Transcripts For WRC Today 20101220 : vimarsana.com

captions paid for by nbc-univsal television and goomorning. welcom to today on a monday morning, i m matt lauer. and i m erin burnett filling in for merith via. it s the holiday week so we wanted to come out in front of the absotely gorgeous rockefeller tree. w almost turned the lights out on that rockefellerree in protest over what happened yesterday. can you feel it in e air? that is depressi here in new york. the giantseading by 21 points with seven minutes to go allowed ur touchdown in the last seven minutes. the eagles scoredn the last play of the game to win. theyere pling for first place. you have beenunable to get over this all morning. is is e first thing, did you see the gnts game yesterda oh, it was terrible. iwas the worsthing i have seen in years and yes. they re calling it the crumble here in new york. meanwle it the weather that s causing miser in lot of parts othe country. you ve got incredible rns out west causing flooding and mudslides. you also have some parts of the country expecting a coup of feet of snow. the pictures are incrible, and if you thinkt sad here, it s even worse in europe. take a look at buckingham palace. sort of an idyllic picture there, but it s aeal mess in airports and roads, across the entire continentf europe not ju in ndon. we ll start with the mike seidel. goodorning to you. reporter:ere ts morning up in minneapolis, at the university of minneso campus, the brs wil battle it without withhe minnesota vikings. ju one of my places aroun the world being crushed by weather. weather hi califora hard, ys of downpours in the hollywood hills caused flash floodi and fear ofmudslides. it m be the wettest weather system the region has seen in more than a decade. but it s not over yet. they say it going to go on for days anddays. reporter: t weather has been kinder to california ski resorts and the mwest is bracing for more snow. the game wilow be playe at theniversity of minnesota after last week slizzard damaged the metrode. across europe, freezg temperatures an snow caud travel chaoslondon was blanted by snow overhe weekendorcing heathrow airport to shu down. roads across europe have been paralyzed blizzards. many motorists were trapped in their vehiclesor hours and carsere abandoned in german anitaly. northern ireland h seen thr first snowfall in 27 years and in pas, there wererushed lady gaga fans after her concert was canceled because her equipment couldn take it through snow covered ros. behi me at the stadium where they ll play tonight s me, they trucked, they blew, they shovel 3,400 tons of snow out of the stadium ahead othe game tonight. and by the way, several more inches of snon theay tay before kickof it will warmup, it s 13 no ckoff temperate a balmy 25 degrees. back to y. i getst s all relative. what s really next aoss the country with the weather situation? stepnie abrams is in for al unfortunate we re going to see more of the same, recor rain los geles, san gabriel and it s not stopping. thereforwe do have advisories posted here. weave already seen over a ft of rain. here how it s looking right now in the ard piure, we do ha rain and sno in the higher elevations, several moreeet will be falling into the sierras anhere s aook as we head throughout the day today. er 18 inches into the s good morning. it is mostly cloudy and co around our region here on this monday orning i m meteorologist t ierein. right now wee in the mid-20 to upper 20s in washingtand near the bay a we have quite a bit of cloudiss that s bee coming in from a weak distuance pasng to our north. a few flurries in pennsylvania. later today we ll have increasing sunshe and highs reacng the mid and upp 30s. and then tomorrow, cloy. maybe a few flurries, into matt, over toyou. still ahead, what ppened to baby gabrielho vanished arly a year ag police have now leased a chling phone call made by the boy mother. we ll have the latest and we ll talk to that woman s grandfathe but rst, this is day on nbc. up nerksz, prince willi and kate make their fir public appearance. . plusome of the mos unforgettable images of the year. but first, your local newsnd weather. venture rd we get double miles on every purche. so we earned a holiday trip the b apple twice as fast! dinner! 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[ male announcer ] it s azing what you can do with a pen. si then drive is back. r a lited time get any 2011 volkswagen for practically st your signature. good morning. it s 7:26 on this monday, the 20th of december. i m joe krs. in the news for today, investigors are sti trying to figure out what used a gas ak that triggered a home exosion in antilly, virgini nobody was home at t time but two ults and t children have be displad. some major delays if you take mark trains to wor we ll haveetails as we as look at the forecast whewe come back. good morning. right now we ve got quite bit of cloudiness around the regn. it s cold today. we re just in the 20s. 29 at international airport and we ll have this cloud cover with us from time to time this morninbut then by is afternoon we ll ve the sunshine back with highs reachg the mid and upper 30s. wednesday, thursday near 40. how s traffi on the inner loop in virginia you head from route 50 arlington boulevard, up toward i-66, h an accident police are wrappg it up along theright side of he roadway. early delays. on more stop, top side of the capital beltway, a little volume bothirections but the travel las are open. tis the season for slick roads and sool delays. news 4 today hasouovered all winter ng. tune in ever 7:30 on a monday morning, it s dember 20, 2010 it s frosty here in new york,6 grees. the windchill is probabl ithe mid teens. but take a look, we ha got a huge crowd gatheri on rockefeller plaza. inside studio 1 da i m matt lau. wheris baby gabriel? the baby disappeared last year on the day aft christmas. w a new disturbing phone call made by his ther has been released. we ll haveetails on this stor prince william and kate middleton ve attended their first event together in snowy london. and a first look at tir roy china to commemorate t wedding, whichs one of those neat traditional things th do the? where are you on your hiday shopping? almost finished. just i case you have some last-mine items to get, we re gog tohow you some affordab lt-minute gift ideas for ery age group. > let s start with the serious news, the recordingf a phone call from a missithe mother of miing infant. reporter: goomornin to you, erin for the first time er, arizona authorities are releasing a telephone convsation that wa taped at a yea ago, theyay on that call y can hear baby gabriel s mother admit to killing her own son. they also claim she recanted the aim just a feways later. it been nearly year and ill no sign of this blue eyed babygabriel, eight months old in this piure. now police areeleasing a chilling phone cversation record aut theame timee dippeared. i suffocated hiand he turned blue. reporr: pole say that s the voice of gabries mother, elizabeth johnn, her disturng words, police believe were recded during a phone call johnson had with the boy s father, logan mcquer according toolice on the call, johnson says she kled her son out of revenge from mcquery relationships with other women. i killed him this morning. no, you didn t. reporter: police say jnson and her son were last seen togeer in a san antonio motel december 26th. she then traveled to florida and s arreed. babyabriel nowhere to be found. police say oe incustody, johnson cnged her story, saying at this texas park she gave the baby to an unentifi couple. johnson s attorne says his client may suffer from emotional problems, but s is n a killer. she was very upset about their relationship,ndhe me some statements th certainly she didn t mean. my client has maintained all along at the baby is alive. reporter: investigators say itould not be the fst time johnson tried to give gabriel away. acrding to deteives, she met jack and tammy smith at an airport weeks earlier when the couple says they agreed to adopt him. the couple onlyook care of gabriel for a short time,ut continued to have coact with his mother. tammy smith has since been charged wi intervening in the case. she has pleaded not guiynd is o o bail. meantime, an attorney for the boy s faer says heust wants to see his s again. we are and will always be committed to the beliefhat gabe is still out there. one has shown us otherwe. reporter:s a father hos on, detectives search for swers, hoping disturbing phone ll can provide some clues. ou pushed mend made me kill my baby. reporte now johnson is being held here at t county jail forwomen, she faces a number of charges including abuse and kidnapng. she has plead not guilty. her next court date is set for the end of january. erin? all rit,kristen, thank you very much and now let s go to bob johnson, elizath joson s andfather. good morning to you, sir. whenou heard heronfession which of course was on a phone conversation nearly a year ago, just released no wt did y think? wl, i w are of that conversation a yeaago. and i was aware of elizabeth recanting the incident. i have talked to my granddaughter two days ago and she stillproclaims her incence. i believe she s innocen shdid not harm that child. her attorney as you may have ard in the piece that we all just watched,ays that she could be bipolar which cou be why she confessed and then ended up taking that back. did e suffer from bipolar? she is definitely bipolar, hover she did not harm the child, i firmly believe that. it s not within h nature, she waa good mother, she loved the child. e just felt that her and logan could not give it a life better than wt she had. so she wanted to ado it. logan agre to the adoption one daynd the next day he was off of the adoion idea. but elizabeth proceed on the basis that he was going to sign the adoption papers andave th baby to tammy smith. then log found out abo it, took her to court, got a custody visitation, and that s h that went together. if elizabeth didn t kill gabriel as you believes the case, where doou think he is? for so many people, it s hard to imine aaby ju disappearing and there being noord of him. erin, that s a gre question. i m ad you asked i i talked to my i taed ed te elizabeth two days agsaturd and she told me somethi she had never td me before and that was that tmy smith orchestrat that eire trip from phoenix to san antonio. when they got to saantoni she talked to tammy, tammy arrangedhis meeting in the park. thiss a neighborhood park. this was a 20-minute ride from e hotel. izabeth arrives with the baby. gives the baby to these two people and leaves. i asked her very specifically i she could describe the people and she said no. she s i m sure very overwrought. this was t end of the joney. yes. and she lt and that was that. i think the best person to be asng where theaby is, based on what i just heard from out of her own lips two ds ago tammy smith. why they have not been ae to focus that, just wonder why there hn t been som more effort in that direction. hopefuy, they will, sir. i do want t a you this,s her grandfather, if it does tur outhat she was involved, tha elizabeth d kill thisaby in a moment where she lt control, willou still support her? of course. of course. i le elizabeth and she s a good peon. she was a goodstudent, she was a 4.0 gradeveragetudent in high scho, she got a four-year full ticket scholarsh to northeasternniversity in boston, she s a vy capable person. half the people in the world or the unid stat is bipola and ere s a way toanage against at. she ll be okay when we get this behind us. i very strongly feel thank you so much, sir, we appreciate it. an she s certainly veryucky to have grandfather le you behind her. good morning. it is cloy now and our temperatures are in the 20s. now 2 at national airpt. later today should makeit in the mid and upper 30s an the morni cloud cover should begin to bak upby noon tim wit the sunshine returning this afternoon. then ernight tonight, w ll have a partly cloudy sky so we should be able to see total lunar eclipse after dnight. and then during the day tuesy, cloudy, mht ha a flurry, mid-30s. sun wednesday an thursday with aigh near 40. might get snow christmas day. and forour forecast 24 hours a day, all you have to do is go to weather.com. cing up a boy near death on numerous occasis,is doors totallybaffd. but he s getting a second chance at life but up next, a first look at prince william and kate official royal china. - just fell asleep. whare you up? it s 2:0a.m. it s not just 2:00 a.m. it s 20 a.m. christmas morning. it s ourirst christmas as a family. i codn t wait. - save 2 on citizen wahes, featuring eco-drive it snstoppable at kay, the number one jewelry ore in america. - you think she ll rember th christmas? - i ow i wl. of gourmet coffee and tea to cose from. it s theay individually brew fresh, delicious coffee in under a mine. way torew, hon. 