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a wave of storms dumbing now. blizzard made the road treacherous for holiday travelers in the dakotas. thunderstorms rumbled across the plains. weather temporarily grounded santa in los angeles sending fellow fliers on their marry way. meteorologist molly rosenblatt is tracking the storm at wcco in minute appear list. how is it looking out there molly. >> travel will be dicey for many across much of the region as this area of lo pleasure, the storm tracks all the way to the upper mid west the rockies down to the plain states. from south dakota all the way to kansas dow towards oklahoma and heavy snow for much of north dakota, northern wisconsin as well as the rockies. numerous wider storm warnings in effect as well as blanketing much of north dakota that could see a foot or more of snow as well as western south dakota as well as winter storm warnings in effect all the way from the rockies through

wisconsin and from. dakotas through minnesota. dangerous day on the road heading into the evening. demarco back to you. >> molly thank you. a military jet crashed today with 92 people on board. it was heading from sochi to syria. there's no sign of survivors and no word on what caused it to plunge into the black sea. here's barry petersen. >> helicopters boats and divers searched for 92 victims from the cash two minutes after take off. left from sochi site of the 2014 winter olympics. the tu154 was a 19 0's design, this one made in 1983. on board a well-known russian humanitarian taking medical supplies to syria. and more than 60 members of the alexandrov ensemble famous across russia on the way to perform at a russian air base in syria. russian president vladimir putin promised

investigation. the deaths stunned russia. that a world famous choir formed almost a hundred years ago kazakh gone in seconds. as a mesh of russia's shock, monday has been declared a national day of mourning. demarco. >> barry petersen, thank you. president-elect donald trump is spending the holiday at his mar-a-lago club in palm beach florida. julianna goldman has all the weekend developments and the trump transition covered. >> president-elect donald trump and his wife melania began their christmas at church and were welcomed to midnight mass for a standing ovation. meanwhile, 26 days before he's sworn in, mr. trump's team is rushing to clean up controversies and potential conflicts of interest. yesterday the president-elect announced he would shutter his non-profit the dodd

foundation writing to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest as my role of president i decided to pursue my strong interest in philanthropy in other ways. he didn't provide a time line. the foundation is under investigation by the new york attorney general amid questions about its spending. and a spokes woman tweeted it cannot legally dissolve until the investigation is complete. there's al soak some staffing drama. demarco two days after announcing the campaign jason miller would be whitehouse communications director mr. miller said he would not be taking the job in order to intend more time with his family. >> julianna thank you. it's christmastime all over the world. we take a hallway spin around the globe. >> pope francis sent a wish for christmas pee it echoed in war attorney syria. these troops in iraq had christmas dinner in camouflage and in kabul

claus found a new way to fly. ice couldn't stop the christmas spirit in this town east of mosul. australia christmas is a beach holiday. in india, santa appeared in the sand. honda lit up cities from moscow to san francisco. >> i wish you a very happy christmas. >> queen elizabeth fought off a cold to hold off greeting and here in america the obama chilled out with shaved ice in hawaii. >> an estimated 150 million sets of christmas lights are sold each year. and a good bunch of them are strung up around the home of just one man. we dubbed him the christmas lights king of queens. >> you don't need kevin lynch's address to find his family's well-lit home in queens, new york just follow the cars. >> you google our house. >> 350 plastic

animated dolls and about 250,000 christmas lights made this place impossible to miss. >> you're going to see it from the shuttle. they're going to look down. passing over the lynch's residence. >> you are truly clark griswold. >> absolutely, yes, i am. >> the lynch family christmas lights are now a new york tradition going back 22 years. >> it's an amazing house. >> i like all the lights. >> it's the most beautifully decorated christmas house than i've ever seen. >> lynch admits all this holiday cheer wasn't inspired by the christmas spirit so much as the spirit of competition. >> had some lights up. i put a few, he put more up. he put more. so the third year i went crazy and put a ton of lights up. it's a friendly competition that just grew, and just kept growing. >> out of water. >> big time. de every year the lynch's

