gusty day today into tomorrow, we will dry on out, that's the good news, we dip. >> the 50s for most of theest are of the week, rain again thursday and where we should be saturday and subject. >> finally. >> just what we need. the "today" show is next. >> that's what's happening "today in new york." good morning. breaking overnight. egyptian investigators announce they found no evidence a terror attack brought down that russian passenger plane over sinai in october killing all 2241 on board. this despite an isis claim of responsibility and a russian report concluding a bomb downed that jet. we're live with the new twist in the investigation. frenemies, donald trump turns on rival ted cruz calling him a maniac after the texas senator pulls ahead in iowa and

cruz laughing it all off on media still calling trump his friend as the field gets set for another debate tomorrow night. too hot to handle. a popular holiday gift even harder to find this morning. some hover boards yanked from amazon amize growing safety concerns stemming from a series of fires. and hey, baby, it's warm outside. dozens of record-breaking temperatures across much of the country, making it a banner weekend for millions, but don't tell that to the people in kansas today, monday, december 14, 2015. >> announcer: from nbc news, this is "today" with matt lauer and savannah guthrie live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. and good morning. welcome to "today" on a monday morning. how about this weather. you know what's fun to do in the spring, go down to washington and check out the cherry bless somes. >> you can apparently do that right now.

>> you said hey, baby, it's warm outside. can't believe you called america baby. >> amazingly warm throughout much of the country. al will have a forecast to tell us how long that's going to last. first on a monday morning, a breaking story overnight in egypt where investigators say they have yet to find any sign of an act of terror that brought down that russian jet over sinai back in october. here at home, president obama heads to the pentagon today to tackle the issue of isis. we have two reports beginning with nbc's keir simmons and that crash investigation. keir, good morning to you. >> reporter: matt, good morning. this is a vaguely worded brief statement, but it is stunning. it contradicts the conclusions of governments and intelligence agencies around the world. egypt has played down links to terrorism from the beginning. now it's official. saying an isis bomb may not have brought down a russia passenger jet that crashed back in october. debris from flight 9268 was

there's no evidence of terrorist action, egypt's civil aviation officials announced from cairo this morning. no evidence even of illegal intervention causing the crash of the russian passenger plane that killed all 224 people on board last october. russian and western governments have said the airbus 321 was likely brought town by a bomb. the plane operated by metrojet lost contact with air control just 23 minutes after the passing from sharm el sheikh en route tost petersburg and previously egyptian officials have said they were focusing on critical cockpit recordings pointing to an explosion. while last month an isis affiliate said this picture showed the crude homemade explosive made from a soda can it claims to have smuggled on board. now the head of the egyptian committee investigating the crash claims no criminal action is suspected. the egyptians are not saying

the plane if not a bomb. privately british security officials tell me they are convinced it was a bomb. britain was the first to reach that conclusion. since then egypt's tourism industry has been devastated. matt? >> keir, one other story to ask you about. there's a story coming out of paris overnight that a teacher there on her way to school was attacked by a man who then claimed that he had ties to isis. what do you know about it? >> reporter: that's right, matt. nbc news is just learning that this has been a path to the anti-terrorism office, a hooded man attacked the teacher in the st. denis region of paris, where the ringleader was tracked down and killed in an an apartment. this man apparently grabbed a box cutter from a table of school supplies, splashed the teacher's neck and the stomach area and one witness says is said to have said this is from daesh or isis. now, this teacher's life thankfully is not in danger and

too early to draw conclusions so far, matt and savannah. >> key simmons in london for us. thank you, keir. the isis threat and the strategy to defeat it is on the pentagon's desk making a rare visit to the pentagon with miss national security team. nbc's white house correspondent kristen welker is following that part of the story. kristen, good morning. >> reporter: that's right, good morning to you. president obama is making this rare trip to the pentagon to both calm public fears ahead of the christmas holiday and to show he's trying to ramp up his response to fighting isis. now, this will be his first visit there since the attacks in paris and san bernardino. his national security council, which includes the vice president, will update the president on the campaign to defeat the terrorist group. mr. obama, who has come under fire for not being tough enough against isis, is hoping to put some of that criticism to rest. now the pentagon recently stepped up air strikes and sent in additional special ops forces to conduct raids in iraq and syria. defense secretary ash carter has indicated additional steps are

white house officials have cautioned the president won't announce a major change in strategy today, but they also stress he's willing to escalate the u.s. response, if necessary. in his weekly address, the president argued american air strikes, now more than 8,500, are working, taking out a number ever isis leaders in recent weeks. expect mr. obama to highlight that message again when he speaks publicly after his meeting. he'll hold a similar briefing later this week at national counterterrorism dinner. savannah, matt. >> all right, kristen welker at the white house, thank you. let's turn now to the presidential race. new numbers overnight from our nbc news/"wall street journal" poll and revealing how the republican candidates stack up against democrat candidate hillary clinton and first nbc news national correspondent is in las vegas ahead of tomorrow night's gop debate. good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning. tomorrow night the marquee matchup will be between donald trump and ted cruz.

for the republican establishment as ben carson has dropped precipitously, ted cruz has risen rapidly, especially among very conservative voters, and the key question this morning is can cruz knock off trump? >> this morning donald trump and ted cruz are the duo dominating the republican field. the new nbc news/"wall street journal" poll shows trump still leading nationwide, but cruz gaining steam, up 12 points since october. with marco rubio at 15%. and in iowa cruz is now in control, up ten points over trump. with cruz surging trump is blasting the freshman texas senator for criticizing trump at a private fund-raiser tweeting i was disappointed that ted cruz would speak behind my back, get caught and then deny it. well, welcome to the wonderful world of politics. trump argues cruz dos doesn't have the temperament to be president. >> when you look at way he's dealt with the senate, where he goes in there like a, you know,

main yafnlgt you can't walk into the senate and scream and call people liars. >> reporter: cruz sem bracing trump's maniac label. she's a maniac, maniac >> reporter: tweeting the music video to the 1982's hit "maniac." quote, in honor of may friend donald trump and good-hearted maniacs everywhere. trump defending his provocative plan to ban muslims from entering the u.s. >> i'm not looking to be politically correct. i'm doing this to do the right thing. >> reporter: rubio insists the motivation behind trump's comment is clear. >> obviously i think he made them partially to capture the limelight after having lost. >> reporter: and as ben carson's poll numbers plummet, down 18 points in the past month, he's taking aim at cruz. >> he has more of a different kind of experience, a politician's experience and i have a healer's experience. >> reporter: and carson now a ripe target for "saturday night live" with will ferrell back at george w. bush. >> i can barely hear him when he talks.

not going to work when you have to go to china or azerbaijan. where you have to talk loudly so they will understand! >> reporter: it was fun to have will ferrell back this weekend. there's some new numbers from our nbc news/"wall street journal" poll out this morning that show hillary clinton would trounce donald trump in a head-to-head matchup and much closer though between clinton and marco rubio, ted cruz and ben carson. one other note ahead of tomorrow night. there's a new man back on the main stage. that's chris christie. after all the gains he's made in new hampshire. matt and savannah, back to you. >> peter alexander, thank you very much. let's turn to chuck todd, nbc political director and moderator of "meet the press." good morning, chuck. >> good morning. >> a huge surge for trump. trump isn't falling but this is carson cratering. >> that's exactly what this is. everybody wants to somehow say trump is falling. he's not. he actually gained in that iowa poll and gained in our pot.

christian conservative candidate. what we normally see when it sort of breaks down between two lanes and the republican party, your conservative lane and establishment lane. trump is his own whole other entity. >> what do you get for your surge, you get attacked by donald trump. >> of course you do. >> that's what's happening now. ted cruz has been very careful, chuck, not to criticize trump publicly. got caught doing it behind the scenes the other day. >> right. >> but is his strategy make sure the trump supporters like him enough so that if trump then craters he'll get their support? >> his only path to the nomination is through donald trump supporters. look, if you look at this as sort of three sections. republican party, cruz and his evangelicals, the establishment lane which right now looks like it's marco rubio land and the donald trump supporters, well, cruz has a better shot at picking off the trump protests and when you talk to trump supporters their second choice a lot of times is cruz, so, in fact, i thought it was an odd decision by trump attacking cruz

attacking, going, hey, this guy, can't work with snib in the senate. trump supporters, great, he's somebody in there that's really shaking somebody up. that actually is going to be appealing to some trump supporters. >> i was going to say. that's the surprising -- >> the wrong way to go after him. >> did allow us to use the "flashdance" video which is always good. >> which is always good. >> he start that had. >> i guess the question is are these trump voters transferrable, people who would only go to the polls for trump or just stay home hormight they go and vote for a cruz, isn't that the big question? >> it is and nobody can answer that question. these aren't frequent voters that show up in primaries. when they vote, they vote republican, but it isn't clear they will show up. it's trump that got them involved. it's not -- it's not the environment that got them involved. it is trump that got them involved, so trump's not there, they probably don't show. >> real quickly at debate tomorrow night, if trump throws the first punch at ted cruz, can ted cruz afford to sit back and still try to be nice or does he

