To others its a unique way to celebrate family time and u. S. History all at once. Christmas is a time of reflection and really being thoughtful about what you have. Its the best country in the world. Must have been awfully calendar out there to do that reenactment. Good morning. Welcome to wusa9 at 6 00 a. M. Today is thursday, december 26, 2013. Not a lot of days left in this year. Counting down. Going by fast. Im Jessica Doyle in for andrea roane and mike hydeck this morning. And Monika Samtani has your timesaver traffic. If you have to go to work today, it will be easy. We like that. Easy is good. Olga breese has a forecast that may make you smile. The forecast has something to look forward to in it but this morning were in our typical winter pattern. At least were dry. Always thankful for that when temperatures dip this low. The michael son web cam very uneventful now. Its been a quiet night. Were building in a little bit of cloud cover. When i show you the satellite, youll see exactly why. Partly cloudy by noontime and mostly sunny this afternoon. Well make it through the 30s no problem. Most of us will get to the lower to middle range 40s by later on this afternoon but a clear and quiet night tonight means another chilly one is on tap. Heres the satellite and radar. You can see Higher Elevations getting some of the wintry mix, some snow and a little bit of snow showers moving on through but i think most of that skims our area. We might see a little bit in the panhandle but it should head north toward baltimore and toward the east. Cold temperatures. Right now at Reagan National weve bumped up just a tiny bit to 30 degrees but still sitting in the 20s from manassas toward harrisonburg, even out to Southern Maryland and out toward the eastern shore. Quite chilly and cold. The forecast is quiet for the next three days. Green alerts for the short term. Slight uptick in temperatures on friday but look at saturday. Southwest winds means milder temperatures and quite a bit of sunshine so enjoy saturday while it lasts. Im tracking rain in the seven day forecast. Monika . For the most part as i said earlier, its an easy ride into work today. If you do have to go, december 26 does mean that metro is on a normal schedule. Hov lanes are open but take a look at our traffic feature on our ipad app behind me. You can see all green around the beltway. No accident icons. Your traffic plow is good. You can traffic flow is g. You can see all the indicators right here. Ill zoom in and give you one piece of advice. That is Michigan Avenue remains closed right here near irving street because of a water main break. You want to be aware of that right here in this area. Other than that, everything is looking good in the northeast corridor. No problems over the Anacostia River crossings. Potomac river crossings are good as well coming up on 395 and inbound on i66. Lets take a live look outside. Here in springfield we are area in great shape. No problems to report. No big delays. It looks like this. Some volume coming up from dale city. Well go to another live picture this time to the other side of town on the beltway at georgia avenue, a pretty shot and the beltway is open in both directions. Back to you. Thank you, monika. This holiday will be one a Prince Georges County family wont soon forget but for all the wrong reasons a. Swift moving fire swept through their home on Rolling Meadows road in croom, maryland last night. Delia goncalves joins us live from the newsroom with more on the story. Good ending but tough time over the holidays, delia. Good morning to you. Reporter it is tragic to lose a home any time of year, especially on christmas evening. But to make matters worse, Nathaniel Rich literally poured his soul, sweat and years of hard work into this family home. He b. It by hand. The home he constructed himself nearly 40 years ago gutted out, destroyed by fierce flames last night. The fire broke out around 8 50 p. M. On the 14900 block of Rolling Meadows road. Thats in the town of croom near upper marlboro. Flames were shooting out of the singlefamily home when firefighters arrived and crews had to evacuate the home about 50 minutes later because of the intense fire. The homeowner discovered his house in flames when he returned home from christmas dinner at his daughters house. Oh, man, it hurt real bad because right now its youre probably nobody like to lose nothing that they got. But thankfully nobody was in the house. Thats one good thing about that. Reporter you can hear the pain in his voice but that is the good news here. Maybe Nathaniel Rich lost everything in that home, but he is safe. His daughters say if the fire had not been on christmas, their dad would have been inside the family home. Certainly some did news and something to celebrate this morning. Absolutely, delia. Our heart is going out to them this morning. Delia goncalves in our newsroom. Former National SecurityAgency ContractorEdward Snowden offered a christmas message from russia. In it he pressed for an end to mass government surveillance. In the pretaped message, snowden called surveillance by the british and u. S. Governments worse than anything George Orwell described in his novel 1984. Britains channel 4 broadcast the message as an alternative to the queens annual christmas address. Together we can find a better balance, end mass surveillance and remind the government that if it really wants to know how we feel, asking is always cheaper than spying. White house officials claim the Surveillance Program helps fight terrorism and keep the country safe. But Many Americans and some lawmakers are asking the Obama Administration to reconsider the extent of their surveillance. The president is considering 46 recommendations from the review panel urging changes to maintain civil liberties. While many of you were enjoying the holidays with your friends and family, the men and women who work to keep us safe spent thedy deployed overseas. Soldiers in afghanistan celebrated the day with a holiday feast. For many of tease soldiers, its their first tour overseas. Wednesday marked the first christmas for pope francis as head of the catholic church. In his message he prayed for people suffering from conflicts and natural disasters around the world. Pope francis broke from tradition. He delivered his entire address in italian. Prefer christmas messages have been delivered in multiple languages. The time right now is 6 06. Im watching your money. The marks back open today after the day off for christmas. Investors are hoping to see if the winning streak is going to continue. The dow finished up almost 63 points to close at a new all time high standing this morning at 16,357. S p 500 was up by 5. The nasdaq was better by 6. 