good morning. breaking news. prince philip leaves the hospital this morning, just four days after undergoing emergency heart surgery. he says he can't wait to rejoin the royal family's holiday celebrations. we're live in london with details. hack attacks. thousands of numbers stolen from a firm that specializes in security. their clients include the u.s. military and apple. now the group behind the hacking is vowing to cause even more havoc in the coming days. and unbearably cute, the 1-month-old polar bear winning an army of admirers online opens his eyes for the first time. we'll adviseity siku, live.

"today," tuesday, december 27th, 2011. captions paid for by nbc-universal television and good morning. welcome to "today" on a tuesday morning. i'm matt lauer. >> good morning, everyone. i'm savannah guthrie in for ann curry. matt welcome back. did you have a good holiday? >> i had a great holiday. how about you? >> i did, too. this polar bear reminds me of aanother adorable bundle of joy bornd 40 years ago today, 40 years ago today. >> you had to say 40 twice. breaking news i'm old >> happy birthday. >> thank you so much. just ahead, prince philip was all smiles as he was driven away from the hospital early this morning. will the health scare force the 90-year-old to further scale back his travel plans just

months before his wife, queen elizabeth's diamond jubilee. and a christmas house fire that claimed the lives of three young sisters and the grandparents. the girl's mother had to be pulled away by firefighters as she tried to rescue the family. >> a heartbreaking story. new developments in the murder case against former reality television producer, bruce beresford-redman. he'll stand trial in mexico for the murder of his wife. reaction to that from the victim's sister in a live interview. carl quintanilla is in for phatly at the news desk. >> good morning, everyone. britain's prince philip has been released from the hospital this morning. michelle kosinski is outside

buckingham palace with the latest. >> reporter: good morning, carl. this morning the queen's husband, prince philip, got his wish to be released from the hospital after spending four nights there. in his treatment for a blocked coronary artery was a minimally invasive procedure to install a stent. given the prince is 90 years old, despite his great health, great spirit and great desire to leave, doctors wanted to keep him under observation but this morning they allowed him to be driven to sandringham palace, where they can be out of the public eye and spend the rest of the holidays together, the first time prince philip missed christmas there. he's one of the busiest members of the family, making 300 to 400 appearances every year. it is possible after this he will scale back a little more. carl? >> michelle kosinski in london, thanks. officials are investigating what caused a helicopter to crash in florida on its way to

pick up a heart for transplant. all three were killed including a mayo clinic heart surgeon. the donated heart they were on route to retrieve has been expired and can't be reused. the patient who was to receive the heart waits for a new donation. shoppers took to the web instead of the mall with online sales jumping 16% over last year's christmas day shopping rush and the numbers using iphones and ipads and other devices to make purchases increased by a whopping 173%. for more we turn to cnbc's courtney reagan at the bay plaza shopping center in the bronx. courtney, good morning. >> reporter: good morning to you, carl. this week between christmas and new years is a rebalancing act of sorts juggling between returns, exchanging and new sales. it's difficult for the digital content retarls, barnes mp mp nobles, the amazons of the

world. amazon in a statement to cnbc tells us "this christmas, not only did we have more kindle book downloads than last year, but christmas 2011 was our biggest day ever in terms of kindle book downloads." similarly ceo of barnes & noble, william lynch noting that is the biggest day of the year. we'll keep focused on the sales numbers as we get them. >> cnbc's courtney reagan, thanks. the babysitter charged in the death of a 9-year-old indiana girl makes an appearance today. aliahna lemmon was found dead monday. and breaking an nfl record is a breeze if you're drew brees that is, the quarterback for the new orleans saints set a new record for passing yards in a single season, a record held by dan marie know for the past 27 years.

breeze threw for 307 yards, four touchdowns, setting the record with one mifinal nine-yard stri. no surprise the saints beat the falcons 45-16, taking home the nfc south title. dan marie know tweeted after the game "great job by a special player." that's class. >> they're both special players. by the way carl thank you for doing a good job the last couple of days. >> you're welcome. >> al is off this morning. we have stephanie abrams from the weather channel in. >> good to see you. airport delays are going to extend from the south all the way into the northeast. atlanta, all the way into the northeast. look at that. atlanta, charlotte, and why you, ask? because of this big whopper of a mess. rain and snow falling from the gulf coast all the way into the great lakes in the northeast. there's a threat for severe weather stretching towards

virginia beach down towards savannah -- happen kry birthday savannah. >> very soggy here between noontime and 6:00, we will get into moderate to heavy rain, and right now we're still dry and have cloud cover. latder today we get the heavy rain. e a will be at 45, and then the rain >> matt, over to you. >> steph, thank you very much. now it sounds like a good thing at first, a wealth of donations made to charity, but the contributions are the result of a major hacking attack, after thousands of credit card numbers were actually stolen from a security firm, and the group, claiming responsibility, says more attacks are on the way. nbc's justice correspondent pete williams has details on this.

pete, good morning. >> matt the company involved in this latest hack attack is a think tank in texas with big named clients including apple and the u.s. military. now it's the company that's trying to protect itself, after a serious breach of private client information. alan barr of texas was stunned to discover that just before christmas, red cross records showed he recented contributed $200 with his credit card, something he didn't actually do. while many of the victims in the laters hacker attack were corporate clients, strator, individual subscribers discovered their information was stolen too. >> in this sense they take from individuals, they could have ruined our lives. >> reporter: he says the hackers tried to steal $700 in all from his account but his credit card company alerted him in time. most of the contributions made by the hackers, the group calling itself anonymous will be returned because they were

stillen to start with but the embarrassment is major for stratfor. the group claimed in a statement there's "plenty more havoc in store for the rest of the week." they called for the release of army private bradley manning, accused of passing thousands of classified documents of wikileaks, and the hackers circulated a list of hundreds of stratfor corporate clients and the names of individual subscribers along with credit card numbers and private data. >> it's a fairly serious breach, a lot of people's identities, including people in sensitive positions in the defense department, intelligence agencies and private companies, even foreign embassies. >> reporter: a twitter feed sometimes connected to the hacker group says celebrities, singers and a reality show star are among its next victims, but because the group is so decentralized, there's no way to verify that claim.

the texas company, stratfor, says it's putting systems in place to prevent something like this from happening again. security experts say it's a warning to all big companies to make certain that their sensitive client data is well protected. matt? >> pete williams, thank you very much. mark rash is a security expert. mr. rash, good morning to you. good morning, matt. >> a couple of things sound odd. a lot of major corporations are clients of this money but "the little people" were also targeted. why do you think that's the case? >> because the people who were subscribers to this list, all kinds of different individuals use credit cards and the credit cards is what they were after, plus embarrassing or demonstrating they could do this. >> just to demonstrate they could do this, on the one hand this is criminal, hacking into the private accounts of individuals, yet donating this money to charity, so they're setting themselves up to be modern day robinhoods in some

way. >> but the charities aren't getting the money, when people see the charge they didn't authorize they'll charge it back and the money is not going to be going to these charities. >> the group mind this hacking attack says they were able to do this because stratfor did not encrypt certain information. if that's true, why is it true and what does it mean for the rest of us? >> credit card numbers are supposed to be encrypted. when you give your credit card to somebody in a store or online, once they have that credit card processed and even during the processing, it's supposed to be stored in encrypted manner so it will be secure and that's the standard of care people are supposed to have. why it didn't happen in this case, requires an investigation really. >> quickly, i can only imagine the number of people online using their credit cards over the last month so if people have concerns about whether they were hacked, how do they go about figuring it out? >> the best thing for consumers is read your credit card bills and once a year, get a credit

report so you can see if somebody is using your name or your credit without your authorization. >> mark rasch, thank you very much, appreciate it. >> thank you. coming up in the next half hour, a warning to parents about another breach of security, how criminals get their hands on the identities of babies before they were even born. we'll talk about that. right now 7:12, here's savannah. now to politics and the presidential race. the iowa caucuses take place one week from today and the republican candidates are hitting the road hard with just seven days to go. nbc's peter alexander is in des moines, iowa, this morning. peter good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning to you. all of the candidates are back on the trail but they did take a break from the relentless campaigning for the christmas holiday to be with their family. with one press ahead to the caucuses, what happens could dictate who gets the gop nomination. with that in mind the candidates begin their final push. post christmas and it appears no

more mr. nice guy from newt gingrich. the former house speaker's campaign is out with its first attack e-mail labeled "mitt, the massachusetts moderate" directly targeting rival mitt romney. the e-mail marks a departure from the positive only campaign gingrich promised to run. >> we need a positive candidate with a positive program, and we're willing to overlook the fact that he's not running a single neckive ad. >> they're counting on last-minute handshakes and hellos. on monday, rick santorum turned a hunting trip into a photo-op. >> we'll surprise people with how well we do caucus night. >> michele bachmann continues house to house, and recent polls show ron paul, romney and gingrich leading the pack, prompting "the des moines

register" to ask "could ron paul win?" >> there have been six front-runners in iowa but there's no clear front-runner headed into the actual caucus. >> reporter: after months of campaigning mostly outside of iowa, romney is trying to convince voters in the hawk i would state that he's a committed conservative. >> i'm going to get rid of obama sager. >> perry took aim straight at washington. >> that's the reason i call for a part-time congress, cut their pay in half. >> reporter: gingrich accepted blame for failing to get enough signatures to enenter the virginia primary over the weekend but says the failed system should be changed. >> well, i think that it's time for them to change it. if something's wrong, we got to fix it. >> reporter: analyst caution one week is an eternity in politics and a lot could change here in iowa. >> iowa caucuses are very unpredictable and everybody

ought to understand that and be aware surprises are part of the territory of the caucucaucuses. >> reporter: at new hampshire mitt romney is pulling to the top of the pack and all the way the president of the united states, barack obama, is still in hawaii vacationing with his family, yesterday enjoying a hike and also a chance to go to the gym. by the way the temperature there in hawaii in the 80s. in here we just hit our high at 34 degrees. happy birthday from a cold iowa. >> peter alexander, thanks so much. chris matthews, host of "hardball" on msnbc and author of "jack kennedy, elusive hero." good morning. >> good morning. >> iowans are famous for not making up their minds until the final days. these are the final days. you have ron paul surging, romney at second and it's a battle for third. >> i think ron paul is proof there's a tremendous appeal among actual republican voters who get to speak for the first time next week for small

government conservatism, the less government the better, the good old barry goldwater approach, i think that's the message from his victory if he wins. >> romney made a calculated decision this time around not to actively campaign in iowa, after the upset in 2008, and yet he seems to be surging. he's up with an ad, going to go wall to wall in this final week. how does he have to finish in order to kind of exceed expectations? >> he's got to beat newt gingrich and almost an intermural battle between the two front-runners. they're leading in the national polls. if he beats newt it's a huge night for him, even if he comes in second to paul. >> newt gingrich people say his momentum is fading. do you think he poses the biggest long-term threat to romney? >> he's the brainiest candidate but he has flaws in personal history, big government past and all kinds of problems. he's not pure. my hunch is coming out of iowa you'll see purity, ron paul, and

real surge for rick santorum for his religious conservatism. they want both. and winnability. >> at the end of the day iowans seem to be so undecided even at this late date. is this something business as usual, how it goes in iowa or larger here with dissatisfaction with their choices? >> when you have dissatisfaction with your choices i think all the voters want to leave those caucuses next tuesday night with clean hands. i didn't have to hold my nose or go with flaws. go with the purity of ron paul on small government and purity of rick santorum on religious conservatism, and duke it out for second place. >> presidentby ma's job approval, higher on approval versus disapproval. is this a reflection of things getting better in the economy or

people not liking republicans. >> i believe it's the economy. the stock markets come up a bit, the unemployment come down a bit. his biggest problem, and i don't want to rain on his good parade, if the numbers get to 8.4% unemployment rate and climbs back up that's bad news for him. he's almost better off with a higher unemployment rate this month than a low one. >> chris matthews thank you so much. >> happy birthday. >> thank you. >> catch more of chris on "hardball" on msnbc. the christmas morning tragedy in stamford, connecticut, where five members of a family died in a house fire. investigators believe they've found a likely cause. nbc's craig melvin is in stamford with the latest. good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning to you as well. we're standing in front of all that's left of the badger family home.

officials demolished it yesterday for safety reasons. madonna badger lost her three children and two parents in that christmas morning fire. this morning we're learning more about them and what may have sparked the deadly blaze. until christmas morning, this was the badger family home, monday bulldozers reduced the charred shell to rubble. a few feet away neighbors turned the yard into a makeshift memorial. >> any day it's bad but christmas day, family visiting, i don't know, i don't know what to say. >> reporter: investigators now have a good idea what caused the christmas morning fire that left three little girls and their grandparents dead. city official says it looks like embers from a log triggered the fire. when flames started shooting from the house the 45-year-old mother rushed and tried to save her family. fire officials had to drag her away. >> all i can say she was instructing where she thought the children would be and the

firefighters made an attempt, were pushed back by heavy flames. >> badgers three daughters were trapped on the third floor and died. lily was 10, twins sarah and grace were 7. madonna badgers escaped with her friend, mike bursini, reportedly a contractor doing work on the house. badger is behind the marky mark ads forical vine klein. she is going through a divorce. the house was built in the 1890s and a city official said age and newly installed siding may have spread the fire faster. >> i feel horrible for madonna and the children and her parents. it's just a tragedy. >> reporter: the badgers pictured here with their grandfather and his wife, also trapped upstairs and died, they would have celebrated their 49th

wedding anniversary monday. johnson didn't just wear the big red suit for family. this year he played st. nick at saks fifth avenue in new york city. he says "i am now a santa because my oldest granddaughter asked me to be." back live in stamford, that makeshift memorial of teddy bears and flowers has grown. would fire alarms and smoke alarms even helped? those are a few questions we expect to get set for a press conference this afternoon. >> craig male vin in stamford, nothing but heartbreak in this story. back in a moment on this tuesday morning. this is "today" on nbc.

just ahead, filing for bankruptcy at just the age of 2 years old? the follow-up to our investigation into a costly crime targeting the identities

of babies. and we will go live to siku, see the 1-month-old polar bear winning fans all around the world. first these messages, your local news and your local weather forecast. ♪ oh, yeah ♪ 'cause i believe in you and me ♪ ♪ oh, boy ♪ i believe in miracles ♪ and i believe in you and me ♪ ♪ see, i was lost ♪ now i'm free ♪ 'cause i believe in you and me ♪ yeah, our low prices are even lower.