>> he has to count punch. trump supporters want tough f.cruz doesn't look tough, that's going to hurt him. i actually think, don't be surprised if a bunch of people -- if the two of them decide to pounce on rubio. that's what cruz might do, instead of going after trump. get rid of the other guy in your way, rubio and postpone your fight with trump. >> it will be interesting. >> we'll see. >> chuck, thank you so much. turn now to the weather that's dividing the nation. blast of winter out west and record high temperatures out here in the east. >> starting in washington state where heavy snow caused treacherous driving conditions in steven's pass. accidents and spinouts kept emergency road cruise very busy. more of the same in kansas, sleet, changed to heavy snow sunday. that brought traffic to a stand till in places like dodge city, but it is a completely different story in other parts of the midwest and the east. according to noaa at least 574 record daily highs were mild or

the first ten days of december, and that was before this past weekend which saw temperatures soaring into the 60s here in the northeast. you can expect more of the same today with temps expected to be up 30 degrees above average. i have just done al's job and i'm still going to throw to him and say, al, what's going on? >> i'll tell you, flat boy, we're looking -- i should talk. we've got the jet stream way up to the north so spring-like warmth is going to be hajjing out. big area of high pressure funneling this up. got a lot of patchy dense fog in the northeast so there could be some airport delays. look at these temperatures. today 65 in new york city and by wednesday it does cool down. 72 in raleigh and 53 in pittsburgh. charleston, we'll see a temperature of 72, and as we get into the midwest, just as warm with temperatures anywhere from 10 to 30 degrees above norm a. evansville will see a high of 60 degrees and kansas city stays chilly. now the jet stream is dipped down to the south we've got much colder air funneling down from canada and a big low pressure

snow storm start to make its way further and further to the east, but what we see for today is as the secondary storm comes out, look for an intensification of the snow. we are talking in the rockies anywhere from 12 to 18 inches of snow or more before this is all over. so we're watching this system as it makes its way east. the good news, guys, we're not going to see a big, big drop in temperatures here throughout much of the country. >> okay. >> al, thank you so much. we've got new information this morning on san bernardino shooting investigation and the warning signs that may have been missed, this as another survivor is speaking out today. nbc national correspondent miguel almaguer is in san bernardino. miguel, good morning to you. >> reporter: savannah, good morning. the inland regional center behind me where the shooting took place remains a focal point for investigators, this as they try to piece together what happened in the hours before and after the bloodshed h.as fbi investigates a mosque that was firebombed and another vandalized over the weekend dive

at this lake say their work here is done, though the investigation is far from over. federal agents believe syed farook and tashfeen malik dumped evidence here close to the time when they murdered 14 and wounded 222. jen stevens was shot twice. >> this guy comes in with a bick guy and starts shooting up, and, yeah, i just hit the ground. you don't really see the bullets or anything but you can hear them. they are really loud. >> reporter: with farook and malik radicalized as early as 2010 investigators fear the warning signs were most. malik posted ongy hawed on social media and supported it and wanted to be a part of it well before she was approved for her so-called fiancee visa into the u.s. >> i think we need to look had this very, very carefully which is what we're doing. >> reporter: today federal agents are still building their timeline between the shooting and shootout with police. in all, four and a half hours went by.

>> i saw them putting on what i believe to be bulletproof vests. >> reporter: sergeant andy capps was among first to engage the terrorists in the final shootout. >> we could not let them get away from there because it was apparent what they intended to do. they were going to fight with us and they were going to hurt more people and we just couldn't allow that n.snoosh another focus of the investigation continues to be enrique marquez, syed farook's longtime friend who bautd the assault rifles used in the shooting. he is not a suspect, but as he continues to work with investigators, he may be one of their best leads. matt and savannah? >> all right. miguel almaguer, thank you. a sad anniversary. flags will fly hat half staff in connecticut to market third anniversary of the mass shooting at sandy hook elementary school in new town. 26 people were killed. 20 children and 6 educators. this is the first time, by the way, since the 2012 shooting, that the anniversary has

in new town so counselors will be on hand for students and staff in every school. a moment of silence will be observed in the middle and high schools, but at elementary school there will be no mention of those shootings. and now to some welcome news on the economy. gas prices are dropping, even lower. looks like they may stay low through the holiday season. nbc's tom costello is at a gas station in mc clean, virginia. good morning. >> reporter: look at this, 1.94 in virginia. my photographer says he paid 1.74 recently and we are a little bit below the national average and nationwide prices going even lower into the christmas getaway. 'tis the season for gifting and americans are already getting a little something extra in their pockets. gas prices now the lowest in years. at pump, the national average now 2.01 a gallon. kansas has the cheapest gas,

most, 2.65 on average. how cheap is cheap? well, gas is now cheaper than a gallon of milk at 3.34, and even a small starbuck's cove at 2.15. >> on an inflation-adjusted basis looking at some of the cheapest gas prices since early 1970s. >> reporter: just last week gas was 2.04 and last month 2.19 and since last year prices down 55 cents. the highest national average was july 2008 when gas hit 4.10 a gll. the two top reasons for the plunge, the u.s. is swimming in oil. now, producing more than it imports. meanwhile saudi arabia keeps pumping more. cheap gas is good for u.s. car sales. 16 million vehicles have rolled off dealer lots and 59% of them light trucks and suvs. >> as long as prices stay around the $2 range people will consider bigger vehicles more

$5 a gallon. >> reporter: what's that brought yeleni in to buy an suv. >> gags was more than $4 and now it's $2 so that's pretty good. >> reporter: yeah. pretty good indeed. most experts say we couldan head lower in the coming weeks but likely to hang around $2 more or less for the next several years. by the way, look at heating oil prices. if you have cheaper oil and cheaper gas means cheaper oil prices for heating your house. looking at $1 a gallon lower than last year, so if and when winter ever does show up, you're likely to be paying less for heating your home. guys, 63 degrees here in northern virginia. back to you. >> tom costello bringing glad tidings of great weather and gas prices. >> hard to be talking about heating your home with temperatures in the 60s and 70s, but a lot of places just around the corner. >> and people are saving money on the heating bills so that's

wh . good morning everyone. a dense fog advisory in effect for much of new jersey until 10:00 this morning. limited visibility throughout the region. take good care on the roads. 62 should be the high. lots of clouds today. some showers and thunderstorms later on. and gusty conditions too. tonight down to 56 degrees. we'll clear out overnight after periods of heavy rain. and then as far as the next seven days, it's going to be nice on wednesday, thursday. another round of showers and then cooler as it should be into the weekend.

>> and that's your latest weather. matt is it. >> thanks very much. too hot to handle. amazon puts some brakes on hover boards after a series of fire. >> plus on rossen reports, kids, car seats and a big mistake many parents make in the winter months. what you need to do. this is a really important story, but, first, this is

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good morning. it's 7:27. i'm darlene rodriguez. we do have breaking news. a shooting that possibly involves police is under investigation in new jersey. news 4's lori bordonaro joins us from the scene in rochelle park. lori? >> reporter: darlene, we've now learned that it's a 46-year-old man who was injured in this shooting with two police officers. this all happened at about 3:30 this morning. the suspect identified as matthew chaseman of maywood. the shooting happened near his car parked here on passaic street. he was taken to the hospital with nonlife-threatening injuries. the officers were not hurt. authorities say a gun or pellet gun remains here at the scene. they're still investigating. back to you. here's emily west with a look at the commute. >> delays in the bronx on fordham road accident in the left lane.

subject to closure, harlem river drive southbound. 125th street. from there to willis avenue bridge. huge delays there. still trouble all over the place due to the fog. 287 northbound. right at exit 17. crash blocks two lanes. darlene darlene? >> thank you, emily. we'll take a quick break and be back with dave's forecast. quick look at your forecast. 62 should be the high today. the fog gives way to louds

some could be heavy at times. we're dipping down to 56 degrees. periods of heavy rain and thunder showers are possible. that's a quick look at your forecast. folks, back to you. >> dave, thank you. coming up on the "today" show, tina fey talks about her new movie sister and teaming up again with amy poehler. we'll have another local update in a half hour.

7:30 now on this monday morning, december 14th, 2015, and it does not feel like it. it's an unseasonal warm day here in new york city and all across the eastern seaboard. we actually hit 67 on sunday, and that snapped a 92-year-old record. it felt pretty good. we're going to talk more about that with al in a investment more about stories making headlines. our new national nbc news/"wall street journal" poll shows ted

lead in the republican presidential race, now just five point behind the front-runner. marco rubio is now in third place, followed by ben carson who has dropped 18 points after leading in that same poll in late october. >> president obama is making a rare visit to the pentagon today. on the agenda, he'll discuss the fight against isis with his national security team. >> and the postal service says today is the busiest mailing day of the year. officials recommend sending packages by december 21st if you want them to arrive in time for christmas. usps expects to deliver more than 1.5 billion pieces of mail this holiday season e coming up, what you could be doing that morning that puts your kids in danger. what jeff rossen shows why their kids should not wear winter coats while strapped in their car seats. >> we'll get to the that and new fallout this morning regarding the hover boards and some well-publicized incidents of them catching fire. so right in the middle of the

has decided to yank most of those devices off its site. overstock.com has dropped them all together and natalie has more on this. >> yeah. supposed to be the hot gift of the holiday season, but now the consumer products safety commission is assessing the risks associated with these motorized balance boards and recognizing their popularity. the agency says the investigation is at the top of their priority list. suddenly the host gift this holiday season has turned into a product too hot to handle it's on fire. >> because of growing safety concerns that some hover boards catch fire, amazon is removing most brands from its site and overstock.com is no longer selling them at all. this hover board caught fire causing thousands of dollars in damage. >> the hover board ignited while it was being charged and actually rolled over to a bed andig nate the the bedding in the bedroom. >> fortunately no one was hurt because lithium ion batteries

culprit, more than a dozen airlines are now banning hover boards from their flights. amazon is asking sellers for documentation demonstrating that all hover boards you list are complaint with applicable safety standards. but because they don't fall into a product category such as toys, hover boards aren't regulated and quality varies widely. >> i think it's a legitimate question to ask, if i buy a higher end version, am i getting a safer one and the answer is we don't know. >> one of the largest manufacturers is swagway. ellen degeneres gave one to justin bieber as a gift. in a statement swagway says it puts safety above anything else and exceeds government regulations and to date has no reports of any issues of batteries catching fire or explosions of any kind. we applaud amazon for taking these steps to weed out the low quality boards. >> experts say consumers should use caution with all hover boards.

reference material and make sure that they are not charged unattended and do not leave them on charge overnight. >> that's a goodity. also, the chief says look for the ual label that says the product has been tested and meets laboratory's safety standards. >> thank you very much. >> to the weather, al. >> all righty. wet weather is making its way towards us here in the east and we're also expecting to see more heavier showers and thunderstorms moving through chicago hand maybe some airport delays. atlanta seeing some rain. this is part of a vigorous storm system that's dumping all that snow out to the west. showers through the midwest and into the northeast today and on into tomorrow and as we move to the north of this system colder air will get its way into northern main where we may see some icing conditions, but rainfall generally going to be about an inch to half an inch of rain as we watch this system make its way and its exit on into the tlant all right. al said it.

lots of cloud cover and rain rolling in in the latter half of the day and into this evening. watch for a dense fog advisory in new jersey through 10:00 this morning. 62 should be the high today. windy too. wind driven rain later on today and maybe even thunder showers. down to 56 degrees tonight. we'll clear on out overnight. but it is going to be on the soggy side. there's your seven-day forecast. cooler temperatures heading into the weekend. record setting? maybe sod. today. >> don't forget. get your weather any time you need, it weather channel on cable and weather.com online. >> all right, al. we will. coming up, first it was the red cup and now a cooker that's become unbearable for certain starbucks customers and it's become popular on trending. >> and a warning for parents. >> coming up, the common mistake parents make in the winter. how you put your child in the car seat could mean the difference life and death. we have crash tests like that that mastering irresistibly smooth.

