a fire, and not the first time the firefighters have been at this house. and a look at the people giving of themselves to make the holiday special for thousands of the bay's special. let's take a live look at look feller center in new york, all lit up as the crowd is ready to come out and celebrate this

national holiday. it is thursday, december 25th, christmas. you're watching "today in the bay." s good morning to you and merry christmas. it's 4:30. we'll have more on those stories coming up in just a moment, but first we begin with a check of your christmasforecast. >> merry christmas sam and to everybody this morning. you'll notice how the weather finally calming down across the bay area. we had a clear burst, now clear skies. no fog this morning, but it is chilly in the 40s for the most part. later on this afternoon, we'll have temperatures only in the 50s for today, including the south bay, the peninsula, east bay 58, clear skies expected all day long and we're actually

expecting pretty much weather this upcoming week into new year's we'll talk about the seven-day in a few minutes. back to you, sam. clear skies a nice backdrop for the holiday. this was not the christmas wake-up call one family was wishing for. four people out of a home this morning after their second story house caught fire overnight. three people managed to make it down the stairs but a fourth had to jump to safety. that person was taken to the hospital with a broken leg. 56th and mlk in oakland, the fire is under investigation. the fire department said it's responded to the same address several times in the last six months to put out smaller fires. protesters say they're not going to take the day off just because it's christmas. in oakland, a group has planned a no time out black lives matter christmas day march, all of this starting at 5:00 p.m. >> black lives matter!

>> last night protefrts took to the street in san francisco and berkeley demanding justice for police brutality. yesterday's protest means more overtime for police officers who are already stressed thin at this point. oakland police report that $1 million have been spent on overtime because of protests. san francisco police report nearly $162,000. meantime, it was another restless night for police in missouri. dozens of people butting heads with police at a gas station where an officer shot a teen. they were not as rowdy as tuesday night when some people threw bricks and explosives at the police. that protest began just hours after a police officer shot and killed 18-year-old antonio martin. police say martin pointed the gun at the officer and video backs up the story. we've seen no reaction fra

north korea after sony's decision to now show the controversial movie "the interview "eye. the film began showing in theaters in at least 200 theaters, including several in the bay area. the studio also debuted the film on several streaming web sites last night. last week sony shelved the film after movie chains refused to show it following threats from hackers. the united states determined north korea was behind the hacking. a man performs an act of kindness after a fire damaged much of the top floor of this building leaving a family without a place to stay christmas eve. a man dropping off gifts at a toy drive heard what happened and donated $2,000 to that family. no one was injured. president george h.w. bush is spending christmas morning in the hospital.

he was dmoiadmitted to a housto hospital, he was expected to be released yesterday but decided to keep him overnight for observation. he had a good day they say yesterday and his progress remains positive. he spent nearly two months last year in the hospital for a bronchitis related cough. he celebrated his 90th birthday with a little skydiving. this christmas marks a new gi beginning for more than 100 people who were pardoned by governor jerry brown last night. he issued pardons for 105 people, most of them convicted of nonviolent drug offenses and burglary more than a decade ago. he said all of those granted pardons had completed their sentences at least ten years ago and have not been in trouble since. as soon as they were issued, brown retracted one saying the governor later had learned about

trouble with financial regulators. there is the pope, pope francis, celebrating christmas eve with a midnight mass for thousands at the vatican. last night he urged people to let god enter their lives to help combat darkness and corruption. he also reminded the congregation of the peaceful message of christmas. before the service, pope francis made a surprising phone call to refugees in iraq who were celebrating their own mass. >> merry christmas, everybody. may god bless you all, and we wish you and your family a happy and healthy 2015. >> of course that's the president and the first lady in this week's address. president obama says the holiday is a time to honor u.s. troops as they return home from afghanistan and to love one another. the weekly address is usually delivered ond saturday, but it's early in occasion for the holiday. the obama family is on vacation in hawaii until the new year.

it is not time to stress you out, but time is up. your chance to christmas shop is kind of officially 0 over. some people did push it to the last minute. the target in mt. view packed until it closed last night at 10:00. according to retail.com. 15% of all holiday shoppers waited until the last minute to buy gifts. and we mean the last minute. people like linda west cot. she spent nearly seven hours checking items off of her list. >> wrapped everything up and i go, oh, no, i need one more thing for this child. we are so tired we can hardly make it. this is it. we're done. >> there's always that last person on the list you forgot about. hopefully not one of your kids. we also spotted a lot of shoppers cashing in on clearance decorations. 4:37 right now. not all retailers were so lucky. some bay area stores say the port of oakland stole christmas. retailers waiting for containers