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if lipitor's been working for you, stay with it. lipitor may be available for as little as $4 a month with the lipitor co-pay card. terms and conditions apply. learn more at lipitorforyou.com. good morning. it's 7:26 on this tuesday, december 27th. a major accident could affect your commute if you live in northern virginia. >> we have a big problem. it's a mess. northbound 95 at 395. we have an accident involving a tanker truck and two vehicles blocking two left lanes. police are on the scene and it's an absolute megamess. if you can get around it, please do. and then further up, 66, hang in there. we will check on your

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over the last three years we've put nearly 100 million dollars into american education. that's thousands of kids learning to love science. ♪ isn't that cool? and that's pretty cool. ♪ our weather mess has not started just yet. that will happen afternoon time today.

showers start at 9:00 a.m., and we have cloud cover and 42 degrees now. there's the rain, and it will start to come down later today and it will be nasty by the

♪ jazzy start to our 7:30 half hour on this tuesday morning, december 27th, 2011. looks pretty nice now but according to some local forecasts, we're in for some heavy rain this afternoon and high winds. i heard one local weather forecaster saying about christmas decorations today, take them in, move them or lose them. it's going to be that nasty this afternoon. you're looking at the view or did look at the view from the top of the rock and now street level, a lot of nice people in our plaza waving to the folks back home. we'll say hi to them in a little while. meanwhile inside studio 1a, i'm matt lauer with savannah guthrie, while ann is taking time off.

one of our most startling investigations, criminals stealing the identities of children sometimes before they are born. one family was stunned to learn their 2-year-old was already thousands of dollars in debt. now changes are being made to make sure it can't happen but we'll give you details on that. after all that holiday spending you're probably looking for ways to save. coming up what you need to do before the end of the year to maximize your tax savings. and we dare you not to fall in love with this little guy, siku, a 1-month-old polar bear being hand raised by humans. we'll visit with him coming up. >> i hope he wakes up before our interview. he's adorable. the former reality show producer accused of killing his wife in mexico. nbc news learned bruce beresford-redman will not appeal a federal judge ruling sending him to mexico to stand trial. we'll get exclusive reaction from the victim's sister in a

moment. first nbc's george lewis has the latest. >> no further appeals. bruce beresford-redman says he's innocent, but a federal judge in los angeles ruled there was sufficient evidence to extradite beresford-redman back to mexico to face charges of aggravated homicide. beresford-redman, his wife, monica, and their children had been staying in a resort in cancun, mexico, last year. three days after monica was reported missing her body was found in a sewer at the resorts. authorities say she wases asphyxiated and injury to the right side of her head. beresford-redman's mother spoke out in defense of her son. >> he is a good man, never been in trouble with the law, he's not a violent person and despite difficulties in the marriage, everyone has difficulties, usually there's still a great deal of love. >> reporter: mexican authorities

say there was evidence the couple fought over his alleged infidelity, that there were scratches on bruce beresford-redman's body and waited until the day after his wife reportedly went missing to notify authorities. >> monica when she has a day out she has a day out. she worked nights as you know in the restaurant and there were times when she didn't get home until the wee hours and the second and more reason is he fell asleep with the children. >> reporter: mexican police found evidence that bruce used his key card to enter and leave the hotel room nine times on the night of his wife's disappearance. he maintains that's because he was searching for monica. >> he was looking for her, and then he would come back and check on the children and did that numerous times. >> reporter: but a federal judge in los angeles did not find beresford-redman's arguments about his innocence compelling enough to block his extradition to mexico. the lawyer for monica's family applauded that. >> you can't really call it a happy occasion, since their

sister was brutally murdered, but this is an important day. it's an important day for justice. >> now that beresford-redman decided against further appeals it will be up to secretary of state hillary clinton to approve his extradition to mexico to face murder charges. >> george lewis in los angeles thank you. monica beresford-redman's sister, carla is with us, along with the family attorney. good morning to both of you. >> good morning. >> news we just received this morning, he is not going to fight extradition, essentially dropping his appeal and he'll go to mexico to face trial, assuming it passes through the state department. carla, did that surprise you to hear that? >> yes, very much. we waited for him to do that through the beginning. >> because earlier in this process he has been fighting extradition. why do you think he changed his mind? >> i don't know. >> i think we were surprised because given the vigor with which he has fought this, tooth

and nail, every step of the way, really surprised that now he's decided to waive extradition and go back to mexico. >> what is the significance? it fast tracks the process. >> i had prepared the burgos family for another long battle. he could have appealed to the ninth circuit and maybe the united states supreme court, but this way, as long as secretary clinton signs the certification for extradition he's going back to mexico within probably 60 days. >> carla, how is your family doing? i can't imagine going through another holiday without her. you've got the little kids. >> yes, it's been really painful, painful, for my parents, for my father. he's been always like a happy man, easy-going and stuff and he's been so sad and angry with all the situation, you know. i'm happy that he's going. >> has there been any contact at all between your family and

bruce beresford-redman? >> no. >> not at all. how about the kids? you've got these little kids. who has got them and how are they doing? >> well, unfortunately they're staying with the grandparents, and it's not where we want, and we don't think it's the best for them, but it's the legal situation. >> alison when the judge upheld the extradition, the judge cited a list of evidence. the threshold is very low to be extradited. it's not a finding of beyond a reasonable doubt but does that signal the strength of the case against him in your mind? >> we always felt there was overwhelming evidence, started with the cheating and the number of times he left the room and proximity of her body to the hotel room, the cuts and scratches all over him so we always believed unfortunately that there was overwhelming evidence and as they've always said to me, you know, they wished their daughter wasn't

murdered but of course they wished it wasn't their brother-in-law who had done it so it's very sad. >> take us back, carla. when you first heard what had happened, was there any doubt in your mind who was responsible? >> well, it was a hope that, you know, it would be other people involved, but as we saw, there's nobody involved, until now, and there's a lot of evidence that unfortunately leads to believe it was him that did it. >> assuming that this process goes forward, it looks like he's headed for trial in mexico. how do you feel about the mexican legal system? do you feel confident about it? do you think that your sister's case will be handled fairly there? >> they've been really fair during all this process and we really hope that they keep doing this, you know, because they need justice for her. she didn't deserve to go like that.

>> carla burgos, good to have you here, thank you for being with us and alison, for sharing your perspective, appreciate it. it is now 7:37. let's get a check of the weather from stephanie abrams, in for al this morning. >> savannah you're not the only one celebrating a birthday. sam celebrating his 12th birthday from marchingenmuth, michigan. there's a particular way you show where you're from. right there in the thumb. what's there? >> the world's largest christmas store. >> there you go. >> the largest christmas store. let's continue and show what is happening in the northwest, because it's not only the east coast that is seeing the weather, but we will see the rain and snow compliments of the jet stream in the next 24 hours. we could see a foot of snow in the next 48 hours, otherwise the sunshine is right in the center of the country. now here's a look at what is happening outside your door. >> definitely no sunshine here.

we have cloud cover across the area. those clouds are delivering more weather. and some light showers, and those are starting to come into the area. later today, moderate and heavy rain. could get half to an inch of rain that will lead to a >> and if it's your birthday, all you have to do is go to weather.com 24 hours a day for your birthday forecast. savannah back to you. coming up next, why would a 2-year-old need to file for bankruptcy? how criminals are getting the identities of baby, in some cases before they're born. we'll have that story after this. has a crew. it gets invited to parties with paparazzi. it hangs out poolside. it has millions of drooling fans.

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we're back now, 7:42, with "today investigates." all this week we're looking back at some of our top investigations of the year. this morning, a new twist on an old crime targeting your baby's identity. it's a story nbc's jeff rossen first broke back in may. jeff, good morning. nice to see you. >> hey, matt, nice to see you. welcome back. we're both parents. the question we should all ask ourselves, when was the last time you checked your kids' credit report, chances are never and the crooks know it, they're stealing children's information and wracking up millions in debt. federal investigators they were watching and took action. teagen is 2 years old and owes thousands in credit card debt and had to declare bankruptcy. >> you think this is a joke and

it's incredibly serious. >> 9-year-old riley is in default on utility bills. her social was stolen 11 years before she was even born. >> as a mother i was shocked and angry and violated. >> reporter: katie was only 3 years old when crooks stole her identity, now as a teenager, her credit report shows over $750,000 in debt, all at the hands of i.d. thieves, a scary thought for a young girl. >> i think that because it is illegal, like they should be in jail. >> reporter: but they're not. in fact, we found two men using her identity living free. how did you get her social security number? >> i don't know. >> reporter: you don't want to talk? this guy worked at an auto shop miles away from katie's house and we tracked another one. according to the credit bureau you're an identity thief. working at a local 99 cent store. a leading credit bureau says both these men stole katie's

social security number to take out mortgages and auto loans. >> it's not fair. >> reporter: that they're still out there. >> um-hum. >> reporter: our "today" investigation discovered thousands of young victims, nationwide. >> each pink dot represents a suspect we've been able to positively identify their location. >> reporter: jamie is an investigator with all clear i.d. why are babies so attractive for these criminals? >> it's a blank check. the child doesn't realize they have a problem until they start using their credit. >> reporter: that may not happen until your child is 18, applying for their first loan or credit card, giving thieves free reign with their identities for years. >> never in my wildest dreams had i thought to run a credit check on my son. what parent would run a credit check on their child? 's in diapers, crawling. >> reporter: stealing socials is easier than you think. the number is actually a code, the first three digits stand for the state it was issued in, the last six stand for the

approximate date it was issued, a clue to the person's birthday. now using simple software crooks can predict numbers. when the newborn gets their number at the hospital it may already be stolen which is exactly what happened to riley. her mom discovered it years later by chance on a family credit check. >> the government gave me a bum number that obviously they hadn't cleared. it's a financial birth defect and the parents aren't warned. >> reporter: and in many cases, police don't have the time or resources to catch these crooks, leaving parents like katie's dad out in the cold. in a nutshell, what have the police done for you? >> nothing. it's almost like they don't want to be bothered. >> reporter: we found two of the suspects. >> pretty easily. >> reporter: we found man kel contreras in arizona from two days. jeff rossen from nbc news. according to the credit bureau you've been using a young girl's

social security number and getting home loans, wracking up nearly half a million dollars in debt. >> a million dollars. >> >> reporter: half a million dollars. have you been using a young girl's social security number and passing it off as your own? >> i don't understand. >> reporter: so we took in a translator. you took a home lone for $107,000, 2006 for $153,000, also in 2006 for $38,000. that's against the law. >> i don't talk right knew. >> reporter: i'm not a police officer. i'm trying to figure out why you did that. >> i don't see why i don't see no cops. >> reporter: that's a good question. i don't know why you haven't been arrested. hi jeff rossen from nbc news. mario salinas working in the store parking lot wrangling grocery carts, using katie's social he's wracked up over 35 grand in debt. have you ever used a social

security? >> translator: no, never used it. >> reporter: according to the credit bureau you have and taken out several auto loans. there's a young girl whose credit could have been ruined. do you have anything to say to her? >> i don't know. >> reporter: but authorities know a flaw in the credit system lets them get away with it. when someone applies for say a loan usually the bank only checks that the social security number has a good credit history. believe it or not, most banks don't check whether that number was assigned to that name, because the government charges a fee to do that, and most banks don't want to pay, so thieves can use a child's identity over and over again. that seems ridiculous. >> the system definitely has a gap. >> reporter: and for parents, cleaning up the mess can take years and haunt your child, ruining their credit as adults. do you want to say anything to this young girl's family? you don't want to say anything to them?

are you going to stop using this young girl's social security number? >> i talk to my lawyer first. i call you, i talk to you, everything, okay? >> reporter: okay, i'll wait for your call. >> i call you. >> reporter: waiting. he's still out there. he's free. >> burns me up. he can walk around, living on my child's social, and nothing is being done about it. >> now something is being done about it. as a result of our story federal agents have launched an investigation into katie's case. now back in may we also offered viewers free credit scans for your kids. nearly 7,000 of you got them and the results were eye-opening. one in ten found someone else was using their child's social security number. the government is trying to crack down now, all new social security numbers are more randomized, so matt, they're trying to make it harder for the crooks to predict them before the babies are born. >> still you recommend parents on occasion find out if there's anything fishy with the numbers? >> that's the way we do it.

we check our credit reports sometimes, the advice from the government and the advice we should do as well. we have advice on today.com on how to do it. >> jeff thank you very much for refreshing our memory on this one. it's 7:49. just ahead we'll say hi to siku, the adorable baby polar bear, and we'll check his credit rating, right after this. [ male announcer ] 33 years ago, we had a simple idea. make the best vehicles in america... and once a year offer them with special savings. today, it's a phenomenon.