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no idea. i'm in the boat with you. talking about putting kids in the car seats while wearing their winter jacket. you think you're strapping them in and keeping their safe but you're really sweating them up for possible danger this. morning new crash test video that will help us all save a life today. >> this child dummy just went flying out of her car seat and watch this one, the little body violently tossed forward. she was happaned in, all looked good so what went wrong? here with sue from kids and cars and this my 3-year-old son blake and you say i've been making a mistake a lot of parents make about how i put blake in the car seat. >> i think you r.show me what you do. snap, snap and this feels snug to me. >> looks like it's tug and let's take him out and take the jacket off. so i do it. take blake out and remove that puffy coat and put him back in. snap, wow. >> look how loose the straps are now. >> this is unreal.

>> it's actually dangerous. >> reporter: to show you what can happen we're at this official crash test lab here in michigan. climb up here for a moment. we have, as you can see, a child dumby in a winter jacket strapped into a car seat and to meet straps feel pretty tight. simulate a crash down this track at 30 miles per hour. let's get it going. three, two, and right over here, one. >> the child dummy whipping forward and just watch when we runt test again. he goes flying out. even her jacket sliding right off. look at this, so scary to see up close. miriam runs the lab. what should we do. >> see a nice fit of the harness to the child's body, shouldn't be able to punch any webbing and this should at armpit level. >> reporter: an interesting tip and no puffy winter jacket in the car seat. >> that's right. >> reporter: and it makes all the difference. this time child dumby is

no winter coat, straps snug against its body. look at, that dummy stays right in the seat. come this way, it wonchlt that's the proof right this. >> and if you're worried about your child being cold in the car. here's the best advice >> instead of putting the coat on him, put the coat over him to keep him warm or use a blanket like this. does this work, buddy? >> yeah. thank you. a simple move to save your child from this. >> thank to you my son who had no idea what he was a part of in that car. no question, by the way, use the car seat is the best way to keep your kids safe. just remember strap them in without the winter coat on and by the way, this is interesting. the same advice goes for adults, too. don't sit behind the wheel and don't strap yourself in with a winter coat because the seat belt will not fit against you, the same exact thing. >> wow, eye opening. >> what are you doing tomorrow? >> tomorrow we have another very interesting story.

if you fall through ice. all part of our save my life series, and you can see i'm going in because this happens every single winter. already happened this year in fact. lakes and ponds across the country look frozen over but without warning the ice breaks right under you and we're going in to show you how you get out alive and i'm a good swimmer. it's harder than you think to get out. we'll show you the safety tips of how to get out, you or your friend. >> good morning. >> just ahead on "pop start," coming to a city near you. big news for adele fans out this morning. >> and coming up next, how people are enjoying this spring-like weather. >> cool off, wrangler. >> before the official start of red 97! set! red 97! did you say 97? yes. you know, that reminds me of geico's 97% customer satisfaction rating. 97%? helped by geico's fast and friendly claims service.

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lots of nice people out thereto on a warm morning. temperatures are a hot topic on social media. let's go to tamron in for carson in the original room. >> good morning, guys. coat or no coat. what a thema to have. many cities saw record high temperatures this weekend, as al reported earlier. some places are expected to reach as high at 30 degrees above average. so, of course, we took to social media asking you to share us how you soaked up the unseasonable heat, and you replied. amy tweeted out water skiing santa in buffalo, new york. that looks friend and danny posted from albany. love putting my lights up in t-shirt but where's my snow?

mike put this one out. mowing the grass, washing the car, 70-degree day in indiana. who would have thought on december 12th. putting that to work and msnbc's joe scarborough tweeted out this little ditty. christmas in connecticut feels more like l.a. in december, so keep your warm winter photos coming as we, guess, should embrace them because sooner or later, al, we won't be washing the car and wearing t-shirts and santa would have been frozen on that lake for sure. >> and out west it is very snowy and very winter-like. >> all right. >> enjoyable. i did see a dog with a sweater on yesterday. that seemed wrong. a little hot. coming up, how the warm weather could save you some cold hard cash during your next trip to the mall. >> also ahead, a very big week for our friend tina fey, a new

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good morning everyone. 7:56. it's 53 degrees out on a monday moorng, december 14th.

we have new information about this morning's shooting with police in new jersey. news 4 learned that a 35-year-old man was wounded in a shooting with officers around 3:30 this morning in rochelle park. the victim is identified as matthew chaseman of maywood. he was taken to the hospital with nonlife-threatening injuries. the details are unclear. but police say a gun or pellet gun remains at the scene. a stretch of first avenue is reopened on the upper east side for the first time in nearly a week. the avenue had been shut down between 61st and 64th streets since last monday when hundreds of bricks fell from the facade of a high-rise on 63rd. let's take a look at the morning commute with emily west. island. highway. there's a crash. you can see the heavy delays stretch around 112. several slowdowns there. in queens, grand central interchange, left lane blocked. trouble in the bronx. left lane taken up with an

george washington bridge. let's check the weather today. clouds, fog with showers possible later in the day. 62 is the high. tonight rain clears overnight. 56 degrees. tomorrow, gusty,er cooler, high of 60. thursday another chance much rain. 56. coming up on the "today" show, today's holiday cookie swap. get into the spirit with seriously sweet treats. stay tuned. welcome, to the simply orange tour. this is our plant. these are our workers. and this, is upper management.

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it's 8:00 on "today." coming up, warm weather hot deals y.this month's record breaking temperatures could mean big savings for shoppers this holiday season. plus, shaking it off. how taylor swift made up with apple and is now teaming up with them to bring her concerts to you. and it's a star-studded morning in studio 1a. kurt russell stops by to talk about his ruthless new role. >> no offense, cowboy, fella. just getting your attention.

fey brings the laughs as she talks about starring in "sisters" with her best buddy amy poehler. >> congrats on your wrestling championship. >> it's ralph lauren. >> is that how you say it? >> yes. >> do you get good wi-fi with that? >> "today," ", ," december 14th. >> from texas, we're loving our neck of the woods. >> here from san diego to get a hug from savannah. >> happy holidays from south carolina! >> merry christmas from santa clara on the "today" show. >> we're back now. 8:00 on a monday morning. it's the 14th day of december.

us that on december 14th we'd be out here with thin jackets we probably would have told you you're crazy. a nice start to the day. >> it's gorgeous out here. >> i don't even know why we're wearing coats. very exciting, tina fey is here, absolutely one of our favor ritz and has a new movie called "sisters" with amy poehler. aim here the other day and now tina's side of the storey. >> she and amy will be hosting "saturday night live" and that puts tina in an extremely exclusive club. talk about that coming up. >> first inside to natalie with a check of the top stories of the morning. nat, good morning. >> good morning to you, and in the news this morning egypt saying today it still has no evidence of a terrorism link and the downing of a russian passenger jet over egypt in october. russia is standing by its own finding that the plane with 224 people on board was destroyed by a bomb and an islamic state group claimed responsibility

air strikes in syria. russia has escalated those strikes in response to the incident. president obama and his national security team are meeting at pentagon this morning to fine tune their isis strategy. it's the president's first trip to the pentagon since the terrorist attacks in paris and san bernardino. in his weekly address the president said american air strikes are having an impact on isis leadership, fighters and weapons. a deadly police shooting in southern california sparked a public outcry this weekend. nbc's blake mccoy is in lynnwood, california, with new blake, good morning. morning. to you. this is not chicago. that is the message clearly on display here in los angeles this morning with the quick release of the surveillance tapes. authorities believe the tapes show the public was in danger and the shooting justified. >> no justice, no peace. >> no justice, no peace. >> for a second day outrage in los angeles. >> why do you keep on doing

>> reporter: other this cell phone video showing l.a. county sheriff's deputies opening fire shooting nicholas robertson as he walked away, firing 13 times, even as he crawled on the ground. it's unclear how many bullets hit robertson, but this video only shows part of the story. says the sheriff's department snow see the suspect entering the frame. weapon in hand. >> these surveillance clips released sunday just 24 hours after the shooting showed the man holding what appears to be a gun. deputies say they were called after he shot the weapon in the air at a residential neighborhood and briefly went into a pizzeria, gun in hand. >> he's handling the gun in an odd sort of way and seems to be agitated. >> reporter: even after falling to the ground, robertson still appears to be holding the gun. deputies believed they were in danger and so were two women and three children just feet away at the gas station. the sheriff says he's well aware

country surrounding police shootings. that's have he's being as transparent as possible so quickly, but critics say police cannot police themselves. they want an independent investigation. natalie? >> blake mccoy in lynnwood, california, thank you. now to some incredible video from san diego of a community coming together this weekend to help land a struggling hot air balloon packed with a gondola full of people that was coming ghoub a neighborhood. the balloon got caught in a tree on a roof and then on a car. eventually neighbors were able to pull its lines and guide it to a safe landing. and some holiday magic on display in england. builders were remodeling a house and they found a christmas wish -- list that was written 70 years ago. it was tucked inside the chimney and asked for things like a pair of slippers, a tie and a pencil box. the build efforts tracked down the boy who wrote it. he is now a 78-year-old grandfather brought him some of the presents that were mentioned on the list. >> cute. answered.

