ice is back at the gaylord convention. >> what you're seeing now took about 30 days to carve. we brought this 34 artisans from harbing, china. >> reporter: santa and reindeer grab and hold your eyes tightly. >> it's so cool. >> reporter: flow of people wearing bluecoats daily and nightly. >> i think they look adorable. >> reporter: will it ever stop yo after the new year, don't have no fear on the high slide. >> if you want to go down the slide you have to wear the coat. >> reporter: the christmas tree is tall. it's all ice and insane. you can visit new york without getting on a plane. >> they can sit in a new york city cab. >> reporter: ice ice baby. >> debra alfarone, we have sent out a search party looking for your sense of rhythm. if you'd like to check out all those cool sculptures on your own, head over to the gaylord before january 6th. how do you top that, man? >>> i was guest speak are at parkdale high school last -- speaker at parkdale high school last night with their awards dinner and they gave me this beautiful jacket. thanks for having me out. love you guys have.

a bit dramatic, but in certain parts of the country, people really see christmas like our guest, gaylord and her group, and they're trying to ban ban it. christmas cards and carols, and that doesn't represent the vast majority of american people who love to celebrate their holidays. hanukkah -- >> i would point out that the or gens are the natural holiday -- and people in the northern hemisphere have celebrated the winter soltis for millenia with evergreens and festivals of lights, and gift exchanges, and many seculars and people around the country enjoy this time of year, and the new year, and it's something that we're glad to share with christians, but not that it's the birth of their savior of. >> why not live and let live? your organization takes aggressive opposition to christmas. you put out billboards, yes, virginia, there is no god. and why like you're looking to pick a fight? why do that? >> well, actually the fight that's being picked i think is by bill o'reilly on a nec network that i will not name. but what we're concerned about in the freedom from religion foundation is the

. >> reporter: ice is back at the gaylord convention. >> this took about 30 days to carve. we brought in 34 artists from china. >> reporter: santa and reindeer grab and hold your eyes tightly. >> i don't even know how they color it, but it's so cool. >> reporter: people wearing blue coats daily and nightly. will it ever stop after the new year? hop on the ice slide don't have no fear. >> if you go down the slide, you have to wear the coat of. >> reporter: the christmas tree is tall all ice and insane. >> we have a new york city cab. they can see themselves live on sometimes square. >> reporter: ice ice baby. if you are still watching and have not witnessed the end of my career, this is the slide here. certainly they've got millions of pounds of ice going through. we're just in one room. there's 15,000 square feet of this. what do you think if i've not already embarrassed myself too much? do you think i should go down that slide? >> go. >> reporter: tweet me. >> let's see you do it. you might as well. >> all she needed was a beat underneath and i think vanilla ice is calling

>> our debra alfarone has been live all show long from the gaylord national resort and their exhibit, deb, about that ice slide, you've been working your way up to this for an hour, 16 minutes and 44 seconds. what is it? >> reporter: i'm scared, lesli. i thought you were my friend. this is scary. it's a very tall slide. you think i should do it? all right. here goes nothing. let's do this. i hate you guys back at the station. is this going to be okay? i don't know. i guess i'm ready. wait, wait. hold on. okay. yeah. oh! okay, lesli, it's really not that big of deal. that's how you do it. this is how we do it. ice ice baby. i rapped earlier. i went down a slide. i think i need to speak to my boss about this assignment. let me talk to some people here. you guys having fun? you want to talk to me? let's talk to you. are you having fun here? >> incredible fun. >> reporter: how cold are you right now? >> not too bad. >> reporter: this is a lot of fun. they have t two as the night before christmas. have -- twas the night before christmas. have you gone down the slide? >> i did it last year

treats for you in the kitchen wh >>> from indoor snowfall to a 60-foot tall glass christmas tree, the gaylordnational resort and convention center has been transformed for the holidays but there's sweeter than that on tap for people who go there. amanda ross is the resort's executive pastry chef. thank you very much for being here. while we talk, you're working on creating what? >> well, this is something off our holiday cake pop experience that kicks off this weekend at the hotel. it's our first year having this experience. we think eight going to be a lot of -- it's going to be lot of fun. >> one of the things people have been talking about for for years is ice. -- for years is ice. it's interactive and telling a story. >> this year it's our main feature. this year the theme is twas the night before christmas. we have a bonus scene which is christmas in new york city. so it's a must see. big slides to slide down for the kids. a lot of fun for the families. >> you really are in ice so you have to dress warmly for this event. >> come bun bundled up. you'll get a big -- come bundled up but you

joining me is human rights first advocacy council, shawn gaylord. just talked about this on monday so big developments by midweek. let's talk about your reaction to this because i know that your group was instrumental in providing this idea and now here it is, it's come to fruition. >> sure, yeah. we were thrilled to hear the news. i would say we were thrilled but we were not surprised. the obama administration has shown incredible leadership on lbgt issues both domestically and internationally, so we always had a lot of confidence that this was the type of announcement we'd get, this was the type of delegation we'd see. >> i want to show you the cover of the "usa today" that i left upstairs on my desk. it has billie jean king, who is an equality ally, a strong female supporter, a great tennis legend, who happens to be gay. and now she's going to be going and leading the way. this is a huge compliment to any country that's going to get a delegation of world class athletes like this. but why is this threading the needle in such a brilliant political

i'm going to speak with shawn gaylord who has an important message for president obama. ♪ ♪ ♪ of theirdiabetes with non-insulin victoza®. for a while, i took a pill to lower my blood sugar, but it didn't get me to my goal. so i asked my doctor about victoza®. he said victoza® is different than pills. victoza® is proven to lower blood sugar and a1c. it's taken once-a-day, any time, and comes in a pen. and the needle is thin. victoza® is not for weight loss, but it may help you lose some weight. victoza® is an injectable prescription medicine that may improve blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes when used with diet and exercise. it is not recommended as the first medication to treat diabetes and should not be used in people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. victoza® has not been studied with mealtime insulin. victoza® is not insulin. do not take victoza® if you have a personal or family history of medullary thyroid cancer, multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if you are allergic to victoza® or any of its ingredients. symptoms of a serious allergic reaction

acknowledge, that is me, wants to acknowledge the library foundation, the richard house foundation and the gaylord and dorothy donnelly foundation for their wonderful support of the work that they do, and very much made this program possible. the number of people who have been mentioned in the audience, and i just wanted to do this because i am not going to recognize who everybody is out there. i see number of people who are donors -- in this room. will you all get up as i call your name and stay up, kelly turner, johnson, leonard wash, where is clarice? there are other of you who are involved in this, you see me, tucson, perkins, to sun -- please stand for the perkins family papers i apologize for that. and tom distending over there. and many of you whose names i have not called. and without your generosity the harsh collection would not exist. thank you. now to our three distinguished panelists. when i say distinguished i don't use the term lightly. really, these are three of the finest dollars of african-american history in general and specifically chicago's black history and the whole country