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just ahead, year-end tax tips. we'll tell you what you need to do in the coming days to save

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good morning. i am angie goff. it's december 27th, 2011. >> the rain is going to come later today. not by much. some spots west of us, west virginia has already seen light showers. we are at 43 degrees with a south wind. cloud cover for most of us and most of us are dry. a lot of rain is not reaching the ground in westchester or leesburg. >> we will check on the roads

northbound 95 at 395, an earlier accident involving a tanker truck is on the left side and thankfully delays have eased. still not up to speed but getting better minute by minute. on the ak akwan, you are moving good

8:00 now on a tuesday morning, it's the 27th day of december, 2011. we've got a big crowd out on the plaza this morning. these nice people spending the last couple of days of the new year with us, or of the old year with us before the new year and we thank them for that and we've come out to join them and they're yelling happy birthday to savannah guthrie. >> we have a couple of birthdays out here, a 12-year-old and a 30-year-old. >> and a 40-year-old over here. happy birthday. come up, speaking of the new year arriving, there are things you can do right now to save money on your bills this year and also put yourself in a

better position for your taxes in 2012. so we're going to be talking about some of those things coming up in a little while. also ahead the 1-month-old polar bear who is making hearts melt around the globe. look at that. his name is siku, being handrailsed, just opened his eyes for the first time. that is a live picture. we'll interview him live and exclusively just ahead. >> hate to break it to you we're not going to interview the polar bear. you keep asking your questions of siku. what were the biggest stories of the year, according to "people" magazine. there were huge weddings, breakups as well, so we'll talk to the people at "people." i always like saying that. find out what they thought the top stories were. we head inside, carl quintanilla in at the news desk while natalie is enjoying time off. carl take it away. >> good morning, everyone. we begin with the developing business story between 100 and

120 sears and kmarts nationwide are closing storms. federal officials are being called in to investigate a christmas weekend hacking case. a loose-knit hacking movement known as anonymous claims to have stolen thousands of credit card numbers from strategic forecasters or stratfor. the data security company clients include bank of america, apple and its u.s. military. in one internet posting a hacker claims the goal was to give money to charities. an al qaeda cell in iraq is claiming responsibility for the vicious wave of attacks that ripped through baghdad last week, killing 69 people. the coordinated bombings were thes first major attacks since u.s. troops fully withdrew from iraq earlier this month. the man suspected of shooting and paralyzing a 22-year-old u.s. army veteran at his own welcome home party in southern california is now in police custody.

19-year-old ruben jarado shot christopher sullivan as the vet tried to break up an argument over football teams. sullivan's spine was shattered by the gunfire and now paralyzed from the incident. he had been awarded a purple heart after being wounded in action in afghanistan. the death toll from flash floods that swept away entire villages in the southern philippines is up to nearly 1,500. hundreds are missing after a tropical storm unleashed more than a month's worth of rain in 12 hours, on december 16th. investigators in ft. worth, texas, say the man who fatelogical a shot his family on christmas day was a relative dressed in a santa claus suit, gunned them down after they opened their presents. four women and three men, including the shooter, are dead. now for a look at "what's trending today" our roundup of what has you talking online, drew brees has been the number one search on google this morning. the new orleans saints quarterback broke the nfl single

season record for passing yards for monday night football, the record had been set in 1984 by miami's dan marie know, who congratulated brees via twitter by writing "great job by such a special player." van halen getting the band back together. ♪ you got it tough, i've seen the toughest soul around ♪ >> complete with original lead singer david lee roth. the veteran rockers released this video trailer announcing their upcoming tour for 2012. an abandoned baby polar bear is taking the internet by storm. siku has been viewed on youtube more than 115,000 times in less than 24 hours. born at the scandinavian wildlife park last month, siku's mother didn't make enough milk so he's being raised by humans at the danish zoo. we'll have more on this

unbearably cute bear coming up live in this half hour. 8:04, back to matt and savannah. even siku is complaining how early this show is. >> exactly. >> carl, thank you very much. al is taking some time off. stephanie abrams down the other side of the plaza with a check of the weather. steph? >> yes, and i have cousins who haven't seen each other in 20 years, melissa, matthew and brittany. what have you learned about b t britta brittany? >> we are exactly alike. >> matthew are you the third pea in the pod? >> no. >> the weather is shaping your and see what it's shaping up like. our average high in wisconsin, 26, and we will see sunshine. the east coast and the northwest is where it will be active. now here's a look at what is happening outside your door. >> active here with wet weather this morning. light showers spreading over the area, but we have shadings of

yellow and orange showing up in west virginia and that's the heavier rains coming later today. your high today around 50, and warmer in southern maryland today. we could get half to an inch of rain out of the system. tomorrow we are clear out, and your high tomorrow is 45, and >> matt, back to you. >> all right, stephanie thank you very much. when we come back, some important years for you. first the one and siku, oh, he's awake. we'll see what he's up to, right after this. ♪ [ engine revs ] ♪ [ male announcer ] oh what fun it is to ride. get the mercedes-benz on your wish list at the winter event going on now.

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will have you saying oh! a baby polar bear, 1-month-old, hand raised by zookeepers in den nark. >> we'll say hello to siku in a moment but first here is nbc's any shoal kosinski. >> reporter: is it possible, fathomable, advisable that anything on this planet could be this cute? trying to roll around, getting a massage. and maybe his favorite pasttime, napping with his little tongue hanging out. but his name is siku, which means sea ice. the baby polar bear born at a denmark zoo, in his one month of life he's winning admirers around the world, thanks to internet video. doesn't get much more adorable than this.

you can call him unbearable cute, weighing less than two pounds at birth, when his mother couldn't produce milk, zookeeper, round the clock tending to his every need, who could resist. now he's a healthy seven pounds, but those big, squishy feet say it all, there's a giant bear in there, waiting to come out one day, that will be more than 100 times his size, at around half a ton. it calls to mind one other thing this baby polar bear, yes, knut, the beloved berlin superstar who inspired songs. ♪ and merchandising, who evtually became a little too big to snuggle. knut died suddenly in march of encephalitis at 4 years old. in captivity they can live 40 years. there's only an estimated 25,000 polar bears left in the world. so zookeepers are giving siku all the care he can handle.

what a job. to ensure that whether or not this guy also becomes a rock star of the animal kingdom, he will be as happy as this, for a long, long time. the polar bear that is melting hearts by the millions. for "today," michelle kosinski, nbc news, london. >> and siku is with us now along with his primary caretaker, frank v. larson from the animal wildlife park in london. good morning to you both. thanks for being with us. >> frank looks like he's got his hands full already this morning. frank it's obviously the adorable part about this is obvious, but taking care of a 1-month-old polar bear is not that easy. what are the challenges? >> the challenges were to get him to eat from the beginning. unfortunately his mother had no milk, so we were left with two

options. we could either leave him to die from starvation or we could bottle feed hill and turn him into an ambassador for his wild cousins living in the arc tirk. he's 5 weeks out today and grown from 800 grams to just more than four kilograms so he's doing very fine. >> what's involved with taking care of a polar bear? i mean, we can see this is not easy work you've got going there. >> just takes a lot of patience, and takes away your sleep, but it gives back a fantastic opportunity to see this little thing grow up. he was 800 grams when he was born, and i weighed his daddy two weeks ago and he was just over 500 kilograms so there's a long way to go yet. >> you talk about a long way to g it's not an exact science. there are risks and challenges and we know the story of knut,

at forable polar bear who grew up but unfortunately died at the age of 4. what are the odds for long-term survivability for siku? >> oh, they're very fine. siku will be completely different bear than knut. siku will grow up in a different environment. he will become an ambassador for his wild counterparts in the arctic. his name siku means sea ice and that's symbolic baulgs the sea ice is threatening the existence, survival of the polar bears. also we have the world's largest polar bear facility covering two and a half hectares and when he's about 2 years old, he will move in with the other polar bears, as normal as a polar bear's life can be in captivity. >> you say he'll be in captivity, you wouldn't expect to return him to the wild i take it. >> no, none of the animals we

have in zoos and wildlife parks are supposed to go back to the wild. he'd never make it. no, he's going to stay here with us and take part in an international breeding program for polar bears in captivity so hopefully in a few years' time he will become a daddy himself. >> frank, just do me a favor, can you pull that index finger out of his mouth so i can see that it's still there. okay. i just wanted to make sure. >> oh, it's just that sweet, little tongue. >> exactly. listen good look with siku. he is true lay forable and a wonderful thing you're doing there so thank you for joining us. >> can i make a new year wish on behalf of siku? >> you may. >> well, siku would like you all to reduce your carbon footprint and save energy, and if you all do that, he would be very, very happy. >> good wish for everybody. frank, thank you so much. we appreciate it. and up next, we're going to talk about some year-end tax tips, what you need to do before the calendar flips over to 2012.

we'll get to that right after this. >> one more shot. this is an rc robotic claw. my high school science teacher made me what i am today. our science teacher helped us build it. ♪ now i'm a geologist at chevron, and i get to help science teachers. it has four servo motors and a wireless microcontroller. over the last three years we've put nearly 100 million dollars into american education. that's thousands of kids learning to love science. ♪ isn't that cool? and that's pretty cool. ♪

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there was only one question. ♪ dove visible care creme body wash. we're back now, 8:18 and this morning on "today's money" ways to save some money before the end of the year. you still have a few days left in 2011 to help your bottom line in 2012. here with the moves to make is sta sharon epperson, cnbc's financial correspondent. even though the year is running out you can do things. >> there are a few business days left to take advantage. >> a lot of people go around, have you maxed out your 401(k)? what exactly does it mean and what are the steps you need to take? >> it means for this year you can contribute up to $16,500 into your 401(k), and you should be doing that, and you may have already missed the cutoff for your employer. you may have already received your last payroll stub for this year, it may be difficult to do

that. what you should know, that's going to increase by $500 for 2012. now is the time to give yourself that 3% raise into your retirement account, tell them now that you want to up your contribution. >> you talk about the amount of money, if you're 50 years old or older it's $22,500. >> if you've been laid off if you become a small business owner because of what happened to you this year you can do a solo 401(k) by december 31st and put way more money in that, up to $49,000. >> this next one you can do now but also have until april to do it, you can add money to your i.r.a. >> if something happened and you started your own business, gone into consulting and self-employed, this is a great thing a lot of small business owners are doing, a health savings account. you can put money into that up to $3,050 for an individual and $6,150 for a family. >> you don't have to fully make the payments until april.

>> what kind of bills are we talking about tax deductible bills. >> if you want to prepay the mortgage. >> if it's not due until january 3rd for example. >> you could do it for this month and this month and get that for your 2011 taxes, you can also do that for your real estate taxes or student loans and medical expenses. you want to look at all of these. you want to look at the alternative minimum tax if you fall into that category that may not be the best thing for you to do. >> this has been a tough year in the stock market although it's rebounded as of late. a lot of people have losses, investments that are under water. you get rid of those now? >> get rid of them in their brokerage account. if you have losers in your brokerage account, in your tax account, take them against the gains that you have and you can do that up to $3,000. this is something that you may want to do, you swap out a loser investment, get something perhaps that is similar that you think is going to be a better gainer. this is a strategy that you have to do if you have a big loser.

this is not something you do for a little wit of money because it can be confusing to people and if you got the investments because long-term you think they're winners and they fit with your strategy, stick with that. if they're really bad ones, you want to get rid of them. >> this next one we encourage people to do at all times of year but a really good time to make a charitable contribution because it helps other people and can help you as well. >> perhaps you make it with the credit card, you can do that now and pay the bill in january and it will still count for your 2011 tax return so now is the time to make that charitable contribution, keep the documentation, a check, a credit card statement, cash, ask for a receipt and giving clothing or household items you want to get a document for that as well. >> religious organizations are almost always tax exempt. >> exactly. >> what are some other ways to check to make sure the organization you want to donate to creates a tax deduction for you? >> you want to do that and check with the irs, see if they have a

letter or look on the irs website and go to charitynavigator.com, it is a great website to gather more information. >> millions of teachers across the country, they are underpaid, we always say that and a lot of them can take advantage of something in these last few days as well. >> they can get a school supply deduction, up to $250, and if you're like me, small children, you gave money to the teacher for christmas or for a holiday gift. i would encourage them to use that gift to buy the supplies they need for the classroom. all of these things are great things to do for the end of the year. if your financial house is not in order, if you're overspending, if you're not saving enough in your retirement accounts these are little things that will make a difference at the margin, so that's really what you need to focus on. >> sharon epperson happy holidays. >> thank you, good to see you. >> here's savannah. we say hello to whether willard scott in washington. hi, willard. >> here is adele pelligri, from

framingham, massachusetts, 105 years old today, still likes to play her bingo. happy birthday to a lovely, lovely lady, and we have morris schoenberg from woodcliff lake, new jersey, a lot of pretty little towns in new jersey, 100 years old today, a proud wwii veteran who loves to draw and dance and smiles all the time. he could be in show business. get him on "dancing with the stars" for god's sake. louise simons of blackstone, virginia, 105 years old today, and loves to sing old hymns. ♪ i love to tell the story that's a good one, anyway, and she loves to work in her garden. a lot of people work in the garden when they get to be an older group and we have the exciting george lloyd, sounds like a name of a diplomat.

anyway, he is from henderson, texas, 100 years old today, and loves to help anybody who wants help. how about that. also loves to repair violins. he's an excellent repairer of violins. mary belle gould of overland park, kansas, sweet mary belle, a proud american red cross volunteer and world war ii, her secret to longevity is her joy and happiness. we have kenneth poiry from torrance, california, 100 years old today. recently celebrated his 75th anniversary with his lovely wife, connie. and that's all. that's it right now. >> okay, willard, thank you. just ahead, "people" magazine's top stories of the year, but first your local news and weather.

8:26 is your time now on this tuesday december 27th, 2011. good morning to you. i am eun yang. let's check in with veronica johnson. clouds over head now, veronica? >> yes. we are waiting for the rain. just to the west of us already seeing showers. and it's going to turn moderate and heavy today after lunchtime, and heavier rain will amount to rainfall totals of about half to an inch. i think the bulk of it will be between two and six going up to a high of 50.

good news. northbound accident on 395, most

of the vehicles are gone and the delays dissipated. between november circle and white oak vista,

♪ jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle bell rock ♪ ♪ jingle bells swing and jingle bells ring ♪ 8:30, on this 27th day of december, 2011. we have a huge holiday crowd out on the plaza this morning, perhaps returning gifts later today, doing some more sales shopping, checking out our christmas tree, or simply just here to wish savannah a happy birthday, you pick it.

we're joined on the plaza by carl quintanilla who has been here for the last week or so. always good to have you here. coming up we'll be talking about the things or the stories we've always been talking about during the last 12 months. >> there were a lot of them, too. we'll look at some of the top stories of the year according to "people" magazine from the casey anthony trial to the royal wedding and high-profile breakups. the biggest headlines of the year. thinking of having people over new year's for a big feast? >> new year's is a down dayor me. >> a hangover. we'll have affordable solutions that will not have you getting up too early on new year's morning. >> great. before we get to that let us swing over and get a check of the weather. stephanie abrams is just across the plaza from us. steph? >> that i am. i have some football fans here working that terrible towel. show me how you work that towel for the steelers you said what? >> go green bay.