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(anuncer) some use hydrogenated oil. reddi-wip s uses real dairy cream. nothing s more real than rei-wip. vo: it s time for a phone. to save us from our phones. new windows phone. designedo get you in, and out, and back to life. get yours at at&t. we re back now at 7:42. stepping out together for their first appearance as an engageded couple. reporter: wliam and indicatekate are very busy withedding preparations. as youknow, pnceilliam is a helicopterilot withhe royal air force and there s lots of events befe christmas. willm andate made their first public appeance togethe since thengagement at a fund-raiser for cance patients. the bre-to-be, exptly navigating an i walkway in towering els. while preparatis f the weddincontinue at a vered pitch. the china commemorating the event is on sale. this has be commissiod by the royal household and it has been approved by theoyal couple themselves. reporte three pieces of handmade engli fine bone china trimmed with 22 caret gold and embossed with the initials for william and c for kaerine. every pieces - they have been using the sam methods to make pottery or 250 ars. the china itsf has been hand poed, it s been guilded using 22 cet gold again by hand. and allhe sign has been done with a view to the royal couple. reporter: thehina is on sale on the royal collection website as well as trist locatis and it i t cheap. a pill box for $3 something thdesigners call a tankard f $55 andhe platesor $62. the proceeds go to maintaining thqueen s vast art collection. ore than $50 each, mos people probably won t drink out of these cups. th should because rht after thfirst dip, still on the edge, two lite doves sitting on a weddi ring. theakers here in london seem to like the design even if they re not running out placing orders. i love the dove reporter: thedoves, it s clear, are a real crowd pleaser. bannin images of the couple being used on tea towels, scuit tins and t-shirts. the palace spokeswom says for enthusias willing topend the money, tt s exactly what th ll get. he was in germany being honored for his own charity work. he told the germanewspaper said she was absolutely thrille with the engagement, saying he always wanted aister. cistopher, welcome back. i have to know what you tnk of the royal china. i love t doves. when the engagement was annound a month ago, you sat down andpent foureeks sling away at a bo, since this has been in the wor for a whil so has the book. i he been working on this story for about 30 years, coveri the royals,hree bi bicks, - books. my sources tol me a year ago that they would be mared in the spring of2011, ancount on it, even though the palace was saying it won t haen any time soon. so got to cracking on this book and ie been working ont now for about a year. 64 in a recent poll, 64% of people in the uk said the would ke prince water var imagy and kate to be next i line to the thrown. and what you basically suggest in theook i that there is a possibility at the queen is considers abdictating in der to get williams and catheri to the throne sooner. forhe first time, the queen is consideri stepping aside. what would theeasonbe? ecause of theituation she s in. she s aeady t oldes monarch. victoriaas three years younger en she died. if the queen lives as long as her mother, she ll be 101. charles will be almost 80 years old when he tak over. afr at, willi will be 60 years old. on acale to one to te where is this? i my opinion, is aen and they have to dl with it. the men in gray, as diana cls it, the peoe who really r buckingham palace, everyo assumed that she thoughthe would stay there until she died but she can because the monarchy wouldn t benefit. hen would she make some kind of dision like this? the money would be on her 90th birthday, certainly after her diamo jubilee in 20. not any time reall soon. you spe of william and ke in scotland where ty met in college, as someoneho has covered this for 30 years, this type of situation, do u think that kate is going to be subjectsubject ed oraslready been subject to the same lev of scruty that pncess diana had? you got to remember that this recurring nightmare thatilliam has had that frankly kate would me the se fate as his mother. he s had to dl with that kind of media attenon. the british say, you know, kate middleton has never put a ft wrong, s has done evething ght. there s been no embarrassing intercepted telepho cal there, seen no hint of her cheating on william. she s never even frowned at the paparazzi, when they havbeen hounding her. she really is a pro at this already. so i tnk she s goi to do very, ry well. this is a modn uple, they announced their engagement using twter. where do you think they ll take the royalfamily. inthe 21st century. th take about this bng the first wedding of the 21st century, buthis is t epic love storyf the 21 t century. diay diana made sure tha her kids wen to the movies a t the park it kate is descended from coal miners, her motheras a stewardess so she kno what it s likeo deal with the rea world inay that no other queen ofngland as known. it s 4 after the hour,till ahead, affordable last-minute holiday gift ideas f a lot of us. but first, tse massages. eassages . i lovedou, sweetness but you rnot sweet you made my butt fat you drove me insa self-conol down the drain we re over i m so de withhat found a new le a natural true love that comes from a little gen leaf zero-caloe, gui-free no artificiality y skinny jeans zipped in relief its name is truvia i had no idea no more sprinkling my coffee with grief [ annocer ] truv. honestly sweet. pick up some walmart gift cards. they have no expiration dates orees. they can be us either in-store or online. and with walmart great prices, every dollar on that card es farther. for a gift they can make the most of, give a gift rd from walmart. and the life you want to live. with rheumatoid arthtis, there s the life you live. for a gift they can make the most of, fortunately there s enbrel, the #1 most doctor-prescribed biologic medicine for ra. enbrel can help relieve pain, stiffness, fatigue, and stop joint damage. because enbrel suppresses your immunsystem, it may lower yr ability to fight infections. serious, sometimes fatal, events incling infections tuberculosis, lympho, and other cancers, and nervousystem and blood disorders have ourred. beforetartinenbrel your doctor shouldest you for tuberculosis. ask your doctor if you le or have lived in an area where certain fungal infections are coon. don start brel if you have an infection likthe flu. ll your doctor if you re prone to infections, have cs or sores, have had hepatitis b have been treated for het faile, if, while on brel, you experience persistent fer, bruising, bleeding, or paleness. ask your rheumatologist if erel is right for you. anhelp bridge the gap between the fe you live. and thlife you want to live. 1yu6d ahead, a look backt the year of pictures. and a young boy with a rare zz known to diagne tumors. 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difference andt s getting better all the time i will stop the world ll stop the world and melt with you i stop the world ll stop thworld, i ll melt with you good morning. we have 29 degrees. cold mornin here in the nation s capital. a cold way to start the week befo the holiday. god morning. i moe krebs on this monday, the 20th day of december. breang news for you. exect majorelays this mornin on marks penn line. thedelays are because of mechanical problems and damage overhead elecical wiers. metro is hnoring tickets. authorities are lokingor a misng sw girl who was once a washington redskins cheerleader. shehasn teen seen since last week. the 31ear-old fro maryland performed athe luxor and palm hels. we ll take a good morning. right now cloudy a is cold. temperatures in the 20s. 29 at national airport. we oughto get sun back later this aernoon as we have high pressu movin in and we ll have temperatures then climbing into the mid anderhaps upper 30s iefly by mid-aftnoon. then cloudin up by late night into tomorrow morning buthere ought to be enough of a clear sky to see the total lar eclipse after midnht tonight. sun back wnesdaynd thursday. e ll start on the beltway southf town where there had ben an accident inner loopjust off the woodrow wilson bridge. dlirnging days around oxe hill. along the 270 corridor delays south of gaitrsburg so not that ba space between the vehles headed on do toward t split. wake with us tomorrow morning. we start at 4:30 with all yr news, weather and traffic. we re back now at 80 on a monday mornin it s the 20th day of december, 2010. s 26 degrees here in miown, manhattan. but what a beautul morning as seen from top the rock. we have a fullouse here. getting a chance to say hi to the peop back home. we appreciate them stopping by. and out on the plaza, i m matt lauer along with erin rnett. erin is here as meredith takes a little te off. it s areat time of year, people are so happy. oming up in this halfhour, a remkable story, we re going to meet a 6-year-old boy who was losing a life reatening medical battle until dtors triedomething radical. at four years old,e only ighed7 pounds. but doctors tried something very much out of the ordinary,nd they turned that bill llittleoy life around. ifou haven finished yr shopping yet, you tried and the websites weren t working this weekd. is not too late to stillet that special gift for your lived one or your child. we have audget friendly idea for everyone on your list. you know who s back with us? nate burcus is back. he s going to talk about some of theottest trends for derating in the upcoming ye. but before we get to that, let s go inside. o tamron who s warm. ood morning,matt, good morning, everyone. north kore sayst will not retaliate for what it called provocative artilry drills conducted a border island today by sth korea. the maneuvers came a month after the north responded to similar drills by shelling the same island killing four people. tensions are so high,outh korea evacuated hundreds of resides during today s still cold. good morning, i m t kierein. right now just in the 20s and we ve g quite i b of loudinss around. at ntional airport. we llave these clouds begin to break up by later this morning and we ought to getome sunshine back thisafternoon as high essure movesn from the west. well have highs ach mid and upper 30s. and then i should be clear to partly cloudy by late tonight. ould be enough of a clearing sky for us to have a view of the total lunar eclip just after midnight. we have some people visiting from winr haven, florida. there s nhing wter about winter have florida. next, one boy s lif or death struggle wi a mysterious disease andhe miraculs way he was cured. we re going to meet him and his ther rht after this. i hate suburb and the bourgeoi-sie but i really love my bank i hate didn t qte catch that last bit. i said i really lo my bank. right. is there a problem ? it s not really raging, man. uh, we were hoping for moreaging ? well, you said write from theeart. yeah. don t do that. at ally, you ll lo our online savings account. named the be of 2010 by money magazine. ly. do you love your bank ? wabout readingl and put it here. introducing nookcolor. experience books, magazine newspapers and children s books like ner before. nocolor by barnes & noble. m off to the pt office. ok. uh, a little help. oh!ou know hipping is a lot sier with priority mail flat ratboxes. if itits, iships anywhere in the country for a loflat rate. plus, you canrint and pay for postage online. and ian pick them up for free with paage pickup. perfect! cause i m gonna need a lot of tse. wow! i knew i shod ha brought my sleigh. priity mail flat rate shipping starts at $4.90 only rom the postaservice. aimpleray to ship. back now a 8:09,his morning on today s health, a medical marvel. 6-year-old boy who suffered for years from a rare genetic disease, finally able to get the help he needs. we re going to meet himnd his parents in a moment. but here s chi science corresndent robert bazell. reporter: t look at 6-year-old nick vol ker, you mit never guess he has been close to death hundreds of times and the suggle to save him wi be a mild stone in medical history. his mother, sa he is always upbeat. he loves his mom d his dad be all his hear he s such a loving little boy. reporr: nick wasust 17 mohs old when the first sign of trouble struck, a wonder that would not heal. over time mother realizede faced a life threatening condition. six to eight months after his first hospitization, at that pot he was down to 17ounds. and he waslways having pain. reporter: at fir doctors thought nick suffered chrone s disease, an auto iune disease of the intestine. doctors remove his colon, but he continued to deteriorate. a specialist at children s universi hospital in wisnsin took charge handling the am handling the se, but the heavier had any success. we wereever able to get hiss inflammion undercontrol. eporter: the dtor consultewith eerts around the world. everne was stuck and thought nick would d without a diagnosis. doors made an unusual and desperate request. cod the scientists sequence some30,000 genes in theboy s bo toind out if one was mutated. i was ocked. it was a b leap from whate were currently dog. reporter: howard jacobsen had only done basic resear. they never looked f a disease inn dividual. mom was certainly on bod. i thought, let do it. we need to find a diagnosis. reporte it came fro being a shocking request to we nd to do this. theyound that nic has a defect ithe gene called xiap, a condition known to affect only a hanul of others ithe worl th treatment was a cord blood transplant to give him a new immune system. therwere many frightening complications, but nick pulled through. he s t coback kid because over 100imes we have been told at nick wouldn make it, to the next ho, the nextday, the next month, the ne year reporte because gene seencings becoming ever cheaper and easi, theoctors think nick s cases a crucial n beginninof a new era of mecine. 