good morning. coming up next on "today in the bay," despite the cold temperatures, people will not be allowed to light up their fa fireplaces. we'll show you what the penalty will be. police take hundreds of unwanted guns off the streets but why this gun buy-back wag different than others in bay area cities. and nelson mandela is laid to rest. we'll go to south africa for the service. this is "today in the bay". >> from nbc bay area, this is "today in the bay." >> good morning. our photographer found a beautiful shot off christie field where you can see some art and some skyline in the distance. nice start to this sunday morning. thanks so much for joining us. i'm kris sanchez along with ray

mayeda who has the forecast that has a little bit of everything. >> it does. right now mostly chilly with clear skies. in san jose fairly chilly. we're at 35 degrees, and you can see some of the smoke in the air around the south bay. unfortunately, this is another spare the air day, and we can see some of worst of the pollution in the east bay and south bay and parts of the tri-valley being pushed in by a slight offshore breeze. the offshore winds will begin to warm the temperatures up, but not right now. 30 in napa and 35 in san jose. 30 in concord. but later on today we'll see temperatures climbing nicely. we shu see numbers in the mid-60s. patchy fog for santa rosa. noontime temperatures in the low 60s. same story in the peninsula. 60 for san francisco. inland you will start to see the temperatures climbing to the

mid-60s around oakland. by midafternoon we'll have a full look ahead at warmer temperatures in the seven-day forecast coming up in just a few minutes. >> thank you very much, rob. poor air quality will continue for the next couple days, and that means a ban on wood burning across the bay area. tonight will be the record ninth straight night the bay area air quality issue has issued a winter spare the air alert. unhealthy levels of pollution have prompted a ban on burning wood both inside and outside and violators face fines if they don't comply. >> just had a long stretch of kind of dry, cold weather where pollution has been trapped close to the ground and it's built up to unhealthy levels, kind of like cigarette smoke in a stuffy room. >> air quality officers have been out responding to complaints and issuing citations. by the way, in case you're wondering, first-time offenders have to pay $100 ticket or attend a smoke awareness class. second offense is a $500 fine.

you are exempt flash flood the primary source of heat in your home is a wood burning stove. you can get the latest forecast on nbcbayarea.com. ♪ the pain is still very real for families one year after the massacre at sandy hook elementary school. the anniversary of that shooting is also bringing up the debate over gun control yet again. nbc bay area's diane dwyer has more on the anniversary of the tragedy in newtown, connecticut. >> reporter: the bells tolled 26 times at churches in connecticut and throughout much of the country for the 20 children and 6 adults killed at sandy hook elementary school. in newtown, people asked for privacy, but some families did choose to talk to the media about their loss. >> to think that it's almost a year since i've held him.

it's no time at all. >> i guess i really miss his cuddles. he was really affectionate. i remember the night before on december 13th getting into bed with him. we would read every night. i haven't read a book out loud. >> reporter: at the white house president obama and the first lady lit a candle for each of newtown's victims, then they observed a moment of silence. and across the country in arizona, former congresswoman gabby giffords and her husband mark kelly planted a yellow rose bush in honor of the victims. two also run a political action committee to push for stricter gun control laws. ♪ they used the anniversary to release a new ad called silent night pushing congress to act now. >> after newtown gabby and i said -- >> enough is enough.

>> enough. we couldn't stand by and wait for the next mass shooting to ravage a community. >> reporter: diane dwyer, nbc bay area. >> in the year since the shooting, congress did not pass any new gun control laws. however, 21 states took matters into their own hands and did pass better controls. here in the bay area several vigils honored the victims of connecticut. people gathered at st. cyprian catholic church where they created a wall of messages for the victims' families. and mike hondo called for tougher gun control laws nationwide. >> maybe we have to do that as a society before we put it into policy. >> may maybe we have to do it together before we can put it into words of law. >> the brady campaign to prevent gun violence helped organize that service. other cities marked the day with gun buy-back events. two cities, oakland and san jose, turned to the public for