>> a lot of nfl fans here. let's have a look at our forecast here as we go across the country. maybe you got a football for christma going to go outside there and not the best weather to do it from the great lakes into the gulf coast. otherwise, snow finally here but otherwise we will see snow finally here along the eastern lakes, which is fantastic news for many of you, and otherwise along the i-95 corridor, it's going to be a soggy one. now here is a look at what is happening outside your door. >> right here it is going to be very soggy. later today, we -- we are under cloud cover right now and have showers falling around roanoke, and we will see the bulk of rain between 2:00 and 6:00, about half to an inch of rain. low visibility today. your high is 49 to 50 degrees. tomorrow, we're winding with a high o >> and these are three of 17

dogs coming up a little bit later on the show. savannah, over to you. >> stephanie thanks. this morning on requesting today celebrates 2011." from the famous to infamous, "people" magazine had a lot to pick for its year-end issue. kate coyne, contributing editor, good morning. >> good morning and happy birthday. >> thank you. let's start with some of the celebrity things that were memorable, charlie sheen has to top anybody's list. >> charlie sheen was, i think he would approve of "epic" a spectacular meltdown, the lixz of which we haven't seen unless it was some andy kaplan performance art but this was very real and it was amazing that no publicist, no manager, no lawyer could seemingly shut him down for quite some time. >> at the end of the year does he seem like he's maybe going to have a second act? >> well he still made lots of money off of the remaining

contracts he had for "two and a half men" so at the end of the day tens of millions of dollars went into his bank account and he has a new show coming up for next year so he didn't fare too badly in the end. >> another big celebrity debacle the cakardashian wedding, the fanfare, the reality show and 72 days the divorce. >> 72 days was a surprising number even in the world of celebrity relationships, weddings. you would think something as documented and hyped and anticipated as this particular marriage was in the world of reality stardom that they would have stuck it out a little bit longer, so for it to unravel that quickly was stunning. >> there were a lot of celeb brit breakups, some surprising, maybe some not as much so. j. lo and marc anthony and ashton and demi and rumors had been swirling for a long time. >> neither of the breakups was hugely shocking. the ashton and demi breakup many people thought that marriage was doomed from the beginning simply because of their age difference.

what was surprising about the way that fell apart demi issued a statement on her own essentially taking a shot at ashton which is not something you see every day in these kinds of breakups. >> of course it all happened on twitter, where else do things happen anymore. big trials in 2011, casey anthony got to be at the top of the list, amanda knox, dr. conrad murray. >> really not since the o.j. simpson era have there been so many people watching courtroom proceedings so closely. the casey anthony trial, people were there from the beginning when caylee was missing, found and the end of the trial. the ma are the jo of people, the vast majority of people feel justice was not served. people are riveted to the case still to this day. >> people are interested in it. there were so many losses of wonderful people in 2011, steve jobs, this inventor, this american original, elizabeth taylor, i know that both are featured in the magazine.

>> absolutely. they were both originals. the work of steve jobs impacts billions of lives every single day and will continue to do so. he changed the way we live and the way we think. and elizabeth taylor, the style, the hollywood glamour, the degree to which she was an icon will not be replicated again, but that was the end of an era. >> it was sad to see amy winehouse pass away but given all of her struggles i think it's one of those whether where it's not entirl shoely shocking very sad. >> very sad. it's interesting and makes it more tragic to note that there were no illegal drugs found in her system in the autopsy, which suggests that maybe she really was starting to overcome some of her demons. >> we had a lot of smile about this year, certainly congressman gabby giffords' recovery. she was shot on january 8th, just such a shocking event in tucson but to see how far she's come in just a year is an amazing story. >> from such a tragedy came such a tremendous triumph, when you see the leaps and bounds that

she has made, and then when you see the relationship that she has with her husband, the tremendous role he's taken on of being a caregiver to her, the love and the union of the two of them have. it is miraculous. >> we've seen some transitions certainly in our business in the television world, oprah winfrey leaving her show and regis philbin. you might look at the two as irrepoliceable. >> absolutely. there are no replacements for either. oprah is not a replacement for oprah, the way her new channel is faring would suggest it wasn't merely oprah winfrey, it was "the oprah winfrey show." >> are you surprised her network hasn't done better? >> there is yet to be anything on the channel and there may be at some point in the future that replicates what "the oprah winfrey show" was in people's homes every afternoon. >> and regis philbin spent more time on my television than i think anybody else.

>> he was and remains a class act and somebody who was just an old school entertainer the way they just don't make them like that anymore. >> least we forget, last but not least we have to talk about will and kate, the wedding of the year. there was so much interest and there continues to be so much interest in everything this couple does. >> the wedding of the year, the story of the year. this was a romance that everybody was cheering for, everybody was just captivated by a real life fairytale, because really for most people, this is the first royal wedding there has ever been that has been so magical because the couple has been so clearly in love. >> and she seriously has not made one misstep, which is amazing, considering the eyes of the world are upon her. >> it has yet to happen. she's had many years to prepare, and many other people's mistakes to look at and learn from, and so far she has been flawless. >> all right, kate coyne from "people" magazine, thank you. the special issue is on news stands now. coming up next, having the family over for a new year's day

feast. some easy, last-minute recipes that everyone will love and laugh about. but first this is "today" and look he's already there. what are you doing? no, no, let's just hang on this a few more minutes.

♪ celebrate good times, come on ♪ we're back now, 8:41 and this morning on "today's holiday kitchen" time for your new year's day meal, it can be hard to cook a big feast the day after rockin' in the new year. doesn't have to be difficult. sunny anderson, good morning. >> good morning. >> cooking on new year's day better be something you can prepare the day before or super quick and easy. >> if you have to do preprep for new year's day, we've made it through halloween, thanksgiving, christmas, take it easy on yourself. i have no prep new year's day dinner, no prep.

>> you love these hamzs. >> it's already cured and cook. you buy this. the idea is just to bring it back up to temperature in your oven without drying it out. >> by the way it takes a little longer than a lot of people realize. i can't tell you the number of times i've put it on the table and it's cool on the inside. >> about 20 minutes to every pound of ham and remember bring it out of the refrigerator, leave it on the countertop for a couple of hours to let it get room temperature before you put it in the oven. >> these already have been seasoned somewhat. you like to add a little zest and they come with the packet of gook. >> i don't do this. the ham's already been through so much to get cured. i don't want to put things i can't pronounce on it. it's light brown sugar, a little bit of honey, orange zest, orange juice. >> pumpkin pie seasoning? >> pumpkin pie spice. you buy it, it's around for the holidays, you still have it leftover. let's use it on our ham. you mix this up.

>> okay. >> and then what you do is you take half of it and reserve it and put it into a pot, and then get it all nice and glazed up and thickened. one-half of it you go right on top of the ham. get it in between the crevasses, brush it and keep it moist because you are close to drying it out, the water goes in the pan >> pour water in the actual pan but wrap it in the foil. >> wrap it in the foil really tight. this is a 325-degree oven, about 20 minutes every pound. >> okay. >> 140 degrees is what you're looking for. >> when it comes out -- >> when it comes out it's going to be a little bit warm, crank up your oven to about 400 degrees. this is easy because you roll out of bed and put it in, go right back to bed. it's going to take a couple of hours, maybe sit and wait for the game to come on. >> now you put in reserve in the saucepan back on the ham.

>> half of the glaze we didn't use, put it on for the range, gets it nice and oozy, look at that, and just get it right back on, leave it uncovered for about 15 minutes at 400 degrees, back in the oven, and then it turns out like this. >> you've got nutmeg over here. when were we supposed to put that on? >> that goes into the glaze. if you don't have the fresh nutmeg like this, grate it, you can use ground nutmeg. >> that's what it comes out looking like. i took a piece before and it's fantastic. let's talk about some sides that you're going to serve with that. >> a little bit of apple oote. >> the sweetness is good with the ham. >> if you've ever seen the pineapple with the ham this is good. ice cream for dessert. >> sweet potato hash. >> this is good breakfast, lunch or dinner. i've got oil in here on that. i'm going to throw down some bacon. >> any kind of bacon, pancheta?

>> you can. i like the fat-to-meat ratio, kind of helps the hangover. >> those are raw sweet potatoes? >> raw sweet potatoes i have diced down. if you want to do this the night before, store these in the refrigerator in a little bit of water so they don't harden out on you. >> cook them down, they come out looking like this. >> a little bit of salt and pepper, add red onion, garlic sliced up, pickled jalapenos, secret ingredients and cumin comes together. >> and looks like this, i have a little piece of garlic stuck on my finger, brussel sprout salad as well, perfect for new year's day, almost no fuss. sunny, thank you so much. >> thank you. >> good to have you here. up next our best bow to wow makeovers of the year. we'll catch up with some of the dogs we helped find loving homes in 2011. first this is "today" on nbc.

♪ bow wow wow yippee, yo, yippee yay ♪ from bow to wow, it's our reunion year-end wrap-up. >> we're checking in with some of the lucky dogs who found great homes in 2011. jill rappaport is here with the recap. good morning, happy holidays to you. >> happy birthday, too. i would have brought you a puppy. i'm so thrilled to say it's another perfect record, another great year. all our dogs found loving homes all over the country, getting a new leash on life. >> finally we've got kathie lee with a great pair. >> reporter: bow to wow had another banner year, dogs of all ages, sizes and breeds from animal care control in new york city landed into loving homes across the map. >> bailey had a leg injury. >> reporter: there's bailey our

little bijon who had major leg surgery before appearing on our show. he's now a happy, healthy boy with quite a bounce in his step thanks to a lot of tlc from his new family in massachusetts. >> he's going to need a lot of running around. >> reporter: and luke hit the lamb lotto with acres to play in and plenty of furry friends to romp with in his new home, a fabulous farm in north carolina. >> i don't think she realizes a leg is missing. >> let's put her down and show. >> reporter: who could forget sweet little sally, the maltese poodle mix with three legs. she got the sweetest home in the big apple, and there was no short annual of amazing homes for the captivating canines, who were in great demand, the minute their adorable mugs, mugged for the screen. but these personality plus pooches also proved to have minds of their own. when they demonstrated their less than thrilled attitude towards our bow to wow anniversary cake. >> another very energetic dog.

>> reporter: flora, this tiny york sheer terrier has become the fashion hound and j.r. a chatty laddie with his new family. now of course our dogs generated buzz. >> he is so cool. >> he's bigger than i am. >> reporter: what a stellar connection this star athlete made with one of our fur angels. >> you may have found a love there, michael. >> reporter: 14-time olympic gold medalist michael phelps couldn't resist precious penelope and home she went with the champion swimmer, happily joining the phelps household. >> let's bring in richard gentiles of animal care and control of new york city along with some of our bow to wow dogs and owners. good morning, everybody, happy holidays. nice to see you. richard, 100% record on the show, talk to me about what this segment does in terms of generating interest in adoptions nationwide. >> it's definitely brought in people into the shelters in droves, and it's really raised

the awareness of if you want to adopt a pet, go to your local animal shelter. that's the place to find them. that's the best place and you can see the variety of dogs that you can find there. you'll definitely fall in love. >> we have a lot of happy owners here and happy puppies. cambridge and michael, you have evie there. i understand you call her the world's perfect dog. >> she really is. she's like two dogs in one. couch potato who just wants to snuggle up to you and be loved and the dog run, she's got tons of energy and very, very snuggly. >> you made a friend there. >> the manager's dog is in love with her. >> sandra giles, your dog's name is shadow? >> yes. >> talk moo-to-me about shadow, why do you love this dog? >> because sometimes he goes crazy sometimes, because when we leave the building, he wants, he really wants to come with us no matter what. >> oh. part of the family no question about it. >> and kathy, i understand you

actually surprised your boyfriend with buddy by sending a link to the "today" show? >> yes i did. my fiance is based in quantico in the military. i had been pretty lonely by myself and so i had e-mailed in about buddy and i just went and got him and sent him the link and he called me on the way home and i was like well i got a surprise for you. >> raise your hands if this was purely a spur of the moment thing, were watching the show and you said that dog needs a home and i'm going to adopt a dog. that's a lot of you. the segment is really working. it's fantastic. one thing i hear all the time from people on the streets, what about the cats? >> listen, we did meow to wow and we'll do the segment again. >> already got the name. >> richard, good job, jill, thank you very much. >> thank you very much. still ahead what you can do to take the hassle out of your holiday returns but first this is "today" on nbc.

a lot of us here at the "today" -- we look awfully close together. a lot of us here at the "today" show got an unusual wake-up alarm, we got text mails sent out to most of the staff saying "it's my birthday, don't forget it" came from savannah guthrie. >> no, i didn't. >> celebrating a milestone today.