full of merchandise say a slowdown at the port cost them thousands of dollars in lost sales. an increase in shoip traffic is one reason there's more on the dook. importers are waiting weeks now for merchandise. >> the best time of the year and we probably lost several thousand dollars' worth of sales. >> the port of oakland says an ongoing labor dispute on the docks is slowing cargo movement. federal regulators are being asked to negotiate an agreement to help things get moving at the port pf. >> a san francisco restaurant has collected more than 10,000 toys in just one day for a charity toy drooif. they reached their mark. they delivered 6,000 of those toys in the hunter's point and fillmore neighborhoods. the annual toy drive was supported by people including former mayor willie brown and

san francisco police chief greg sir. lefty o'doole's has been doing it for years. glide family services will serve thousands today for a christmas dinner. yesterday the church hosted its annual prime rib lunch in san francisco. the house of prime rib due nated 2,000 pounds of meat for the event. some say it's become a second home, especially with family living far away. >> just kind of uplifts me and allows me to live a full life the rest of the year. >> yesterday the church was able to serve some 3,000 people, and that christmas day meal is a real boost, anthony. hopefully we'll all get to experience it at some point today. good morning to you. >> good morning to you. i love what glide's does across the community.

everybody coming together this christmas to make the christmas spirit in full effect and very bright. we'll see a bright day today, but we have rain in effect on the east coast. it's light rain, actually residual rain from what we saw the heavier stuff from yesterday. no airport delays, if you're still trying to traveling, and no airport delays at home. right now clear skies from the north bay down to the south bay. no airport delays this morning and we're not expecting any fog like we've seen over the morning. clear conditions all day. once the sun comes up, we'll stay clear really for the next few days. i put the futurecast into motion, you'll notice nothing. in fact, i had to pull this out and see if there was any cloud cover. really, over the next few days we'll stay dry but cold. morning lows on friday in the 30s across the entire bay. it is going to get even colder toward the weekend, full details on the weekend forecast.

back to you. 4:40 right now. if that christmas ham does not go quite as planned, you're just looking for something easy to eat, several restaurants are open today. denny's will be served breakfast, lunch and dinner. applebee's and some boston markets will be open but times and locations vary so call ahead. golden corral, ruby tuesday restaurants are open today. and if you need that caffeine fix like we all do sometimes especially at 4:40, starbucks is open for business as well. critical for so many folks out today. the mud was nearly six feet tall and cleaning it up seemed like a bit of a daunting task until -- >> she called and said, you know, it's christmas eve, i have the day off. i'd like to come and see what i can do to help. >> there's the spirit. a southern california homeowner gets a helping hand. why the woman who gave up her

time to shovel mud was returning a favor. plus, an oakland man uses his unique skills to put heads over homeless folks. that's coming up. hi, my name is marie gorman, i'm here at naval base guam. i want to wish merry christmas to my mom and dad in san jose. merry christmas!

amanda hideline's asouza home has been mud slided. help happened yesterday who called on her day off and offered to help out. >> i thought, this is your time. this is your freedom. you just got back and you can do

whatever you want. and you've chosen to come here and help me. how can you be any more of a servant? >> they actually met earlier in the year after heyneline signed up for the adopt a soldier. she sent monthly care packages to taylor who is not only a marine but a single mom. she says heyneline routinely went above and beyond. >> she would take my son on play dates with her when i was gone. just the little things that she did that meant a lot. i'm very blessed to have her in my life. >> nice friendship there. the pair had only met twice before, once during her employment to afghanistan and once during her return. it's 4:46. those of you up, you may wonder what's going on weatherwise. >> quite a different weather story to tell this morning. we've seen fog, rain, wind and

now we'll see sunshine. you can see from our san francisco sky cam this morning, no fog to talk of and for that matter, no fog anywhere. but it's cold outside. 41 in the north bay, 44 in the south bay, 42 in the east bay. later this afternoon, we'll see sunshine really all day long, not expecting fog to develop. it will remain chilly. temperatures only in the 50s. the futurecast shows we'll stay dry all day, clear skies for tomorrow as well as saturday and sunday morning. we're not talking about anything across the bay area. it will remain inactive. we're expecting lots of sunshine but at into the you get the radiational cooling. we'll really be cold overnight, 31 for santa rosa, 32 for nap at that, even san jose to start the day we'll be at 37 degrees. even colder for saturday. we go back into the 20s across the north bay for saturday so i do think there will be the potential for patchy frost,

maybe some black ice on some of those roadways, especially considering how soaked we were over the past couple of weeks. you'll notice over the next few days over the weekend, dry conditions, lots of sunshine. that will continue heading toward new year's eve. i know you're looking ahead to that forecast. if you're heading down to the embarcadero, temperatures back into the 50s and really nice. no fog, no rain, and temperatures like this you really can't argue with. friends and family across the east coast are freezing. 54 and not too bad. back to you. >> it's all relative. thank you very much. the subject of our next story has the eyes of an artist, the hands of a contractor and the mind to blend them into the most interesting and, as -- >> greg klain is the man with the ability to see solutions where others see problems. the problems people saw in his

