It's a very special holiday for a Jefferson County family. Shellie and Greg Tucker's conjoined twin daughters were recently separated, and they're recovering well. Our Brian Dwyer reports from Philadelphia, where Allison and Amelia Tucker were introduced for the first time post-surgery today.

PHILADELPHIA -- Twin sisters made their first public appearance Thursday after spending nearly the first year of their lives conjoined. The girls were separated in November.

It took more than 40 surgeons and doctors and seven hours to separate the twins, Allison and Amelia Tucker. The Tucker family is from Jefferson County but moved to Philadelphia while they planned for the extensive surgery.

During a news conference at the Children's Hospital, doctors said that with the surgery the girls will be able to live full and healthy lives.

Attending Surgeon Dr. Holly Hedrick said, "Our hope is that they'll need some therapies to get them caught up to their peers, but we totally expect them to have full, independent lives."

Mom Shellie Tucker said, "We didn't want them to have to go through a life of challenges because it is challenging to handle them and to deal with them connected. And we didn't want...if they were doing this well and stuff and we were confident that they could go through this separation, we wanted to give them that opportunity."

Allison was discharged from the hospital earlier this week and is currently home with her parents. Amelia is still in the hospital getting more care before she can go home.