good morning maryland. let's head to justin berk with a check of the forecast. >> looking at the local conditions, i wanted to  highlight the wind gusts we've had. 40 middletown, frederick county, manchester, carroll county 38. fairly uniformed temperatures, winds 10- 15 miles per hour. highs 48 middletown and upper 30 miles per hour range closer to the beltway. we have strong winds to deal with, variable cloudy skies. breaking up, having ourselves a nice sunrise. in to through the middle section of pennsylvania and new

york, flurries and rain and snow showers slipping in to york and baltimore overnight. could be a brief passage, it's about the wind, clouds break up. winds in the 30-35 miles per hour range in to the afternoon. a two alarm fire seriously damaged a home in baltimore county. firefighters said no one was home when the fire started. no word on what caused out. more information on this fires a it becomes available. mother and daughter in town who can say they had given and received the best christmas gifts of the year. it was simply something money can't buy. >> the gift of life, a mother donating her kidney to her daughter who has been sick.

sasha suffered for years and hypertension and diabetes and had kidney failure. doctors said she would spend 7 years going through dialysis. her mom stepped in to give the ultimate gift. she went through a year of testing to make sure she was a good match. when the doctors gave their okay, they underwent surgery several days ago. >> you are a parent, when you see your daughter suffering, there is no other choice one can make than to, this is what i'm going to do. >> if all goes well, mom and daughter should be allowed to go home tomorrow. maryland should be back at work in six weeks. her daughter is taking a day at a time but feels the difference with the kidney. children in the hospital got a surprise, santa claus arrived on a fire truck.

the kids came out of the rooms and got to spend time with st. nick. it happened at the cleveland clinic children's hospital. santa handed out gifts to all patients. >> how awesome was that? >> awesome. >> what did you tell him you wanted? >> video games. >> after passing out the gifts in the lobby, santa went room to room visiting with more kids. family spent holidays in the hospital welcoming a new addition on christmas day. this is at the greater baltimore medical center. ray wasn't due until january 24th, but decided it was too long to wait. ray is the second child and word this morning is that mother and baby are doing well. >> it was so cool.

my family is excite. we are looking forward to doing christmas in the morning and birthday in the afternoon. >> ray was given a christmas stocking nit bid a hospital volunteer -- nitted by a hospital volunteer. hugs and kisses around bwi. soldiers arriving home from afghanistan. pete o'neil was there and has this report. [music] [music] >> we are waiting on our

youngest daughter coming in from afghanistan. i'm struggling to talk to you and not shed tears and water up on you. it's a very emotional time. when she walks through the door in a few moments, i'm sure there will be a lot of tears shed with a lot of folks here. >> i'm happy. this has made my day. >> are you glad to be home? >> very happy to be home. i missed my family very much.

[music] 5:36, news around the nation, a christmas day tragedy in connecticut. a water front home goes up in flames killing five people including three children and parents. two people were in the home at the time but able to make it out alive. they are in fair condition. the cause remains under investigation. armed rober in north carolina got more than the cash when he tried to hold up a business on friday. the employees we buy gold, knocked the robber unconscious when he demanded the money. he said he was tired of hearing the robberies and wanted the robber to know he couldn't come in and take what he wanted.

he is held now on $100,000 bond. christmas day marked the 5th day of hanukkah, at laguna beach, california. they celebrated with a surf board menorah. in new york, construction workers took it upon themselves to decorate liberty tower. it remains under construction. the workers wrapped up the white lights. it's said to be completed in 2013. more than 200 bus passengers left stranded in texas. coming up, why the red cross had to be called in to help out. another stranded tourist.

airline workers decided to help this guy out. some of the best tech toys for kids in 2011, first up, the fidget. a robot for girls ages 6 and up. >> it can dance to music. it can say 150 phrases, it can respond to natural language. >> next up, the v tech advanced notebook. this laptop for ages five up and feature as screen, keyboard, mouse and touch pad. >> for kids trying to get their hands on your laptop this may hold them off for a while. the hardware feels very grown up. >> finally for the budding photographer , the fisher price kid tough, see yourself camera. >> it's a real camera. it takes nice pictures but literally tough, you can drop

it and it won't break.

crews are working to keep the roads safe for the drivers in abilene. temperatures fell around the freezing mark causing icy conditions. drivers skidding, slipping and spinning out of control, some roadways had to be closed due to hazardous conditions. poor road conditions left 250 travelers stranded on the greyhound buser in el pa so. routes were closed due to heavy snow. good to see everyone helping out their fellow man. again, that's texas, el paso,

texas. i can't tell you how many people have been asking, we never had a snowless winter. there has been one winter with under one inch recorded back in 1949 and 50, having no snow in to december, means nothing for the rest of the winter. don't lose faith. we normally would be down to 26, high of 43. we will shoot back up above normal. sun up at 7:25, we are looking at temperatures now just hanging on to 40 on the north side. 30s mixed in. we have ow sieves ourselves a mix of clouds. i had some i hit the winder shield op my drive in. this is eroding away. we have snow showers to the north, our mix of clouds giving way to sunshine, the winds strong, i had a friend try to

go out for a run and she said it was too strong. gusts of 30-40 miles per hour. we will push that in to the afternoon with the sunshine and high of 47. we will check on the next storm in a moment. we are going to you covered at our website at abc2news.com. if you go to the traffic tab, down the bottom, life traffic cameras from there, you will have access to more than 100 traffic cameras, these are what we use when we bring you our traffic reports. if you have a trip planned, map your commute out, using abc2news.com and the traffic tab, live cameras at your disposal, abc2news.com. woman from minnesota is feeling overly special this holiday. project she took part in has her smiling from ear to ear. a family waited five generations, why she is considered and will always be considered one of a kind. you are watching good morning maryland, to be continued in

just a moment.