funding, and it was the first time in well over a decade that san jose hosted a gun buy-back event and it was made possible after a two month crowd funding campaign in which donors contributed online. the san jose police chief said 300 firearms were collected. crowd funding helped to pay for part of oakland's buy-back event. in san francisco the event watts funded by the city. the payout was the same at all three events. 100 bucks in exchange for a handgun, rifle, or shotgun. double that for assault weapons. >> i have an old rifle, i don't use it anymore, and for safety's sake, get it out of the house and off the streets. >> i figured if one more gun is off the street, it might help somewhere. >> six guns and 600 bucks. >> many gun owners don't really want the firearms in their home but don't know how it get rid of them. the buy-back programs give them a way. sjp collected 470 firearms. oakland pd collected 200. san francisco is still counting. coming up in 30 minutes,

we'll introduce you to the founders of the crowd funding site and the life-changing experience that makes getting guns off the street their passion. and we are learning more this morning about the teenage boy who opened fire in a colorado high school. students are describing that 18-year-old karl pierson as outspoken with strong opinions. he was an eagle scout and reportedly was on the cross country track team as well as the debate team. avenues top competitor. police say pierson legally purchased the shotgun earlier this month and bought the ammunition the morning of the shooting. authorities say he entered the campus during lunch on friday armed with a shotgun, multiple rounds of ammunition, a machete, and three molotov cocktails. he shot 17-year-old claire davis, who is hospitalized in critical condition still this morning. officials say the school security guard immediately ran to the scene of the shooting. >> we believe that the response from the school resource officer, the response from the unarmed school security officer,

was absolutely critical to the fact that we did not have additional injury and/or death. >> arapahoe high school is located less than ten miles from columbine high school where two teenagers killed 12 students in 1999. firefighters at sfo will have to take more training on how to respond to airplane crashes. the new training requirement is in response to the asiana crash in july. a teenaged girl died after she was hit by two emergency vehicles. commanding officers will now have to go through 40 to 80 hours of advanced instruction next year. and according to the papers, commanders in charge of the asiana incident did not go through that training which is required under federal law. fire crews rescued a man thrown from a horse in daly city. fire crews found the rider with the horse. then the animal fell on the

rider. firefighters needed a rescue basket to help the rider off the cliff. paramedics transported him to the hospital. officials say he is going to survive. still ahead on "today in the bay," we'll take you to south africa and the nelson mandela funeral. >> how many people can say i was part of something that helped a million kids? >> a college dream turns into nearly 25 years of giving joy to kids. did you get chips for the party? nope. [ ding ] cheese plate? cheese plate. no, i made something better. you used the oven? boom. [ male announcer ] pillsbury crescents. make the holidays pop. ♪ make t♪ holidays pop. hey, that's the last crescent! oh, did you want it? yeah. we'll split it.

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you are watching "today in the bay." ♪ thousands of guests gathered at the rural village of qunu, south africa, to attend the funeral ceremony of nelson mandela. his coffin was carried to a huge tent at his family compound. guests included prince charles, entrepreneur richard branson,

and oprah winfrey. mandela's first and second wives sat on either side of south african president jacob zuma. mandela's casket was placed below a lectern where speakers delivered their eulogies. >> we praise and thank you, o, god, for dr. nelson mandela for his faithfulness to your call, his example of justice, peace, and reconciliation, and his courage to endure suffering, rejecti rejection, and persecution for the sake of others. >> a former political prisoner and friend of nelson mandela also spoke at the ceremony. he was convicted alongside mandela and spent 26 years in prison with him. >> farewell, my dear brother, my mentor, my leader. with all the energy and determination we are pleased to join the people of south africa.