west oakland neighborhood were illegal dumping and homelessness. his solution is our "bay area proud." if it were stories, greg klain was after, he'd have no problem finding them. among the piles of illegally dumped trash that appear each morning in west oakland's neighborhood, there are clues that tell the story of how each one got there. >> you've got light bulbs, little grove mixed here. this is a marijuana operation dump. >> but greg isn't interested in stories, just happy endings. and so takes only what he needs to build them. greg is an artist who's long held a fascination with small living spaces. he once built a home out of a dumpster. greg also marvels at the

shelters his homeless neighbors construct out of materials they find on the street. so a couple of years ago greg gathered some of those materials and built one himself. and that was that. or so he thought. until one rainy night a homeless woman knocked on greg's door asking for a tarp. >> i didn't have a tarp and i said, i'm sorry. i went back in. then i walked past my home. i thought, what am i doing with this? i ran back outside, i said, sharlene, come back tomorrow i'll have a home for you. as soon as i gave it away, it just felt so good for me. oh, wow, this is great. these people are so happy. >> felt so good greg decided to do it again. and again and again. with the help of a rotating cast of volunteers, greg has now built more than a dozen homes for the homeless. all are on wheels. all made solely out of the materials greg pulls each

morning from those trash piles and all destined to make a homeless neighbor's life a little drier, a little safer. >> it's great. i have my own place to be. >> and judging by the look on kelly's face, a whole lot happier. kelly says she has not had a roof over her head for fla19 ys but will tonight thanks to greg. >> a lot of happiness, which is the best part for me. >> thank you. >> since our story about greg first aired in april, he has been contacted by people around the world praising his effort, offering their support, and looking to do the same thing in their community. garvin thomas, nbc bay area news. >> if you know someone doing something nice for others in your community, garvin would love to hear from you. go to our site innocennbcbayare

too much caffeine could till you, but the right amount is actually saving lives. plus, how walmart hopes to cash in on your unwanted gift cards and what's in it for you. be right back. this is the nicholas family coming from anderson air force base, guam. ha happy new year and merry christmas to all the nicholass and smiths in oakland, california. happy new year! >> we love you guys!

last year they were able to raise $24,000 for that organization. and a live look outside now from one light display to another. this of course the bay bridge. there are cars out there on your christmas morning. don't know where the folks are going. most of us feel some sort of stress this time of year and in some cases the symptoms of stress can make you feel sick. the message from doctors? just relax. constant stress causes inflammation in the body that causes many disorders. experts recommend finding healthy ways to cope with stress

like exercise, healthy eating, seeing friends and most importantly getting enough sleep. a sign of hope this christmas morning for the parents of premature babies and it comes from an unlikely source. doctors at children's hospital los angeles and several other facilities across the country are using caffeine or viagra to change blood flow in babies and help them survivor. doctors say they have a better time breathing because viagra improves blood flow to the babies' lungs. fascinating information there. 4:56. about $1 billion worth of gift cards will go unused this year. walmart is trying to find a way to pocket the cash. starting today, you can take gift cards from more than 200 retailers and restaurants and exchange them for walmart gift cards. the walmart cards don't expire and can be used in store or

online. you won't get the full value of your gift cards but in some dayses comes close. if you exchange an amazon gift card, you can redeem 95% of what it's worth. for staples, up to 90% and gap up to 85%. well, candy-covered apples yanked from the shelves. one santa cruz family says it's about time. they've already lost a loved one to listeria from this sort of apple problem. details still ahead. one of the hottest holiday gifts coming from a los gatos-based company. coming up, why you might have a hard time getting your hands on it. we'll xmrainl. explain. playing hoops, sam is number one.

at st. jude i was number two. yeah, but that was a good thing. sam was the second of seven patients to receive a new cancer treatment available only at st. jude children's research hospital, and that discovery will be shared with hospitals all across america. st. jude gives kids like me a shot. a great shot. go to st. jude dot org or shop wherever you see the st. jude logo.

this morning, we are waking

up to clear skies but it is cold outside. we're going to see sunshine and then a very chilly weekend. in fact, a frosty weekend ahead. a full microclimate forecast coming up. just crying to create that genuine holiday effect. let's look at rockefeller center in new york. that is of course their famous christmas tree and celebration in midtown new york city. it is thursday, december 25th on this christmas. you are watching "today in the bay." >> announcer: from nbc bay area, this is "today many in the bay". a very good thursday morning. thank you for joining us. i'm sam brock. happy thursday, christmas morning. anthony, you were saying if you're looking for cold weather, you can put poeople in the holiday mood. >> when we talk 40s and 50s, we bulk, oh, it's so cold.