>> better late than never. >> natalie, thank you. winter officially arrives in what, eight days, but with unseasonably warm temperatures it hasn't felt that way across much of the country. >> but that's good news, could save you a bundle if you want to prepare for the dheeld will inevitable come. nbc's olivia sterns is we are that story. >> reporter: good morning, savannah. can you believe it was 70 degrees at jfk. that's wild. the last thing it makes you want to do is run out and buy a coat. the warm temperatures certainly chilly news for retailers as cold weather gear is pile up on shelves, but the good news for you, stores are looking to unload merchandise at a big discount. >> reporter: from coats to boots and hats and gloves scores are all geared up for the cold winter. the only thinged is the weather isn't cooperating. >> guess what? it feels like march out there. we are going to see temperatures that are way above normal. >> reporter: so far this season it's warmer, a lot warmer. in the northeast, november was 4

to 8 degrees higher in the midwest. and when it comes to winter clothing, all that sunshine means major markdowns. >> we have a great assortment within outerwear and we're offering really great values so it's a good time for customers to shot. >> a big bust for retailers stoktd up on inventory based on last year's cooler than normal weather. many this year blamed disappointing seasons on higher temperatures. unseasonably warm weather has really put a damper on coat sales and sales of boots and that's combined with the unusual mark downs you see this time and equals the huge savings bonanza. how bad is it? tweter sales down 3%, boots 2% and blankets plummeted down 10% compared to last year. what's bad news for retailers is

warm temperatures mean hot deal, up to 50 boston off or more. >> typically we don't see really heavy discounting until after the holiday. because inventory is so far they are trying to unlow merchandise 1z mace''s, j. crew and the gap, experts say, and if you're bargain hunting this is the year to pounce. >> now is the great time to give the gift of warmth, gloves, coats, hats, scarves. you're going to get great deals on these gifts and after the holidays you can buy some goodies for yourself. a couple of things to consider before you run out to the mall though or perhaps click checkout online, yes, coats and other winter gear are marked down right now, but the deepest discounts will actually be the week before christmas as steve

wait, the bigger the sale. worries they swroent your size or color left. some of the best deals at t.j. maxx, marshall's and main street retailers will have merchandise to unload and the discount stores will make out. not every brand, looking for high popular items like uugs or canada goode, as you know none of these go on sale. >> many used last winter as their guide. >> no polar vortex in sight. >> coming up, move over, maria. what conde-throned her song in stores? and never mind a dog. it's turkeys now tormenting your postal air year. >> and look who is here, miss tina fey to talk about her wild side and she will talk about

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[ laughter ] [ male announcer ] for tim and richard smucker, giving a gift of their family's delicious jam always made the holidays just a little bit sweeter. we forgot to put our names on them! richard, i think they'll know who it's from. thank you boys. you're welcome. you're welcome. [ male announcer ] happy holidays from our family to yours.

all right. we're back now. 8:12. good time for what's trend and here's a study that turns over an assumption a lot of people have about those who curse a lot. namely, that they are not very articulate and that they use four-letter words as a crux. we've all thought, that right? >> why are you looking at me? >> you're not that bad. people who swear frequently it turns out actually have larger vocabulary. scientists say those folks tend to be careful about using foul-mouthed language reserving the words for the right times, so we brought an exer in the on this topic because in her new movie "sisters" tina fey, it would turn out has one of the most extensive volk bris anyone has ever had. tina, you buy this? >> yeah. i think -- yes, i think there's a lot of beauty in curse words and when used perfectly they are elegant >> the a half fame cursor in

level cursing. >> probably the most you've are h in your entire career. >> yeah. >> that you've seen on camera. >> i like the study that stus they have bigger vocabulary. >> 0 extra curse words. >> we're going to talk to tina about that movie coming up. what's a typical work day for you guaranteed you? do not have to face anything like this guy. take a look. >> every day. >> wow. >> every day. >> every day. >> that's right. he fend off a flock of turkeys. yes, he's got that handy pole to keep them at bay. >> they do not like the mailman. >> not a lot more to this story but i have to say it's just hilarious. >> made it past thanksgiving and now we're coming for you. >> strength in numbers. next up, late starbuck's controversially. >> oh, boy. >> as if they needed another one. coffee chain became the target of social media for the red cups. some people say it wasn't christmassy enough.

kill polar bears, according to some. >> look at this the cooky. >> that star tux is now selling its cute little polar bear wearing a red scarf, right? >> anyone see anything else. >> get over it. >> yeah. >> well, to some online it's not a scarf, it's blood around the bear's neck. >> oh, come on! >> really? >> come on. >> a post about this went up last week, and it already has more than 3 million views. >> oh, boy. >> renewing calls of a war on ch ristmas. >> maybe a war on polar bears. >> why does it have to do with christmas? >> because it's a christmas cookie. >> the polar bear cookie was discontinued in 2010, starbuck's saying part of a rotating holiday cookie. >> so those are old cookies. >> pictures of former cookies. >> i think they brought them sglak did they bring them back? >> so they are back now. >> they are adorable. >> i don't see it.

>> i could. >> oh, they are not back. >> people reacting to old pictures. >> yes. >> discontinued. >> so their outrage is also -- >> outdated -- >> what the -- >> big news from adele and taylor swift and a big honor for one of the most iconic women in sports. let's to ""pop start." >> adele just announced this morning, next year, she will launch her first north american tour. it kicks off july 5, st. paul, minnesota and wraps up in mexico city and in between she will hit l.a., new york, washington, nashville, miami, atlanta and dallas. >> see you there. >> yes, we will. >> mark your calendars and tickets go on sale this thursday at 10:00 a.m. >> i know what i'm doing -- focused on next week. >> set your alarm, and to get an idea of what to expect. watch adele's special "live in

here on nbc and next to "sports illustrated" and the coveted honor of their sports person of the year. certainly many worthy candidates so who is joining the ranks of muhammad ali, billie jean king and michael jordan? this year the honor goes to the great serena williams. the magazine saying this year serena proved to be a force on and off the court, winning three major titles and completing her second serena slam. >> kind of shy. >> she didn't want to come from behind the curtain. >> and she did it also fighting for racial justice and gender equality. serena saying she's beyond honored for recognition. congrats to her and i saw on al's instagram picture he hung out with serena williams and next taylor swift at one point this year she threatened to boycott apple. why are you laughing, savannah is. >> was just peeping his i gi account. >> that's what the kids are saying.

with social media without you doing abbreviations on me. >> do you neo-know what keep the i.g. to look. >> look at the i.g. account. >> probably the instagram. >> that's why it would be great. >> moving on. let me go back to my script. where are we? taylor swift. >> thank you. >> at one point this year she threatened to boycott apple, but in a big shift she's now doing business with them. taylor inking a deal so apple can exclusively stream footage from her 1989 concert tour which just wrapped on saturday. it will be available to subscribers to apple music. taylor turned 26 on sunday. happy birthday, taylor. happy belated one to her. finally, mariah carey known as the queen of christmas thanks to her mega hit california all i want for christmas is you." for 20 years the most holiday played song at retailers across the country and the play list provided bid plate network, and that company now says that for the first time since the song's release in 1994 there's a new

paul mccartney "wonderful christmas time" and mariah's classic is now second. that's your "pop start." >> your kids will be impressed when you go home today. >> i'm sure they will. >> check of the weather. >> let's get to it and show what you we've got going on, and we're looking at a big storm system right now out west and here in the east. snow in parts of the men ask a and iowa. wet weather through chicago. the good news is we are going to be looking at temperatures that are staying nice and mild here in the eastern two-third of the country. no big changes there. the cooler weather though is going to be banked out west, eventually makes its way east and 80s in florida and 70s along the mid-atlantic coast and 67s throughout the ohio and wet weather making its way from the upper midwest to the northeast. patchy dense fogg here in the

and another storm . . . that dense fog that you talked about, we've got it around the tri-state area. keep that in mind. that's going to give way to clouds, clouds eventually give way to rain. some heavy at times. thundershowers possible tonight. gusty all day. 62 should be our high temperature today. as we head through the next several days, gusty conditions, tomorrow. plenty of sunshine on wednesday. more rain thursday and friday and a cool weekend ahead. matt? >> all right. a thank you very much. one of the most entertaining teams in comedy getting together again. tina fey and amy poehler star in the new movie "sisters" playing siblings determined to throw an epic party before their parents sell their childhood home. >> danger. walk away. that's a black diamond slope. >> why aren't you partying? >> because i'm the designated mom tonight.

do you have kids? >> i'm sure i do. >> he doesn't seem like your type for some reason. tina, good morning. >> nice to see you. good morning, matt, how are you? >> thank you. >> can we go back to the cursing subjects. >> i'd love to. >> sometimes you watch a movie and an actor or actress with a lot of cursing in the dialogue. don't seem that comfortable with it. this is like one those cases. >> like an old swaddling blank fret my baby times. very comfortable to swear. amy and i, an r-rated movie and while jokes are not all just swearing, there are real jokes, fun for us having done broadcast tv, you know, for 20 years between us to be able to curse a little bit. >> the dialogue between the two of you is very, very funny. >> thank you. >> you get back together and you plate wilder older sister. >> yes. >> and she plays the more good-natured and good hearted sister. >> yes. >> art imitating life. is the that the way we should be? >> in real life i would say

it was so fun for me to play the out-of-control wrecking ball sister with the situation listed up, and it -- it was just so fun to be with maya and people we've known forever. very good time for sure. >> when you do an "snl" reunion like that with maya and amy and bobby main hate. >> kate mckinnon. >> do you approach movie differently in the shooting process because you have some family? >> the writer at "snl" for many years, paula, she would sit on set and write more jokes while we were shooting, write jokes on post-its and hand them in to us and trust everyone to improvise. can you turn maya on and roll on her for an hour. >> you throw this party and throw all the kids that were part of your group or sometimes outside your group in high school. >> yes. >> and anybody watching the movie can check off all those people. we've all had those people in our lives. >> yeah. >> which takes me back to you as

>> i was like -- a high functioning nerd, you know, like editor of the school paper, and choir, so we have our own little subset of friend. not a drop of alcohol. >> if i told your friends in high school at the time that you would go on to become this tina fey they would say or have said? >> they would say she only has one eyebrow, how is she going to work out? i'm going to wax them and make two. >> this would be surprising to your high school? >> i would think so. >> you're going back to host "snl" with amy this week. that puts you, i'll rolled names, puts you in an, teamly here they are here. >> yes. >> all my boyfriends. >> the five-timers club. >> the five-timers club. >> yeah, when lorne called and said amy and i want to host together, yes, but i have to ask you a really serious question, if we host together does it count to getting me in the five-timers club?

