>> we have rain through the sacramento valley and snow through the foothills. tonight things may be touch and go. wait until tomorrow. >> settle in tonight? >> nbc nightly news is next, and then more local news on the bay area at 6:00. winter blast. a white christmas where they almost never have one and millions could face a huge travel mess this holiday weekend as a dangerous storm moves up the east coast. front lines. america's men and women in uniform celebrate this holiday very, very far from home. shake-up. are there big changes coming in the west wing? who is in and who is out in the president's inner circle? royal christmas. the queen and members of her family spend the holiday together, but what about the two who weren't there? and making a difference. how one woman's experience inspired a stitching project in saving lives in winter's cold.

captions paid for by nbc-universal television good evening. merry christmas to you. while americans have been celebrating, the national weather service is keeping a close watch on a massive storm that could cause some major headaches for holiday travelers in the air and on the road. it has already dropped snow in a region that almost never sees that. and more than a foot of snow is in the forecast for parts of the northeast. the brunt of the storm is expected to hit at the height of the homeward travel rush. nbc's peter alexander joins us tonight from new york's la guardia airport where they are bracing for the storm. peter? >> reporter: kate, good evening to you. merry christmas. this may be the best time to get out of town before the storm has arrived and frankly, while the airports are still quiet. beginning tomorrow morning, a blizzard warning is in effect for much of the northeast including parts of five states -- new york, new jersey,

connecticut, rhode island, and massachusetts. sometimes a white christmas is not so welcome. in atlanta, just the anticipation of wicked weather crippled travel at the world's busiest airport. with 550 flights canceled today alone and hundreds of others grounded nationwide. >> it is bad. cause the flight shouldn't have been canceled. there's no snow and florida is fine. >> we can't do anything about it. >> reporter: nashville already in the grips of its coldest december in decades, saw a fresh inch of snow. slick roads are proving treacherous for drivers from alabama to the carolinas where winter storm warnings are in effect. snow is a rare holiday sight across much of the southeast. the first christmas day snowfall in nashville since 1993. in atlanta, it has been 128 years. today, birmingham recorded its first white christmas ever. while it may be a novelty for some -- >> this is my first time in 40 years of my life have i been a

christmas snow. >> reporter: the powerful winter blast is threatening to disrupt the end of the holiday weekend for millions along the east coast. forecasters warn the storm will march from north carolina toward massachusetts, packing heavy snow and punishing winds with gusts up to 50 miles an hour. >> this storm is certainly the real deal. especially in the case of north carolina. say even five or six inches can be a major issue. in this case you're talking six to ten inches, in some cases more. it verges on the epic snowfall for north carolina. >> reporter: with conditions already deteriorating, the timing couldn't be worse. millions of americans are expected to drive home from their holiday destinations. >> it could be a big mess across the east coast. so we're advising that families get out early, listen to your forecast, and be prepared. >> reporter: a festive holiday wrapping up with a less than festive forecast. and rail service is also being affected. tonight amtrak has announced that it has had some cancellations on some routes

between washington, d.c. and virginia. you'll want to check ahead. kate. >> peter alexander at la guardia airport tonight. thank you. the weather channel's samantha mohr is keeping a close eye on this storm as well. she joins us now with the latest. good evening, samantha. >> good evening, kate. i tell you what. this storm will pack a punch. here it is right now. you can see the satellite picture showing its progress as it works its way up the east coast. that's the direction it is headed, anyw. and here's the time line. an starts out, flurries overnight. snow showers in the morning. then it really picks up in intensity tomorrow afternoon and evening, lasting overnight. so by tomorrow night, we're talking 10 to 15 inches easily in atlantic city, new york city and in boston. and additional snow as we head into monday. so we could be talking 14 to 20 inches in boston, 12 to 16 inch in new york city. that's where we have blizzard warnings in effect from new york city up to boston and then up into portland, maine. we have a blizzard watch in effect. we're going to see the snow and