>> mandela's burial ends ten days of mourning ceremonies. the cold snap had homeless advocates working in overdrive. coming up, what the city of san jose is considering that could help more people get off the streets and into permanent housing. and in san jose this morning, here is a look at the sunrise view. clear, cold start, but a slightly warmer finish to the weekend with temperatures climbing into the 60s. a full look at the forecast when we come right back. [ wind howling ]

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you are watching "today in the bay." >> good morning to you. looking live at san francisco this morning, and warm by noontime, rob says. a fire that burned for more than two months and burned 400 square miles near yo semty has been declared an official disaster. federal funding will be available for repairs. fema denied the initial request

saying the damage was not severe enough but the president reversed that. damage from the fire exceeds $54 million. now rob mayeda has a look at the forecast that i think will be pleasant by noontime, right? >> by noontime, it will be warming up, but in the meantime very chilly outside. winter coat weather for the morning with 30s around san jose, the peninsula, 25 in novato. notice san francisco. we've got that layer of haze. you can see it right there. we've got the warmer air aloft, kind of compressing down the cool er air trapped at the surface. it kind of acts like a lid over the bay area and it keeps the smoke building up underneath a lowering ceiling. that's why we have a spare the air alert today with the east bay and south bay seeing the highest levels of smoke pollution and very likely, yes, this will continue for tonight into monday and probably through about tuesday before the winds pick up and we see some improvement in those air quality lels around the bay area.

part of the reason why the east bay is seeing the problem is the winds are turning slightly offshore, so some of that smoke which has been in the central valley around sacramento is drifting off towards the west, but that offshore breeze means around santa cruz we could see highs as warm as 70 degrees. for the next two days as high pressure builds in, it's going to keep the strorm track off to the north and we will see warming over the bay area and most of california through about monday, but the change we should start to see will arrive around wednesday and thursday. so no rain in the forecast through monday and tuesday, but as that high builds a little further to the west, we'll get this cold system dropping in from the north on thursday and you will see those changes at the bottom of the screen in your seven-day forecast going from maybe some record warm temperatures approaching 70 tomorrow to highs by thursday in the mid-50s and it's going to be breezy, if not windy and much cooler come friday. a little bit of a roller coaster ride on the way for the forecast. around the bay area today as our temperatures climb, we should see mid-60s around san jose and

most of the south bay. sunnyvale, 67 degrees. you see those numbers around saratoga looking pretty good towards the afternoon. mid-60s in san jose. 66 degrees. you can see san francisco in the low 60s and i think some of the cooler temperatures we'll find will be out towards livermore and concord with that cooler air kind of coming in from the east from the sacramento area, but pleasanton pretty nice at 65 degrees. oakland, there you see 66, and for the raiders' game should see numbers in the 60s with hazy sky as they take on the chiefs at 1:05 kickoff time in oakland. napa, 61 degrees despite the chilly start to the morning, pretty nice recovery for the afternoon. the warmest spot in the bay area will be santa cruz climbing up to 70 for this afternoon and some of the projections for monday could take it as warm as maybe 73 on monday. so a great day to head out to the coast, but keep in mind, beach hazards warning for some rough surf the next couple days

so use caution on the coast. lake tahoe, mid-50s for today, snow due back in thursday. if you want to do some skiing, thursday would be the day for you but the next two days look very nice on the coast. >> thank you very much, rob. six people died in the cold snap that gripped the bay area last week and that put a lot of attention on cold weather shelters in the bay area. the homeless advocates says it brings to light also the affordable housing crisis in the bay area. >> reporter: each of these flags is a homeless person in san jose. for five years anita miles was one of them. >> i didn't want to be there. i had never been homeless before, but here i was in my own community homeless. >> reporter: miles is now an eac life builder outreach worker going to the homeless where they are to urge them into shelters, to deliver supplies and sometimes she says to just drape an extra blarng ket on a sleeping person. >> when you're out there, you don't want to give up the very things that are keeping you pretty much alive and that's your belongings or your pets.