brighter. this retired new york city firefighter says one of his most memorable displays followed the attacks of seam 11. >> i made it one of my biggest years back then. >> his home attracts visitors from around the world. and also nearby. tanisha sandy has been coming here since she was a kid. this year she's here with her son christian. >> my parents used to bring my sister and i and i want to keep that tradition as well. he always lights up just like the lights. >> lynch says it stakes two months to put everything up and a few huge electricity bills that keep it running. >> whatever it costs it costs. >> he figures it's a small price to be the christmas lights king of queens. tony dokoupil cbs news. >> it wouldn't be the same without a company called american christmas 125urd by a man who -- started by a man who borrowed money from his father d

an operation this side of the north pole. michelle miller has the story. >> in midtown manhattan last month, south fifth avenue turned into a land of a thousand delights. that's the theme of the show running every ten minutes this evening from now until 9 new year the display of 225,000 programmable lights stroal foald christmas took months to produce and six weeks to install. >> welcome to american christmas. >> this is it. this is my dream, you understand. >> this is a christmas wonderland for sure. >> it really is. and it started here, fred schwam and his company american christmas. >> so this is 14th diameter wreath that will hang in the general motors building on fifth avenue. >> we visid back in october just days before these treasures were trucked down to manhattan. >>

feet and it is filled with every type of christmas decoration and display that you could imagine. >> candy canes. 57th street. >> these are 18 foot tall candy canes that hang at indemnify west 57th street. this is a section of the 72 foot half ground tree that gets mounted on the facade of the marquee at radio city. >> that's it. the tree is wired with 10,000 led lights it took 25 people to build and 40 people to install. >> we closed three lanes on sixth avenue and worked over night and over night christmas happens at radio city. >> his clients are who's who of retailers up and down fifth avenue. and in 30 cities around the country like cartier. >> we decorate the mansion on fifth avenue with a giant bow and ribbon and the panthers are a significant part of the marketing.

climbing up the building and sitting on the lgbtq. >> for years fredional worked hard to build an american christmas. >> i literally walked every block of manhattan and called everyone that i could possibly call. it took a number of years but slowly but surely i 125ur9d to gain a -- surely to gain a clientele. >> mark metric is president of sax fifth avenue. >> what does american christmas bring that nobody else does? >> they bring elevated energy. how to do it and the goal was to bring joy. and joy's our big word this year and really i think everyone needs it. >> including this flyami. >> it's fantastic. you only see something like this in new york city. >> it gives you that christmas feeling, that feeling of family, that feeling on the inside. >> his employees enjoy seeing their works on

much as anyone else. it must be thrilling when the lights turn on and the onlookers are there and the response that you and your team have created. >> for myself and for my entire team, watching the reaction of the people on the streets and watching literally thousands of people taking pictures in friend of our displays, it's a great thrill. >> coming up next steve hartman is on the case with a secret santa and his helpers in blue.

>> a secret santa has elicited a team of plowfersz to help detect the spirit of the holiday. steve hartman is on the case. >> last week, the kansas city, kansas police department was on the take. >> i'm going to give each of you a thousand dollars. >> each officer in this room got at least a grand courtesy of the anonymous wealthy businessman i

>> this is the day for you to just have fun. we ready to roll. >> their assign was to go out into the community and filed people who looked like they could use an extra hundred this holiday season, people like gwendolyn jones. >> i told my family already that we're not going to do christmas this year because i just don't have the money to do it. >> didn't have the money to do it. until now. and that's how it went. >> oh my god. >> benjamin after benjamin. >> this is for real. >> armed assault after wonderful armed assault. most of the people they just happened upon. but some they sought out. officer james turney knew of a homeless woman staying at this motel with her two young children. >> hi krystal. >> in fact tourney is paying for their room out of his own pocket. >> here's a thousand dollars. yeah. >> he gave her everything. >> you make me a

>> thank you. >> there are men and women that wear a badge and they stay on the line to protect us and to serve. >> it is no coincidence that secret santa chose the kansas city, kansas police department to give away his money this year. he's from around here and this relatively small department lost two officers in the line of duty just ten weeks apart. allowing this prif was mean pris meant as a remainder in the inherent goodness in people. >> they see you're a human being too. you're just like them. i think the uniform goes away and realize we're all the same people and that's the gift to me for this. >> in the end the officers gave out nearly $30,000 to random strangers and special causes. >> thank you very much. >> absolutely. >> those on the receiving end will no doubt have a mayo

christmas and those got to keep a message for a happier new career. >> we have agals in th angels in but here you can touch us. >> you can take that bank. steve hartman on the road in scanlkansas city, kansas. >> all right, we'll be right back.