the blowing snow. winds, 35 to 45 miles an hour, some gusts possibly up to 50. so your visibility out there on the roadways will be reduced to zero at times. very dangerous. be careful if you're hitting the roads. >> okay. samantha mohr, thank you. now to christmas in bethlehem where a season with little violence between israelis and palestinians is turning this holiday into one of the biggest celebrations in a decade. officials say more than 100,000 visitors are in town. that's nearly twice as many as last year. at the vatican, pope benedict xvi delivered his traditional christmas message amid tight security, following the mail bombings this week at two rome embassies. the pope prayed for lasting peace in the middle east and criticized china for limiting religious freedom. there has been some violence overseas on this christmas day in pakistan. a female suicide bomber killed

at least 43 people. it happened near a northwestern check point where hundreds of people were waiting to be let into a food distribution center run by the world food program. across the border in afghanistan, the commander of international forces, general david petraeus, paid christmas visits today to the troops, even the most remote units. many are involved in the fiercest fighting there, and they are finding ways to commemorate the holiday. nbc's jim maceda has spent the last month embedded with the marines and got a chance to experience christmas with them on the front lines. good evening, jim. >> reporter: hello and merry christmas from northern helmand province, arguably the most dangerous town in afghanistan at this time where we're marking christmas with the 3-5 marines. it's been a very tough fight here. the taliban hasn't wanted to give up an inch and these marines have taken heavy casualties. but at least for today, their commanders have wanted to give the 3-5 a special day. something where they can forget

temporarily the very basic conditions here, where there are no home-cooked meals, nor is there any heat, despite subfreezing temperatures at night. today, a couple of special church services, catholic and nondenominational, where a few marines found the courage to sing christmas carols. ♪ joyful and triumphant >> overall, these marines tell us they're quite appreciative of the down day and the efforts being made to lift their spirits, but clearly this is not home. and here's a little taste of what several marines had to tell us earlier today about what they missed most on this holiday. >> missing my wife and son this holiday season. not being there on christmas. >> snow. i miss the snow. i'm from up north. we get a lot of snow during this time. >> reporter: also a special visit by the u.s. marine top brass who wanted personally, they say, to come here and thank these marines for their

sacrifice, especially during this holiday season. as of tomorrow it's back to business as usual. these marines will be outside the wire once again, fighting in a war which will have seen its tenth christmas come and go. back to you and very merry christmas. >> merry christmas to you as well. jim, thank you. back here at home, many people in southern california are spending this christmas cleaning up after a record setting storm there. with more rain on the way, there could be some difficult days ahead. nbc's kristen welker reports. >> reporter: the hernandez family never imagined they would spend christmas like this. instead of opening up presents, they are cleaning up the mountains of mud that swallowed their homes after this week's storm. >> we have lost so much. my kids' graduation pictures, their diplomas. this is our house, and now we have none of it. >> reporter: as we first saw on thursday, a river of mud and water surged into their highland house without warning. they barely made it out alive. the sight of their damaged

property was almost too much to take. >> i can't look inside. i didn't want to look inside. >> reporter: nearly 100 highland residents still can't go home and dozens of communities are in recovery mode after the historic storm pounded southern california and the west coast for nearly a week. the relentless rain turned streets into muddy rivers, shut down beaches and destroyed homes. now residents are bracing for another storm system that is expected to hit tonight. >> this is what we're going to do christmas. we're going to shore up this house and hope for the best. >> reporter: this is run-off from the storm with the ground in many areas already near saturation levels, there is concern that a second round of rain will cause more mud slides and flooding. >> we're already in a weakened position. so any rain is just not helpful at this point. >> reporter: this week, the outpouring of support for the

hernandez family from friends, neighbors and complete strangers who sent money, clothes and other items that were lost. >> i didn't know there were so many good people out there. i did not. but god bless you guys all, and thank you. >> reporter: a reminder that even though so much has been lost, the spirit of the season is still very much alive. kristen welker, nbc news, los angeles. we head now to sunny hawaii where the first family is enjoying a holiday vacation, but the president also has white house business on his mind, with a staff shake-up in the new year. northbound's mike viqueira is traveling with the president and joins us again tonight from honolulu. good evening, mike. >> reporter: good evening, kate. merry christmas to you. the president's christmas day has been like the previous two days here. plenty of rest and relaxation with friends and family. but when he does return to washington after his 11 days on oahu, many are expecting a new focus to go along with some new faces in the west wing. >> have a very merry christmas. >> reporter: in his weekly address, president obama joined