>> reporter: but shelters are hard to come by. there are about ten honlless people for every one bed in santa clara county's cold weather shelters. the ceo says that's the short-term solution. the long-term solution is permanent housing. >> if we put somebody in housing with a subsidy and services provided by ehc for a year, it costs about $16,000. if you leave them outside it can cost three times as much. >> reporter: but there's little funding for affordable housing. san jose, for example, lost $40 million in redevelop funds, nearly 40% of its federal funds because of sequestration and the inclusionary ordinance is now in legal limbo. the city went from 1,000 units per knew year to fewer than 300. the city of san jose is studying the possibility of a housing impact fee to create a new funding source dedicated to

affordable housing to benefit not only the homeless, but the entire community. >> if we want to see sustained economic development and growth, we know that employers need housing opportunities for their employees. >> ehc life builders and other homeless advocates around the bay area hand out supplies all year long. so they always welcome donations of gloves, hats, blankets, even coffee and cream. ehc life builders.org is the where you can dob nate. still ahead on "today in the bay" -- >> it was an amazing experience. how many people can say i was part of something that helped a million kids? it was mind bogglingly wonderful. >> a simple idea to help kids in need for the holiday. the south bay woman who dreamed it up, and now how she makes us "bay area proud."

you are watching "today in the bay." >> the giving tree concept has been around for centuries often in churches it was a way for the well off to help the less fortunate with gifts during the holidays. but one south bay woman has taken that simple idea and made it huge, and it is now one of the largest children's charities in the state. "today in the bay's" garvin thomas has this morning's "bay area proud." >> reporter: if your workplace is like ours, there's a tree in it these days. one decorated not just with lights and ornaments, but with wishes. needy children's wishes for christmas gifts. there are, in fact, more than 1,000 trees just like it all over the bay area holding the wishes of some 67,000 children. and if you're wondering just who could make all those wishes come true -- >> so this is a pile of gifts behind me. >> reporter: just look for the woman with the queen elf dress,

the queen elf hat, and the queen elf shoes. >> this is what we call incoming. >> reporter: the family giving tree jennifer columbine runs these days didn't get this big overnight, but rather over 24 years. it all started when jennifer was a graduate business student at san jose state. a professor gave her team a project, do something that helps others. she thought of giving tree. >> and i had seen them in malls, but i took that idea and said let's take those needy children's wishes and put them in front of people who had jobs. it made sense to me. >> reporter: it didn't make sense to the rebs of her team and they chose another project. jennifer and another classmate struck out on their own. the first year they wrangled gifts for 300 children. last year they celebrated their 1 millionth. >> how many people can say i was part of something that helped a million kids? it was mind bogglingly wonderful. did you get the scooters.

>> reporter: when it comes to charity, jennifer clearly knows what she is doing, though surprisingly it took her a while to figure out why. jennifer had been running family giving tree for eight years before a single question at a speaking engagement brought up long suppressed memories. >> someone raised their hand and said, did you remember being helped as a child? and i stood there and went, actually, yeah, i do. and they said do you remember what that was like? and i started crying. it was just the most emotional moment of my life. >> reporter: what jennifer remembered was as a little girl her family did once have to rely on charity for their christmas gifts. >> we have no age restrictions for volunteering. >> reporter: it's something that goes a long way to explain why she is so driven to do what she does. now and apparently forever. >> it feels completely right and it always has. >> reporter: garvin thomas,

"today in the bay." >> every little bit helps. bay area cities host gun buy-backs to mark the anniversary of the shootings in newtown, connecticut. coming up, we'll introduce you to the founders of the website that helped raise funds for those two events. and thousands of people say their good-byes to nelson mandela. plus, the wait is over for some high school seniors. we'll show you how many students got acceptance letters from stanford.

