the deaf.
• Schools: The newest member of the Mad River Local School Board, Damien McCormick, graduated from Stebbins High School just a year and a half before he will be sworn in Jan. 5.
• Thing to do: The holiday season is winding down, but there are still things going on this weekend, including concerts, film screenings and last-minute holiday celebrations.
• Vintage Dayton: PHOTOS FROM THE ARCHIVES: Celebrating Christmas in downtown Dayton
• In your prime: The deadline to apply for the Homestead Exemption, which provides older Ohioans or those who have disabilities with property tax relief, is Dec. 31.
• Ohio State buckeyes: Star wide receiver Jeremiah Smith is fully healthy and looking forward to the Cotton Bowl clash with hometown Hurricanes.
• Video of the day: The Dessert Room is open at the Dayton Arcade — giving guests an entirely different experience than what they’re used to when it comes to dessert. Read the full story and see what it is like to dine there ▶️.