by the first lady singled out american troops for a special christmas message. >> today we're also thinking of those who can't be home for the holidays, especially all our courageous countrymen serving overseas. >> reporter: it has been a low key holiday for the first family with trips to the gym, the beach, and the golf course. but when the president returns to washington, changes are expected in key posts. chief political adviser david axelrod will return to chicago to run the 2012 obama campaign. he's likely to be replaced by david plouffe, the president's closest outside adviser. the cabinet will see changes, too, with defense secretary gates expected to leave early next year and a shake-up on the economic team. with top adviser larry summers returning to the private sector, one candidate to replace him, former clinton adviser, gene sperling. >> so we acted immediately and aggressively. >> reporter: at his state of the union, the president will lay out his agenda for 2011. at the top, jobs and the

economy. education and job training will be a focus. the president will also address debt and the deficit. that could be coupled with the overhaul of the tax code. with mr. obama's recent and unexpected success, many wonder if the bipartisanship of december's lame duck will carry over into the new year. >> so if he approaches the politics, both of dealing frankly with the democrats and those republicans willing to do a deal, he may be able to get some things done. >> reporter: with conservatives on the rise, experts say cooperation will only go so far. >> so i think cultural issues will again be the two parties at each other, just punching away and not looking for areas of cooperation but really staking out their moral positions. >> reporter: and earlier today, the president did put out a statement about those casualties and that suicide bombing in pakistan. he called it an affront to not only the pakistani people but to all humanity.

he says the united states stands with pakistan in its effort to secure peace and security. kate. >> mike viqueira with the president this evening. thank you. much more on all these topics tomorrow on "meet the press." white house senior adviser valerie jarrett will be david gregory's exclusive guest. still ahead as "nightly news" continues on this christmas day, with so many flying this weekend, an early look at what could be a game changer in getting planes on and off the ground more quickly. and later, the joy that comes with making a difference, one stitch at a time.

just as holiday travelers begin contemplating the challenges of getting back home, the faa is touting a revolutionary system it says will overhaul air traffic control across america, making the nation's air space safer. it is already being tested. nbc's tom costello has a preview. >> reporter: it is one of the heaviest helicopter traffic zones in the country. 5,000 to 9,000 flights each day, carrying 10,000 workers to and from the 3,800 oil and gas rigs in the gulf of mexico. for decades, once the choppers flew 50 miles out to sea, they were out of radar range. but now that's changing. the gulf of mexico is among the first zones to use next gen air traffic control. instead of ground based radar, controllers are starting to use satellites and gps transmitters to track air traffic. >> because we have them in surveillance. we know where they are.

and it cuts down also on the communication aspect of it. >> reporter: houston and the gulf of mexico are one of four regions in the country rolling out this phase of next gen. by 2020, every airport and every aircraft should be on next gen. >> which means everyone will have to broadcast via gps, identified positioning, broadcast that information to other airplanes and the ground station so that everybody has that information. >> reporter: the nation's air traffic is currently guided by 60-year-old technology, with planes flying over predetermined radar routes. next gen will mean pilots can fly point to point shorter distances. and with pinpoint gps accuracy, less separation between aircraft. shorter flights, less fuel, less pollution. >> it's a system that's basically going to revolutionize air traffic systems.

it's going to give the pilot the ability to see traffic around him. it will improve his situational awareness. >> reporter: but it is slow going. while southwest airlines has already upgraded its cockpits with gps avionics, most airlines complain that without government help, they can't afford the millions it will cost to upgrade. the faa insists the fuel savings alone will pay for the technology. >> you would recoup the entire cost of the equipment in three years. >> reporter: the biggest technological upgrade of the nation's air traffic control system in 50 years and coming to an airport near you. tom costello, nbc news, washington. up next, a royal christmas and why kate middleton did not spend this day with her fiance, the prince.