6-year-old nicholas is wh us now, along with his pants, y lynnnd shaun voter. nice to see you and happ holidays. let me jus make sure people dersta the scope of this, we ha got a 6-year-old boy here who has spent more than 0 days of his life in a hospital, 526 ofhoseust since january of 2009. it s hard to imagine andult being able to eure this, how did a littleoy endure it? well, amazingly,matt, nick is soesilient and always faces ery day with a smile on his face. you have had to brace yourself on a number of occasions, amy lynn for the worst, i kno you have had relatives come to you ring this ordeal and say you ve got to pn a funeral, you have to sign a do not resuscitate order. you havelways refused to take those steps, why? matt i realized that my faith and i had to hold on to pe. alwaysrying to just persevere and get throughheext step and just hopthat tre is another miracle. there were times where things looked up even for a brief amou of time i know after they removed nicholas s colon that he d improve for a little while, isn t that correct? that isrue. after they removed his colon, nick was able to walk and run ound and actually climb for thvery first timin his life. and then it took a turn for e worse again. en doctors talk to you about requesting dna sequencing, did you even know whatdna sequencing was? i was aittle familiar with it. i had read some research looking forhe diaosis for nick over e years and so i had done se research and looked a athe website at nih. so i knew a little t about it, but not all the technic stuff. a little over five months ago, nick underwt a cordlood transpnt. how quickly after that procedure diyou begin t see rl improvement? i m sorry, could you say that again? i m askin after the cor blood transplan how quickly did you begin to see real improvement? actually,fter dirtly after the cord transplant,e saw impvement in thfirst o weeks. acally he was extremely acti, plad like a normal little boywould, had lots of sword fights and lots of flo time with his sisrs and his dad and myself. but he did sufr a lot of complications thereafter. what s the prognosis now, amy lynn? what a doctors telling yo his prognosis is extreme good. his ne marrow traplant position, dr. margishinks he s goi to be a long-term survivor and thate is possibl cured. that s just unlievable news and we hope for that to be tr. and amy lynn thank you, shaun thank you, and nicholas, hay holiday to all of you. thank you very much, matt. merry christmas. we re back right aer this. we ve taken all we know and love about reing and put it here. introducing okcolo experienceooks, magazines, newspapers and childr s boo like never before. nookcoloby barnes &oble. we pretend high-heels don t ht and that we can handle anything li throws at us. but there are times that we need a ment to rememb. we re only human. that s re than enough. ur moment. your dove™. that lets you eat six times a y? yeah, baby! try the sl-fast 3-2-1 plan. 3 snacks, 2 shakes or meal bars, and 1 balanced meal. slim fast. who has time to sl slowly? hark how e bells,l. sweet silver bells, all seemo say, throw care away, christmas is here, brging good cheer, o young and old, meek and the bol ding dg ding, dong, that is their song, with joyful ring, all caroling, one seems to hear, words ofood cheer, from everywhere, illing the air oh how they pound, raing the sound, o er hill and dale, tellg theitale, gaily they ring, while people sing, songof good cheer, christmas is here, merry, merry, merry, merry ristmas, today s holay gif guide is broug to you by target, expect mor pay less. thisorning on today s holiday gift guide, just five days ago, i you re still not finied, d t panic, becse there s sll time to find something great for everyone on your list. jill mtin is here great to see you, jill i m curious for those last minutes that i have. what should i doun into t ste or go online and hope i get it in time. just because u re getting it las minute, doesn t mea that it has to look like you re gettg it last minute. we wt that trick. ay, so let s start first with the little ones on the list. we have got something here, it being demonstted rightow by 11eek old lila. she s all dressed f the holidays, th little onezirks e. she has an amazing persality. where the you get your little one to lk like that? this is space cadets $24nd up. anthe shoes are stewart weisman whichs really adorle. they are the tinst lite shoes i have er seen in my life. symbols are big. skulls very big. this is a macy s gift store and then gloves and watche but all love thos so everne texting on the street textg as you go, it allows you to do that. open fingers. open fingersor all ages. this is jewelry by three sister $40 and up, sterling silver and gold plated and c you s all the diffent earrings and all the different symbols, you he theon, you have t star you have the pee sign, great gifts. guys if you re wating for girls, we all love these. they re $4 and up. now sequs, really big on othes,n everything else. rember rubics cube? these are all the bedazzled items for ur twenext. wo thisne just gives back a little bit. at does it costo get yourse a coutureubics cube? $30. ts is for the teen orf u re traveling and looking for a taxi or you forget your right anyour left hand, these are greatitten t en thens by kay fa. these are $6 nd gle areou a gleek? i m not a gleek, but i lov thmusic. ts is their holidaycd, $10 as we break into so. this ithe glee album only $10. i have a lot of trole with this. what s the best gift to bring t a house warming if you don t kn their taste o style. this is lreny ralph lauren these are great to keep at the hous if you re running to someone s house at theast second. this is a great gift, you can never gorong with candles. ipad is a vy hot gift. this absolutely love. this is $99.95. it the brook stone ipad mputer case. this is th keybod case with the actual keyboard because i have problems typing on my ipad. it turns it essentially into lap top. that would change my world. i use my ipad all the me. but it s very hard f me to text so ise this as a great alternative. now these fluorescent hoodies are really popularith celebrities. everne s going nuts over these. courteney cox is a big fa these are built in earphones and you plug your iphones in, so the earphones are already in the hoodie. and it s ver inexpensive. $15. and theast thi for the couchotato in your life. this is a uversal remote built into a pillo so thiis great. you can never lose your remote. take a nap in the meanme. but this is forhe man in your life w always is looking for the remo. i love that. and our last tng i a big hit. 12 retro games, pac-m, atari. this is $40 and i pgs right into the computer or your tv and the gameare built in. i wasn going to say tt. thanks much to jill martin, appreciate it. and now let s send it over to matt. all right,erin, thank you. d jill, thank yo ust ahead nat bacus. but first a look back at the year in piures. > good morning and here s a live look outsi on this monday morning as you get readyto start your workweek good morning. it is 8:6. in the news day you can expect jor dlays this morning on marks penn line. chopper 4 was over t n carrollton ation just a short me ago. right now southbound trai running up to a hour and aalf late. the issues due to mechacal problems and damaged overhead electrical wires. metro is honoring ark s tickets. weather d traffic are up next. next. stay with u forty years ago, hwasn t worried about retirement. he yet to hear omutual funds, iras, or annuies. back then, he had something more imrtant to do. he wasn t focused on his future bufortunately, somebody else was at usaa we provide retirement soltions for our military, veterans and their families. from investments. toife insurance. to health care options. learn more with our free usaa retirement gde. call 877-242-usaa. good mornig. city ceras showing a frozen pomac river. in my 27 ars here, i do not rememb the potomac being frozen over this early in the season. were in the 20s. lateroday maybe making it above freezingor a time this afternn with a blustery northwest wind. jerry, ho s traffic. on thebeltway in oxen hill, the inner lop as it winds its way from 0 to 29 to the brge span very slow due to an earlier accident on the inner loop on the virginia side. should be out of the roadway. one more stop, 66 stbound. without the sushine, very few deys headed east toward the capital beltwa so a little good new ere. thank you, jerry. coming up tod on nbc 4, een gets a visit fr justin timberle. plus some surprises 8: now on a friy morning, it s the 20th day of december, 2010. a frenzyn the plaza, we re in th final days of our 17th anal toy drive. not to pat ourselves o the back, but we have collected near $25 million in toys for underprivileged kids. mewhile, out on the chilly pla, i m matt lauer along with erin burnett, tamron ll joins us while ann is off today. it s a illy, nice day. we have got the design trends for 2011 as we look ahead. cloudy and stl cold. good morning, i meteorologist tom kierei right now we re in the0s. lat today shouldake it into the 30sith blustery northwest wind. ought to g the sun back later this morning and into the afternoon. mostly clear tonig. a fewlouds around for the total lar eclipse ter midnight. sun retuns onwednesay and thursday with highs near 40. morning lows 20s. heading toward the cristmas weekend, might get some sn ristmas day. stephanie, thanks very much and now a vy special dation to our holiday toy drive. we re joined by the boston red sox jason varitek. th re making a contribution on behalf of major league baseball. happy holidays all of you. jason, goo to have you here. talk to me about what seball s doing. we re donating 4,000 gifts d each one of these, i ve got the mcfarnd toys and the mr. potato head. as the teamhe red sox are ry much interested infi philanro philanthropy, i knowou have a scholarship program. tell us about tha it gives chiren an opportunity to advance. theyo a lot from the time that they after fif grade all the way throh 12thrade. congratulations. i have to ask a baseball estion. i have a nephew who i thinks your biggest fan. has a lot of competition for that. he wants to know what s the most memorable no-hitt you have ever caught. he told me to ask itust that what i think it was the first one, it was really surreal. all you c hear isifferent players who have gone through it in your r. we have g a rangers fan, a yankees fa yankees fan who doesn t want to get hi that s all ght, we have got mething for meredith since he wa t here. there you , medith, that s coming home to you. thank y so much for having us. happyholidays, we appreciate it. good luck this season. > we haveuch more ahead on a monday morning, but firsthis is today on nbc. [ female announcer ] safeway tas hosts gifts. you know what i want for the hodays? do tell. ue love. true ve is myth. [ gasps you re myth! excuse me? [ female announcer ] it s the thought that coun. and the gift. safey. gredients for life. that smells scrptious. yummy! ells delightful. awesom i m not smelling anytng. [ female annuncer ] everything for holiday baking. just a love. safeway. ingredients for life. backt 8:39. if you re looking to change thgs up a little bit, nate berkusas ide. nate, grt to see you. nice to see youtoo. i rea about u. and how you wereere last time and fought through appendicitis d almost feinted on the air. i did. i m fine, i m not onorphin today. i m glad and i know a lot of people wanted to make sure tt you were all right. okay, well, yore back to rk. yes. and you ve got a few new trends. everyone wan to spruce things up a littlbit. absolutely. l s sta with frames. here s the thing, er, once the holiday decorations lve the house, our homes srt to look a littlbit bare and we start to look arnd so what i want to d is take the edge off putting those decorions away and talk about five new thin in the new year that are ve important. the first thing is y. we have become a society tt we let our photo live on our lap ps, we d t exhibit and celebrate every day in our lives. so t best way to d that iso print out on odd numberf photos and start a gallery wall. sohis is five. i have black frames from pottery barn and a cple of vintage gold frames. print out your favorite phot, go throughachvent in your lifend pick one. pick anmagehat makes you think of that. that needs to be on our walls annot o our computer a goodpoint, i sll do old picture books when i g on vacation. i m with youn that one. what about metallics? i ow they re popar but actually hard to get? you have to lo. i have always belved that metallics, this is trend number two, metalcs are neutral to me and i think every spaceeeds bit of shin whether it s gold, silver or mercury glass, eve ltle accents like t ones on these pillows. isn t thatcool? this is the one that i tnk it kind of ups the ante in our rooms. if you add a touch of metallic, it makes things rise up little bit more a makes things for sophisticated. a right, this is these are recycled? yes, here s the thing. i thinkrend three recycle, repurpose, reimagine really is what i m looking at doing. so instead of water bottles, when i have guests come over, i do a littlecaraffe. everyone kws tt pillo are really expensive. th sweater that you re just not ling anymore. the best thing to do is actually buyn inse and turn it io throw pillows on the sof we he some examples he, but thiss a great way to add texture and tradition to your home. you can find a part of it that wod work. that is suc a neat idea. and everyone athe table. this could be cashre, they could be wool, they cou be cott, it doesn t matter. look to your clotirst before youo out and spend some more money. last b not least, this is your o art? here s the thing. for some reason, there s like everyone has like a snob aack when they hear t word art, th think i can t afford it even my clients who spend tons of money on furniture, it s such a sange thing. t is what you makef it. it c be children art work, itan be pages from a book. especially if you go to a flea mark and you find a book that s not in great conditn. e one theism imagiismages, putn a frame. do you have silkcarves at home that you never wear? i have a little pile of them but i don t want to give them aw becausehey re pretty. if the s a patternhat you love, can be setched and framed beautifuy. this is literally these scarv that are in everody s drawer these days. i keep the christm decorations up through janua. it hardo take down. you need some moreinrmation. the most imptant thing is to rely love what you have. elizabeth edrds bere she passed away,he had a quote in her kitchen. and one of the things that she said was, you know, the crack are what let the lightome in, esntiall so our homes aren t mean to be perfect. the bottom line is they re not. kids, dogs, husban, doesn t matter who ruins something, let yoself enjoy what you have and live well with what yo have. eautifully said. u re doing something on your show i honor of a boy who committe suicideecause he was bullied for,ga i talk about how imptant it is tha we all take a snd and on the 29th is a special nate rkus show, the mothe of seth walsh. it s a beautiful story. thank you very much. nice to see you. ando find the nate berkus sh in your aa. wee back at 8:46. toy amy robach hits the boardwalin atlantic cy and found great group of women particating in a unique mpetition. amy, goomorning to you. we have a heard of miss america d miss universe. the s another peant for women who hav reached the age of elegance. atlant city was homo the ss america pageant for more an 