>> yeah you like to keep mentioning that. >> 40 doesn't bother you does it? >> it really doesn't. i call it the second anniversary of my 39th birthday. no, i feel very lucky and blessed. >> you've been rounding up for years anyway. >> honestly that's actually the only thing i are he great ever since i turned 36 i tried to prepare myself and i've been rounding myself up to 40. i should have hung on a little longer. >> we ask is there any picture you'd like to show us about your childhood and most are shy about this but not savannah. no, she sent us some things, blowups, not little pictures so this is savannah at what age? >> it's like 3. >> 3 years old. >> the topless, okay, now this would be like what 8 or 9? >> that's my fifth grade picture. look, i still have that same hair problem, sticks right now. ♪ all by myself >> these were hanging on the wall. >> thanks, momg. >> savannah the soccer star, followed by -- whoa!

joe, come on in here with our gift for savannah. >> oh, god. thank you. >> happy 40th birthday. we wish you many, many returns. apparently a budget shortage, we couldn't come up with candles? >> do we have a match? i'd like to light the pictures on fire. >> happy birthday. >> thank you. your local news. 8:56 is your time now on this tuesday, december twenty sev seventh. >> you see that green there on the radar. that is rain and it's showing up now in winchester, just south

and west of leesburg. for the afternoon, some heavy rain. 45 to 52, the range in temperatures for today. meanwhile, we can see anywhere from a half to inch of rain and that means very nasty for the early part of the afternoon

good morning. you can see how beautifully the traffic is moving, no real delays and nothing in your way. over in maryland, we have an accident now, one at 410 in riverdale park and the belt day and university moving well. >> thanks. more news, weather and traffic for you

how are you? we're back with more of "today" on a tuesday morning, the 27th day of december, 2011. we've got a festive crowd gathered here in rockefeller plaza. some of these people may be in town early for the big new year's eve festivities coming up on saturday night, whatever the reason we're happy to have them with us this morning. out on the plaza, matt lauer along with savannah guthrie. al and ann are off today. coming up, more about good news coming out of london this morning, prince philip was released from a hospital this morning, the 90-year-old went in about four days ago for some emergency heart surgery. he is said to be doing very

well, and eager to get back to the royal holiday celebrations. we'll have the latest on this story coming up in just a couple of minutes. >> all right, speaking of the holidays if you have some gifts that you want to return, we'll tell you how to avoid some of the hassles at the mall. some good tips to handle all of the returns you might have this time of year. >> have you made your new year's resolution yet? >> no, i don't really. >> no? >> no. why, does that surprise you? >> no, a lot of people don't because a lot of people break them. top of the list for a lot of people, saving more money and getting better with their finances. we're going to have some expert advice on how you can actually keep those resolutions this year. >> okay, a lot of people resolved to lose weight or get more exercise in the new year. we've got a great handbook "the biggest loser" has easy, quick, fast recipes you can make and they're healthy, too, and delicious and ones involves bacon. you can't go wrong with that. >> exactly. carl quintanilla is at the news desk while natalie enjoys

some time off. carl, take it away. >> matt, savannah, good morning. shoppers took to the web instead of the mall with online sales jumping more than 16% over last year's christmas day shopping rush and the number of shoppers using iphones, ipads and other mobile devices to make purchases this year increased by a whopping 173%. the republican presidential candidates are picking up the pace of their campaigns in iowa, just a week away from that state's caucuses. michele bachmann, with rick perry, newt gingrich will bus through the state today, all claiming to be competitive alternatives to mitt romney, who is looking stronger than expected ahead of the first of the nation tests. prince philip has been released from the hospital after successfully undergoing treatment for a blocked coronary artery. michelle kosinski is outside buckingham palace with the latest. michelle, good morning. >> reporter: hi, carl. this morning prince philip got his wish to be released from the

hospital after spending four nights there. his treatment for a blocked coronary artery was a minimally invasive procedure to install a stent. given the prince is 90 years old, despite his great health, great spirit and great desire to go home, doctors wanted to keep him under observation, but this morning they allowed him to be driven to sandringham palace, this beautiful, cozy place, the royal family loves, they can be out of the public eye and spend the rest of their holidays together. this is the first year prince philip missed christmas there. he is one of the royal family's busiest members, making between 300 and 400 public appearances every year. it's possible after this he may scale back a little more. carl? >> michelle kosinski in london, thanks. officials are investigating what caused a helicopter to crash in florida on its way to pick up a heart for transplant. all three people on board were killed, including a mayo clinic heart surgeon. meantime the donated heart they were en route to retrieve is now expired and cannot be used for a transplant.

the patient who was to receive the heart now waits for a new organ donation. now to that christmas morning tragedy in stamford, connecticut, where five members of one family died in a house fire. investigators believe they found a likely cause. nbc's craig melvin is in stamford with the latest. craig, good morning. >> reporter: carl we're standing in front of all that's left of the badger family home. madonna badger lost her three children and her two parents in that christmas morning fire, and the more we find out about this story the sadder is gets. a short time ago the fire chief told us that the grandfather's body was actually recovered from the roof. he was apparently trying to save one of his small grandchildren. until christmas morning, this was the badger family home. monday, bulldozers reduced the charred shell to rubble. a few feet away neighbors turned thiard into a makeshift memorial. >> any time it's bad but on christmas day when you have family visiting, it's -- i don't know, i don't know what to say.

>> reporter: investigators say they now have a good idea what caused the christmas morning fire that left three little girls and their grandparents dead. city officials says it looks like embers from a starter log triggered the fire. when flames started shooting from the five-bedroom house, 47-year-old madonna badger rushed to the roof and desperately tried to save her family. fire officials had to drag her away. >> all's i could say is that she was instructing where she thought the children would be, and the firefighters made an attempt and were pushed back by heavy flames. >> reporter: badger's three daughters were trapped on the third floor and died. lily was 10. twins sarah and grace were 7. madonna badger escaped with her friend, mike bursena, reportedly a contractor doing work at the house. badger is a prominent new york city fashion executive behind those famous calvin klein ads starring marky mark in the mid '90s. her husband, matthew, lives in new york city. the couple is going through a divorce.

the house worth a reported $1.7 million was built in 1890s and a city official says its age and newly installed siding may have spread the fire faster. >> i feel horrible for madonna and for her, you know, the children and her parents. it's just a tragedy. >> reporter: the badger girls are pictured here with her grandfather, lomer johnson. johnson and his wife, paula, were also trapped upstairs, and died. they would have celebrated their 49th wedding anniversary monday. johnson didn't just wear the big red suit for family. this year he played st. nick at saks fifth avenue in new york city. on a website promoting his retirement hobby, he says, "i am now a santa because my oldest granddaughter asked me to be." that makeshift memorial of flowers and teddy bears is growing here over the past day or so. were there smoke alarms? were there fire alarms? those are a few of the questions that we expect to get answered at a press conference set for early this afternoon.

carl, back to you. >> just a heartbreaking story. craig melvin in stamford, thanks. a giant outdoor escalator is making life easier for the 12,000 people who live in one of colombia's poorest neighborhoods. they live in commua 13, which clings to the side of a steep hillside. to get to their homes they had to climb hundreds of large steps, the equivalent of a 28-story building. the escalator cuts the trip from a half hour to five minutes. and i thought living on the second floor was bad. it's now seven minutes past the hour. back to stephanie with a check of the weather. >> carl, we have some viewers here living in the wrong climate from florida, what is your ideal temperature? >> cold. >> from michigan what is your ideal temperature? >> sheet. >> i have someone who has it right. do you like the cold weather? >> yes. >> cookie monster is from new jersey so he's enjoying this. it's going to get wet later today and that's going to cause jersey, so he is enjoying this. it's going to be wet so it will cause problems here throughout

portions of the southeast. look at atlanta, and also into charlotte, and charleston, this is all moving up into the northeast. it's going to be windy and snowy and rainy, and otherwise through the center of the country, that's where the sun will be shining and also wet through the northwest. now here is a look at what is happening outside your door? >> we may see airport delays here in d.c. and baltimore later this afternoon. for now, it's light rain. and frederick, winchester, and leesburg, and by the time we get to noontime today we will see more and more pockets of moderate and heavy rain, especially by 2:00, 3:00, 4:00 today. and that rain will end at 7:00 p.m. today and tomorrow we're >> savannah, sweetest kid ever, his 11th birthday but you're doing what? giving out gifts. candy kanes. savannah i'll bring in this one for you for your birthday. >> very sweet.

stephanie, thanks. this morning on "today's consumer" holiday returns. todd mark, senior editor of "consumer reports" is here with good advice to make this experience hassle free. todd, good morning to you. >> we can hope for the best this time of the year. >> this is a busy time for retailers with returns. >> it's amazing. 30% of us are going to be out and about returning a gift this week, and it's estimated that we'll be returning about $46 billion worth of merchandise. >> that's bad for retailers but i have to hope that people who are at the stores might spend on something else? >> it's also a big week for gift cord spending. from "consumer reports" previous surveys, 55% of americans had two or more gift cards left over from last year. we're telling people get out and use them. this is the perfect time because the discounts are marking another 30%, 40% most items in a lot of stores. >> i remember the olden days. i'm 40 now today, so -- >> i wish. >> it used to be easy to return but some of the policies have

gotten harder because of return fraud. >> it's a big deal. about $3.5 billion a year. so retailers in many instances have tightened up their policies with i is good for them but maybe requires you to be on your toes a little bit more. >> let's talk about your tips. >> sure. >> number one probably the most important one which is bring your receipts. >> it's the duh factor. from our survey we know that 58% of people don't even give a gift receipt when they extend a present. you could, in the old days you could say well i'll get a merchandise credit. now you could be turned away and even that, you know, the fact is, you may end up with less than the value of them. remember when you bring an item back without a receipt, if you can bring it back at all, you're going to get the lowest amount the item sold for, not necessarily what was paid for. >> then you're not so happy to see the 40% markup. >> no. >> number two, bring your i.d., why? >> more and more retailers again to combat return fraud have now required consumers to bring a government-issued i.d., a

driver's license, because they can also that way track serial returners, people that have a propenceit to return a lot of items and we want to make sure you're aboveboard. >> timing of your return can make a big difference. how so? >> the timing is, i always tell people look, you have' got a certain amount of days to to it. 90 days for most items, elect n electron electronics, computers, television sets, software, may only have a 7 to 14-day window so that's something to remember. don't just stand around and look at it. bring it back before the time runs out. >> especially talking about electronic, don't cut off the labels or take things out of the boxes. >> that and high-end clothing, a practice called wardrobing, people buy expenses dresses, sweaters and jewelry, take it back after they went to the party and try to get their money back. a lot of retailers cracked down on that and the same thing with electronics. if you take off the cellophane from a software, music cd or dvd

you may not be able to return it at all. don't rip it apart unless you're sure you want it >> there's restocking fees so assuming you could return it, you might get charged something. >> that's especially true with personal electronics items. we've seen that for years. if you rip open the box and take it out of its packaging it can't be sold as new again. it has to be sold as a floor model, demo model. you may pay up to 15. of the product's cost. you don't want to do that. >> you also say check the time line for returning items. we talked about that and know where the item is returnable. if i buy something online you might be able to bring that back to the store. >> generally speaking that's true. if you buy online you can return to a brick and mortar store. people don't realize if you buy from an outlet section or a clearance section of a website, it may not be returnable that way. so you want to know the rules before you go and we found out in our survey that about 50% of americans don't even look at the policy either online in so store

before they return it so you want to avoid like you said the aggravation, avoid a trip back to the post office, repackaging, shipping fee, so just make sure you know before you go. >> all an argument for the gift receipt. if you can't exchange those for cash, can you? >> no cash value to a gift card either so pend those gift cards. you can't get money back. >> good to see you, thanks so much. >> pleasure. coming up next, easy steps to get your financial house in order in 2012. plus siku, the baby polar winning an army of fans all around the world and especially in this studio.

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♪ money, money, money, money, must be ♪ this morning on requesting tooled's money" makinging a new financial start in 2012, with the new year approaching we have some simple steps you can take right now to get your finances in order. david bach the founder of finishrich.com and author of "debt free for life." happy holidays. good morning to you. >> thank you, carl, good to be here! >> this shows you, you don't need to have a doctorate in math to get these done. >> people talk about new year's resolutions. look at a quick action list. take one tip and implement it for 2012, get a brand new financial. >> let's talk about the first one, pay yourself first. what does that mean? >> we talk about this on every segment i feel like. here's the key, this year in 2012 the number one i want to you do is increase your 401(k) contribution, so pay yourself first means when money comes in, it goes right into your retirement account. carl here's what people should do. this week, while they still have

time, take out the 401(k) statement and increase the dollar amount putting in the plan or increase the percentage. put an extra $500 this year away in your 401(k) plan for 2012, if you just increase your 401(k) plan by 1%, it will make a radical change in your financial life. >> you'll get that money later, not giving it away. >> that's right. >> second automate your finances, is this more than having your bills get paid automatecally? >> there are seven critical things to automate on your financial life and the idea here is that you can automate your financial life in less than one hour so first, make sure your paycheck is going automatecally into a checking account. amazingly, people still get physical checks and walk into a bank, waste about 12 hours of your doing that. once it's in your checking account, move money automatically into your emergency account. we always talk about emergency accounts and people don't do it. then have money into a dream account, your vacation account or gift account, and then move money automatically into your credit card. your minimum monthly payment should be automatically paid, by

doing that you'll never be late. mortgage payments should be automatically paid and then other monthly bills, utility bills, phone bills, anything like that, automate it with online bill pay. >> you talk about making a will and the reasons for that are multifold, right? >> every needs a will, carl. 50% of americans don't have a will, and those that do have a will, many of them are outdated or people have, maybe you went out and got a will started but you haven't finished it. here is the key. you don't have to have kids or be 34married to have a will. everyone needs a will. one of the critical things you need a health care directive. if you get sick, if you get hurt, god forbid if you're in a major accident, your family needs to know legally what efforts you want put in place in order to keep awe life and quite honestly, what medicines you want. additional things, if you do, you need a power of attorney so they can write checks, funeral arrangements, all of that put in a will, very important. get an online program like

quicken for example, willmaker, and less than $50. >> you don't need to be rich, don't need to be a millionaire. it's not that expensive. >> software to do it yourself is less than $50, or hiring attorneys between $500 to $1,500 to get a basic will done. >> track where the money goes. >> so simple. we used to take out a piece of paper and do this. do is automatically. two major websites very popular, very safe, mint.com, millions of people are using it and yodeli. they track where your finances go automatically, show you where your money is being spent and many banks are doing this. citibank announced they've got a program so check with your bank and see if there's a way you can automatically track expenses. most banks will allow you to download to quicken. this is the year 2012 to do it. >> i spend way too much on restaurants i got to fix that next year. radically reduce expenses by giving up something? >> one of the fastest ways to cut your overhead in 2012 is

pick one thing to give up. nobody wants to do this but give up one thing. classic example, cars, many families have two or three cars. giving up one car can save your family $5,000 to $10,000 a year in expenses. now you say i can't give up my car. what could you give up. yes it's going to be hard but if we give it up, it will radically change our financial lives. >> clean it out and sell it. >> so many of us, millions have storage facilities with stuff sitting in them we never look at or think about. get rid of that stuff, sell it, have somebody come, put it up on ebay, close out that storage facility, and then boom you've got more money in savings. that can save you $1,000 a year in overhead there. >> that's the one thing you're going to do. >> my number one goal for the year. still ahead, would you rub olive oil on your brand new table or use vodka as an odor eliminator? everyday items that make great substitutes for your favorite household cleaning products, but first these messages.

to see it through.but we wed today, while our work continues, i want to update you on the progress: bp has set aside 20 billion dollars to fund economic and environmental recovery. we're paying for all spill- related clean-up costs. and we've established a 500 million dollar fund so independent scientists can study the gulf's wildlife and environment for ten years. thousands of environmental samples from across the gulf have been analyzed by independent labs under the direction of the us coast guard. i'm glad to report all beaches and waters are open for everyone to enjoy. and the economy is showing progress with many areas on the gulf coast having their best tourism seasons in years. i was born here, i'm still here and so is bp. we're committed to the gulf for everyone who loves it, and everyone who calls it home.

