And this is the melodors. Today is the official first day of winter. First day of winter. That means tonight is the shortest, right . And we go back to longer days tomorrow. Yes. But we have something to celebrate today, dont we . Yes, and well have something more to celebrate. A huge thank you to all of you who helped raise all of 1 million for the salvation army. We only need to sell around 400 books to make it. Good gifts book. Org. Theres about 2300 of them left. Im never going to do more of them. You me know how much you love the book. Its got more pages and a memorial to frank. Lets get to the Million Dollar mark we have good news if you are a procrastinator. Doors are open 24 hours, because some people work different shifts and stuff like that. So kohls is now open 24 hours a day until 6 00 on the 24th. Walmart in a lot of locations, 24 hours. Jc penney and macys are staying open until midnight. A lot of people work crazy shifts and you cant make it. Thats true, but hoda, how many days do you have to get ready for christmas . 364, about. Yes. Okay. So why are you waiting till the end . I know. Its the rush. Part of the reason i got in the tv news i think in the beginning was because theres a deadline, and it has to happen. We have to be on the air at 10 00, i have to have my story, boom, boom, boom. And thats what it is. Im not totally panicked yet. Always on lombardi time. He had to be ten minutes early or lombardi said youre late. I think its the rudest thing in the world when you think your time is more valuable than somebody else. Look at those two divas over there. How little, i cant believe susan is smaller than im taller. We have big girl shoes on. All right, ladies, cook something. Shall we talk about some big boys . Oh, my goodness, we have more breaking news on our show. Mens health is out. And we do agree that john kra senskis hot. Were just look oninlookin. Minding our own business. Check it out yosef, our floor director is on come over here. Were so proud of you, honey. You lost 50 pounds. I did. How did you do it . The boring way, actually. The boring way . We didnt actually know. He had a crisis moment. Heres thing about yosef. We didnt notice until one day there was a picture of him in hawaii. Theres your before picture. Yes. Yes. And look at the, uhhuh. But the body before. Was there an ahha moment for you . When you thought im going to lose some weight . Theres the before. There are a few friends of mine who inspired me. Mostly i was out of breath tying my shoes. Youre young. We never thought you were heavy. We thought you were stocky. [ laughter ] husky, husky, husky boy. Yeah. Dont you think he should have a cute girlfriend . We think yosef and zack should, and Kyle Michael Miller should. Lets do a dating thing. Lets start with the mens health. Whats your twitter handle . Its my name at. Yo people are going to do a j. Its happening again. There you go. And im running my first Half Marathon in honor of my mom whos battling, raising funds for emmls. We thought you were hot before. Now youre scalding. Yeah, baby. Thanks. So meredith vieira. So meredith has some fun with, at someones expense in particular. But she showed photos to a bunch of kids and asked the kids, is this person naughty or nice, based solely on the photos. Mothers ha happened. Im going to lift up pictures, and you tell me naughty or nice list. Nice. Naughty. Naughty. Naughty . Naughty. Do you know who that is . No. Why are you saying naughty . She just looks like it. How about this person, naughty or nice . Nice. Nice. Oh, thats hillary clinton. Do you know who that is . Yes. Who is that . President. Well, running for president. I dont know. Naughty, naughty, naughty. Why . Hes weird. Him i used to work with this guy. Oh, my god. Oh, my goodness. I know, thats exactly what i felt like. Im sorry. It took a lot of therapy. [ laughter ] its not fair, because its not his best look during november. Oh, gosh. You know, they love each other, but how funny was that . Creepy. Im so glad when its not me that theyre picking on or you. It looks like gwen stefani and Blake Shelton are going strong. They tweeted out a video and a message that we just cant get enough of. All right. Thats enough. I want to see the ladies reaction to it. Ladies . I thought it was sweet. Blake shelton. Isnt he fabulous . Fabulous. Right . Nice, good heart, handsome. Hunky. Tall. What about her . Oh, gorgeous, and also really supportive of the young talent on that show. I think shes great. How sweet is she . Shes not what youve heard. Susan lucci. [ laughter ] she aint erica cane. By the way, we want to point out, as the shows progressing, whats going on with yosef. His phone is blowing up. Bring your phone here. Bring your phone here. Exciting. Wait, wait, wait. Oh, my. Hold on. How did they get your phone number . Hes on twitter. Oh, its sensitive. Been there with you, hoda. Wheres it coming . Oh, wow, instagram. Are there naughty pictures . Lets im not going to. Oh, oh, ooh, thats a good one. Oh. Wow. I cant wait to see what happens. Its going to be a happy holiday for yosef awesome. So sarah palin is taking jokes many times on snl. Now she can dish it out. It looks like theres a battle between tina fey and sarah palin. This ones called 31 rock. Take a look. When 31 rock begins this january, america will meet melon. She left a small town for the big city. But shes struggling to have it all. Wheres my big old wheres the page . Melon. Heres what you do. Star wars didnt actually change cinema. Theres only one way to find out. Good for her. That was done by a group called the independent journal review. Okay. How about john mccain playing . That was funny, right . The day that he announced that he now hes a page. I like him. Hes feisty. Heres some trends that you may have skipped here are some that didnt actually catch on. Some were the apple watch and man buns. They asked readers which trends they chose to skip this year. And were going to ring the bell every time we passed on a tren, all right . So the return of crop tops. Pass face contouring. Pass. Not me. It ithover boards. I gave one for a gift. Snapchat, passed it. Game of thrones. A squad like taylor swift we have a squad. And