>> alec once hosted with kim basinger and they count it had. >> treating it like major league baseball stats. >> not being funny in, career highlights, that would be where? >> that would be like third behind lighting the christmas tree once with you and then this interview right now. >> that's good. really. you've been doing a lot of publicity for the movie. >> yes. >> let me fact check on a couple of things that have come out during interviews of late. amy poehler sometimes calls you bet? >> yes. >> my first name is really elizabeth. elizabeth tina so she knows people know that so she calls me betty. >> is betty a term of endearment or because iaged? >> i think it's a term of endearment. >> amy admired a joke you told about catherine the sglat. >> yeah, probably. again, so good at swearing. not a joke i could tell you right now.

catherine the great? >> because of my high swearing vocabulary. >> there's another up, you apparently want one thing for christmas. >> just want to take a nap. >> you want pot holders? >> i do want pot holders. my pot holders are worn out. i'm turning into my movement i don't want anything. you understand it now. when you're a mom, i don't want anything. >> are you that big a cook? >> matt, you ruined christmas! and gave it to me early. these are nice, thank you. i'll seriously use these. >> put them under the tree and pretend you didn't get them until christmas day. >> i will do that. >> this movie very funny, but the way. >> thank you. >> opened on friday and catch tina and amy back on "snl." >> thanks, matt. i'm seriously pumped about these, our pleasure. >> thank you so much.

good morning, 8:26. it is monday morning, december 14th. i'm darlene rodriguez. today marks three years since 20 children and six adults were killed by a gunman at sandy hook elementary. this falls on a school day. there will be a moept ment of silence at the middle and high school. they plan to keep everything as normal as possible. let's take a look at the morning commute. here is emily west. there are delays, staten island. southbound tonnelle circle, 20 at the holland, 40 at the lip con. 25 at the george. a disabled bus there. also, delays 21 southbound near chester avenue.

delays around the kew gardens international. let's check the weather, clouds, fog, showers possible later. 62, the high. tonight rain clears, 56. tomorrow, gusty, cooler, high of 60. coming up on the "today" show, jeff rawson shows you how to avoid this season's holiday shopping scams. stay tuned. thousands of people came out today to run the race for retirement. so we asked them... are you completely prepared for retirement? okay, mostly prepared? could you save 1% more of your income? it doesn't sound like much, but saving an additional 1% now, could make a big difference over time. i'm going to be even better about saving. you can do it, it helps in the

prudential

. we're back now. it's a monday morning, the 14th of december, 2015. 384:30 in the morning. pretty day out here on our plaza, huge crowd and huge happy

holidays, and by the way, a golden globe nominated series star "fargo" is the our little elf. we'll talk to kristen coming up. that's a good find. >> oh, my gosh. >> look at this bear. >> pigger than her. >> good morning, everybody. nice to have you on our plaza. >> also ahead as we just told people kurt russ sell here. >> wrangler. >> we'll have a little talk with wrangler after that. kurt is here and starring in the new quentin tarantino film called "the hateful eight" including the epic stash that he had to grow for the role. >> all right, and we put out the call for sweet treat and the highlight in today's holiday cookie swap and this morning we finally get to sink our teeth into our first delicious batch. >> that's right. >> and, folks, don't forget. we are throwing our good friend will yard scott a big retirement sendoff tomorrow.

a look back at some of our favorite willard moments. >> looking forward to. a lot to get to in this half hour starting with the weather. >> looking at week ahead. start off with a flood threat in the northern plains in the early part of the week and wintry in the northern plains and heavy snow back through the rockies that. snow continues in the pacific northwest and mid-week heavier rain making its way into the northeast, mid-atlantic states and storms along the east coast and the latter part of the week, sunshine for the eastern two-third of the country with mountain rain and snow and hangs around. you can see it stays warm here in the east and cold out west and mid-week still toasty in the east. much below normal through the rockies and then the latter part of the week things start to normal out. the plaza looks great. around the reege gion, we have dense fog and dense fog in effect until 10:00 and sections of new jersey and limited visibility. 62 should be the high clouds for

rain later on and some heavy rain tonight. thunderstorms i should say are possible too. late overnight clearing. seven days ahead. looks like we are on our way to cooler temperatures finally as we head into the weekend. more rain on thursday. quick look at the weather. check your weather any time you need it. go to the weather channel on cable or weather.com online. well, this morning we're launching a new make your today series called "pay it forward. ""all of us picked a special person or organization that's meant something to tus and tried to do something special for them. >> today it's my turn and this one is close to home for all of us because i picked someone from our family, our "today" show family. >> welcome to "today" on a busy tuesday morning. >> over the course --

show in the morning, this is the view you're used to seeing, but this is my view of the dozen of people working furiously behind scenes to get us on the air every day. eric hill is one of those people. eric has been a production assistant on "today" for almost 30 years and is someone i always look forward to seeing, and i'm not alone. >> every time you walk past eric, he's got a smile on his face and a chuckle in his that's right. >> eric is one of the greatest guys i've ever known. >> eric goes above and beyond to make sure that everyone who comes into his life feels special. >> but for the last six months we've been missing eric because he's been in his hometown of pittsburgh, pennsylvania, being treated for stage four colon cancer, and even though right now he's in the in the studio every morning, we wanted him to know that we are right by his side and maybe one small thing

>> here it is, 929th annual macy's thanksgiving day parade. >> for the last 24 years eric has been with us at the macy's thanksgiving day parade, taking his annual christmas card photo with us, his cohorts. from his very first photo in 1990 with katie and willard. >> doesn't seem like thanksgiving though without a picture of you, me and matt, eric, and i miss, that and i miss you. >> it's always something we look forward to. >> it was very, very special, because you saw in him the true meaning of the holidays. just like a little kid. >> as the years progressed and so did the themes and costumes from a christmas carol to a christmas story, from rudolph to ghost busters and elf. we've always been happy to be eric's elves, and this would have been his 25th anniversary at the parade, but eric's health didn't permit him to be there, so we didn't want him to miss a special milestone.

>> with the help of a cardboard cutout and several wacky costumes we tried to do what eric would have wanted. >> eric, we wish you a speedy recovery. we miss you, pal. we love you. have a really happy holiday, doctor's orders. >> come back soon. >> take two of these and call us in the morning. >> as we snapped our photos for eric we knew that mailing this card wouldn't do. we wanted it to be a special delivery. we sent one of our camera crews to pittsburgh. all we told eric was that we were shooting staff holiday greetings. he had no idea i was there. >> it's been incredible journey because it's -- it's family. we joke sometimes like i'll see andrew and a couple other people, joanne, like who are the lifers, who -- who survived, but you meet some great people coming back and forth. >> did you say family? >> family. >> hello, good buddy. >> my god. >> how you doing? >> this is a gotcha.

>> i love you, i miss you. >> we miss you too. >> doing good. i'm great now. >> are you. >> we wanted to come out here and you just said family, 28 years. >> mm-hmm. >> for 24 of those 28 years you have come to the thanksgiving day parade with your crazy costumes and your wacky props. >> mm-hmm. >> and you've dressed us all up and we've taken those amazing pictures for your holiday card. >> you've been great sports. >> and i know you, eric, were disappointed you couldn't be there to celebrate the 25th anniversary of that. >> yeah. >> and we were disappointed, too. we really were and we didn't want you to think that we wouldn't let that milestone or would let that milestone go by without stopping to do something special. so after the parade we got together. >> yeah. >> and we took some liberties. you were there in spirit. >> and the i want to show you that we didn't forget the 25th.

>> a cardboard cutout and there in herald square we said 25 years, happy holidays. >> that is -- >> i'm lost for words. that is awesome. and you dressed up. >> so it's our way of saying having a happy holiday, doctor's orders. >> we miss you. >> you're the best. i miss you guys, too. >> and we really do miss eric hill. we're hoping he's watching this morning and getting better and recovering than he can be back to the 26th macy's day parade. >> not the same without you, eric. we miss you so much. >> miss. >> you and we love you, and i hope to see you soon. >> tomorrow i'm going to pay it forward a little bit, too, with some kids going through a tough time that i can definitely relate to, and we'll tell you about that. up next, kurt russell on his new golden globe nominated move "the hateful eight" but first on

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we're back now at 8:30 with kurt russell who stars as one of the despicable characters, and we mean that in the nicest way in tarn tarn's highly anticipated movie "the hateful eight." take a look. >> you ain't got mixed emotions about bringing a woman. >> by woman, you mean her? no. i do not have mixed emotion. >> so you take in. >> you bet. >> you going to wait around and watch it? >> you know i am. >> i want to hear her neck snap in my own two ears. >> good lines, and i actually think you're the facest of the hateful eight. i actually think you're like the sweetie of the try. >> of course, so do i. >> tarantino hand picked you for this role and he loved you.

can use what we said about you and says you're a bad ass and he wants everyone to see that. >> he does, i guess, enjoy putting me in these roles. had a great time with him and this one was fantastic. the cast is the -- they are just a great group of people they are fantastic at what the they do, and quintin's just unique. there's only one of him. >> the script is so clever and got nominated for a golden globe, by the way. >> let's just talk about what we have to talk about, the mustache. >> that took a little while. >> like its own character in the film. >> that's true, true. >> so many questions. is it real, was it real? >> yeah, yeah, took about four months to grow. >> no, no. >> i did a picture just before this and i went of the went to the halfway house with more of a mustache and shaved the beard and let mustache keep going. it's like a mustache wearing a man. >> really is. if there could be a golden globe for the mustache you would get

competition. >> a lot of people said that deserves an award. >> how did the mustache go over at home? >> not real gooded. >> how did goldie like it? >> ears ago when i had "tombstone" i had a pretty decent sweeper going and i learned then that goldie wasn't a big fan and actually neither was i and she understood we would have to muscle through it and it was real nice when it came off. >> by the way, it looks like -- nice shoot in the sense that you like everybody, but the conditions looked incredibly grueling. you're in a plies ard for most of it. >> well, you know, in the process of shooting it and where we shot it, turl i'd only four hours from or place in aspen. i'm very used to that. i love that part of the world. i love being there and being in that environment, so it wasn't bad. it really wasn't bad. we had a pretty nice winter and had as much snow as we needed in all of that, but, yeah, your feet get cold. >> tarantino has two rules on

one no, electronic gadgets and, two, no nap. what is he, a sadist? that's terrible >> you really don't want to go here. >> really, why? >> because -- >> that just makes me want to go there more. >> i lost -- be careful what you say here, you might get what you wish for. you know, he doesn't let -- nothing is turned on or off which everybody loved. >> yeah. >> but other one, napping, i've grown up on sets and love napping, and he just doesn't like it when you go to sleep so if you do go to sleep there's a thing called big jerry that's going to be snuck in beside where you are taking and they will take a picture and you will go on the wall of shame and i'll leave big jerry alone. >> going tele. >> little early in the morning for big jer. >> i shouldn't, have i forgot about the second part of story. kurt rils, thank you so much. "the hateful eight" opens in

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back now at 8:46 with a kickoff to today's holiday cookie swap. >> all this week we're going to get into the spirit of the season with our favorite seasonal treats. >> it's the most wonderful time of the year. made of sugar and spice and everything nice. >> when i bite into my favorite cookie, it makes me feel like a kid again. >> when i think cookies, i think deliciousness. >> when cookie searches are at an all-time high and three-quarters of americans consume more cookies than any other month of the rear. >> nothing beats the perfect moist, soft, yet still somewhat gooey cooky. >> sugeary, chocolate chip and ginger bread along the most popular.

chinese almond cookied with the chocolate in the middle. >> america, we asked you to tell us your favorite. >> my favorite cooky is from helen's kitchen in charlotte, north carolina. secret is it's a great cookie and then she sprinkles a little sea salt on top, mwah. >> and give a shout-out to the bakeries that made them. >> my favorite is lavanes dark chocolate peanut butter chip. >> when i think cookies, i think happiness. >> and you answered. today's great american cookie swap, georgia, you voted for the toffee cookie and ohio the buckeye, and california, persimmon cooky. >> it takes gooded. >> this is like a blueberry muffin if it were smashed down into a perfect little cookie, just like in a. >> so go ahead and indulge and take a bite out of holiday season. >> we are such dorks. a few weeks ago we started our nationwide hunt for great

nate an awesome bakery in your state. >> submissions poured in and we picked the bakers that rose to the top and our first match from michigan, texas and colorado starting with chill mcclear fretom's mom cookies in harbor springs, michigan. cheryl has worked there for 20 years and owned the company for 20. good morning. good to see you. >> good morning. >> people say franchise this out and you say no why? >> i say no because if i keep it small i'll keep it good and i want it good always. >> your cookie res see what is. >> white chocolate with pupper sglint what makes it special? >> a lot of peppermint. >> so i'm going to add some white chocolate chips in here and peppermint sticks, a little more white chocolate and peppermint extract and you have got to add a lot of that. there's already some in the dough and i added that. >> mix that together.