from nbc bay area, this is "today in the bay." good morning to you. looking live at a beautiful start to the day looking at the city's skyline and lots of clear sky there in the distan. thanks so much for joining us. i'm kris sanchez and meteorologist rob mayeda is here with a look at every little bit of that forecast. >> the forecast right now includes 20s, 30s, and 40s

depending where you are around the bay area. some 20s still in the north bay this morning. clear skies and dry air but here is a nice sunrise view around san jose right now. you can see the temperatures in the mid-30s. hazy skies, and that is part of the story. high clouds going on by, too, but it's the smoke pollution which is the big deal for us today with high pressure building in aloft trapping in the smoke particles. unfortunately, this is the setup that we'll be watching to give us problems with air quality in the south bay and east bay with the finds slightly offshore pushing that smoke into some of the inland east bay valleys. we are another spare the air day. it does look like we're going to see this pattern hold up for a while, but at the same time our temperatures starting to climb on up, too. we'll have a full look and who may get close to 70 degrees in the forecast in a few minutes. kris? >> thanks, rob. because of the air quality forecast, you might have to resist the temptation to light your fireplace. poor air quality will continue for the next couple days, and

that means a ban on wood burning across the bay area. tonight will be the record ninth straight night of bay area air quality management districts spare the air alerlts. unhealthy levels of pollution have prompted a ban on burning wood both inside and outside, and violators face fines if they don't comply. >> just had a long stretch of kind of dry, cold weather where pollution has been trapped close to the ground, and it's built up to unhealthy levels, kind of like cigarette smoke in a stuffy air. >> air quality officers have been out responding to complaints and issuing citations. first-time offend verse to pay a $100 ticket or attend a wood smoke awareness collect. second offense vialers have to pay a $500 fine. you are exempt, however, from the ban if your primary source of heat is your wood burning stove. you can always get the latist forecast online at nbcbayarea.com. there we have interactive weather maps along with forecasts for your neighborhood. from missouri to maine, a

massive winter storm is stretching across 23 states expected to drop a foot of snow in some places. for many people this is the third storm system in the past week. at airports in the northeast, there were hundreds of cancellations leaving passengers grounded and pretty grumpy. >> driving all this way i thought i was going to get to the airport and they were going to cancel. >> here in the bay area at least 22 flights were canceled yesterday. china made history yesterday becoming the third member of an exclusive club of nations that have made a soft landing on the moon. the last landing was back in 1976. the landing was reported live on china's state television with images, as you can see, of the approaching moon's surface. alongside with animations of the touchdown. the unmanned spacecraft and a rover are ra progrprogrammed to the surface conducting experiments and searching for natural resources.

♪ thousands of gess gathered in the rural qunu, south africa, to attend the funeral sar main for nelson mandela. honor guards carried the coffin to a huge tent at his family compound. guests included prince charles, richard branson, and oprah winfrey. mandela's first and second wives sat on either side of south african president jacob zuma. mandela's casket was placed below a lectern where speakers delivered eulogies. >> we praise and thank you, 0, god for dr. nelson mandela for his example of justice, peace, and reconciliation, and his courage to endure persecution and rejection for the sake of others. >> a former political prisoner

and friend of mandela also spoke at the ceremony. mandela's burial ends ten days of official mourning ceremonies. people in the bay area marked the one-year anniversary of the deadly shootings in newtown, connecticut. some folks gathered in churches, others participated in gun buy-back programs. two of those cities paid for with money raised by a crowd funding site. >> i figured if one more gun is off the street, it might help somewhere. >> reporter: this is the first time in well over a decade san jose has hosted a gun buy-back event. gun owners got a $100 gift card for handguns, rifles, and shotguns and $200 for assault weapons. >> six guns and 600 bucks. >> reporter: the m unto pay for the eye vent came to from a two-month crowd funding campaign in which donors contributed online. >> i think crowd funds has been really successful because people are frustrated and they want

something they can do to make a real tangible impact. >> reporter: e john johnstone and eric king founded gun by gun.org and for johnstone the issue is personal. >> i became involved 21 years ago. i lost my dad to gun violence. i was 10 years old and it was here in san francisco. he was shot and killed by a 16-year-old in an attempted robbery. >> reporter: the group launched its first drive in san francisco this summer. now they have gotten request from cities across the nation. in two months donors contributed nearly $19,000 in san jose. $20,000 was collected for oakland's program. >> we've gotten a couple assault weaponings and lots of handguns and so getting guns off the streets, especially the i wille one, is absolutely worth it. hundreds of high school and middle school students gathered