80 years. the coveted crn, aymbol of youth, buty and talent. bu what you may not knows that just down the boardwk, for the past 30 years, another paant has been quietly emerging. ms. senior erica, wre the age requireme is 60 plu and the contestants are ready to ard. i feel like a queen when i m walking around doing the poses and i just feel very proud. i moving every minute of it. that s rit, instead of bingo and bridge, those golden girlsre singing, dancing, miming, and jaing on the tamborine. they represent 33 state and the u.s. virgin isnds. their goal? th founder says to showcase senior cfident and inner beauty. you knowho you are and you feel fullled so you can share itith others. reporter: even at the age of 86. this is the second ti i ve been on thestage, i have enjoyed it, it s thrilling, exting, my life has chged. reporter: miss senior america is very much like its yoger counterpart. so you say there s always one question everyon asks you? i know that i am going to answerhat question that 99% of you out tre ve. and that is, nothere is not a swimsuit competion. eporter: replaced with philosophyf life competition. i proclaim senior ladies rock. rorter: after an evening go competition ladies and gentlemen our top ten. reporter: the finalists are announced. and following a heatedalent competition with evething from a tena turner impression, to a sailor tap dce roune. the winner finally annoued. ms. senior america doesn t walk away with a scholarshipr any cash prize, instead she represents what an older woman is achieve a sll offer her community. i am so excited. i just want to get the word out to other senior women that they can donything. and the amang part, some of these women are doing tngs they never would have attpted in their younger days. some women this is the fir me they were ever even on stage. they learn t sing for the first time. so they out there ready to try new things. when we come b this is tod. oday at the rink i brought you by smucker s. his morning on today at the rink,nnstitution in american figure skates. he captured gold at the winter olympicsn calgary. it was a feet that would not be matched by anothermerican male skater until thi ar. great see you. it s great to be here. at let you get to skate and rm up. i remember wching you then what does it say abo male figure skating in this country. it took 22 years for another american me to match that goal. he put it all tother, talent,ard work, focus. takes just so my different elents. and obviously you have in spades, what s w? ll, the thing that separates us fro all the other shows for me was the musical guestsheart. i just lovet when they sound like their albums a they sound tter tn ever. ann and nanc they re just rely amazing. and it was great to skate to em. meantime, you re going to skate for us now to silent nit. silent night holy night a is calm all is bright round yovirgin mother and child holynfanto tender and mild sleep in heavly peace sleep in heavenly pea silent night hy night shepherds qua at thsight glory stream from heaven affa heanly hosts sing hall lie youa cri the savior is born christ isavior isorn silent nig many things to brian. we re ba after your local news and weathe here s a live look outside as you get ready on this brisk monday morning to start yur workweek. good morning, it s 8:5 in the news today, a disruption mark s penn line hs been resolved. earlier this morning soubound trains were stopped cause of mechanical problems and daged overhead electrical wires. trainsre no moving again. however, ridershould still expect some delays. > investigato are still tryinto figure t what caused a s leak that triggere a hme explosion in chantilly, virginia. no on was home at the timeut two adults and two childr have en splaced. weather and traffic are next. ick a good morning. stly cloudy n in the 20s. later today in the 30s with sun returning and a blustery northwest wind. mostly cudy omorrow, small chance of a flurry. th sun returns wednesday and thursda with highs near 40. jerry, how s traffic? athis hour minimal lays right now. 395, the backup beginsell after the pentagon t the 14th reet bridge. something you don t get to see every day. one mor stop top side of the beltway, outer loop still sluggsh until you clear george avenue. inner loop looking pretty good. cong up today on nbc4, ellenets a visit from we re back now with more of today on a monday morning, the 20th day of deceer, 2010. beauful sunny skiehere in new york. it s 26egrees and windy, windchill probably 17 degrees. out on thelaza, i m matt lauer along with erin burnett. on a day like today, you want to wear on towed shoes because at s what s gog to keep you warm. i made a wardrobe, i had a wardrobe fall lungs. malfunction. coming up in this half hour, amanda knox, shs been convicted murder in aly. she s in the appeals process righnow. now an italian judge has agreed allown independent review of a evidence in that case. it s a major victory for amanda. al holiday time is a joyous time. diyou also know it s one of the moreangero tes of the year? a loof reasons forth. we re going to show you how to get youramily through the holidays as safe as possible. what we did was put two families up tohe challge of ing a full holiday evt, dinner party for eight with all e trimmings, great food all of it for $150 or le. we re goinghe see if they did it. we ll ha the results of the chlenge and ifhey did, wt you can learn from them that ming up. a t to get to. anne s off today, and we hav tamron hal over at the news sk. a security alert this morning atewark intnational airport in new jersey. one termilhut down after a bag tested positive for explosives. the terminal wasreopened after th bag was found to contain a computer ensions ran high in north korea overnight. pyongyang d not retaliate as expect. flood watches and warningsre in effect this morning f southerncalifornia. record rainfall is expected to coinue toda snow and ice coated mountain ads ithe pacific northwest, leaving drivers at the mercy of gravy. theustice department is now acvely seeking to prosecute wikileaks founder julian assange heren the u.s. vice presidentoe biden revealed f the first time this weekd on meet the pss. a new development in the murder trial of amanda knox nbc keith miller has the story. reporter: showing the strain of prisonifes she entered the courtroom, amanda knox was soon in tears as she heard the appeals judge declare aull review of the forensic evidence used to convict her. knox s mother the courtroom to offer comfort broke down in tears in relief. knox, a 23-year-old student from seattle along with her former boyfriend rafael sollecito, were found guiy of murde and violensexual assaultf knox s roommate, meredith kercher, an change student from england. the case against them rested largely on dna evidence. the psecution entered this knife as t murder weapon saying it had dn from knox a the victim on the hand and the blade. not so, argued t defense. now it will be up to an independent pal of experts to drawheir own conclusion e knox family believe the findings wilshow their daughter is innocent that wa the best that we uld hope for and the he always been confident if somebody independe and objective really looks at that, that they will ceo the colusion that those tts aren t what the prosecutn said they were. reporter: the dn review could take months. in the meanti, this is now a whole new trial. where the defense has an opportunity to exposehe holes it says a at the heart of the prosecutios case. keith miller, nbc news. tron legacy took the p spot at an otherwise sluggish weekend b ofce. yogi bear came in second and the chronicles of narnia came i third. a full lunar eipse will land on the darkest nig of th year. th firstime the two events have co-sid sce 1554. it is fou pt the hour, back outo matt on thelaza. allight, tamron,hank you very ch. our director joe michaels i liening, joe, remember the potato go in the fro here. let us get a check of the weather now from stephanie abrams. your name is actual snow. hodid your parents ce up with that name? i gue they re just good rning. i m meorologist tom kierein. another sne cold winter rning here in the potomac rier, frozen solid right there at t 14th street brid. live picture fro our cit cama. it s only in the upper 20s to arund 30 degrees, butit should make it intohe upper 30s later is afternoon but some melting of the snow we got last week and a bit of a blustery wind out of the northwest with sun returning this afternoon. mostly cloudy tomorrow. might have a few flurries. small chance of tat. sun returns wednesday and thursy. and we have penguin hats and polabear hats on twi that ke them warm. erin? today s healt is brought to you by kellogg s special k oducts. this morning on today s health, aiding the hazards of the holidays. it s a time to enj family and friends, but dorating and entertaining. here to review the most comn holiday health hazards and how to avoid them. at least aneotally it seems that there s a lot more injuries d health issues of all sorts during t holiys. we he so many demds placed on us we re shopping we re cooking, we re entertainingnd as a result we gedistract and that s when accidents can ppen. let s start with cuts and wounds, way more o them this time o ar. there are 6,000 visits a year cuts a wounds. and when you re cooking, slicing an dicing, it s a vy common gatherinfor thefamily. it s easy to get stracted. so beare full not tolice your finger while you re talng to a fily member. of course you want to just pay attention, watch your fingers and one of the other places you should be careful i when you open gifts, those plastic encased electronic toys. that are impossible to get out. that clam shell is so diffult. it s so thick. the tenncy i to hold t package and jam i right into your pa. andhat s what hapns, you go right througho your palm. y buying one of those specically designed cm shell openers whe the blades safely tucked away. let s start with the decoratingssues. decorating related injuries, thers 45,000 e.r. vised a year justorhat, pticularly from decorating the t of the tree a hanging the lights outside. and the biggest culpr is a ladder. peop tend to fa off t dd ladders,ou can sustain neck and back injuries and my advice would be,rst, if you re hanging lights, make re your ladder isn level ground. i know is very tempting to get every spotn the top of the treebut don t overreach on that ladr and don t step on the top two wrungs. the other thing about a tree, i washinking about it the other day, is re, a lot of people get their tree early, and dies even though you re putting water in it. there are 400 fires per year results in 40 death and 100 inries, most common from christs trees due tohorts in the electric lighting to candles that we too close to the branch. make sureouurn the lights off at night and make sureour tree is really well watered. a water trees a much saf ee. run your hands through the branch, if you end up with a fistful of needle. that tells you your tree isoo dry. and candles are another source of fire, with candles never leave aandle unattended, and keep canes away from windows. that draftan come in and blow the flames. what about heart attacks, there are more of them this time of year than any te else why is that? basical stress of holidays is a big culprit as well as having heavy meals and people just get busy and they forget to ke their medications. this is a question i think eryone has any te someone has a heart tack, wn arehe mptoms that s i need to go tohe hospital. one na s well known is chest pain. people may be afraid to bring to it the attenon ofheir family because they don t wt to disrupthe festivities. but please do so. hearattacks can mic digestion. if you re hing ts unrelentingheartbn, please seek medical attention. as well as shortness of bath and shoulder pain and car accidents? yes. snow, we just thawhat pile up, ght,t could be that, but also alcohol. alcol is relat in almost 50% of car accidt fatalities. so jt some commonly kwn advice. pleaseesignate a drer, don t drive late at night when people are drinking and drsy. know your route ahead of time and progr it in your gps. dot wait until you re on the road to program it io yr gps anno cell phones or texti on e road. let hope everyone pays attention to that all throhout the year. common sense stuff that we a st need to remember. two families just one budget cathey throw together a holiday meal foright for less than 50 each? that s tough to do. and also ahead,on t forget fluffy, great gifts for you best fourooted friends this holiy season. that s after these mesges. msn autos called it the ass of its class right now. but that s not the only story. it s got turn-by-turn navigation, onstar, an avlable six-speed automatic transmiion, remote keyless entry, and 10 r bags. it s big story for a compact car. the all-new chevroletruze. get used to more. ery well-qualied lessees can get a low-mileage lease on a 2011 chevrolet cruzls for around $159 a month. cal for details. pre. pizazz. ss! [ laughter ] [ woman ] i m feeling at! [ female announcer ] the spial k challeng gins january 1st. free psonalized plan at specialk.com. what will you gain whenou los saveen to forty percent on our entire stock of small kitchen applnces. kitchenaid artisantand mixersre only two ninety-nine, ninety-nine. t a cuinart twelve-cup coffee maker or an extra large griddleronly ninety-nine ninety-nine each. and all kenmore and ele all kitchen appliances are twenty pernt off. sears. duracell batteries. and if you think albatters are the same, consid this: these batteries are going. to the mtel children s hospital, u.c.l.a . because here theyse the most. chnologically advanced equipment r the healing. and the play. and to power allhose toys the people at duracell. packed up a truckload batteries. becausnothing s bett than powering a smile. duracell. trusted everywhere. [ female announcer ] there s a placcalled hidden valley whe kids not only eat their vegetabs, they can t get enough. hidden valley nch. makes vegetabl delecble. and w ke lettuce a real salad with hidden valley salad kits. everything you need all in one b, li garlic croutons, lemon pita