5 points. The past few days have been pretty rough for fed ex and ups. Both unable to deliver a number of gifts on time for christmas. The companies are blaming overloaded systems as well as an ice storm which caused problems in several parts ever the country earlier this week and that delivery snag impacted several online retailers. Amazon now says it will refund shipping charges and give out 20 gift cards to every affected customer. If you didnt spend part of the day shopping,line, chances are shopping online, chances are you or somebody you know downloaded an app. Christmas is the busiest day of the year for app downloads a tablets and smartphones. Every gearmo bill devices are popular christmas gifts. A few hours after getting them, you know what most people are doing. Theyre busy downloading. If youre looking if a good app, you can check out our free wusa9 ipad app. The new traffic feature will help you save time on your daily commute. You can zoom in on roads or highways and see traffic conditions in real time. All you do, you go to the Apple App Store for the free wusa9 download. It also gives you School Closings and weather updates all for free. We love free, right . Time right now 6 07. Ology ga is in for howard and olga is in for howard and some of us might see the snow out there. Monika has the traffic and see how two vets are using their experience to help fellow soldiers make the transition back im olga breeze in for Howard Bernstein this morning. Partly cloudy skies. Well build in sunshine later on today but it will be brisk. Outside our weather at least for the short term, were going to see the highs today with the afternoon sunshine make it into the 40s. Most of us should top out right around 45 degrees during the 3 00 hour and well slide back down into the 40s and 30s as we head into the evening. Clear and cold again tonight. Displz a live look from our sky 9 here in germantown near route 118 where youll see that volumes are very light. This is basically what it looks like coming in from frederick all the way down to the point where the lanes divide. A nice ride if you do have to go to work. By the way metro red line delays resolved between grovener and vanness. Barbara star shows us how two men are using their experiences to help others. Colonel dave sutherland. Im a veteran with great pride. Im a father. Im a husband. Im an uncle. Im a son. Im an american soldier. I served for you. I fought with you. And i would die for you. Reporter different sutherland led 5,000 troops in iraq. We first met him on patrol in 2007. They were sick and tired of al qaeda. Reporter now retired, his journey to serve continues with one passion. Helping vets coming home. Dothat our veterans, our g we military families, our families of the fallen can thrive where they live. Reporter a journey of absolute commitment hes made with colleague kim mitchell, a are forker naval officer. They are here talking to veterans and veterans advocates. Something in my heart told me that this is what i was meant to you. Given my background, given the fact the only reason im here is because of the vietnam veterans. Reporter they left military service in 2012 and opened up the dixon center, working with communities across the country, organizing locallybased help with jobs and housing. Everybody is looking toward more local communitybased organizations to help veterans which is essentially going to be the answer for all of the things the v. A. Hasnt been able to cover. Reporter he knows how bad the posttraumatic stress can get. Pretty much destroying my life but it was the common issues like the anger, the sleepless nights, the substance abuse. Reporter Army Veteran David barr now a social worker. He and sutherland hopes to work together. He says veterans like him often feel alone when they come home. Youre going to need a community. Youre going to need a town, a neighbor, a block to reestablish the bond. Reporter sutherland and mitchell have gone to more than 500 communities across the country organizing local help on their journey born of grief and hope. Dixon center is named after his friend, killed before his eyes on an iraq patrol. Kims journey born of the iraq war. A south vietnamese soldier had orders to blow up a bridge. There was one last survivor stubling across the bridge carrying a bundle. It was a hat with a baby wrapped up in a towel. He had found me along the sield of the side of the road clinging to the body of a dead woman. Kim was adopted by an American Service member. Last year after reading an article about her, that vietnamese soldier now living in new mexico found her again. We meet up on skype. He tells us it was beyond belief she was the baby he saved. He could not imagine how she survived. Dave suter midand kim mitchell strongly believe veterans can do more than just survive. They can thrive in the communities where they live. So this Holiday Season, if you see a veteran, stop and ask them how theyre doing. Barbara starr, cnn, the pentagon. It 16 15. And it is it is 6 15 and it is chilly out there, olga. Dont be fooled biff all the sunshine through morning. Were seeing partly cloudy skies and were going to pull in some more sunshine