i wrote a letter to mrs. obama and i didn't hear a thing until about fife months later.

it was -- five months later. it was a pinch me moment. >> ann value enteen was one of 15 professional designers chosen from a pool of thousands to decorate for the first family. the first lady took five months before selecting applicants that went through a 6 week security check. she was excited when giving the advice for decorating possibly for you in the next year. >> there are great sales and deals to be had on the ornaments. this is a perfect time to choose what you are going to do next year. >> pick a theme and build from there. break dancing gorilla, a bird on a plane, caused shock and awe through 2011. jim has a look at the best viral videos of the year's past. >> a fiery crash between a car and a motorcycle turned

bystanders in to heroes. they managed to pull the bike tore safety. he escaped with broken bones and road rash. this teen should star in a psa against drinking. he had a few too many and tumbled off of an escalator and suffered a fractured elbow but learned a valuable lesson. a wal-mart shopper chased beer thieves as they left the store, jumping on the hoods of their car. she slid off but tried the door handle before she fell to the ground. police caught the suspects. in another death defying stunt this tight rope walker in china lost his footing. he pulled himself back up. it's a bird, it's a plane, it's a jet man soaring over the grand canyon. he got going as fast as 190 miles per hour. later in the year he spent time soaring alongside a pair of swiss fighter jets.

extreme surfer likely set a world record when he caught a 90-foot wave. some unique animals went viral this year. like so la , the break dancing gorilla. millions on youtube caught his moves. this lioness found a 1-year-old zoo visitor appetizing. there was a bird, or is that a bat on a delta flight? and a cat stuck atop a 30-foot cactus in the arizona desert. spent three days before it figured out how to get down on its own. workers tried to net this deer dh found its way in to the seal tank at the aquarium. all the animals got through unharmed if a bit shaken. this biker was more than shaken when a antelope knocked him off of his wheels, left with a concussion, whiplash and more

than 10 million hits on youtube. reporters became the story in 2011. sports reporter nearly backed over but finished his report. this anchor terrified his news team with a tarantula. >> i will punch you if you get close to me. two airline workers are giving customers a dog -- giving a dog a home for the holidays. a 4-month-old sharpay boxer mix, stranded at the airport. the owner didn't know what to do until two airline customers stepped in to help out. >> the great thing is it's christmas time but we were thinking, we have to help this

girl. why would we want to help her? we helped her. we didn't think twice about i . >> the workers have been emailing pictures and updates to the owner daily. family in indiana is welcoming first baby girl in five generations. ashley wards was born to chris and meagan who have a son and expecting another one being a boy. it's been five generations since the last girl back in the earl ily 1900s and starting to notice all the differences beginning with the color pink. the wards decided boy or girl, this was going to be their last child. i guess you can say they made it count. we got a look national picture, 44 baltimore, you are missing out on post christmas in miami. starting their day at 69

degrees. 59 new orleans. warm moist air feeding in to the next storm. dallas 44. el paso, snow, 29. it is colder in west texas, than on the eastern sea board. there is the picture, highlighting the fact we got this developing storm and focus this across the south. upper level energy back here. surface lows in north western gulf of mexico, enhancing the rainfall across the valley. that moves in our direction, we had clouds move in overnight. there was the threat of sprinkles and flurries, that's eroding away. we saw the disturbance that gives us strong winds during the morning hours. the clouds give way to clearing sky today and tonight, and tomorrow, they come back in next wave of clouds pushing in, during the day, we could have rain in the afternoon. rain heavy in the afternoon and evening hours. pittsburgh, snowstorm, mix north and west. this cut oh of here by wednesday morning -- this is out of here by wednesday

morning. 47 today, about that wind gusting to 30-35 miles per hour, the fact we will see more sunshine. tonight near 30. 20s north and west. back to 50 tomorrow. rain heavy in the evening, ending wednesday morning. upper 40s to 50s thursday and friday. rain showers give way to snow showers next weekend. back to you. it's about proper prior planning, if you are going to party for the new year, you are going to get tipsy, call tipty taxi service. the yellow cab service offers rides on several holidays throughout the year. march 6th, two named women will be missing. coming up, who they are, because their names you are going to recognize for the presidential race. also, how your weight could affect changes with your health. more so and new discoveries

when good morning maryland continues.

baltimore city and government offices are going to be observing the holiday today, as a result be closed. there will be no trash pick up. parking meeters will be in effect. newt gingrich and texas governor perry will not appear on the virginia primary ballot. neither submitted the 10,000 signatures needed to qualify. former massachusetts governor mitt romney and texas representative ron paul have qualified if for virginia primary. more people are suffering from acid reflux due to obesity. the study suggests that trend will increase for those diagnosed with e esophageal cancer. it was published in the on line edition of the medical journal. funeral for kim jong-il is scheduled for wednesday, they continue paying respecting with military sites, factories and buildings flying flags at half staff as part of the 11-day

period of mourning. from the man accused of scamming schools out of money to the one who got caught in the paving scheme. a look back at the biggest scamming stories. what caused customers to winds up outside the u.p.s. distribution center in denver. a special surprise santa has for one massachusetts mom, we'll be right back.

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do you know what mighty monday is? which stores are opening extra elly for the