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9:26 is your time now on this tuesday, december 27th, 2011. good morning, i am eun yang. we are talking about downpours today, veronica? >> that we are. i am not sure that i like it has arrived already, and we will see a lot of rain in a short period of time. most neighborhoods reporting light rain, and 45 is the temperature with the south and southeast wind, and we will continue with rain today. it will pick up in between 2:00 and 6:00. heavy, too. and your high today, right around 50.

we should clear out and see the rain end around 7:00 this evening. and then the high is 45. >> veronica, thank you so much. we will check your ♪ okay, so who ordered the cereal that can help lower cholesterol and who ordered the yummy cereal? yummy. that's yours. lower cholesterol. lower cholesterol. i'm yummy. lower cholesterol.

i got that wrong didn't i? [ male announcer ] want great taste? honey nut cheerios. want whole grain oats that can help lower cholesterol? honey nut cheerios. it's a win win. good? [ crunching, sipping ] be happy. be healthy. can i try yours? we have a new accident northbound on the bw parkway at 410 temperature left lane is blocked and police are on the scene and you are experiencing delays from 450 up to 410.

looks like we might have wet pavement. >> thank you so much. more news, weather and traffic for you in 25 minutes.

♪ ♪ girl you got a heartbeat running away ♪ ♪ beating like a sun and it's coming your way ♪ 2011 was a big year for fashion, from the royal wedding to exciting looks on the red carpet. the first lady turned a few heads. coming up, kathie lee and hoda look back at the year in style, including the fashion hits and misses that had all of us talking. meanwhile, just ahead, a new use for vodka, not just for orange juice anymore. >> you can use it to freshen up your home. we'll explain how and tell you other items you can find around the house double as household cleaners, you're just cleaning and -- >> i was going to say --

>> steam cleaner once you have the vodka in you. it's a convenient excuse. also ahead a face you have to love. take a look at this little guy, this is siku, a 1-month-old polar bear being raised by human hands. coming up, look at him. he's the cutest. coming up, exclusive conversation with siku. >> see who is cuter, him or your baby pictures. >> oh, no, please just don't show those ever again. also help if you're struggling to lose weight from people who really know how it's done, the folks at "the biggest loser" are out with a brand new cookbook. just ahead delicious and healthy recipes you can have on the table in less than 20 minutes. >> she's rolling it in bacon, that cannot be bad. >> i'm guessing this is not part of -- >> well it's birthday cake. >> in the cookbook? >> i don't think so. that's all right you have to indulge once a year. >> naturally healthy. >> fruits and vegetables. okay, steph how about the weather? >> where we are going let's have a look at the

weather. we will see the sunshine in the mississippi river westbound. alarng the east coast, pretty messy. tomorrow the system moves out but there's a lot of wind left behind, so still anticipate delays at the airport. now here is what is happening outside your door. >> you could see airport delays in d.c. and baltimore. we have light rain falling right now and it will pick up later today after lunchtime. and a little heavier in hagerstown, and that's it for right now, but between 2:00 and 6:00, a big mess on area roads. your high is around 50, and tomorrow windy we're going to enjoy the cake and no vodka. >> the vodka comes later. >> exactly. >> for cleaning obviously, stephanie. coming up next we'll talk about if you run out of your

favorite household cleaning products. >> never fear we have ingenius solutions that will do the trick, right after this. ♪ imagination ♪ imagination imagination ♪ ♪ helps you see the world in different ways ♪ yay! yay! ♪ this is a pony ♪ and this is a choo-choo ♪ [ male announcer ] it's movie time. and this is a... [ male announcer ] with a wii twist. what is this? [ male announcer ] netflix now delivers unlimited tv episodes and movies instantly through wii and nintendo 3ds. all for only 8 bucks a month. ♪ we've done a good job caring for our mouths. that's why there's a rinse like crest pro-health multi-protection. it helps you get a better dental check-up. so be ready for your next dental check-up. try any crest pro-health rinse.

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at kleenex.com and start your own chain of sharing. in return, you'll receive a sample of new kleenex cool touch tissues... the only tissue that actively releases a cool sensation to soothe a sore nose on contact. kleenex. softness worth sharing. yeah, our low prices are even lower. we need to teach her how to walk. she is taking up valuable cart space. aren't you, honey? [ male announcer ] it's our biggest clearance event of the year where our prices are even lower. save money. live better. walmart. this morning on "today's home" alternatives to your favorite cleaning supplies,

instead of running to the store when you run out of glass cleaner or furniture polish, why not take a trip to the kitchen or the bar, as the case may be. elizabeth mayhew is the editor-in-chief of "woman's day" magazine. good morning. >> good morning. >> cleaning products can get expensive so this is a helpful segment we're doing here. there are things lying around the house that might be helpful? >> go into your pantry or your bar and really almost everything is there. you don't need to go run out and buy as you've said. these can also be cost-cutting measures. >> let's talk about our first item, furniture polish. you can replace it with? >> you start with olive oil, a lubricant so it will prevent wood from cracking. it keeps it nice and healthy, and then you can either use vinegar or lemon juice to add that. what vinegar does is it's an astringent so it pulls the dirt out of it. for a tougher clean like if something is really dirty, use the vinegar. if you have a milder cleaning, use lemon juice so essentially what you're doing is cleaning your wood with salad dressing.

>> that's good. would you worry about an odor? >> you don't. lemon juice would give a nice odor. you want to put your solution into a bottle, spray it directly on your cloth first before you spray it on the wood. >> not right on the wood. >> because that could be too tough. you go ahead and clean it. one thing, as i said, this is kind of like a salad dressing. wooden salad bowls you should not use like soap on. this is what you use to clean it. so keep the dressing and just wipe it out. >> so you could clean your counter and put it on your salad to spritz -- just kidding, we would never do that. next is glass cleaner. >> glass cleaner is one teaspoon of a dish washing liquid and then it's a third of a cup of white vinegar, white vinegar is the wonder solution, it really does do almost everything, and then three cups of water, so you go ahead, you mix that together, pour it into a bottle, use it to spray and we also like to use my

c microfibers, that's a great way to cut down. easy to do and streak free. >> this is the one we've always been interested in. really, vodka? what is this? >> like any kind of fabric freshener is really at the base of it is ethanol. ethanol is what freshens the smell. both vodka and store bought both have ethanol in them. someone made from petrochemicals and one is made from grain. so vodka, all you do is equal parts of vodka and water. you can even taste it if you want. >> that's quite all right. >> let me show you though that people would say oh what does it smell like. >> that's what i was wondering. >> it really doesn't. the smell disappears. >> yeah, it's true. >> and it gives it a fresh -- >> vodka-y smell. this is like a fabric refresher. >> a fabric refresher and you're diluting it with water. so this is almost straight vodka.

>> if anyone is wondering where the vodka is in the house it's to clean the fabric. >> you don't buy expensive vodka. the cheapest will do the trick. >> i love these swiffer sweepers. you say paper towels is just as good. >> it sounds like a big duh but the grooves picks up and attracts all the dirt. there's no reason to buy the little pads. >> i thought there was a felty magnetic quality? >> not too much. that's what the grooves do, and that's why you buy a pattern like a grooves paper towel. >> you could probably wet it, too? >> it's supposed to be dry but yes you could do that and you could even use one of these solutions if you wanted to. >> maybe some vodka. >> and vinegar. >> now it's a cleaning party. okay, finally draino, if your drain is clogged. >> drano is bad for your pipes. it's a much better and safer way to go taking a half a cup of baking soda, pour that down the drain, follow it with a half a cup of white vinegar, then cover the drain with a cloth like a

damp cloth for about five minutes and then chase it with a thing of boiling water. >> really? >> pour it down and it will absolutely get rid of any clog that you have. >> elizabeth -- >> and then you can have your vodka. >> how did you if igthis oufigu? >> science. >> great chemistry class. coming up next the baby polar bear turned worldwide sensation. we'll catch up with siku right after this. [ female announcer ] find yourself sometimes cleaning up after your dishcloth? bounty extra soft can help. it's super durable, and in this lab test bounty extra soft leaves this surface three times cleaner than a dishcloth. even with just one sheet. super clean. super soft. bounty extra soft. in the pink pack. and try bounty napkins.

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talk about a cutie. siku is a 1-month-old polar bear being hand raised by zoo keepers in denmark. >> he's already taking the internet and the world by storm. nbc's michelle kosinski has the story. >> is it possible? fathomable, visible that anything on the planet could be this cute? trying to roll around, getting a massage. and maybe his favorite pasttime, napping with his little tongue hanging out. but his name is siku, which means sea ice. the baby polar bear born at a

denmark zoo, in his one month of life he's winning admirers around the world, thanks to internet video. doesn't get much more adorable than this. you can call him unbearable cute, weighing less than two pounds at birth, when his mother couldn't produce milk, zookeeper, round the clock tending to his every need, who could resist. now he's a healthy seven pounds, but those big, squishy feet say it all, there's a giant bear in there, waiting to come out one day, that will be more than 100 times his size, at around half a ton. it calls to mind one other thing this baby polar bear, yes, knut, the beloved berlin superstar who inspired songs. ♪ and merchandising, who eventually became a little too big to snuggle. knut died suddenly in march of encephalitis at 4 years old.

in captivity they can live 40 years. there's only an estimated 25,000 polar bears left in the world. so zookeepers are giving siku all the care he can handle. what a job. to ensure that whether or not this guy also becomes a rock star of the animal kingdom, he will be as happy as this, for a long, long time. the polar bear that is melting hearts by the millions. for "today," michelle kosinski, nbc news, london. >> and earlier this morning, siku joined us along with his primary caretaker, frank v. larson, and matt started by asking frank about the challenges of raising a polar bear in captivity. >> the challenges were to get him to eat from the beginning. unfortunately his mother had no milk, so we were left with two

options. we could either leave him to die from starvation or we could bottle feed hill and turn him into an ambassador for his wild cousins living in the arctic. now he's 5 weeks old today and grown from 800 grams to just more than four kilograms so he's doing very fine. >> what's involved with taking care of a polar bear? i mean, we can see this is not easy work you've got going there. >> just takes a lot of patience, and takes away your sleep, but it gives back a fantastic opportunity to see this little thing grow up. he was 800 grams when he was born, and i weighed his daddy two weeks ago and he was just over 500 kilograms so there's a long way to go yet. >> you talk about a long way to go and it's not an exact science. there are risks and challenges and we know the story of knut, and that adorable little polar bear that grew up but

unfortunately died at the age of 4. what are the odds for long-term survivability for siku? >> oh, they're very fine. siku will be completely different bear than knut. siku will grow up in a different environment. he will become an ambassador for his wild counterparts in the arctic. his name siku means sea ice and that's symbolic because the sea ice is melting and that's threatening the existence, survival of the polar bears. also we have the world's largest polar bear facility here, covering two and a half hectares and when he's about 2 years old, he will move in with the other polar bears and have a normal polar wave life, as normal as it can be in captivity. >> what is the long-term plan for him. you say he'll be in captivity, you wouldn't expect to return him to the wild i take it. >> no, none of the animals we have in zoos and wildlife parks

are supposed to go back to the wild. he'd never make it. no, he's going to stay here with us and take part in an international breeding program for polar bears in captivity so hopefully in a few years' time he will become a daddy himself. >> frank, just do me a favor, can you pull that index finger out of his mouth so i can see that it's still there. okay. i just wanted to make sure. >> oh, it's just that sweet, little tongue. >> exactly. listen, good luck is siku. he is true lay forable and it's a wonderful thing that you're doing there. so thank you for joining us. >> can i make a new year wish on behalf of siku? >> you may. >> well, siku would like you all to reduce your carbon footprint and save energy, and if you all do that, he would be very, very happy. >> that was siku, the polar bear along with frank v. larson. >> i wonder at what point he says not so cute anymore. this is not enough to hold him straight. >> it's amazing and actually i

was wondering about that position. he's holding, it looks awkward and hard to do but what do i know about raising a polar bear. >> absolutely nothing. >> or anything. yes. coming up next action healthy meals inspired by "the biggest loser" you can make in 20 minutes or less. first this is "today" on nbc.

this morning on "today's kitchen" learning to eat like a loser. i'm tongue twisting with that. making a new year's resolution to lose weight there's a new cookbook tied to "the biggest loser" that can help. >> this is called "the biggest loser quick and easy cookbook, simple, delicious low-calorie recipes to make in a snap." devan alexander is here. >> good morning. >> we see the contestants working out so hard but diet is a huge part of it, too. >> it really is. i've lost 70 pounds and kept it

off for close to 20 years so i know about kafgz. i'm going to show you some quick and easy recipes that for those who say you don't have time to cook, you're not going to be able to say that. >> some of these ary de ry di ridiculously easy. meatloaf? >> extra lean ground turkey, add two ounces of goat cheese and if someone wants to put the barbecue sauce in there. >> be careful which sauce you choose. >> go with agave sweetened or honey sweetened, something natural. >> you don't want it sugary. the barbecue sauce adds moisture into the meat? >> it does. extra lean ground turkey, who wants to mix that for me? >> okay, i've mixed before. >> so often, you know, ground turkey, people think it's really dry. it's not if you add something in. you can add egg substitute and oatmeal or in this case i add barbecue sauce. >> goat cheese because a little adds a lot of flavor. >> a big bunch of flavor for a

couple of ounces. >> am i supposed to fold the cheese in there? >> you're doing great. >> maybe a little more muscle. >> i love the dangling, too. >> jingle bells. >> i'm like a cat with a bell around its neck. >> so once you have it like this, then you just form it in your pan here. >> what do you have on the bottom of the pan, anything? >> i have it sprayed with olive oil spray. you. tut like that and i simply do it like this and then i do it with my hands a little bit. >> you don't use a loaf pan. >> i don't, because this way the extra drippings drip out, and you get the extra fats out. >> finished product here? >> yes, right here. >> how long in the oven? >> 25 minutes, 400 degrees, and then you would just put the barbecue sauce on top. >> bacon, now you're speaking our language. >> everyone loves bacon. you don't have to give it up. look for something natural,

turkey bacon. take three beans. >> three per bundle. >> three of them yes. the good news about these, three bundles have only 79 calories and three grams of fat. >> wow. >> can you wrap it like 100 times in bacon? >> well no but you'd be surprised, once you cook the bacon it has a strong flavor. you'll see them here so you really as opposed to the advertisers you get at parties, usually three, four, five of the tiny little appetizers have 500 calories so here is 79 calories. asparagus is another great option. so now dessert. >> dessert! the chocolate raspberry dreamer. >> you dream about it, it was the best title. people don't like when you call things things they're not. we have fat free cottage cheese and i'm going to add 100% raspberry all fruit and cocoa powder because i like to add cocoa powder to a lot of things.