bites, parmesan chees and caesar dressing. turn plain lettuce to a hidden vaey salad. parmesan chees and caesar dressing. i ll stop thworld and lt with you i ll sto the world i will stop the world you ve seen e difference a it s gettg better all the time i will stop the rld i stop the worl and melt with you i ll stop the wod i ll stop the world, i ll mt with you progresso. hi. we love youreight watchers endorsed soups but my hband looks the way he did 20 years ago. well that great. you haven seen him. my other cans ringing. ogresso. hey can you tell my wife to relax anenjoy e view? (annouer) progresso. u gotta taste is soup. today celebrates 2010 is brought to youy three muskateers. a lighter way to eoy chocolate. this morning on today s countdown to christmas, entertaining on abudget. it s not easy for any family. so we asked janet lieberman to set up a lite challeng she found two filies who are friends and gave the eh a budget o $150 to spend on dinner and decor for a party of eight. to help the families, we called celebrity party planners david vaughn and kathy reeve have. you have $150 for food, decor, drk. per person? can you do it? yes, we can do it. on ward. as w started opping, a competition heated up quickl and so do their llars. a little t of glitter, five-pack for $5.99. the reason we think so, it s 29 cents and also they het in all these colors. we re going t go with a rednd white theme. somehristm lights. we have t wrapping paper, weave the posterape. i ll ke change, please. next came the gcery opping so we re making chicken meatballs and it s a ltle healthr and we re saving money because wee not doing a heavy meat meal. when you wand to se money, it s a crowd pleaser and it s tasty and affordle. we re makie inine incroutonse cod do. let s cook. shopping at homis theest. cooking was a cinch and decorating was easy too. even the kids got inlved. we re here t make cookies. so they re going to make a napkin ring ana place card. reporte final showdown time. tt is beautiful then our rprise judge came in. you all know the pub cakeses, everything y do. i hav a good time, but i love entertaining. their total cost came in at $75. mery impressed already. reporter: f the meal they had cauliflower and potatsoup. the margoli had a different approa. a winter wonderla. and for their meal, cstnut soup, double bakepotato. and for dessert, mint chocote chip ice cream crued like snow lots of flavor in it, ver nice heir total $108. it was time for a desion. it s hardo judge. christmas,anukkah, you kw, time of the year. it s really about the kids. and i think tt our first dinner wasore kid friend. so i m going to go with the first one. at the end of the day, they felt they were all winners. wow, a celebty party planner. they re here with their beautiful table creations a more money saving tips for all of u next time you re invited. i wanto talk about some of the things you had, you used par and color. holiday plaing is so stressful as it is. so kee it fun, kp it simple and afrdable. we used some really affordable fabric, felt and paper, really easy. and to add t the fun, we did suga cookies with place cards andapkin holders. and the bt part is the kids can get volved. the rst thing you want to bake some sugar cooki and you can use your favorite cookie cutter. you wa to go ahead, once they re baked in the oven, when you take them out,ou want to ke a knife and make a st for your ribbon. so you can tead the ribbon thugh, once it s decored, i prefer the decorated version. and then y p in some lette that you can find at any craft ore. my favorite part of th entire meals wn the kids actually got to show off what they designed. and all you need are gum my bears, styrofoam balls and a toothpick. i always start withwo simple rules, one use one col andwo sti with the season. really what i did was choosin white, when you have no money and y need a big bang for the buck, use white because it s cheap. white sheet, whitehristmas lights, this polyester batting is use for making quilts. thw it over the table for snow. i know this may look complicated, but it s so, so 6r78. on a trip, you cut the strips and glue the vertical members first and then you just simply good old-fashioned. this is great with the kids, agn, one color. green gres, green appl. edle version is using egg whites with a little simple syrup. i m out of time unfortunely. sinkle,prinkle. spray glue if you have no time. coming up, the extement continues. we have someestive hiday recipes that are easy to put tother. but first these messages. [oman ] we try to be perfect. we etend high-hee don t hurt and that we can handle anything fe throws at us. but there are times that we need a momento remember. we re only human. that s more than enough. your moment. your dove™. with innabon cinnamon have such a sweet d delicious ama that my family can t wait to get their handsn them enjoy cinnaboninnamon. nown all pillsbury cinnamon rolls. we re the final days of ou 17th annualoy drive. and we re grateful to s many different compani tt get toys tchildren who nd them. mary kay cosmetic represe. this year on behalf of mary kay and our 2 million independent sales force numbers who sell our product around the world, we have $7 million in skinare and color cosmetics for me and women and cor for the ladies as well through the years you ve obviously been generous t so many people a mary kay is big part of the today show. what s your favorite in termsf gifts? i think our skin care and cosmeticcan t be beat. but in tms of our long standing tradition, my kayas always been committed to enriching the lives of women and children. we re sorateful to the today show for helpings give back. we going to take a break and me back with aamazing diet. ik.. a matchstick. and she s obviously never dieted, ever eaten anything. [ laughs ] and she says to , where would you like to be in six mohs? six moths? i need to be in a pink bridesma s dress in one month. i justant to be able to zip it up! [ female announcer ] soundamilia then try the im-fast 3-2-1 an. 3 snacks, 2 shes or meal bar and 1 balanced meal. clinically proven. ridulously simple slim-fast. who has time to slim slly? you n t decide when vegetables reh the peak of perfection. the vegetaes do. at green giant, we pick vetables only when they re perfect. then freeze them fast so there are as nutritious as fresh. [ green giant ] ho ho ho. green giant here s a liveook outside on thisrisk monday morning just ahead of the holid weekend. good morni. it s 9:26. in theews today, polic in las vegas are looking for a missing show girl who was once a washington redskins cheerlead. she hasn been seen since last week. the 31-year-od fr maryland perfmed athe luxnd palms hotels. nstarting quarterback r grossman did well, but it wasn enough. aft rallng to tie the game agains the cowboys at 30, dallas hits a late field go for e 33-30 wi grosan had fourtouchdowns, three turners on the day. wather and traffic are next. stickround. e moment you feel run down or achy nip flu-like symptoms in the bud, wi oscillococcim. get oscillo and feel like yrself again. osciococcinum, nip it in the bud. good morning. i m meteorologist tokierein. still mostly cloudy. we re going to get break later. right now it s near 30. sun back this afternoon. his mid-3 and a blusry northwest win then it should be partlcloudy for tonight total lunar eclips fter midnight. loudy tomorrow, small ance of flurries. jerry, how s traffic? things winding downery quicy. south towards tyson s corner pretty typical. the inneroop smooth sailg. looks ptty good both directions on the beltway between college park and silver spring. comg up todayn nbc 4, com[emale nouncer ]4, safeway talks gift ide. music makea great gift. i like rock, hip-hop, couny. and you are tellinge this, why? i.uh.thought you might be my secret sant no. i m giving r skunk. uh, can hear you. no. not you. the oth skunk. [ femalennounc ] safeway is the place to stock up on ites gift cards. right w, save $6 on a $40 4-pack. keep em on hand. only at safeway. ingredients r life. i m gulliver. i want to advantavanquish and you don t won t to be vanqshed. tha - oh, it s jack black ashe big man on campus ithe new version of the classic gliver s travels. we rgoing to get a chance t catch with jack tomrow on today. i mrin burnet great to b here with tamron hall. a new diet pla that lets you eat what you like and still lose ight. it s suicious. eat four meals a day and keep your metabolism fired up all y. > and if you re almost done with your spping and apparently y ve g a family of 70, or just two people. cept for youravorite pet, they re not taken care of you re barki up the right tree. we have got a great selectionf gifts that can make them happy as well. and ur life a whole lot easier through the holida. alk about makg your life easier. me ofer favorite andhe promises easy holiday recipes, includg sweet basil cheese cake. my favorite dsert is cheese cake. all right, in th meantime, stephanie, what s the ather. good news here forhe northeast. not go news the west. unle you re doing any skiing over the holids because we re going to s several more feet good morning. at this hour we have qui a bit cloudiness still linging and we should gtbreaks in the cloudsover washingt this afternoo a northwest wind gusting to 25 mies an hour, highs reacng the 30s. the sun rerns and then suld be clear t partly cldy for tonight s total lunar eclipse as the moon passes into the earth s shadow after midnight. then torrow mstly cloudy, small chance of flurries, highs mid-30s. sunack on wedsday and thursday with highs near 40. tting toward the christmas weekend, might get some accumulang snow christmas day. nothat bad long the east cot, at least. stephanie, thank you very much. and next, a newiet plan that calls f you to eat four 400 calorie meals a day after thesmessages. this o thing ll eat, any time of day pancakes! from dawn til sunset, i ll neveralk aw blueberry pancakes are so good [ me announcer ] bisquic pancake lovers unite. [ gasps ] thiis for you. thanks. cool. chuckles ] whoa! [ chuckles ] i lo this part. yeah. m too. [ lucy gasps ] [emale announcer ] this year, hallmark has all new ways to sayt. daisy, do-do a dollop our family-owned company makes daisy.. with 100% natural farm-fresh cre. no artificial ingredients. no preservatives and no added hormones. bett with a dollop here fresher with a dollop there wholesomen every way daisy, do a dllop daisy, do-do a dollop it s got thistart seen that lets me do stuff faster andasier. see? it even has bing right here so. the second my flight getsancelled, i can quickly find the neast. rport hotel. i m in, i m out, and i m done. so now can actually look up and make suri get off thishing. buy any ndows phone and get a second one free. so get your holiday on aat&t. saveen to forty percent on our entire stock of small kitchen applnces. kitchenaid artisantand mixersre only two ninety-nine, ninety-nine. t a cuinart twelve-cup coffee maker or an extra large griddleronly ninety-nine ninety-nine each. and all kenmore and ele all kitchen appliances are twenty pernt off. sears. everything that s in the products. but sc johnson isn t just a company. we re a famil who cas about yours. that s w we re workingo share all of our ingredients right down to the fragrances and dyes. soith pructs like windex, you know what you re bringing into ur home. going beyond the industry standard that s the mily standard. u can do this. get thball. t the ball, girl. hmmm, you can t do that. but you can dohis. it s e simple thing scntifically formulated bengay pain reef + massage with penetrating nubs gives you the targeted relief of massa plus the powerful, long-lasti pain lief of bengay. bengay pain lief + massage sit bengay.com/relief for a $3.00 coupon. love the nu! if you re lookingo slim down wh an eating plan that lets you eat pretty muchll your favorite foods, one of the ways is to control the portions that we put into our body. e s got the secret to what is the easiest weight lossrogram ever, liz, good moing, i m all ears. so 400 is the keyumber here? yes, this is back to basics weight loss this is not aboutists of foods yo cannd can t eat. the idea is to flow one simple rule. eat four0 calorie meals day and you will loseweight. we all know that controlling calories is the secret to losing weight. and portion ntrol. and portion control, but we don tave a idea how many calories we reconsuming. the 4alorie fix does two things, ithows you ws to have 400 calor meals. let s get to some of th tricks for bakfastor example. what wou you recommend? the whole plan is to have fun th you food so. do you want toave a glass of wine? do you wanto have coies? this is the plan for u. if you re going to be cooking, here s a wesrn atat omelet. this is two halves of whole wht toast. we have the recipe in the book and weive you tricks, lile visual tricks in the kitchen to show you exaly what kind of portions. th is another breakfast for peopleho are on the . the whole idea here you lea how to feedheorld through a 400 calorie lunc you get two halves of an english muffin, withome peanut butr. and this tion? well, for lunch, we wanted to have plenty of fast food options in the book, because that how ople eat on t go. so we take yo mcdonald s and buer king and tell you what the400 calorie optio are there. this is from taco bell. their fresco menu, this their chickenurrito supreme, but you can have a sid of this wonderful avocado. that s impressive that y went on fast od menus,ecause we re conditioned to lieve that it is a badopon, but wh it is aonvenient option, it s hd to resist. this is another one ofplaces nch. there s enough calors left over toave two small oatme cookies. and you don t have too much cheese, too much dressing. ts is no-brainer weight loss. you re not counting calories, we re st giving you can whole menu of options. this ia crowd pleasing famil meal. visuallyagain, we re thinking of we came one the leanest cut ofmeat, this is a 400 calorie dinn. we have frozen foods, we have prepare foods. we take you to a pizza parlo and we have a wholeheelhat can show you wt to have with wine or beer. i you re having four 40 calorie meals, o of them is going tbe a