>> delicious. >> oh, my -- >> mm-hmm. >> a mouthful and you have to introduce our next baker. caly ann buck, amazing, also a college student and has her own bakery and making beautiful chocolate chip cookies and you -- you're a student. i don't understand how you have time to do all this. >> yes, actually, when i started the company i took a semester off from school and now that i'm back in school in boston and i have two texas a&m students that continue the business and we run it together. >> what's the name of your company, caly-in cookie. >> i like that. >> we like to pull them out of the oven about three minutes before and the edges will be a little bit crispy and when you pull them out you leave them on the pan for 10 to 15 minutes and let them continue to cook and from there you take them off and boda-bing, they are done. >> so you're take them a little bit before they are done.

>> usually like three minutes. >> great. >> like them soft and chewy. >> last but not least, representing denver, colorado, danon moore from cake crumbs. she opened her bakery eight years ago and people come from all over for the cookies. good morning. happy holidays? what was your reason for starting your business it is. >> i love cakes and decorating and i live in the neighborhood where we are and i really wanted to create something that could be designed for a community successfully think that's great. >> the cookie you're making is an oatmeal cranberry cookie. what's the secret to it. >> >> the cranberries. >> yeah. >> do you use fresh cranberries? >> no, we don't. we used dried cranberries because i don't like raisins, but, really, huge scoop. growing up as a colorado skier i loved giant cookies at the end of a good ski day so big or go home. >> and when you use the ice cream scoop like that they all

>> that's great. >> thank you. thanks for all the recipes, and by the way, if you want to learn more about these recipes head to today.com/food. we'll introduce you to more bakers in just a little whooil. >> all right. coming up next as we get set to celebrate the great willard scott tomorrow, we'll take a look back at one of his signature moment on the show >> these were awesome. >> burks fir, this is "today" on

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today's thank you, willard, is sponsored by smuckers. thanking willard for the 20 great years of friendship. >> well, this morning we have to say how by thor sweet it is. after 35 years here at "today" willard is retiring tomorrow. we have a huge party planned. >> that's right. over the years we calculated that willard has helped smuckers wish more than 40,000 americans happy birthday as they reach the incredible milestone of 100 years old, but he's not only famous for birthdays. one of willard's most iconic moments came when he dressed up on a dare for charity as carmen miranda long before there were viral moments, there was willard scott. >> long before matt started cross-dressing, willard was cross-dressing. >> carmen miranda. >> carmen miranda. >> boom, here's carmen miranda.

there. >> they are still talking about it. that was one of those moments on television that became a phenomenon. >> i'll never get that image out of my head. >> everybody was blown away. >> there was a heartfelt reason for doing it. >> i'm a big man of uso. >> we thank you. >> it was for charity. it was to help people. >> if you didn't think i had fun, you are crazy. >> if the internet had existed when willard did carmen miranda. he would have broken the internet. >> so great. >> such a great moment. >> people were talking about that for week. >> one of the first things people mention when we say his name. again we'll have a approximate very proper sendoff for will yard tomorrow on "today" to cap his remarkable run here at nbc. >> he's a legend. >> i love it. >> and he dressed up as boy george once. he really literally has done it all. >> matt, you really carried that tradition on proudly. >> with a genius to have inspired me.

>> a lot more about will yard tomorrow and much more on a monday morning. what's coming up next hour? >> we've got kristen sitting around to talk with us. >> and our cookie swap as well. >> and we finally get to sink our teeth into youmy cookies. >> i'm going to finish my cooky. >> which is delicious. >> lots more.

good morning, everyone. it is 8:57. 54 degrees on a monday morning. it is december 14th. i'm darlene rodriguez. >> police hope surveillance video will lead them to a pair of armed robbers in the bronx. the video shows two suspects holding up a body shop last friday. they forced a customer and employee into a back room at gunpoint. no word of anyone getting hurt. police say the robbers got away with $2000. let's check the weather, clouds, fog, showers possible later in the day. 62, the high.

overnight. 60. wednesday, mostly sunny, 54 degrees. back. actress, kristen miliotti.

this morning on "today's take," "sisters," the countdown is on to the comedy of the year. we've got one of the stars and then hollywood shopping scam, by the gift card you just bought may not be worth anything and three of the most delicious christmas cookies you'll ever eat. all that and more coming up now. >> announcer: from nbc news. this is "today's take" with al roker, natalie morales, willie geist and tamron hall live from studio, 1a in rockefeller plaza. >> welcome to "today," it's monday morning.

it's 2015. there's a great holiday crowd on plads ashe. inside i'm willie along with al, willie and tamron. my morning jam "express yourself" by n.w.a. >> yeah. >> last week. >> hanging with him. >> and been in that n.w.a. mood, that and sinatra and his 100th birthday, that kind weekend. >> that's good. >> great mash-up. >> am, let's talk about the >> yes. >> did we head 72 in new york? >> jfk got to 70 degrees sunday. >> incredible. >> it's -- it's been nuts. so many cities saw record high temperatures. in fact, according to the national oceanographic administration, national centers for environmental information, at least -- the first ten days of december, this is before this weekend, 574 record daily highs have been tied or broken. >> wow. >> during the first ten days.

that looks like an apocalypse. >> in fact today some places could be 0 degrees above average. >> come on, wow. >> is it true that this is going to continue potentially through christmas? >> well, it's going to moderate, but right now brutally cold, unusually cold weather is still banked up in canada. seeing below normal temperatures out west which we'll get into a little bit and cherry blossoms in washington, d.c. popped out again, and you can see buds on your freeze, it's not going to be a problem because they will re -- reblossom. >> right. >> once they go back into hibernation. >> crazy to see. >> it is. >> last week, first great class at an elementary school in new york tossed their coats into the air to celebrate unusual -- >> that's who you want to hang out with. that's the crew you want to hang out with. >> and not to be undone santa

in the niagara river in buffalo hanging ten. >> oh, come on. >> you don't see that. >> don't see that every day. >> remember this time last year, buffalo was like in a state of emergency. they were buried. >> doesn't seem christmassy enough though. out in short and t-shirts. >> other parts of country, florida, california. >> generally. >> i need a little cold. >> you need snow, really? >> yeah. >> i need like the scarves and mittens and put if on and walk around. >> i don't mind this. >> al, here's my theory based on absolutely nothing. >> okay. >> it's a setup. get the mild weather and then we're going to get slammed with a horrible winter. >> in the northeast -- that's the what happen, we have fairly mild weather in december and boom. we're in an el nino year right now which means colder, wetter out west and a little drier, warmer here as we get into january and february, a little wetter and then a little colder. >> yeah. >> so we will eventually get our

what have ld be a record el nino which means warmer than unusual temperatures. >> comparison to your point about last year, remember dylan all over boston. >> i mean. >> by this time. >> i was talking to dylan about this on friday. by this time last year she was already literally burnt out. she had been on the road for weeks covering brutal weather. >> and the people in the northeast burnt out. >> dylan, keep sleeping in. >> natalie mentioned some of us can't get into the christmas spirit without some snow around and christmas music, that should be able to help a little bit. >> yes. >> so the university of illinois has set up a 24/7 service, get this. you call in and you choose a song, and a student will sing it to you live. it's the whole new meaning to rent party. >> we've been doing this for years, since 1960s. >> just got in on the party. >> that's good to know. >> better late than never. >> we just -- somebody told me it was trending. >> well, in 1960. >> well, it was. >> a slow long trend.

>> "washington post" did a story on it. >> okay. both of my parents went to the university of illinois and this pre-dates them. this is a long tradition. >> wow. >> but it's a great tradition. >> and just now catching on. >> so, do we check it out. because they have been on hold since the '60s just for you. >> your call will be received shortly after this message. please have your name and location from where you're coming from. >> what song do we want to hear? >> it make take us a few moment to get you your song. >> thank you and happy holidays. >> what song do we want? >> "last christmas." >> she goes right to wham. >> "last christmas" i gave you my that's right. >> that's sad. >> gave the heart and then she tore it apart. >> the they are on the phone. >> they are on the phone. >> happy song. >> "hark the herald angels sing."

the name of it. >> hi, university of illinois, we'd like "hark the herald the angels sing." >> the what is your name? >> my name is sharon. >> hi, sharon. >> runt in the middle of finals right now? >> my name is sarah. >> hi, sarah. how are you? >> so you're ready. >> we're ready. >> three, two, one. hark the herald angels sing glory to the newborn king peace on earth and mercy mild gott god and sinners reconcile the joy full all ye nations rise join the triumph of the skies with angelic hosts pleau claim christ is born in bethlehem hark the herald angel sings glory to the newborn king

>> fantastic. >> nice. >> are you in the christmas spirit now? >> i'm much better now, thank you, university of illinois. >> that's amazing. >> you guys are terrific. >> let me ask them one more thing to make sure they are illini. i-l-l. >> i-n-i. >> that gets you in. >> don't sound like you've been singing sin oat 60s and bless your hearts. we're so happy. >> do you have a tip jar. >> we should give you something. >> what do you guys get out of it? mugs. >> that's the christmas spirit. they don't get anything out of it other than bringing christmas joy to others. >> we'll send you guys "today" show mugs. >> signed "today" show mugs, not the ones from the gift shop. >> you might not want the signed ones. >> erasing names every day. >> you know. >> it's your choice, but i would go with the plain ones. >> that you knew the lyrics just like that.