for an lgbt youth conference. the goal was to ensure all students, including gay, bisexual, and transgender have the opportunity to succeed in school. >> having so many people here is wonderful. it means so many people are here to learn and to kind of help us with what we're trying to do which is to make school safer for everybody. >> the ninth annual conference was hosted by the gay straight alliance net yooshg, a national youth leadership organization. hundreds of high school students don't have to worry about getting into a good college because they know they have at least one option and that option is stanford. nearly 7,000 students signed up for early admission and stanford accepted 748 of them. that is the largest early application pool in the school's history. more than 30,000 students are expected to apply for stanford's regular admission by january 1st. that's a load off their minds i'm sure. still ahead on "today in the bay," an east bay man hopes to make the u.s. olympic

bobsledding team. how he's using his age as an advantage over much younger athletes. ♪ i want to spread a little love this year ♪

[ male announcer ] this december, experience the gift of unsurpassed craftsmanship at the lexus december to remember sales event. some of the best offers of the year. this is the pursuit of perfection. you're watching "today in the bay." >> looking live at san francisco from our camera above san bruno, and it's looking a like bleak but rob says we'll have sunshine right around this afternoon or so. you might not think of the bay area as a hot spot for bobsledding, but three of the 14 u.s. men on the olympic national team live here, including chuck berkeley of walnut creek. he's been down the olympic road before competing in vancouver back in 2010, and now berkeley is on track to compete in sochi as well and doing it in a rather unconventional way. >> reporter: at first glance the california health club in pleasant hill may not look like a place where olympic athletes

train. it's no nonsense and far away from the high-tech olympic training centers, but chuck berkeley isn't your ordinary olympian. at 37, he's working harder than some of his younger competitors. and using his age as an advantage. >> strength training, speedwork, and those things have developed over the last 20 years. i do it work. i consider myself very fortunate to do it at this level, still be competitive, still beat up on some young guy that is live there full time. >> reporter: named to the u.s. bobsled team in 2007, he competed in the 2010 vancouver olympics. those games ended in heart break when his sled flipped. >> first thing you think is this is scary. really scary. and painful. then as you come to the realization of what's happening, you realize, man, this is my olympic games. it's probably over. and it was. >> reporter: berkeley left the sport for a couple years, but then returned last season ready

for redemption. >> it ended prematurely for me. so that's a big reason why i'm coming back. i want a result next to my name. >> reporter: and he's enduring this rigorous training while still working full time and helping to raise his two daughters. >> i miss you guys when i'm gone. >> i'm really proud of him because he's been training a lot, and he's been doing it as hard as he can just to get the exercise that he would need. >> and that was janelle wang reporting. the final men's bobsledding team for sochi won't be named until january, but berkeley says he's confident his name will be on the list. for now he's competing on the world cup circuit and is set to compete late they are week in lake pla sid in new york. curling is one of the lesser known sports in the winter olympics, and people had a chance to learn more about it this weekend at the ice rink in union square in san francisco. the bay area curling club offered lessons, teachers included nationally ranked

curler gabrielle coleman. she qualified for the trials for the vancouver games after less than four years of training. she also happens to work with us here at nbc bay area, one of our directors. still ahead on "today in the bay," we have some fun and affordable tips for your holiday season and your holiday table. our expert will show us ways to make our own decorations with things we can find right in our own home. good morning. there's lots to do today in the bay. you've had some fun days at the children's discovery museum right here. the purple building in san jose. tonight is your chance to have some fun there after hours for their family night at the museum. it's called sound scapes, orchestrate the extraordinary. stairs that sing. it's from 6 to 8:30 tonight. why not make it musical date? i'm bilingual sort of.

not nearly as talented as this cast of "aladdin." the final performance dual language edition is this afternoon at 1:00 p.m. it's at mckinley school in redwood city and i hear citizen number three is the one to watch. that blue genie in the show granted some wishes but you check off some holiday gift wish items and head over to oakland for the crucible's holiday gifty open house. don't worry, this is not like going to the mall. handcrafted items by local artists, one of a kind gifts. why are these folks dressed like that? it's because it's the crucible. they do stuff like this. fiery performances all day long as well as the show and the gift sale. so much livelier than the yule log. i'll be here to help you log your commute tomorrow on "today in the bay." good morning nelly! woah.