smanack. if you re a 30 p.m. latte person, y can you can have five ore and a glass o milk. don t get me wrong, i loveo lish this off. but i wou be surprised tt that could be partf my diet. we kno that this works, we put 16 men and womenn the diet. in two weeks, ty lost 11 poun and three inches ofelly fat. but the best news wasn t the 11 pounds theylost, it s the ct that they continued to e the 400 calorie fixed wa and the weight continued to me off. it s a wayf retining the way you eat. the bo by the way is 400 calorie fix. liz, tha you so much. and up next, gifts for your f furry friends is holiday season. so i went back to doctor again. we chose symbicort to help corol mysthma mptoms l day and night. [ an ] symbicort improves my lung function starting within 15 minutes. symbicort will not replace a reue inher for sudden mptoms. it ia combination of two medicines and shouldot be ken more often than prescribed. symbicort contns formoterol. medicines like formoterol incase the risk of death from asthma prlems, and chdren and adolescents may have an increased risk of being hospitalized for asthmproblems. symbicort is not for people whose asthma is wellontrold with a long-te asthmaontrol medicine like inhaled corticosteroids. once your asthma is well controlle your doctor will decide if you can st symbicort without loss control, and prescribe a long-term ahma control mecine. be sure to see your doctor if your asthma does not improve or gets worse. symbort is good choice to help conol my asthma all day and night. [ inhales ] [ exhales ask yr doctor if syicort is a good choice for you. [ male announcer ] if you can t ford yr medication, astraneca may be able to help. cozy up, spread joy. there s no story without a cast of cracter andust like we mi and mingle, so do the delicious tastes and teures in every handfulf chex mix. we re made to mix. pride. pizzazz. sass! [ laughr ] [ woma] i m feeling that! [ female announcer ] thspeciak challenge begins january 1st. fr personalized plans at specialk.com. what wi you gain when you lose? [ female announcer there s a place called hidden valley where kids not only eat their vegables, they can t get enough. hidden valy ranch. makes vegebles delectable. d now make lettuce a real salad with hidden valley salad kits. everything you need all in o bag, like garlic croutons, lemon pitaites, parmesan cese, and caesar dressing. turn plain lettuce into hiddevalley salad. par esan cese, and caesar dressing. you can find your feet an you cafind your way you can find yourself ibed athe end of the day y can fd some fun on a tropical isthmus t you ll never find my. you can find it in your heart toe patit with me you can find a new star for the p of the tree i don t meato be coy and don t mean to be vicious but you lnever find my christmas today s holiday gift guide is bught to you by target. expectore, p less. all ght, this morning on today s pets, holiday gifts forour four legge friends. stop chasing yourail wondering what s the best present to buy. wendy diand has some holiday pet gifts andips that ar going to keep you out of the doghse. if you got to have a gift for the pet in your life. 82% of pet parents actually buy gifts for their pets. theye their childr. they get their own stocking. we have got some ideas that people can still ge one thing during the holidays at you noticedbout a t? ey re always taking naps. pets nap all the time. it s always so ctic, through the holida, it s real important toave aog bed or a t if you hav a cat. this o is so arable. it s under $20. these two beds, there under $20 at petco. and is b is great for senior pets t relax, it reay comfortable for em. what s also important durin the holidays to make sure the pet is in a safplace. and ey can rest. keeps them from kcking the christmas tree over. right. another thing, pets are alysiven toys. the lov to chew what s reall importants on the dinner table, don t give them people food. it s rlly important to give th treats and aogoy so they can playith that. especiallyll natural treats so thathen you re eatg they re all the wayff t the side. and it s not sprising the when you give them people food. it can really mak the sick? it s really important to just give them dog od that was made for dogs. the winter time, it is freezingut. ifyou re cold,our dogs are  cold. land s end. everne has a land s end jacket. they have land snd jackets for dogs and you can get them monoammed with your dog s first namen them and they under $20. they r all fleece. not all dogs are huskies. ese are lap dogs, so it s important to get them saters or jkets like thisand s end one. now for the pet andhe child. firstf all, for the whole family, this is - the pet nursery. its an amazing game forhe whole family to learn how to take care of an animal there s 2 different bres of animals. your children can play on i while you re doingll the christmas shopping. but s really greafor the whole family to make somgreat pet parents. that s great too. ki don tlways realize. it s theirresponsibility. there biting off more than they can chew. how the have to care r them, feed them, everything. an amazi photographer signed a whole arrays ofog pillows and rover. it goe ove your couch, it acally repelset hair. this is a great christm gift and when people are coming over, s easy to clean and it ll save on a new couch. is actually fits right over, you can row it in thewash, it s easy to clean. it looks like an expensive uch thing. and you can ao use it in a car i would imagine? in the car, on the car seat, it s easy, it s affdable and light weight. what abouthe gts that a lot ofeople like to give? the peitself. it s very imptant to understandhat people,hen you give dog or cat or any animal, it s a responsibity. they need to care for it. it costs money and they need t have time for the anim. but there s any breed of any animal you want out at the shelter. you can get a pure bred poranian, a pu. all of these asou sd are up for adoption. lucky for a price, maybe. all right, as you said, the humane society of new yk is where you can fin the pets here and many others available r adoption. and many others available r adoption. some favorite, the moment you feel run down or achy nip flu-like symptoms in the b, with oscilloccinum. get oscillo and feel ke yourself again. oscillococcinum, nip it in the bud. imagination and reity have merged. beuse of one word, a new generation a fth generation of fighterircraft has been born. because of one word, erica s air dinance for the next forty years is assured. that e wor. is how. this morning in toy s holiday kitchen,ere to share her favori super easy holiday recipes including her sweet sil chse cake. good rning. just the mer word sends tingles up my spine. santa knows if you re naughty or ce but he can alsoelp you plan a part how is that possible? here s how santa c help you,ou spell out his name, and re s a few things to remember, s is for sweet d savory. a is for petizers. n i no fuss. keep it as sime as you can. t is f treats. and a for arrangements. make it prey but simple. o we re tackling the sweet and savory. savor and sweet all in on we re goingo use a littlbit of goat cheese. a half a cup o goat cheese and we have got three different cheeses in this cheese cake. and youave got a little bit of crea cheese as well. and the tng about ts i like, u can make this a couple of days in advae. three days in advce and put it in the fridge. cheeseake - i mn do you eat cheese cake? that s a silly question. or a lot of pele, they tons of fresh bal. and then you puree it all tother. until it all creamy. this always happens. there we go. you juspuree it until it s all creamy. you putt in a little spring rm pa i butred it to make it ea to come out. what you want to do is a chee cake, th is the seet. there s twoecrets to keep the cheese ce nic and ist. first of all bake it in the oven th a little biof warm water. the steam keeps it om cracking and keeps it ist. once it s done cooking at 350 for 50 minus. turn off the oven and let it cool in there for awhile. good tip. and this is thiis what it looks like. and i just brush the top with a litt bit of olive oil and you can dorate it wita little bit of fresh basil. you don t have to a me twice. it s pretty never than just a regular chee cake. and it s so sy to transport. andhat do you have here tse are two really, really simple gifts. thanks a lot. we have got some dipnd then u add a little bit of sour cream. got to love at. and some chives. and you mix it all together. and th s it. it got t red and the green it. so it lks very festive. ople usually jt adore it. you re keeping this really easy. it s fantastic. i love it. simpl and pretty. and then you just put in the bowl. and then youan do, the last oni think is fantastic. it garbanzo beans so it s chickpea pie. gbanzo beans and some olives, ack olives, really simple. lemon zest, lemon juice. parsley, and of course you know everything s prepped for you i makes it even easier. you got to try so of th cheese cake. it s delicis. i m going to let y finis this, thank you so much. ll let you finish up here. there y go. this is gre i sorry i rushed you through ur last peacery. cominup [ female announcer saway talks the main course. mmm. you smell that? yeah, wait. what is tt? love. smells like ham. [ female annouer ] serve a main course brimming with cfort and joy. safeway. ngredits for life. i love eggg, i love gingerbread, i love pumin pie. i lo everying but those blinking lights. yeah, right my eye. [ female nounce] if it tastes like the holidays, we ve got it. saeway. gredients for life. taki a liveook outside, awfully chilly out ther isthere snow in the forast? we ll check in with tom in a moment. it s 9:5 good morning n the news today a diuption on marks pe line s been reso resolved. this morning southbound trains wer stopped because of mechanical problems and damaged erhead electrical buywires. trains are moving ain but riders should still expect delays. instigats are trying to figure out what cause a gas leak that caused a home explosion in chantilly, virginia. no one w home at the time and hat was a good thing, b two adults and two childr he been displad. let s check in with tom now about tsenowflakes a few days away. may have some for chrimas day but between now and then looks like we ll stay dry and this co pattern do continue. right now it only in the upper 20s to around 30 degrees. we have theloud cover beginning tobreak up a little bit. a little sun breaking outso we should get moresun by the ternoon with highs reaching d and upper 30s. northwest windsusting to 25 mis an hour. then should be cle to partly cloudy tight fr the lunar eclipse after midnight and maybe a few flurri tomorrow. jey, how s traic? we ll start on the beltway south oftown. the outer loop a little sluggh. ere s mdday road work and you lose the right lan about midspan on route1, it s going to a bit backed up. one more stop to the american legion bridge movi alo very nicely. he outer loo smooth sailing, inner lk looking good. coming up today on nbc 4, ellen gets a visi from justin tierlake. plus a f sprises for some plus a f sprises for some unsuspectin captions paid for by nbc-iversal television this puts me in good mod more than myown singing. hi, everybody, it sfunay, monday,0th of december, just fe days leftntil santa slides down yr chimney. but he ll comsee yoregularly even though you don t have a chimney. i ve had a huge plan about buying christmas presentshis weekend? you did nothing. none couple. you told me you hadn t started last week. so today s moay. i have nothing except forur show today and i m going to d some torrow. i m already feelinghe adrenalin. that s not adrenalin, that s panic. it was ugly yesterday for giants fans. i don t know if a lot of people around theountry maybe didn t see this ga but the giants ere eit minutes away from their biggest, ggest game fir of all, it was a blow-out. it was boing. the giants were killingthe agles. it was like this, yn, w even nts to bothe watching. i ow, in seven minutes thereas four touchdowns. right, you guys? yeah. then at the lastecond the onlyne wahing no, you didn t want to watch. it was disgting. if you look at the ont page of the new yorkapers giants do it meanng ck. they can t help theelves with that sff. they just can help it. the other was ju brutal. it was so painful to lost that huge lead in seven minutes, it just made you si. frank and cody weret the game and they said you don t want to behere en that happens. i mean for philadelphia fans, they thrilled. so that theway it works ou in this life. didou see when he ran in for that last it touchdown, he didn t even runnto the end zone, he ran ound. that wasn tto taunt, that was toun the time. maybe a little taunting, just a tad. so if you readhe sunday section the new york times, the unday style which is the wedding section whi isne of theirst sections i enjoy reading. ally. must be something fraudian about that. it ishe sports page for women. there was an article hee. there is like aentral story that usuly pops up in the paper and this is about a local wom from new york. it called vows. yeah. this was kd of a sad story. she was already married and so was her husband at the tme and she describes i detail how essentially sheas falling in love with another man ilehe was marrie with her kis. tey met at their children s preschools and ded up becomi very close frien, the two coues, the two familie went on vations togeth and at one point he he ys b she goes on to say, first i tried to deny it, then i tri to ignore . she says one point this is the article in the paper she says she s in the shower and asking rself, why i bng punished? why didomeone throw him in my path when i can t have him. the end of day these two end of leaving their spouses and marrying one other. that s hence the article. and this hapns i m sure a lot. it sjusteird when it all writtenuton paper. hey obviously spoke with th reporter. he went ito great detail saying just h painful it as oroth families. this almost seems i do t ant to say glorified >with pictes of the weddi and the kids we veboth had marriages th were unhappy so but you know, i think erybody goes trough times in the marriage when