in england today, the queen gathered with several members of the royal family including prince charles, his wife camilla and prince harry for their traditional christmas church service. but the royal party did not seem quite complete. here's nbc's martin fletcher. >> reporter: the queen of england leads the royal family out of the church of st. mary magdalene in sandringham today and meets a little american boy called freedom. his father is an american soldier based in britain. i bowed to the queen and she said thank you, he said. for christmas, the 8-year-old will never forget. ten royal families came to christmas including fergie's

daughters, the princesses in the blue and black coats. noticeably absent, the young couple of the moment. the queen's grandson, prince william, as a new officer, was on christmas duty at his air force base in north wales. his fiance kate middleton spent her regular family christmas at home in berkshire. her last christmas as a commoner. this time next year they'll presumably be here with the queen. at least kate won't have to worry about what to buy her. >> nobody spends more than a couple dollars on her. what can you buy the queen that she hasn't already got? ♪ >> reporter: surprisingly, the queen's speech to the nation today didn't mention next year's wedding. she chose a drier subject, sport, and how good it is for the health. >> in the parks of towns and cities and on village greens up and down the country countless thousands of people every week give up their time to participate in sports and exercise of all sorts. >> reporter: she wrote the speech herself and enjoyed the attention of a line of 50 children, accepting flowers and laughing.

the 84-year-old monarch for the next few days will become a great grandmother, the best christmas gift of all. martin fletcher, nbc news, london. half a world away, residents of northern australia are coping with a disaster. cyclone tasha has flooded queensland with more than 12 inches of rain in the last 24 hours. that's creating some swirling floodwaters, carrying away cars. one driver was caught on tape swimming for his life. when we come back, our making a difference report. one woman and her army of volunteers spreading some life-saving warmth this holiday season.

finally on this christmas day, we end our special week of making a difference reports with a woman determined to bring warmth on this holiday and every single day. she was inspired by a homeless man who helped her and her son when they needed it most. nbc's kris jansing has the story. >> reporter: like an old-fashioned quilting bee, groups of volunteers are turning out handmade sleeping bags for people they've never even met. to understand why, you have to travel to hot bottom, pennsylvania, and to flo wheatley's kitchen. she can look at her now grown son and 30 years melts away. back to when leonard was just 14, fighting cancer, sick, exhausted, and caught post chemo in a new york city downpour.

>> and we got to the subway and it was still raining. but he was extremely weak. so i propped him up on one of the suitcases and i heard somebody behind me say, lady, you need help. >> reporter: it was a homeless man who carried their suitcases, helped them get to a friend's house and left them with a message. >> he looked straight at me and he said, "don't abandon me." >> reporter: after seeing another homeless man shivering in a tattered blanket, flo had the idea of recycling used clothes, sewing them into simple warm sleeping bags. and delivering them to the needy, whenever the weather turns cold. >> our motto is to keep someone alive tonight until they can help or be healed by someone in our society tomorrow. >> reporter: my brother's keeper has taken over the wheatley's barn. boxes come in filled with scrap material or with finished sleeping bags. >> we're going to make a new fold. the fold will be up here.

>> reporter: and flo now spends much of her time helping other groups get started. >> there are now my brother's keepers like this one large and small in all 50 states and around the world. so many, flo wheatley long ago lost track, but she knows they've made hundreds of thousands of sleeping bags for the homeless. for flo, my brother's keeper is her way of saying thanks for leonard's life and for the homeless man who would change their lives forever. >> i never saw that man again. but a lot of people say he was an angel. this is what we were going to do. and if leonard hadn't had cancer to find it, then that was a gift. >> reporter: a simple gift of kindness that she has returned every day for 29 years. kris jansing, nbc news, hop bottom, pennsylvania. >> you can find much more on this week's special holiday make a difference series on our new website, making a difference.msnbc.com.

you can also get to it by logging on to nightly.msnbc.com. that is "nbc nightly news" for this saturday, christmas day. i'm kate snow reporting from new york. lester holt will be here tomorrow. from all of us at nbc news, happy holidays. captions by vitac www.vitac.com a wet and windy blast for christmas day in the bay area. good evening, i'm