>> have a little thing called a computer in front of them. >> but they didn't know our song. >> i'm impressed. >> i think that's amazing. >> great job, guys. >> thank you. >> well done. they are in the middle of finals right now, too, so. >> that's good. >> all staying up 24/7 to sing to us. >> how about the christmas lists with the hover boards. >> here, josh my son wanted -- wanted is the key word. >> uh-oh. >> and maybe the biggest gift of the holiday season or at least it was, but even santa apparently had a little messup on a hover board. take a look at this the. >> oh, no. >> merry christmas. >> ow. >> well, you remember that video, i guess it went viral. >> that still hurts no, matter how many times he did that. >> could have been worse and caught on fire. >> is that the hover's board? i feel like that it was santa's fault. >> steer issue. >>the door should have been made wider.

>> i just want to say one thing, please. >> let's top calling these hover boards. they are not hovering. they are not hovering. they are wheels. they are on the ground. it's not marty mcfly time. >> what are they called? >> they are not hover boards so start -- stop calling them hover boards. >> they are more of a rover board. >> your turn. >> okay. >> anyway. as you've heard by now, no doubt seen hover boards, mono rovers, whatever you want to call them, they have become safety concerns because the lithium ion battery inside of them are causing some to catch fire and now amazon has pulled some of its brands from its sight. overstock.com is not selling them at all, and amazon is asking for some sellers to provide documentation that they comply with the safety standards. so bottom line is because they are not a toy they don't fit into the toy category. they are not really regulate. >> hmm. >> so a lot of kids i think are going to be upset. >> santa doesn't deliver that

>> when you say santa doesn't bring it because of safety, there's no reason to be upset. >> i tried it on the plaza and nearly fell off of it and i'm pretty good on skates and skis and whatever so it took some figuring out and now that's not even the risk anymore. >> to al's point. so many different ones and even my neighborhood a couple of pop-up shops have started selling them. >> a lot haven't been through testing or complaint the standards. >> not a good idea to ride through your neighborhood on fire. >> probably not. >> speaking of on fire, look at warmth that we've got here in the east. there's that high pressure pumping up and the jeemp is way up to the north, so today we'll see a high of 64 here in new york city. by wednesday it cools down to 63 and charleston tomorrow 75 degrees and look at this. 54 in chicago by wednesday and 61 in evansville and 42 in kansas city, but then the cool

the jet stream has dipped down and so with this low pressure moving through you can see that swirl. we're seeing snow making its way from kansas on into parts of illinois and iowa, i should say, and we've got a deets ent amount of snow coming in with that cold air, upwards of a foot and a half or more through the rockies and cascades and great news for the skiers. the christmas gift there for anybody who lovers to ski. that's >> and that's your late weather.

coming up next "rossen reports live," yeah, live, baby, from gift cards that are empty before you use them to fake websites. just got a warning about three common skaks and how to karl, don't you have friends coming over? yeah, so? it stinks in here. you've got to wash this whole room are you kidding? wash it? let's wash it with febreze. for all the things you can't wash, use... ...febreze fabric refresher whoa hey mrs. webber inhales hey, it smells nice in here and try pluggable febreze... ...to continuously eliminate odors for... ...up to 45 days of freshness pluggable febreze and fabric refresher... ...[inhale + exhale mnemonic]... ... , two more ways to breathe happy pain from your day can haunt you at night, don't let it. advil pm gives you the healing

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we are back now with another installment of "rossen reports live" and today we're exposing holiday scams. >> national correspondent jeff rossen did some digging to uncover three of the biggest cons that are happening rate now. good morning, jeff. >> start off with the gift cards right beside you there. >> you're scared of gift cards? my fear is always that you'll buy it and then you'll give it to someone and it wasn't activated there. he's no verification. >> this is along those lines. >> we have some of the most popular gift cards on my hand. you go to the store and buy them for somebody and what the thieves are now doing is going tonight racks of stores and they are turning the gift cards over, have this one right here, zoom

what, they are doing is they are scratching off, took a freeze-frame of it, see that little number on bottom right at the bottom of the card, scratching off the number and putting it back in the rack so when you go bite card most don't look to make sure it's not scratched off and when you go to activate it they keep calling the number to see when the thing has been activated and they have that code and they spend it before you can spend it. >> what can you do to protect sglurs when you go to the rack and bite gift cards, make sure you're buying it and it's actually sealed up. if not a lot of stores sell them loose, flip it over and make sure it is not scratched out, and a lot of stores keep it behind the counter. that's always the best advice to you. >> okay. >> make sure nothing is scratched out. >> a lot of us love online shopping and thieves are getting in on that as well when your package is left. >> this is huge. >> we talk about this on the "today" show every single holiday season and this is when the thieves go to doorsteps and know a lot of gifts are being delivered and they steal them

we actually have some video to show you of this in action. i think we do. >> we do. >> there we are. these thieves walk up. how heartless is that stealing these gift. actually a case of a woman, a mom, who stitched together a bunch of t-shirts of her killed in action soldier son and there she is right there. it was delivered to her, a company did it, and a heartless thief stole it right off her doorstep and police got the thief later on but there are ways to avoid this. >> are these thieves cruising the neighborhood. >> they follow delivery trucks and will find a ups truck and fedex truck and any one of the delivery service and actually run to the doorstep when the guy takes off because most people aren't home during the day and note critical hours during the day you're probably not home. >> what do you do. >> ways to avoid it. number one, manage your deliveries in most cases. what you want to do is click on that box where you get it delivered at a certain time and

track your delivery. how easy is that, they give you the number. i like this one, too, if your employer al thousand have it delivered to work and that way you know there's sub-there, you can actually take it and the other way to do it, the best advise, set up the shipping across to your local fedex or post office and then you pick if up how you want to. >> if there's a business like you frequent, dry cleaners, some of them will let you if you're a good customer since someone is usually there 9:00 to 5:00 kind of hours. >> third scam has to do the website you are shopping on the make sure they are authentic. >> so many fake sites and when we do is the counterfeit verse figured out a way to make themselves come up high in the google search. when you type in ray-ban, for example, if you want sunglasses, you may get a fake website that comes to the top. we actually have a side by side to show you. can you guys tell which one is fake and which one is real. which one is fake? >> i think the one that says now

i think that's the fake one. which one is the fake one? >> i'm guessing the same. >> believe it or not, that's the real one on the right. >> the fake one is on the left, so what you want to do real quick, piece of advice, when you go to the url, make sure it says https. doesn't go through google. type in rayban.com and go there yourself. >> thanks, jeff, keeping us hot days. ed is the holiday hassle already stressing if you struggle with type 2 diabetes, you're certainly not alone. fortunately, many have found a different kind of medicine that lowers blood sugar. rimagine what it would be like to love your numbers. discover once-daily invokana . it's the #1 prescribed in the newest class p of medicines that work with the kidneys to lower a1c. rinvokana is used along with diet and exercise tto significantly

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rechargeable toothbrush brand in america. don't let bad odors escape. continuously neutralize them with glad with febreze. the only bag with the irresistible scent of gain. between decorating, shopping and wrapping you may seem a little stressed by now but we'll try to make things easier with holiday hacks from life-style expert and today.com contributor. here we go. first of all, tape. >> yes. >> trying to keep tape from getting stuck to itself. >> there's nothing more frustrating than not finding the edge of a tape. super, super quick and easy trim is take a paper clip and put it

or the bread clip interest your plastic bag so you can reuse it. >> all the scraps of paper, missing a bow. you have some quick hacks for this. >> take a bow and take your scraps and cut little vertical lines and then you take your scissors and you just curl it like you would a ribbon, curl, curl, curl and that way you can quickly make little bows and not only could they coordinate but they look cute. >> when i'm making bows with ribbon they always come out uneven. >> with a fork. take a string. >> right. >> and what you do is you're going to tie it like this, tie it like this. >> so you're going in between the tines. >> and over like that. >> and when you're all done, you

and then what happens is that it looks like this. >> looks just like that. >> so the idea here, i didn't finish it properly but it's a little, little ribbon that you can put on an envelope and it's a cute little way to decorate. >> stick a fork in it, it's done. >> it's done. >> that's true. >> i was pressed for time. >> thank you. >> this one is perfect for any decorating or any fall table settings that you may have. take ice coupes. >> right. >> add some cranberries and a little bit of water on top and pop in the frears and then when you're serving your little drinks, you have a tasty, festy little drink with cranberries and it looks beautiful. >> very festive looking, i like that. >> this is terrific. >> this is really cute as far as table settings go. buy these little stockings. >> mm-hmm. >> and take your little fork and knife and spot and pet them in there. >> wrap it up with a bow and you're good to go. >> you hate homemade containers

take the chip thing. >> finish the chips, clean it out with a paper towel. eco-friendly, super cute and just stuff it in there and you give all of your friends tasty cookies. >> put them in gently. >> thank you so much. >> a big weekend for to the couple who set aside the whole day to sell their old car and buy a new one... oops. nana's got the kids til 9... but it's only 2. guess you'll just have to see a movie... ...then get some dinner.

a live look at the holland tunnel. monday, december 14th. i'm kerry barrett. an investigation underway with regard to a shooting in new jersey. it happened at 3:30 this morning in rochelle park. they are telling us a 45-year-old man was wounded during a shooting with two officers. the exact details are unclear. authorities say that a gun or a

a check of weather. clouds and fog possible later in the day. 62 is the high. tonight, it clears out. 56 degrees. tomorrow, gusty and cooler with a high of 60. wednesday, the sun returns. 54 degrees. thursday, the rain may be back and 56 will be the high. coming up on the "today" show, carrie fisher talking about returning to her most famous movie role in the new star wars

taking a look at headlines, more evidence is emerging that officials missed warning signs about the couple who carried out the san bernardino terror attacks. the fbi has already said the two developed extremist views before they met. well, now the "new york times" reports that the wife, tashfeen malik, had spoken openly on social media about violent jihad saying she wanted to be a part of it and yet passed several immigration checks before moving from pakistan on a fiancee visa. if you have to go to the post office today, best of luck

usps officials say today is the busiest mailing day of the year for cards, letters and packages. officials recommend sending pack packages by december 21st for christmas arrival and estimate over 15.5 billion pieces of mail will be sent this holiday season. a warning today about the dangers of putting young children in car seat while they are wearing their winter jackets. crash tests at 30 miles per hour show us just how dangerous it can be. in one test you see the child dummy goes flying out of the seat with the jacket sliding right off. an expert says the harness should fit nice and tight to the child's body and should be at armpit level and if you're worried about the child being cold lay the coat over them after the harness is already buckled. you've hearded about the dangers of not getting enough sleep but did you know that getting too much sleep could also be bad for you. new research from australia shows that sleeping more than nine hours could put you at risk

the study says people who spend most their days sleeping and sitting around are four times as likely to die young. experts recommend between seven and nine hours of sleep a day. and still champion. "the hucker games the mocking jay part 2" was still number one for the fourth straight weekend. ron howard "in the heart of the season" debuted number two and" the good dinosaur" was third. carolyn and andrew will get married in the "star wars" right outside of the chinese theater and they have been camped out there since they flew in from last week and carolyn will wear a wedding gown decorated with star fighters and darth vader will walk her down the aisle and the ceremony will be conducted by a friend of the couple named obi, of course.