they are attracted to other people that aren t their spouse and it s what you do wth it. everyby s temed. it is what do you do abou teptation. you flee. flee. go the other ay. you re supposed to. other way. soded like she was tortured. he said to h one day at a r, he called her, he said can you come meet me he said i ve faln in love with you. she pushed his drink away, fell his lap, she ran out she sampers back five minutes ler, sa i m in love wit you, o, now what do we do. i get the falling in love part. i have a problem wh ople choose e selfish way as opposed to taking care of their families and their cildrennd protting them. sten, maybe i sound too cold about that. just think there s theright thing to do and then there s- i think there are probably a lot of women who have spent the whole life in bad marriages doing erythng for everyone else. i fee for them, too. if youe going to do it, do it. i guess the bigquestion is w advertise it b why celebrate it, say look at us h hard it was for us. other pele ar going through much haer things in life. a your ex-spouses hve to read thi that s theorst part. they lok like they can read, these kids. theydo. we just want everybody be hapy. a lot of people this busted on the inteet and evything,blogs, people were very upset. did anyone take tir sides, say ongratulations? i m sure there are those who feel that way. i didn t see anybody who says that. i think what hits you inhe face, you cat beeve they re telling the le. they also saye dn t have an affair, we waited until they were separated. yeah, everybody saysthat. don t you thi that? ca i tell them what you said when you read that part? i don t know. what did i say. lia! oh! oh, i was thinking mt people i m sure they re telng the truth about what happened and that but most pele say we waid until we were separated, everything was fine, en we got together. buthat s a gray area. i think they probably i thi they probably did but hoda doesn t. mess up the p, e. we want show you the it s a little crepy. it reminds me of watching har potter. this is jo ann s ipad oh. dot show off now. but you haveo ouch it. so marie clai is a magazine. i want to show. ll them what they re gng to see. this is the cover of the magazi on an app. now whatappens is you have to show it on here. look. well, they can see it. s emma watson andhe stars moving and have you ever been on that ride at disney wor that the haunted house and all of a sudden the portrait start to move and lo at you and stuf it is a little like that. hoda, u re boring america! no, i m not! yes, you are! you re boring me. t s move on. this is why i hate is stuff. we re supsed to be talking to each other. i know but iwas working a minute ago. hoda woman okay. anyway, it lks reallyool when it works which isn t now. okay. usually she s moving. what isrong with this? et s go see the chstmas concert. the nth point community church in gegia who use ipads, by the way. no insurance, just ipads i think it was broken. they picked up their ids and theirphones arted playi music wh nothing more thathe apps. youcanlay the piano on the ipad. see? that s pretty cool. it isgh-tech. people like techie. some of us. we don t know how to work it. this i mething that you mayot know. what type of underwar you wear determines your attitude. w do you think i cray all the time? so it reflects your mood. if youir uy or ill-fitting undeear, tat reflects your mood. they say that almo half of the women feel sexier when they re wearing obviousl sexy underwe. hey say the average woman owns how my pairs of underwr do you think the averageoman owns. this surprised me 21. 21 pairsof under wear. sra has 50 pairs? that s all something you c get. i ven t countedately but i probablyave in the0s. who counts their underwe? they say most of us have one of tose pair that youon t want iit pairs or pair pairs of underwear pair of shoes, pairs of shoes whas really going on in your mind today. what s going on with you. mebody had a good weend and doesn t want to tell u about it. right? i had a fun weekend. you re right, i did. i had a fun weekend. so fun youcouldn t bring yourself to gout shopping for other people. whnot, hoda wan? what were you doing? selfish. whatere you doing, hoda? i was busy. yeh! busy dng at, hoda? i was just buy. i was busy. the guy- okay. i m notoingo say much but the guy who i met on th book signing that time whose daughters ce up and said gave me a piecef paper that said ten reasonsyou should date my dad andi m dating thir dad and it s n. it s about thosehings in life. its fun. you realize if you re happy nd this endsp like being in th vows section and all of that, that is going toruin our show. just gong to ruin it. because unless you re mserable and i m cranky, we won t have a show. i ll st miserable. favorite things time. it s fun-day. u want to do your favorite ing? i went to this very,very, very col restaurant in new york. it s calle la casa femme. it is an egyptian-themed restauran and it has little ables with little tents over the we going to see pictures? yes, suppedly. the food is crazy. there should be some pictes but there s nothing. nothing s workinging on fun-day. maybe because tammy, our xecutive producer is homesi. tam, we know y re tching. see? things fall apart wh you re not with us. everydy s been askingbout the nail polish way wearing, the chanel called khaki rose. but they ve discontinued it. make me crazy when they do that! so bobbie thomas gave me th new one. it is called butter. out of bond. it is a little lightr. it s called yummy rummy-ummy mmy. $14 oamazon.com. we re givin away some things. ristmaime! what are we giving away? we are giving away trough this thursday, december 23rd, we re giving away five each day. go to lgandhoda.com. you get the premierox and a one-yar subscription. is at random though so logon to klgandhoda.com and you y be selected for tivo. thank you, sweetheart. oming up next, today s buzz. who is hooking up and who not. yeah, who is, hoda? stopit. the 0 rock star has something foyour kids. not the o. it sot turn-by-turn navigation, onstar, an ailable six-sed automatic transmission, remote keyless entry, and 1air bags. it s a big story for compa car. the all-new chevrolet cruze get used to more. very well-qualified ssees can get a low-mileage lease on a 2011 chevrolet cruze ls for around 59 a nth. call for details [ stir it up playing] stir up a smile with hersh s syrup. it that time of year. time for campbell s green bean casserole. you ll fd the recipe at campbellskitchen.com. campbe s.® s amazing what soup can do.™ [ younger brother ] ohdo you want it yeah. ok, we lsplit it. [ female annouer ] made fresh, so light. .buttery anflaky. this is hal. that is nothalf. guys i have more. [ female announcer ] do you have enough crescts? how caexpedia now save me even more on my hotel? well, hotelsnow they can t fill every room every y. like this one. and this one. and oops, myad. so, they give expedia ginormous discounts with tse: unpublished rates. whicmeans get an even more rockin hotel, for ss. my brain didn t ev break a sweat ere you book matters. expedia. announr: tday s buzz is broht to you by keurig. choose. brw. enjoy. time for tay s buzz where we dish all the sco you can handle in one sitting. fr new celebrity couples to celebrity break-s, bonnie is the edir in chi of hollywoodlife.com and ro ann is the ht of n s gsip am. so the royals arestill in the news. that s right. there s beenan obama snub. yes. apparently they re not goi to be invited to prince william and cate middlet s wedding. ith all the things ey he to go to, they re probably like good. this is the second time they haven t been inviteto a royal wedding. we were not invited to chelsea clinn s dding either. that s not a royal. iis american royay. yeah, b ey wanted ito be private and just i don t blame peoplet all. and it is about them d not you and their ecialay. in this case, the worfrom the royals is that he is not the heir to e throne. he is technically n a state wedding. they want the guests to be volunteers and members of the charities that prince william sponss. i think that s lovely. i m sort of wondering, if y remember when michelle obamaet the queen she kind of gaveer a hug and that caused a lot of commion. so perhaps was it theug th s in the way? at was curious. you re always briefed on that sort of etiquette involved right? whether it appropriate. mae it s one of tse moments maybe theueen wanted it. ithink the queen liked it. mayb she made auess tur. she s got to say i nee the obamas on my list! it is very clear withhis couple they are the royals going rogue. they are going to havethis wedding their ownay and they re not going to go in the footsteps of justin bieber and selena gomez. that san interesting pairing. ey re two nice kis. they re two nice kids. they spend a ton of time togeth. they re always at the same events. he s constantly tweeting her happy birthday he s saying i nt to sing a due wh her. he was wearing her fur cat in his dressing room the oth day. that young lady is spectacula she is first of all in person, she s rop-dead gorgeous she s like a porcelain doll. one time i was doi jimmy kim mechanical and went in to s hello her because cassidy, my dauter was withme. she was in th familyith her dressing room, sheas sitting on her mom s p. not i a weird way, just so happy. still a little girl. the tweets tat have come out after his, there are broken hearts. he s breaking hearts al across ameca. oh, they ll get over it. so we ve g sandra bullock and george clooney together. what s the story that they re - what movie? t idea is that they are astronauts and that they re on some interplanetary miion, something goes all wrog, they re the only two left ale and theyave to fig all kinds obstacles to get backo earth. and it is in 3-d. they fall in love in th meantime. yes. what s that mean? wodn t it be nice if they tually really did? exactly! they re both vailable. they re royalty in terms of hollywood but people would love to see those two peoe sort of et together. this would be her first b venture since the whole bust-up and adopti of ltle louis. who is the director? i forgot t game. me, too. but she was an action heroin, speed. she started her own t is aboutime i think she got bck into action. tlor swift an jake gyllenhaal there definitely together. gwyneth paltrow put them together? wait. she knew jake and knew he s a great guy. cis martin knew taylor so they brght them together. they went o this incredible date. actuay reported it. they rented out the whole movie theater in nashville to see tangled. that s cut tht sounds like something your guy woul do r you. but that means it s got to be real. no g is going to go se tangle with a girl he doesn t really love. th took all the kids tha are in their lives as well. nieces and nephews? no, think just the two of them being lovie dovie. nteresting. hmm. i likie. our fan the week. i bet y can t wait. he may be just a page, but that doesn t mean 30 rock star jac mcbrayer doesn t keurig is the way to brew fres delicious coffee in under a minute. wa to brew. [ female announr ] so with keurig, every cup tastes like it brewed just for you. because it is. choose. brew. enjoy. urig. .you can sprea the joy for less! assorted food d beauty gifts sets are under $10! all cold weather accessories,0% off. and get a free tool bag with any tool purchasover $! there s smart, and there kmart smart. pride. pizza. sas [ laughter ] [ woman ] i m feelg that! [ fale anouncer ] the special k challenge begins janua 1st. free personalized ans atpecialk.com. what will you gain when youose? come on. isn it time an auto insurer gave it to youtraight? tt s why you shld talk to state farm. bunot ye first, talk to any one of the 40 milln drivers who already have state far 40 million. yeahthat s more than geico and progressive coined. by a lot. 40 million drivers. more savin. and discounts upo 40%. where else you gonna get discountsike that? call an agent at 1-800-statfarm or go online. now it s time t give a shout out toone of our biggest fans in our mony series fan of the week. the lely sara is here to announce the lucky winner. after searching farnd de drum roll, please the winner is laci meixner from san diego, liforn, now living in trinidad. e watches on wtvj in miami. she s a stay-at-ho mom of three shalso enjoys sculpting and bird watching. she los hoda s little dance and kathie lee s faal expressio. she s flyingome for the holays an making heramily stop in new york first so she can come to e show. isn t that cute? finally, she shll fit right in. she watches klg and ho becaus no matter how bad her morning is, you guys always put aig old goofy sile on her face. show that picture again. i think she s chugging a bot champagne. she s your kindofgirl, hod logon to klgandhoda.com for ur chae to be our fan of the week. still co, jk mcbrayer turns a new page. we re going to talk to the 30 rock star. i have to be ia bathing suit in a month, and i figed i would take these. dietary supplement weight-lo pills ooh consult a physician if you experien rapid heartbe, dizziness, shtness of breat.. side effects may include chest painnausea. yeah. couple days of that, and i will be in a bathing suit inno tim [ female annocer ] need a clinically proven y lose weight now? thenry the slim-fast 3-2-1 plan. 3 snacks, 2hakes or meal rs, and 1 balanced ml. slim-fast. who has time tolim slowly? into a bigger bag. into yet anoer bag. she washes the trash beforet goes into the trash. don t give trash e special treaent. t glad forceflex, thbag that stretches to prevent ripand tears. and try glad black bags. now thicker for tough jobs. you can ke e heat. til it turns into heaburn, you ve got what it takes: zantac. it s strong, fast lasting reef. so let them turn the ht. you can op that heartburn cold: (sssssssss!!!) zantac. gas crews are still tryng to find the source o leak th may have caed a chantill home to explode. comingup on miay we hear from pople ving in the neighborho where the flattened hou now sits in ruins. good morng, i m kimber suitors. also coming up post oices across the country bracing fo the busiest day of theyear. we ll tell you how to get ur we ll tell you how to