that began in 1907 when a ten year old girl left a note for santa in the chimney of her family's apartment in new york city. a man found that letter about 17 years ago when he was renovating his fireplace. ever since he's want to know more about the girl, who wrote it. dana jacobson picked up the story. >> as i'm bringing the president barack obam -- thebrieksz bricks out and i find a note and i open it up and it's from mary. >> you say mary as if you know her but at the time. >> it's funny. she made her own envelope. >> peter mattaliano did not know mary m mcgann. >> my little brother would like you to bring a wagon which i know yan

line of mary's note. >> she doesn't ask for anything for herself and then says please do not forget the poor. i mean the spirit of christmas. that generosity. and maturity. she's ten. >> so we set out to find mary. the census records we dug up only told part of the story. these when the "new york times" got involved. >> they found where she was buried in four gaze. mary mcgann married george mcgahan. we get to the stone and there it is. george mcgahan but mary's not on the stone. >> there was a space but no name. mary who never had children and worked as a stenographer died in 1979 at age 82. >> ladl a little girl who had tt kind emotional depth and generosity has to be acknowledged if there will be nobody to go visit. she has to be acknow

because he was not retated but someone else could. >> it appeared in our local newspaper here. >> brian democracies a physics teacher who lives outside of dublin. he recognized his mother's made even name and recognized she was a distant cousin of mary's. >> i know that name. >> as mary's relative brian passed on the right to had her name to pete in the form of a northized letter. >> look at it. it was obviously meant to be here. >> 37 years after her death, marimary mcgann's anyway was engraved in that tombstone. >> you got her name on that tombstone. what has she given you. >> any time things seem to be going south i take a look at the letter and i say all right, okay. >> it's the christmas spirit. >> it's the christmas spirit personified. >> up next a holiday out pouring

>> samantha ford teaches physical education in several schools at santa clarita, california. earlier this month she noticed some of her students were lacking something pretty basic. >> and i see kids running and you know, little funky sandals or shoes that have holes or we have a couple kids they hot glue gun the s sole every single day. >> ford asked one boy who was wearing boots if he had running shoes. >> the boy said these are the only shoes i have. >> the boots were old and rathery and worn out. it just hit me really hard. >> so she went home and posted about her conversation with the boy on her facebook pain. within hours one of her friends bought the boy new shoes and it didn't stop there.

suddenly she had hundreds of payers of shoepairs of shoes lir classroom donated by friends, strangers. >> hi. >> oh my god, how are you. >> and someone she hadn't seen in years. >> i can't believe you're here. >> her favorite teacher from her high school days dropped by to drop off some shoes. >> whenever i see a former student that's, you know, to go something that's showing generosity and care for the community it just makes my heart -- >> seven year old jesse va leps yeah says he's always been a fast return bu runner but with s there's a new spring in his step. >> i run fast and they make me fast more. >> juliet is happy to be running with him in her new rainbow-colored kicks. >> they're so comfortable and i like them. >> so far more than 500 pairs of shoes have been

ramsey's class got a pair too. >> it was like christmas for them. they were shopping because there were so many choices for them. for some of these this is their first new pair of shoes in probably years. >> now along with those new shoes is a new sense of gratitude. >> thanks for the shoes because at my home my shoes are old and i need new shoes. this kid gave me one of the best hugs i ever got from a kid like a real hug. oh wow he knows how to tug. >> her goal is to provide snaryksz fosneakers for 2500 kie school district. a hope she hopes keeps on giving. ben tracy cbs news los angeles. >> that's the weekend news this suvmentd later on cbs and 6 on minutes. for all of us here at cbs news, happy hanukkah, merry christmas and good night.

wusa9 wishes you and yours a joyous holiday season! [ singing ] washington d.c., the vatican and bethlehem, people around the world celebrating christmas day. here in the district the basilica, the national shrine of the immaculate conception served christmas dinner to those who are alone or in need. we spent the morning with volunteers participating in this 40 year tradition. ♪ oh tidings of comfort and joy ♪ >> so right now we're putting all the food into bags into groups of three and then we'll give them to the people just so it's easier to send them out. you'll go down here. you'll get four ba