>> this is not the bride you're looking for. anyway, early week, rain and windy conditions in the mid-atlantic states and flood threats around the region. mid-week period, pacific northwest and heavy rain here in the northeast. we could actually use some of it. heavy showers and thunderstorms through the southeast and the latter part of the week look for mountain rain and snow out west. eastern two-third of the country looking pretty darn good. lack at how hot. more record warmth here in the northeast and mid-atlantic states and much below normal out period. stays warm and it's not until the latter part of the week that things good morning, everyone. listen, throughout the tri-state area, we have limited visibility this morning. a dense fog advisory in effect through 10:00 a.m. rain rolls our way later in the day. some of it could be heavy at times. a thundershower not out of the question.

the t-storm possible into the evening and overnight. then, we will see some clearing. sunshine on wednesday. some rain on thursday into friday and a cool weekend. >> and that's your latest weather. >> al, thank you. for the past seven years bobby main han has been make us laugh every week as a cast member of saturday saturday and he's keeping the laughs come in the new tina fey and amy poehler comedy "sisters" and plays that old high school fan, alex, that guy that one wants to invite to the party. >> no, knock, who's there? duane, duane here, duane the bathtub, i'm drowning. >> you still got it the. >> may i please have a beverage. >> thank you. wow. welcome to "jurassic park. " ".

>> bobby is with us. we would invite you to any party or alex to any party. >> i would destroy your house, yeah. >> i love these characters because as we said earlier each one is someone that you know, that you're familiar with. what was it like filming this with the great tina-free and amy poehler. >> it's like being back at work. pound for pound they are the funniest women in the world and maya and everybody, having everybody around, two months in a house, warehouse somewhere, destroying a house and having a blast and improvising a lot. it was -- it was a blast. most fun i've had. >> tina was talking to matt a little bit earlier and there's kind of a shorthand between you guys on "snl." know how to read each other. >> no when to let someone else go and they will get that take and paula who wrote it,

classic characters on "snl" and would run up to you with a post-it note and read it and it's the funniest thing i've ever read and the best. >> new use for post-its. >> yeah. >> how do you shoot without breaking character or how often do you break character because i would imagine there's a laugh per minute on the. >> laughing and then getting back into it. trying not to waste as much time but it was fun. i'm sure there's a lot of outtakes of us crack up. >> i'm sure you figured you would have a fight scene in a movie. >> with john cena? >> fought him a couple of times just for the he can of it, in the streets. >> a little ww sgle he was terrified. >> was me. >> he was terrified. >> look at me. i'm very menacing. >> you are. i would be afraid of you. you look like a coiled spring ready to go. >> i'm ready to go. >> careful, roker, careful. just kidding. it was the best. the weirdest feeling in the world as a grown man is to be

>> he carried me around the set like a baby, and it wasn't -- i haven't had that feeling in a while. >> frightening and comforting. >> quite comforting. he's a kind and gentle soul. >> and can you do us a favor, bone, and show us your shirt and willie has -- >> out myself. >> yeah. >> my nice sultd with my "star wars" t-shirt. >> request see "sisters." >> is there a battle. >> a little disturbing actually. >> very disturbing. very nerdy t-shirt. "sisters" is out the same day and you can see both. >> yeah. >> how are you approaching this? >> i'll see -- i have many tickets for "star wars" and i'm going to get some for "sisters" today. >> great answer. >> good answer. >> thanks, movies. >> whoa! >> the battle. >> out of nowhere. >> so random. >> surprised the jedi like that.

course, "sisters" from our sister company universal opens friday. there's room in our hearts for both, "star wars" and "sisters." go back and forth. >> tina and amy are comedy jedi. >> please, pick me up and carry me around. >> next, the star of three dame toosh golden globe [barks] are those... you there... stormtroopers! halt! turn here. go go! follow them! bb-8! beep, beep! this way! where'd they go? they went that way! that way, they went that way! i can't believe that worked! of course it worked! beep, beep, beep! just fifteen minutes and a little imagination are all you

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everything sparkly for everyone. kohl's. kristen is known for her work on stage, tvs and films and known for the wife on "in the wolf of wall street" and also as the mother on "how i met your mother". >> and now see her in the golden globe nominated series in "fargo can the "and tonight she plays the wife of a state trooper and she's battling a life-threatening illness. kristen, good morning. >> good morning. >> and you bring a bright smile to your face. >> oh, yeah. >> we'll see. >> you are doing so much right now, so busy, let's talk fargo first. nominated for all the golden globes. >> what's it like to be a part of this. >> amazing to be a part of it. >> i'm such a huge fan of the

it's amazing to then see them celebrated in the way that i think they should be celebrated. >> yeah. >> the accents on this show are so terrific. >> how did you come up with your midwestern acsglent had a great dialect coach and i date a midwesterner. >> that helps. >> which also really helps and he's from wisconsin so it's a little different from minnesota and i loved it. they just told me that it was. >> take it at face value. >> i just trusted them i.love that accent. i would go too full twilt that accident. constantly bring it back. >> what are dates like with your midwestern trend when you are practicing. >> i would say things like oh, yeah, oh, that's pretty good, huh, and he'd like ah, yeah, sure, okay. and then the dialect coach was always -- a lovely guy and he would always be kristen, if you could just tone it down. you're coming off like an

>> but i'm like my boyfriend loves it and my boyfriend says i'm good. >> offensive cartoon, that's high wheelhouse, where i really live. >> i expect you give a lot away, betsy unconscious on the floor. where is this headed? >> i'm not going to tell you. i'm not telling you anyone. >> i have to wait to watch is that what you're telling me? >> i do have a background in mime. >> you have a pc ground in mime. >> cut it out. >> i was a mime in high school. >> al has done the forecast in mime. >> you go first. >> okay. >> that's a classic. >> trapped in a box, that's good. >> that's what i was going to do honestly, to be honest. i was going to be trapped in a box. >> you've got one thing. >> you've got one. >> but it's good. >> but it's solid. >> let's compare yours. >> i used to have to pick flowers. i would be like. oh, it was in high school, a

>> bravo, bravo. >> if i had a rose i would throw it at you. >> a lot of walking in the wind and i remember you had to clap like this make noise. >> doing jazz hands. >> jazz hands. >> oh, my gosh. >> another viral moment brought to you -- >> back to mime school. >> and we should point out "lazarus" is incredible, too. >> thank you. >> once you were hall of fame performance there and back with "lazarus." >> nice to have you back on broadway. >> oh, my god. >> look at you. >> amaze sglig ing. >> i didn't own know. >> like mime with sound? >> what do we call that? >> interpretive dance. >> thank you. >> catch the season finale of "fargo" tonight on fx so you'll know what happens to her character. >> yes. >> maybe. >> i can't tell. they will fire me somehow. >> do i like cookies? >> yes.

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visit your local store or go to edible.com today. this morning we're kicking off our holiday cookie swap with some of the best in the country. first you have alison carlock from the crumbling cooky in ft. irwin, california. >> good morning to you. >> already sampled the cookie. >> the biggest part of the cookie is the dark brown sugar and the butterscotch chip. >> i love that. >> a lot of people go to chocolate chips. >> i agree. >> what's the first step? >> we're going to cream the butter and sugar and we're going to add egg, vanilla, and dry ingreed in

>> as you cook i love the story how these cookies came to be. >> i baked them for my husband and the soldiers loved it and made a business out of it. >> they became so popular and said they could be a business. >> just blossomed. >> they taste amazing. >> go right in there. >> and we've got the dough already made and then we scoop. >> okay. >> and i roll in even more brown sugar. >> more brown sugar. that's what i'm tasting. >> love it. >> and while you do that. >> i'm going to taste yours, too. equal opportunity here. i've got tina here with her t-rex cookies. >> look at size of these cookies and you'll see. it's the perfect name, t-rex cookies. >> sea salt caramel chocolate chip. >> yes, they are. >> ingredients. >> we have our chocolate chip cookie ingredients and put caramel in it and i actually weigh the cookie and all the cookies i make for my business are all half a pound.

>> essentially looks like a hamburger patty by the time i'm done with it and the key is putting the flake sea salt on top. >> i love that combination. >> a lot ask me how i get them to be chewy and soft in the middle and still crispy on outside and my secret is to make sure you freeze the cookie doe right after you mix it. >> how long do you freeze it for. >> totally frozen. >> and then you go right from the freezer into the oven. >> i'm going to give this a try. >> go ahead, al. >> chs your shothd shop in utah, chocolate chip cook we german chocolate frosting. >> i go ahead and make the german chocolate frosting and once it's heated up you have the coconut. >> right. >> and your vanilla. >> and -- and two cups of pecans, have to make sure those are toasted. >> you mix it all up and you threat chill. >> right. >> about two hours, three hours depending on getting the right consistency.

the cookie. >> that's easy, just put it on there like that. spoon it on there. >> tuft it with a little more nut. >> and then drizzle it with chocolate. >> of course you do. >> if it wasn't cold. >> and then that's it. >> great cookies. to get the recipes head to

one of our longtime toy drive donors is lego and amanda's is brand relations manager for legos brand inc. thank you. >> of course. >> for the tremendous donations and for the toys that fit every age group. >> lego set for every age group and thrilled to donate over $1 million for the "today" show toy drive.

>> variety of sets, everything from spaceships to hot air balloons and everything in between. >> got you covered. thank you so much, amanda.

a live look at the hamilton bridge. monday, december 14th. i'm kerry barrett.

shootings at sandy hook elementary. the first time that it falls on a school day. a moment of silence at the middle and high school in new town, connecticut. school administrators say they plan to keep everything as normal as possible. lawmakers and advocates holding a rally for gun control. two similar rallies were held over the weekend. one in central park that paid tribute to the victims of gun violence. clouds and fog with showers a little possible later in the day. 62 is the high. 56 degrees tomorrow. gusty, cooler with a high of 60. wentz, the sun moves back in. it is 54 degrees. thursday, another chance of rain. 56 is the high. coming up on the "today" show with kathie lee and hoda, the stars of hard core pawn reveal which of your holiday decorations might be worth a