get ur packages to their the next, you start one feeling bit off.fi. the moment you feel run down or achy, nip flu-like sympts in the bu with oscillococcinum. get oscillo d feellike yo. oscillococnum, nip it in the bud. yeok, l [ female annouer made fre, ight. thiss h. that is not half guys i have more. wh cinnon cnamon have such a sweet decious aro that my family can wait ir hands on them. enjoy cinnab cinnamon. now in all pilbury cinnamon roll that my family can wait ir hands on them. re back with moref today on this fun-y, monda actorjack mcbrer is here, kenneth, the lovable pa on 30 rock. butjack can also be heard lenng his voice ithe animated feature despicable me. listen to figure o ich character plays. she hit that. i saw that with my own eyes le me explain something to you. you see how it s t knocked over? okay. knocked over! . gee, i wonder who he was. since the other one was ste carl. w are you, jack? welcome. thankou very much. is movi s now in dv it must bemazing to think i don t know how much wo you have to put into somethi like this but that youe gtten so much feedba becase of is. solutely. it is strange becauseyou don t do a whole lot consiringther jobs that u might be doing. also itakes so long before t final result come that when did you actually recor it? three year ago? our years a? maybe abo two years ago. that was prey quick for animati. you don t get to see the end result for so long so its really nicehen it is well received. you go, oh, iade it in. yo didn t see steve carell or julie anews or any of those guys? no, ma a idid get to see a lot o those people at the emier. you ju had great news about 0 rock picked up fo its sixth season. y, we just found that out. we re abt half-way done shooting our fifth season. isn t he such a nice man? it rends me of being in new orleans. i likie. iike at. now you d sme stuff in the theater. right? did i understand that you were on iddl in th roof is th right? back in the day? way back in th da in the la 1900s. we did plays in high sool a one of them was fiddler on the roof. i was therabbi s son, of course. d you keep th southern acnt? i guess so. yeah, we had very limited references on how to i your accent ever something they say, can you losethat? absolutely. but then iot into improsation in chicago at second city a rules were anything goes. it didn t matter havig a southern accent. how do you do a northern accent. not we. how old? 38? i ink that s one of the jokes that the writersinclude is that i think a pa goes for only eight or nine monthson assigent. still here, chugging away. they re actuallyoing the actual sry line of nbc, the omcast take over is all part of the diague. the real life of nbcnd just in general. we did one episode one de. who was the guy thatas with us? jason who pla liz lemon s ex-bfriend. he practically threw up on us. it was in the script great show,congratulations. despicable me isoing to be out on d. i think it is out alrdy. get it forchrtmas. i loved that fil it is adoble. merry hristms, jack! yore adorable. apprecte it. soswe. up next, how to wrap evything from jack s new dvd to your chils brand-new bicyc right after this. [ female announcer what will you gain when you lose? pride. pizzazz. sass! [ laughter ] [ woman ] m feeling that! [ female announcer ] the speciak challenge begins january 1st. free persolized plans at specialk.com. what will you gain en you lose? [ male announcer ] here s hing you find something special in your driveway this holiday. [ sant] ho ho ho! [ male announcer ] get an exctionalffer on the rcedes-benz you ve always wanted at the wintervent going on now. and stay nnected withhree years of race service complimentary. we re counting dn to the holidays with ways to wrap those crazy shaped gifts. if you ve bought some odd-shaped prents that you put into the get-to pil we have some create suggestions. somthings are a little tough than others. that s ue, yeah. nice to see you. nice to seeyou. why don t we jt get started? you don t wanto gi away the gift. it is easy when youave something like this ty little bike. normally people put tat together and are so overwhelmed, no instructons t try to figure it out, the n t even want to wrap it. o of my favorite coniners is this fiber ntainer. they re ey to buy online, like $40. how heavy are they. it is really not. think i is cool to take the bottom part off. put the bike in it and this can turn into a really f like tunnel or sometng they can play with. or ty arrel. xactly. i think it mes a cool thing to kind ofse in your hous as a peestal. you can repurpose that way. not sure of at but okay. well in my house - i m a little arty. you are artsy fartsy. his look amost improp ossible. i was thking about this drum setnd how i d wrt creatively. i love to ta it and wrap it in dividual boxes. it comesin s different pieces so why not go ahead and put it inix boxes and make it fun like a scavenger hunt under e christmas tree. i love ing that with most gifts, breaki it apart. here we veembellied the cute littleift tags. take these pompons or rick rag . glitter. they are a numbed one to six. your kidsan lookor their gift. it will say johnny number five, johnny number three - xactly. the cute little plainift cards are available at the contair store. all the wrap is fromhe container tore. it is my church, i love it there. quicy, easily bellish these ft cards for your gifts and i is a fun little w to now time-out fu this one ive. this is eher genius or crazy. what would yo think that that is i would think it was like a minilittle table. but it isn t. what is ? it s behind you. stop it! it s a painting. it is aute litt piece of fe art from art.c tat we got. i always like to have fine a in my kid s rooms because it teacheshem the appreciation of fine art. ihink tat s important. is isither genius orcrazy. what i ve done is taken the cardboarthat it actually shipped in a i ve made a cute litle tble just bycoringhe tual cardboard. you re going to steal caboard? if it s notaped down, the woman takes it. his is actually e cardboard, pieces we just score. you fold, you wrap. it kind of project but i is worth it. it is fun, it camouflages it. speaking of camouflaging, love using felt. felt was big trend is ar f the holidays. used felt and iad my little ees wrp up up this cute sle. thi is wrapped under t tree. it is nice and poof and fun. actuay it from the coniner store. they have this wnderful under-the-bed like zipper patch. we ve got our ild sracket in the, we also put some bas in there because is christmas. don tay a wod. we wrapped itith bubble wrap. the cool thing isou can store is under the bed. i le that e a lot. of coue, all girls want to et a really niceator christmas. what? actuall a ball is wapped in here. get an old hat box. exactly. this n i love, too. every girl loves getting some chog l chocolate. we ve camouflageour gift. it says open me first. you can open thatfit. i lldo beuse i have a freshman cure and hoda needs one. oh, mygoodness. annette, what have you one? a bralet. very clever! at s very sweet. there you go, hoda. i ll just take a chocole. thank you, honey. happy holidays. coming up next, inspiration jut in time for the holids. best-sellg author an all-around nice guy, mitch albon is here with u to sy fit, u might also want to try lifting one of these. a unique sea salt added tover 40 campbell s condensed soup itelps ureduce sodium, but not flavor. so do a few lis. campbell ® s amazing what soup can do.™ wake up, it s christmas! come e the tree there s presents undernea it and i know there s some fore get moving mom and dad wake up already please! how can yostill be sleepg wn it s six a.m. at least? come with me downstairs, and make it st. i ve waited weeks i ve waited months now christmas morning s herat last! [ kid ] wake up. it s christma start with cookie dgh. add frosting. [ giggles ] [ femalannouncer ] then sprinkles. [ both giggle ] [ female announcer ] fu easy. [ child ] wow. [ female announcer ] at pillsbury.com. mitch albom is famous author who brght us best-sells tuesdays with maury and the five peoe you meet in hven. his test, have a little faith reprents urneys of pastor henrycovington of detroit s i am my broth s keper ministry. bothgentlemen join us today. so good to have you on. ho and i read this book indepdently of one another. frie gave to me and a friend gave it to her. itarted talking about it, or you did. the next time we were gether and we went, oh, my gosh! i just read at, too. it toucs the deepest part of you. it doesn t matter your aith. right? tell us about th. that s sort of the idea. it began when aabbi asked knee do his eulogy. i like who am i to a eulogy for auy that doeeulogieeogies. that drew me into hisorld to get to know hims man and it openemy eyes fate to begin with. at the same timin myome touchb droit pastor covington haa church where homeless people were sleeping on the oor and i came to t to help itust because i have a claty that helps the homess. i metpastor covington and discovered a whole other world of faith because he s n your typical pastor. an interesti story. you veeen up and down the rd. were you in prison, ou there i a dramatic scene in the book where you re actuay kind of crouched behind some trh cans, you have a gun i your hand and you actuly speak out to jesus. what did ou say? >kied the lord at th time i thought tey were coming to take revge and i asked god if you get me through this night ll serve you, i ll give it up, i ll serve you, just g me through the night you gave up the drugs, erything. hallelujah. our crch was strugglingt the time. wasn t it? yes. we had aole in t roof. gnt hole. yo cld get a school s through it. you get sme bad weather therin detroit. snow, belie me. but when the book came out, during those times of trouble, the book have aittle faith, w held on to som faith and the lord provided. so did a lot of readers becse they beg to send in checks like $5, $10, theyalways had a note that woulday pretty much the same tng, fix ur roof i don t have a lot of money, but fix your roof. a year ago today, we not only fixed the roof, bunch of heless people gathered togeer, members the cogregaton and climbed up on the roof of and beg fix it. today if y go to the church and look ght where that hole used to be, there s a plaque ithe ceiling wi the names of every single perswho gave even 50 cents. when people say what can i dothere s so many troubles i the world, i m just one person one person can put together with a bunch of other one people you got a roof over your and the people are warm. a lot of peop is looking to dothing they justeed to know where to do. mitch, i loved a l of things abo yourbook. you talked abt howou were sort of apathetic about your religion. you said it wasn t a revolt. you weren t shunning it, you just were apattic, which is what lot people end up doing. the truth is if we re lucky enougto have a good job, be ccessful, weind of think we re doing fine. it is only in times of trouble do we come to. the biggest lesson i had is when this rabbi who was dyg towards the end he sd i hope to see you o day. i said com on, i m not goi ere you re gog. he sa what do you mean? i said youe a man of god. he said you re a man god, too. that s what fth is suppod to be about, the righteous can look at the lessighteous and we re the same. henry and are not from t same backgund or o the same faith but we are the same. we believe in the idea of faith and it is something biggerhan oursf and we v become friend his thing came from your faith. but what s imrtantis that we believe at we re connected. so fixing that roof was just the beginning of our friendship. now we go everywhere together. we reike mutt and jeff! it is areat story. it is aerfect christmas present. not to push it thaty, but it is. if you re going to have a gift to give someone. or kwanzaa, that s coming up. thks to everybody out there who sent in lttle bit and put a roof o that church. godless you both. if u d like read a little bitf the book, go to klg and klg and ho.com. you re going to cry. we re back with morof you [ femalennouncer ] safeway talks made-for-y meals. when you don t have to cook you have time for other thin. yeah, like what? i don t know. fishing. fishing?! i, uh, i id wishing. 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[ female aouncer ] serve a main course brimming with comfort and j. safeway. ingredientsor life. there are just a few mor days left for our toy dve and all of santa s helpers are woking ertime to get gifts to children in very difficu circumstances. we thank evry sine one of you who havmade a donatio and all thegenerous companies that have come forward this year, more than in any other year, hoda woman. now we d liko welcome ruby from jcpenney. look how fetching you are! i m so excited to b here. tells what you re doing. we are giving the razr scooter. they are djustable. we re givin 8,000 ese. it is aonati of 20,000 to one of our favorite charities, one that sports the jcpenney after school fund, boys and girls of america we hope the scooter will make chrimas ighter for all the needy kids out ther we had ones out there playing with it. kids go crazy with tose things. the boys and girls club is a real important oranization. tell us why it mns a lot to you guy it means a lot to us because for theastecade we ve been supporting our signatre charity which is the jcpenney after-school foundation and we ve given over $100 million to four of itscharities, the boys and girls club isour mo important charity because tey support the after-school programs for kids betwn that 30 to 6:00 time piod. can you imagine how much trouble kids can get in during that timeust because there s noby home with them these programs he created such a point of dfferee in these children lives. some of those that volunteer e suchreat ments for these kids. you n make a donation to the toy drive. all the details on klg a gandhoda.c klgandhoda.com. tomorrow is the incoarable bernadette peters. she is so aming in a little night music on broadway. plus the truth aboutdult stress. we ll meet some kid inventors that will make you say whyidn t think of at? have an awome day, everybody. 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