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that's gotta go too. ♪ hey! must be the honey! [ sparkle ] sweet. you are watching "today in the bay." >> you can buy just about any kind of holiday decorations as

you're out and about town but sometimes the most special ones are the ones that you make yourself or somebody makes for you. right now you're saying time for that. we think maybe you do. we invited event planner erica becks to join us for this morning's dyi ideas you can actually do yourself. >> thanks for having me. >> i don't see anything on the table that looks like it's going to make me run around town or break the bank. >> pretty much all of these items you can find in your household. for the few you can't find, it's just a short shopping trip to the hardware store where you can find most of these items. >> what is your favorite thing if you were going to make one thing? >> i would have to say the red soup can luminaries are my favorite. >> they're just soup cans and you empty out the soup contents and you poke some holes in there with a nail and you stick a tea light in there, spray paint it, and makes a beautiful display

for your mantel. >> okay. and i see that you have some maybe ideas that the kids might be able to help with because, you know, they're going to be out of school and they're going to be like what's next? what are we doing now? >> absolutely. that's my favorite. what these are, they're actually burnout lightbulbs and it's really simple to make. you just simply take a lightbulb and spread some craft glue and dip it in glitter and pop it in the bowl and you have a great accent for a side table. >> very nice. my kids like to collect the acorns at the park, that would work for that, too? >> absolutely. >> the question always is how do you make them look more martha stewart than preschool art class? we love our preschoolers and kindergartner's art but when you're putting together a fancy table. >> i think the whole key is really in the display. you don't want to overclutter your living room because then it will look knickknacky. so you want to be very selective

about the pieces that you add. and i think les is more really is the key. it's easy to build all these things. just focus on decluttering. that's the key. >> i notice who knew snow looked like -- or epson salt looked like snow and it's nice and cheap at the hardware store, drugstore, wherever. >> absolutely. there's no need to spend a lot of money on fake snow when you have epsom salt in the bathroom. >> is there anything we should avoid? as we start looking around, i know you're on pinterest and facebook so you have lots of great ideas and you say don't clutter. as we look around, is there anything we should not do, that we should really be careful with? >> you know, i think the most probably dangerous thing you want to be really careful of is probably the luminaries. you want to make sure not to put them near anything that's flammable, especially a christmas tree, and you definitely want to remember to blow the candles out.

>> do you think it has the same effect if you use the battery powered ones? >> absolutely. that's a cost-effective way of doing it. >> so maybe our teachers will get something like this. oop, i gave it away. if erica looks familiar, she was part of garvin thomas' "bay area proud" wedding for a woman who found out she had cancer. thank you for coming into our lives this way. erica events.com. >> thank you so much, kris. >> nice to meet you. and come back soon. still ahead on "today in the bay," speaking of christmas, the friendly warning the postal service is giving to make sure your cards and gifts reach your loved ones in time for the big day. and a view outside this morning shows a nice looking sunrise but you're certainly going to want a jacket again this morning. lots of 30s and 40s outside for now but maybe close to 70 by the afternoon. we'll talk more about that in the forecast when we come right back. avo: the volkswagen "sign then drive"