>> why do you like to add cocoa powder? >> i'm not sure. cocoa powder adds two grams of fiber and plus you satisfy your chocolate cravings without eating like a chocolate bar. >> boom. >> that crass. berry jam you put in there? >> 100% raspberry fruit spread so basically the sugar free jam. once that's mixed up you chill it, spoon it about a quarter of the mixture on top of there for 179 calories. >> wonderful. >> three grams of fat. >> thank you. "biggest loser" starts a week from on the, 8:00, 7:00 central on nbc. >> hoda and kathie lee next.

9:57 is your time now. it's tuesday, december 27th. good morning, i am eun yang. let's check in with meteorologist, veronica johnson, she's in storm center 4 with a look at the forecast. we are expecting downpours today, veronica. >> yes, we are, we have the rain in the area that has been with us for a couple hours and it will pick up in intensity. we will get between half an inch

and inch. we will not have the wind swept rain today, but a mild wind out of the south will help to push the temperature up. we just got reports of a gas leak, veronica. 2700 block adams mill northwest, please avoid the area if you can. an accident on the bw parkway on 410 has been cleared. everybody have a great, safe day. day. coming up on news4 midday at

captions paid for by nbc-universal television i don't know how the time is passing so fast, but it is already booze day tuesday december 27th, hoda. >> it's almost new year's eve. >> do you have big plans? >> yes. i'm going to spend it with jay. >> who thought that would last. that's going strong. >> that's a year -- october, november, december, three months. >> he won't have to count it down. he could tell you from the day

to the hour. >> what's it like to be with someone who loves you that much. god knows i've never known. my husband loves me. he could no longer count -- it's been a long time. >> i remember all dates and times. >> he is a little freaky. >> it is freaky, but i like it. >> long as it's about you. >> there is a comedian out there who has millions of youtube hits on this tiny bit of tape. she was able to condense down 18 years of what a mother says to a child in exactly two minutes. you might know her. anita renfroe. ♪ your ipod's my ipod if you don't listen up where you going and with whom and what time do you think you're coming home ♪ excuse me what makes you think you're welcome everywhere you roam ♪

you'll appreciate my wisdom when you're older and grown ♪ can't wait till you have a couple of children on your own ♪ you'll thank me for the council i give you so willingly ♪ take a bite or two of the stuff you hate ♪ i'll stet you straight ♪ eat the food i put upon your plate ♪ get a job get a life get a ph.d. ♪ here it goes ♪ i don't care if you starve ♪ you're grounded until you're 36 ♪ get your story straight ♪ tell the truth for once ♪ jump off a cliff ♪ would you jump too ♪ if i said it once i said it at least a thousand times before that you're too old to act this way ♪ it must be your father's dna ♪ i am talking ♪ stand up straight when you walk ♪ there is a place for everything ♪ and everything must be in place ♪ stop crying or i'll give you

something real to cry about ♪ oh ♪ brush your teeth ♪ put your pjs on ♪ don't forget i love you ♪ and tomorrow we will do this all again because a mom's job never ends ♪ you don't need a reason why ♪ because because because because ♪ i said so i said so i said so ♪ i'm the mom the mother the mom the mom ta-da ♪ >> that's unbelievable. >> that's a star turn. good for her. >> everything she says is true. i'm just going to play that now. why should i -- save my breath. >> jerry's mother-in-law is here. >> and father-in-law. and wife! where is she? there she is. join the happy family. >> we always talk about jerry and now we see his peeps. >> we always thought jerry lived alone, a solitary life.

jerry we thought lived in the prop room. jerry, join your family. they're heading over to see the fantastic radio city spectacular. they'll have a ball. >> here is a question. would you like to have one of those guys who are handymen, who can fix things and fix leaks and gutters? they said that most of us women would enjoy that, having someone who could do that thing. >> if i had to give up frank to have that, no thank you. no. i'm trying to make up for the last thing that i said about -- >> what about the basics? like the shelf fell. >> i told you that story so many times when some of our fencing was coming down around the pool. frank said, i'll take care of it. frank does lots very, very well. he's in a few halls of fame. he goes down there and comes back about five minutes later. like half the fence is down now. i said let's make a call before

the entire fence is down. it was like, well, you know, it wasn't as easy as it looks. no kidding. but would i rather have somebody who can do that and doesn't give me what he does? am i making points? >> you're making it up. >> can jay do everything? >> jay doesn't do any handiwork. here is a question. what do women want? this is coming from askmen.com. we want chivalry, yes. here are the things we want. if you're guys watching, listen. we would like to have our messages returned. >> our messeners if we sent a little person. >> we gauge a man's interest in is how quickly he responds to us. >> what if they're busy? what if he is a attorney battling in court. i don't think the guy needs to call right back. >> especially if you're calling all the time. >> women are quick to say what

they want, but very, very slow to look at themselves and go, guess what? i'm a nagging you-know-what. >> yes. i agree with that. we like to be kissed with no reasons without strings attached. >> unless you had onions for want. >> then we don't want it. we want you to dance with us. >> you love that. >> can i tell you something? >> jay started grabbing you in your apartment and started dancing with you. >> in the morning we were having coffee. >> you slept together? >> a song came on and then -- a song came on. >> hannah might be watching. >> they're not. we danced and i love that. he just does that. it's the crack of dawn. >> you slept together. >> and we danced. also, we like to you dress up for us. okay? don't show up all the time in a t-shirt and ratty jeans, stuff like that. it makes us feel better to know you think we are important enough to dress up for. we would like you to propose to

visit our families. >> no, please. >> we love when you say, hey, let's go visit your mom. >> that's going to happen. >> the guys are groaning. >> frank has always been great to my family. i thought when they first met him it was going to be a problem. it was fourth of july weekend. my mother is seven months older than frank. my father -- it's a cute story. we were out in the hamptons. frank came bearing gifts. you bring my mother food, she'll forgive anything. he brought those beautiful, those brought roadside places that are out in the hamptons. tons of stuff. all of a sudden there was a whole lot of music coming from a house where kids had taken it for the weekend. frank was trying to be gracious. he says, epi, you think we should go ask them to bring the volume down a little bit? my daddy looks at him and says why don't we get a bazooka and blow them away. frank says, all right.

so frank was right in there. >> that's love. this is another study or survey. >> wait a minute. >> there it is. here it is. they say that men spend more time getting ready than women do, than we do. >> only if you're married to a metrosexual freak. >> they say an average man spends 81 minutes a day grooming, cleansing, toning, moisturizing, shaving, styling and choosing his clothes. >> how harry is he? how long's it take? anthony gets ready faster than that. >> go, anthony. women spend 75 minutes. who has an hour and ten minutes to get ready. >> we get it done professionally. >> they say men take longer showers, 23 minutes in the shower. >> that's too long for anybody. we are wasting a lot of water. >> i like long showers.

hot really -- almost that your skin is burning, but not exactly. that's how i like it. >> it's all about what you like and you want, hoda woman. you want it hot and you want it now. >> i do. okay. >> speaking of that. what's the worse holiday gift you ever had? this comes from courtney in illinois. >> she writes her family knows she likes wine, candles and decorating for christmas. they decided to give her the ultimate trifecta, a wine glass with candle and christmas figurines inside. >> that's cute. >> we are excited about this. this is a tuesday trend. i always loved this look, but we are especially thrilled about it right now because our own britney schriever is going to model this. this is the loose braid which is gorgeous. >> she is getting ready for her new year's celebration. >> i love braids, but the loose one is so pretty. >> do you like that look, brit? >> i do.

it's easy to do by yourself, too. >> you don't mess with it all night long. if it's falling down, it adds to it. >> i love it. look at you festive for new year's eve. >> got a date for new year's eve? >> not yet. >> there is still time. >> if you want to go out with britney, let us know here at nbc. >> thanks, brit. >> the choice of your alcoholic drinks apparently varies by region. it varies by my neighborhood. the beer institute, who are those people? has broken down how americans drink. >> new englanders, west coasters and those in the upper plains tend to drink the most. new hampshire enjoys its spirits the most. >> it's cold. >> if you live in texas, deep south and mid atlantic with the exception of washington, you drink the least. >> have you been to a texas hoedown? leave the hose out of it they still have fun.

>> fancy cocktails are popular on both coasts and beer is in the middle. there you go. >> or just a night at my house. still to come -- >> a jump on the competition. >> the year's best in style dos and don'ts. cheers. delivering a 200-pound ice sculpture means i don't have any margin for error. one wrong turn and i could end up unloading a puddle of water. female voice: turn right ahead. so i make sure i have the right guidance to get me exactly where i need to be. it's the same with taxes. turbotax has a unique gps feature that guides me step by step, and if i have any questions, i can even ask a tax expert by phone or chat, for free, which helps me know it's done right and get my maximum refund, guaranteed. man: get free, one-on-one, expert tax advice. go to turbotax.com. laces? really? slip-on's the way to go. more people do that, security would be like -- there's no charge for the bag. thanks. i know a quiet little place where we can get some work done. there's a three-prong plug. i have club passes.

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guaranteed, or we'll buy it back. mom, we're dying. no you're not, you're just hungry. make some totino's pizza rolls. we don't have any! front... left, totino's. [ male announcer ] well done mom! less drama, more fun! totino's pizza rolls. less drama, more fun! is this your normal? jamie lee curtis?? oh, hi, yes...wow, you really went all out on the decorations, huh?! yeah, but i'm so slow taking them down after all the fatty holiday food. but that's normal. what do you mean that's normal? it doesn't have to be. to me, normal, means feeling good inside. not slow. try some activia. activia helps with occasional irregularity, when eaten 3 times a day. keep a video diary and let me know about your new normal. love your new normal or it's free.

with 2011 ticking down to a close, we thought it might be a good time to check in with cindy levy of "glamour" magazine. >> dos and don'ts, as well as what's making news in pop culture. we are going to start with the dos. so the dos. you say shop your closet. michelle obama and kate are rewearing things. >> they are proud recyclers of their clothes. like the rest of us, you have a dress you like.

you don't want to just wear it once. >> they mix it up. >> they do. they change accessories and shoes. mrs. obama is known for taking this particular dress which is a pretty dress. she is wearing it on the right with a black bow at the neck. by the way, she's worn this dress straight through from the beginning of the first campaign in 2008 till now. >> she likes it or it's a close personal friend that designed it. >> and it still fits. >> it does send a great message to people about rewear things. >> hodi does that a lot. boy, do we hear from our fans. >> they've grown to like some of my things. you say bold colors. >> crayola brights. this is a purple dress, katy perry in pink. she has the pink hair. bright purple dress worn with bright purple shoes, which is a tricky look to pull off in real life.

hoda, here is your color. >> that looks great on her. >> braids are hot. >> we just showed britney. >> this is your trend of the day. these little braid bars that pop-up in stores. this used to be pippi longstocking. you see it on nicole richie. here is katie holmes with a side braid. >> it does stay in place. that is a big problem for a night out. >> you have to spray that braid to death if you want it to stay all night. >> don't go too comfortable. >> no. this is something we have seen taken to the extreme this year. last year was the year of the snuggy. this year it was about the forever lazy blanket. who is actually wearing and using that stuff? all of america. >> what is more fun than that? >> you have to be a very confident person to pull this off. >> who does that?

>> this is a trend "glamour" photographers started seeing. you're wearing your blanket you might wrap up in to watch tv on a saturday afternoon. you're liking it. >> you say another big don't are big hats. >> this was a trend that started this year at the royal wedding. princess beatrice and princess eugenie. you ladies took a turn in these hats. >> we did. there you are. >> i will never forget standing with the madoff family downstairs talking about what they've been through and i didn't realize i was dressed like that. >> you cannot have a serious conversation. of course worn like that to a royal wedding, it's a do. we started seeing these enormous hats. >> you know who else started that thing was sara jessica parker in the movie when she got married. >> it works on tv and in the

movies. >> these people are screaming for attention. >> this person has her pet dressed up in a hat. >> we have to run. all this great stuff -- >> it's over? >> that's all we have time for. what's better than your magazine? it's all in there. >> thank you. >> have a great new year. >> up next, sara bounces back. what's this? it's progresso's new loaded potato with bacon. it's good. honey, i love you... oh my gosh, oh my gosh.. look at these big pieces of potato.