later on this afternoon but the temperatures will still be brisk. Our winds out ever the northwest. Lets check out the view outside the michael son cam. A clear and quiet right now. Were tracking cloud cover out toward dulles and moving on in toward the beltway. If you have to get up, out and about this morning, make sure you dress warmly. Were seeing very cold temperatures right now in the 20s. We should make it close to the freezing mark by about the 7 00 hour. Then were going to keep going from there. As we move from partly to mostly cloudy to mostly sunny by midday, temperatures will take quite a bit of spike. This afternoon the sunshine continues. Thats going to taws even higher. Im calling for going to take us even higher. Im calling for mid range for the city centers. North and west youll stick to the lower range 40s but still not bad for a december day. If you have evening plans tonight, youre going to be out, dress warmly again. That means making sure you have your gloves on and hat over your head because the clear skies tonight and as the winds die down are going to see our temperatures drop significantly. Im tracking some snow showers moving off toward our west. That is affecting portions of West Virginia into the panhandle of maryland. But most of this is going to push upwards and off toward the east hitting closer to the Baltimore Area and points north into pennsylvania and new jersey later on this morning. Mostly cloudy skies for the morning. Should turn partly cloudy to mostly sunny by later on this afternoon. Heres what youre dealing with. At the present hour 30 degrees for Reagan National. Still sitting at 26 for arlington. A chilly 20s north and west. Things are going to be brisk. The winds mainly out of the southwest. Weve seen a little bit of vairmt for this morning but still quite brink, feeling much cooler and overall a cool day for today. Starting off cold in the morning. Well work in some sunshine later and definitely see another chilly night overnight tonight. Looks like temperatures are going to be tracking a little more milder as we head into the afternoon and evening hours, especially as we go into the weekend forecast. The fut forecast model again showing future forecast model again showing some overcast. Going to be a brisk thursday. The forecast stays in the green not only today and tomorrow with mid40s but when we really shift in the southwest winds. Friday is much saturday is much milder as we hit the lower range 50s and our sevenday forecast feature as brief warm up. Still quite nice on sunday although sunday afternoon, thats when the showers start to arrive. Some of those will carry into monday morning and as our wind shifts on monday, well definitely see temperatures tumble back toward our season norms back into the 40s and 30s by tuesday afternoon. Monika . Ive been saying all morning long that volumes are light this morning and they are expected to be that way throughout this mornings rush hour. There is one thing that i need to let you know about. Thats water main work that will remain throughout this mornings rush hour on Michigan Avenue. Its closed eastbound between franklin street and irving street. The belt waip you can see the beltway you can see behind me looks great. No big delays on any of the major thoroughfares. Well go outside live and show what you it looks like inbound on i66. This is at the roosevelt bridge and all volumes are light coming in from gainesville, manassas, centreville and fairfax. Well go over to the northbound side of i95 here in springfield where again its a normal business day so hov lanes are open and in effect today. Everything is looking good. This is basically the heaviest its going to get out of dale city. This is in Silver Spring on the north side of town. No problems on the beltway inner or outer loops between 95 and i270. 270 is in good shape from germantown and 95 all the way in from baltimore. Back to you. Thank you, monika. It is 6 19. Time for another look at the question of the morning. According to a survey the top three christmas villains in movies and tv shows are the bridge, scrooge, and who . A, the wet bandits, b, satan or c, the gem lynns . The gremlins . Facebook friend rita love thinks the answer is c. She writes gremlins, nothing like disturbing little creatures. Go to our facebook fan page. Give us your answer. Well us why. Well have more of your responses and the correct answer [ male announcer ] some things are simply better at home. Like the enticing aroma and distinctive taste of nespresso. Elegant capsules meet masterfully crafted machines, and one touch creates the perfect coffee, cappuccino, and latte. Tempt all your senses with one extraordinary coffee. [ Penelope Cruz ] nespresso. What else . [ male announcer ] available at these fine retailers and nespressous. Com. Were brink outside. A few passing clouds and moisture north and west. A few snow showers in Higher Elevations. Well build in sunseine through mid sunshine through midday. That will take us into the 40s this afternoon. Should top out around 45 degrees as our high. Another chilly, clear and cold night on tap for tonight. Jessica . Thank you, olga. Whether their team is winning or losing, the nbas professional cheerleaders still need to energize the crowd. But as Andrea Mccarren reports, the women on the court here in washington are juggling careers with those cheers. It can be a really, really long day. Reporter her alarm goes off at 5 45 every morning. And leah happily begins her day with a classroom of special ed students. I know why you love the mountains, jackson, said mrs. Tibly. You always have to be on. Youre putting on a show for your students and especially for special education students, you have to engage them the whole time. One, two, three, down four. Reporter in fact engaging 10yearold boys is not unlike her other job. Firing up a Washington Wizards audience. I am my students biggest cheerleader. It is very similar. Reporte