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good sunday morning to you. we're seeing some chilly temperatures, mostly clear skies, and a little bit of patchy fog in parts of the north bay where right now the view from san rafael and the temperature from novato, 25 degrees this morning. clear sky was a little more fog up towards santa rosa. notice san francisco, the sunrise is taking on a smoky view there. you can see not fog but really smoke particles trop etrapped a the bay area. the south bay and san jose, 35 degrees currently. you can see some geese or something flying by there over downtown san jose. we have hazy skies and, unfortunately, it's the south bay and the east bay seeing the worst of the air quality. probably going to go on nine days, ten days of spare the air days the way things are going right now but it's the east bay

and south bay seeing the highest levels of smoke pollution around the bay area. unfortunately, high pressure let the record reflecting -- acting like a lid. the winds are actually turning slightly offshore bringing in some extra smoke actually from the central valley and around sacramento into the contra costa county communities. this continues to be an issue but for the coast those offshore winds will warm things up around skr santa cruz. livermore, 34. you can see lower 30s around sunnyvale and around the peninsula for the morning. so now as we go through the afternoon, going to see some high clouds going by from time to time and patches of low clouds still for now around santa rosa. that should clear around 9:00 this morning. the bigger picture shows you a weather system bringing rain to the north but as this high

continues to build in, it's going to keep the storm track way off to the north at least through wednesday before things begin to change. so as we head towards monday, warming temperatures, but then everything reverses 'tis as you can see on the seven-day forecast. starting around webs and thursday. so the storm track keeping all the rain off to the north through monday, tuesday, into wednesday and then late wednesday night into thursday we're going to see a cold system drop down out of the north, possibly tossing a shower away but it looks like most of the moisture will be out towards the sierra behind that system. cooler, drier air starts to come in. friday morning, gusty winds expected and our highs will go from near 70 in the warmest spots down into the mid-50s. a little bit of a roller coaster ride ahead. today pretty pleasant after the chilly air slowly warms up heading through the afternoon. south bay temperatures from around willow glen in the mid-60s and some mid-60s for cupertino. 67 today areas south of san

jose. san jose 66. 65 in palo alto. a little warmer toward morgan hill. a 68 in the forecast there. san francisco, low 60s today. north bay temperatures in the low 60s for napa. 61 for a high. mid-60s in oakland. tri-valley around pleasanton, we should manage some mid-60s this afternoon. close to 65, but cooler in towards livermore. that east breeze. we're going it see cooler air from drtracy and mountain house. warmest temperature around the bay area likely on the south coast around santa cruz. 70 today. 73 in the forecast tomorrow. san jose also near 70 for monday and lake tahoe for now in the 50s. if you want to see snow, good news, thursday snow returns to the sierra and the northern mountains. >> a lot of folks waiting for that. the next big thing for burger fans, ramen. hundreds of people lined up this weekend for what's called the ramen burger at a.

>> japanese supermarket. ramen noodles fried into the shape of a bun with a burger in between. only 700 were made and they were gobbled up instantly. apparently people waited in line for hours in new york to get one of those burgers. it seems kind of scratchy. >> they're good separate. maybe not all in one thing. if you want to make sure the gift cards or the gifts themselves reach your loved ones around the country on christmas, u.s. postal service says you better send them tomorrow. it is called peak mailing day. the busiest mailing day of the holiday season and the san jose mail processing center says it expects nearly 4 million item to be processed tomorrow alone. that's an increase of 375,000 on a normal day. and a flash mob hit san francisco yesterday with a

theme. ♪ i'm dreaming of a white christmas ♪ >> santa cacon took over for a holiday tradition that includes a fair amount of adult beverages. there are dozens of santacon events around the country. i think that one always looks fine. i think i might do that sometime. >> you should. >> i should. >> take a video of that. >> i look good in red. no 5:00 or 6:00 tonight but we will be back later this evening and of course at 11:00. have a great day and we'll see you next weekend. use chase freedom at select department stores

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from nbc in washington, the world's longest running program, this is "meet the press" with david gregory. >> i was part of the last presidential election. we tried defeating this president. i wish we would have. elections have consequences, mr. speaker. >> good sunday morning. so how is it only in washington can an agreement be so divisive? that's how it works around here. that was house committee chairman paul ryan, challenging gop critics on this budget deal that passed overwhelmingly in the house this week with support from both sides of the aisle. the deal is expected to pass the s