♪ what's that? big piece of potato. [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup.

mmm... pillsbury crescent wrapped brie just unroll, wrap the brie and bake. it's so easy. now this might even impress aunt martha. pillsbury crescent wrapped brie. holiday ideas made easy.

we are back with sara in the city. >> our own sara has a jump on the new trend in fitness, indoor trampoline in gyms. >> bounces an action sports complex of wall-to-wall trampoline courts and the padding and safety netting gives extra protection so kids and adults can jump, play and get fit. it was sky-high fun. >> is that a trampoline? >> yeah. you want to try it? >> it was pure fun for tom hanks

in the film "big." more than two decades later, we are still jumping on trampolines. you cannot jump on a trampoline and not smile. >> true. >> at bounce, a wall-to-wall trampoline facility, the bouncing is endless. what all can you do? >> slam dunk a basketball. have a dodge ballgame. >> we are doing a trampoline aerobic program now and jumping. flips into the pits. >> it was time to get into the trampoline game. >> this is the hoops. i speak basketball. that's all you guys have, really? not bad. i quickly learned it's not how high you jump, but how you play the game. next up is the pit.

i have always wanted to do this. that was beautiful. you might want to stay there, dude, because i'm going to be in there in one sec. i did it! help! once you're in the pit, good luck getting out. i moved on to extreme trampoline tumbling. like a bunch of little nadias. i can't stop jumping. to burn even more calories, i hopped over to trampoline aerobics, a combination of bouncing, ball throwing and arm weights made me break a sweat. i could do this all day long. but i had to keep moving. there is some intense dodge ball going on out there balls flying

everywhere. i think i'm taking precautions here. want to check my helmet and make sure it's tough. hit it a little bit. ow! little dudes. got to get pumped up. are you hiding behind me? i'm going to hide behind you then. yeah! that was out. what's happening? they're tougher than they look, that's for sure. >> i so want to go do that. >> for all ages. i might have been the oldest one in there, but they couldn't drag me off. >> i didn't know you were a gymnast. when did that happen? >> a long time ago. >> in college. >> that was awesome. >> still to come, how holiday

stress can wreak havoc on your skin. >> how to remove common holiday stains. >> right tools for handling last-minute fashion emergencies. looking good! you lost some weight. you noticed! these clothes are too big, so i'm donating them. how'd you do it? eating right, whole grain. [ female announcer ] people who choose more whole grain tend to weigh less than those who don't. multigrain cheerios... five whole grains, 110 calories. by marie claire as one of the 25 beauty products

that will change your life because it whitens by removing up to 80% of surface stains. see how it can change your life. crest 3d white. life opens up when you do. crest 3d white. is this your normal? jamie lee curtis?? oh, hi, yes...wow, you really went all out on the decorations, huh?! yeah, but i'm so slow taking them down after all the fatty holiday food. but that's normal. what do you mean that's normal? it doesn't have to be. to me, normal, means feeling good inside. not slow. try some activia. activia helps with occasional irregularity, when eaten 3 times a day. keep a video diary and let me know about your new normal. love your new normal or it's free.

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can i have the definition? swapportunity: the opportunity to swap a higher calorie snack for a yoplait light. can you use it in a sentence? mmm. swapping a 300 calorie donut for this 110 calorie strawberry shortcake is a good swapportunity.

that's not a real word. oh haha it's real. [ female announcer ] delicious, creamy, yoplait light. over 30 flavors each around 100 calories. do the swap today. now in today's style, solutions to your fashion emergencies. after have a wardrobe malfunction and wish you had the proper tools to fix it? >> here with us is "us weekly" and "today" fashion contributor jill martin. >> i'm wearing most of them. i want to start with the first one. it's scotty vest.com. i like to carry everything. you unzip it. just in here i have everything i need like my kindle. i have my sunglasses on my head, but do i need to clean them. >> you didn't look heavy. >> yeah. it comes with a thing to clean your glasses, for your ipod when running in the park.

it has a hood this new one. a camera, a hairbrush. >> i don't have to wear my fanly pack any more. >> this is $6.99 from the container store. you put it on if you're running in central park. it changes colors. you can put it on your pet not that bambino is going anywhere on his own. $6.99. >> i love that. >> these are my gloves, which we all wear fingerless. look at these etra gloves. only exposed your index finger and your thumb so the rest of your fingers are warm. >> why? >> look. >> to pick your nose? >> no. perfect example. then you can type with just these finger and not having all your finger s exposed. >> you only get frost bite on

two of them. this i brought this so you could see the hanger. it's a collapsable hanger. it goes in like this then you extend it. >> you don't have to stretch it. what took someone so long to figure that out? >> four for $9.99 quirky.com. we love those. are these great? they are under $100. what i like is the leather is des stressed and comfortable. >> and they are very soft. they look like a very expensive boot. >> if it rains or snow, you don't feel badly wearing a great pair of shoes. >> all these look hot. >> give it about 20 years. >> swag stamp.com. these are in your sizes. bring a pair of flip-flops but change it up. they have different ones that click in and you change. if you see over here they have all different things. you can get your school.

i like schools. >> cute. >> and your sports team. genius. >> henry bendl. they are flip-flops. $98. >> what do you mean flip-flops? >> ballet flats. i'm sorry. these are great. another fashion emergency going from heels to day to night. lancome, $29.50. you can throw in your bag and they last about a week or two. all the little sets. these are bracelets that double as hair bands. >> as hair bands? >> yes. bracelets and hair bands. $15. >> cassidy would love this. you wear it out, it gets hot. >> i usually wear the scrunchy on my wrist accidentally.

>> suzy always uses this on me. >> see if jerry tries to stop us at the door. we are taking it. everything. >> then this. i always this is from sephora. suzy uses this on my hair. look at this. a mini iron in leopard. >> cute. >> $25 at sephora and comes in this case. this is an emergency. look at hoda. >> that's darn greedy. >> this is veuve clicquot. it comes from a refrigerator that's chilled for two hours. this is a general emergency for the 10:00 hour. cheers. >> we love you, jill. happy new year. up next -- >> holiday stress could be taking a toll on your skin, we hear. >> also might be the alcohol you're drinking. [ sponge ] the prognosis is bleak. you may need to soak overnight.

nurse...! [ female announcer ] dawn power clean can give you the power of an overnight soak in just 5 minutes. [ sponge ] it's a scientific miracle! [ female announcer ] dawn does more. [ sponge ] so it's not a chore. [ male announcer ] what if we could keep enough plastic waste to cover all of manhattan out of landfills each year? the equivalent of 140 million trash bags, gone. by using new glad trash bags, designed with reinforcing bands to be stronger with less plastic waste, we can. ♪ it's a small change that can make a big difference. ♪ guys... [ female announcer ] pillsbury cinnamon rolls with cinnabon cinnamon are an irresistible sunday morning idea. nothing calls them to the table faster. sunday morning ideas made easy.

we are back with today's beauty. 'tis the season for joy but the holiday season could be wreaking havoc on your skin. >> from alcohol to stress it may be stealing that holiday glow. dermatologist dr. jeannine dowdy is here with tips how to look your best during the most wonderful time of the year. that cold weather can do a number on your skin.

>> you feel it the day the weather changes. >> bottom line is that rosacea, it's characterized by flushing, blushing, central readiness. it's not acne. it could easily be treated by a board certified dermatologist. >> let's see what we can do. we've got a variety of products to help us out. >> exactly. the bottom line is starting from this side of things, we have the aveeno intense relief hand cream for chapped dry skin. >> sometimes we neglect our hands. >> and our feet. put this on our hands or feet. it's very good. in terms of eye make-up, take those gymery eye make-ups during the holidays and they can irritate our sensitive skin. almay is a good one.

take your make-up off gently. >> isn't the tissue around the eyes the softest on the body? >> it never comes off all the way. >> it doesn't come off all the way. >> and the cetaphil is a nice light moisturizer to combat the harsh winter weather. i know you're going to ask me about the plant. >> i thought it was just to be pretty. is that aloe. >> they add oxygen to the air. sleeping with a humidifier is good in terms of hydrating your skin. that was there for a reason. >> the humidifier, how important is that to have? >> i say get one and put it in. the forced hot air heat in the city, in the suburbs we have dry air this time of year. it's very important. maybe if you're in florida it's not so important. >> should you be slathering on more? people use plenty of moisturizer year round. should you double up? >> doubling up is sometimes

helpful. using gentle cleansers, that is not going to strip your skin. the panoxy. go see your dermatologist if you have acne bad. >> then you get scarring from acne. >> i love the spf. if you do get acne, use shine-free control. >> if a certain person was maybe going away to maybe puerto rico or something for a couple of days during the holidays, what would you suggest they wear on their skin? >> i recommend at least an spf 30 or above rain or shine. if it rains, i don't care. i don't want to hear it, kathie lee. >> not me. i just know a lot of people. >> you put it on every hour and a big sun hat. >> saunas, steam rooms, people go to those. you say stay away from those? >> they dry and irritate your skin during the winter months.

especially if you have chapped skin to begin with. >> hot showers? >> it's counterintuitive. they also dry out your skin. >> fg you love. >> when you get out of the shower, slip on something to moisturize. don't scratch. >> don't live. >> thank you. >> happy holidays. >> merry christmas and happy new year. up next, stain, stain, go away. [ snoring ] [ thunder crashes ] [ snoring ] [ thunder crashes ] [ snoring ] [ male announcer ] vicks nyquil cold and flu. the nighttime, sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, fever, best sleep you ever got with a cold... medicine. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] vicks dayquil. defeats 5 cold & flu symptoms. ♪

yeah, our low prices are even lower. we need to teach her how to walk. she is taking up valuable cart space. aren't you, honey? [ male announcer ] it's our biggest clearance event of the year where our prices are even lower. save money. live better. walmart. ♪ of the year where our prices are even lower. [ horse neighs ] you're leaving. it is my destiny. ♪ take this. it is a piece of me. ♪ [ male announcer ] it's movie time. with a wii twist. netflix now delivers unlimited tv episodes and movies instantly through wii and nintendo 3ds. all for only 8 bucks a month. seriously, what is it? carol. fiber makes me sad. oh common. and how can you talk to me about fiber while you are eating a candy bar? you enjoy that. i am. [ male announcer ] fiber beyond recognition. fiber one.

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the down side of hosting or going to a holiday shindig is psd, permanent stain damage. don't cancel your party for fear of stains this year. >> sara newell is here with the inside scoop how to rescue your space and clothes from the inevitable drinks, food and klutzes. >> good to see you. >> we are starting with red wine. that seems like the kiss of

death. >> it is. every holiday party you want to serve red wine. >> i have an all-white living room so i try not to. >> right away you want to sprinkle salt. just cover the whole stain. it soaks it up. you probably do a lot. then you would vacuum this all up. what you do is dish washing detergent and vinegar and scrub it. it will come right out. white vinegar. it comes out. you'll blot it and scrub it. this is an example. >> that's amazing. >> if it still isn't all what it coming up, put hydrogen peroxide. >> it won't stain? bleaching can change. >> it depends on the color. you don't want to do it on a black. you can use wine-out, too. this is a travel size. >> okay.

>> let's talk about gravy stains. >> let jerry try to find that. >> what you want to do is get as much of the gravy off. get it off so you don't have excess. then you'll do corn starch or baking powder. this will soak up all that grease. you want to get up as much of the stain as you can. then these dryel. you can buy these. this will take up the oily stain like the gravy. you'll rub it and blot it. you'll get it all up. this gravy stain will come out. >> it's important to get it right away? >> it's really important. if the next day it's still there, you can wash this in hot water. that's good. >> or throw that napkin away. >> or take a shower with hoda in the very hot shower she is not supposed to take. >> cranberry sauce.

this can soak in. what you want to do, this is a solution with vinegar and water, cold water. use cold water with a cranberry stain. you'll get up as much as you can and rub it. if you can't get the cranberry up, you can use delicate wash. you can launder this or use a stain remover. that works well on cranberry sauce. get it up and it will come up. >> you'll be exhausted at the end of this. >> people say you smudge it, you're making it worse. leave it. >> you want to blot it. put water on it right away. >> chocolate. >> if you get chocolate on something, hydrogen peroxide. >> this stuff is amazing. >> be careful. you don't want to put it straight on. dilute it and get most of the chocolate up. you'll blot it and pull up the bits. >> a lot of blotting after the

holidays. >> coffee? >> coffee. you get a big stain. >> just throw that shirt out. >> this is depressing. >> this is a solution of water and dish washing detergent. go right away and get into your stain. we also have -- >> you still get the little line. >> liquid glycerin. it's a lubricant. put that on the fabric and it loosen up the stain. >> i thought you used that for something else. >> i guess it's available for whatever ails you. >> a couple of seconds. dripping wax. >> i did that the other day. frank and i did a mess with wax. >> pop it up. if you have extra. get it up. you do a brown paper bag under and iron it. it will pull it right up.

>> we could talk to you for hours about stains, but sadly we are out of time. thank you very much. up next, baking required. >> no baking required.

today's countdown to the new year 2012 is brought to you by -- now on "today's" countdown to new year's, no fake appetizers. too much time to cook anyway. >> melissa darabian has ideas for appetizers that will heat up your party. what a party animal you are. >> last thing you want to do is show up and burden your host

with needing to use their oven. i've got a couple of quick appetizers. the first is a cristini i make with mock mascapone cheese. it's really creamy and rich, heavy and expensive. this is some cream cheese. i'm just going to add in a little bit, tiny bit of vanilla greek yogurt. this is going to emulate the floral, fatty flavor of mascarpo cheese. >> this is going to be sweet. >> no. you're getting rid of the tartness. >> it's going to be bland. >> it's a great canvas. we are going to go ahead -- perfect. >> there you go. dig in there. >> spread it right on some

crostini. inexpensive, very $10 dinner friendly, which is my other show. january month is melissa month. roasted peppers and some basil. look at that. it's beautiful, ready to go. no cooking. this is zucchini carpacio. easy to go. just like that, too. and a quick vinaigrette. we'll put in a little bit of olive oil, some thyme and salt and pepper. >> some or a little. >> just a little. cover the jar and shake it around. >> do what you do best. >> you can take it with you 2 a party, no problem. >> drizzle it?

>> add parmesan cheese and this is ready to go. black bean hummus. full of preteen, fiber, garlic, olive oil, black beans, a little lemon. it's going to fill you up and you serve it with vegetables. >> that is so delicious. >> thank you so much. tomorrow, everybody, bret michael is going to stop by. >> travel deals for 2012. have an awesome day. make it a great one. thank you so much. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com