finally, watch me whip watch me nae nae. Im using my time more wisely than anybody else out there. [ laughter ] all right, so fuller house, you know its a reboot of full house. We played that the other day. But this is what the girls from the cast looked like back in 1993. Thats candace kamcameron bure. And jodi sweeten. You already know who it is now watch me whip, whip watch me, watch me ooh, watch me, ooh, watch me they got the moves. What does nae nae mean . Nothing. Whip, whip, watch me nae nae. Means nothing. Boozeday tuesday. Weve got sparklers here. Apple cider, cranberry juice, maple syrup and cinnamon. Did you make those, giada for us . Yes. Go to our facebook page, step by step instructional video on how to make these that giada didnt make. Susan lucci is here. She brings joy to the screen. And giada is here and she look how they get along. Long. For 41 years, the Emmy Award Winning actress and legend, sun lucci has played erica cane on all my children. You can take the daytime drama,ut you cantake itut the woman. Shes playing a soap opera star in the upcoming movie joy. Are you comfortable . How many times do i have to tell you not to clean the floor erica things its unlady like to toss things into the toilet, and i happen to agree. Can direct her power anywhere. That is the power of [ laughter ] fun. How are you . Hello, sweetie. Congratulations, movie star. Thank you. I am so thrilled to have been part of this movie, to work with david o. Russell, an amazing director. I have a small part, but theyre telling the story of joy mangano mangano, her life story, and her mother played her. And joys mother terry was a timid woman, and she had trouble doling with reality, and he took refuge in her bedroom and was a championommon addiction. And particularly to danica. Because danica was strong and became a role model for her. And she would quote danica. And live vicariously through her. David o. Russell was saying that soap opera actors are like olympic athletes. He knew what kind of work you could do. And so generous with his comments. Im really honored by that. You learn pages and pages and pages every day. Mmhm. There was a lot of volume, certainly, every day. And eca cane was a very busy character. Im so glad i got to play her. It kept you off the streets. It kept me inside during daylight hours. You know all that. But yeah, we had a lot to do every day. And david has said what i read if one of the interviews. He would come in and tell us what we want to do and we just not saying whats my motivation. We come in with a motivation. We know what were supposed to be doing, just because of the nature. Just like old man river, keeps rolling along. No matter how long we were there at the studio the night before. Didnt you love playing with the characters . Oh, love. I got to work with jennifer who is brilliant and robert de niro. Are you pinching yourself . Oh, my god, im pirpgsnching myself. Virginia matsen, isabella rosle knee. What about Bradley Cooper . I was not working with bradley. I wish i had got and scene with bradley. Ive been admiring bradley. Youre a busy poster on instagram . Into a frenzy. Mom, you have to post every day. Wait, whats happening here . Oh, its just your every day. Just a bubble bath. How i spend the weekend. Have you been to that new hotel . The one in vegas . No. Ive not been to that one, right across from moma. 54th . Im sorry. I dont know where you are, but we had a great time. It is gorgeous. It is like being in europe for the day. So beautiful. So are you. And we love you. Thank you. And merry christmas. They will them that we love them. And it opens when . Christmas day. At a theater near you. You. Got wrapping paper, cant find your ribbon . No problemo. We have creative ways to wrap house right now. T now. When its your job to protect the worlds greatest nation, its your responsibility to solve the worlds greatest challenges. This is why we search for the best and brightest. Why we train for every eventuality on land and water, in the air, space and even cyberspace. We operate in a complex world with one simple mission. Its time for brain teaser tuesday when we put your minds to work with a fun riddle. Johnnys mother had three children. The first child was named april, the second may. What was the third childs name. That seems too obvious. Dont say it. Think about it. Google it. Well be back in a minute. You know where were going. To wrap presents. If youre hosting for the holidays and need to feed the family and friends, giadas ready with a recipe. Ooh, ooh of ooh. Oh. Its boozeday tuesday. And before the break we gave you the riddle, johnnys mother had three children. The first child was named april, the second childs name was named may, the third childs name was what . Duh, johnny have you been wrapping and you find out youre out of bags, out of bows and gift wrap . Robin is a lifestyle expert who has appeared for three decades now. She has ideas for creative, homemade wrapping. Its robin to the rescue. You dont need anything fancy to make it look fabulous. Were going to repurpose recyclables with pizzazz. I thought about the person who is a wordsmith or likes crossword puzzles. That would be my sister in law cheryl. Shes a crossword addict. So we wrapped up her gift with crossword puzzles. Take a look at the bottle cap in the middle. Thats right off high milk carton, but kathie lee, of course. Have you seen this tv host. Yeah. You are so clever. Thats what we love about you. But the idea that you can take strips of magazines, and i make a figure eight. If its hard im not doing it. Staple it in the middle and layer the figure eights, and before you know it, youve got a bow. Its a bow to go. Its smart to do with coloring paper. Sports section for the sports lover, anything. Now egg cartons. Ive been eating a lot of eggs, but this is for grade a eggs friends. All i did was cover them with hershey kisses and filled it with candy. Its a lot of fun. But the kids are getting involved now. And theyre telling you how youre going to wrap and take out your scraps. This year, get out the scraps before someone throws them out. Exactly. Then you can see how pretty it looks. I am wild about cardboard paper. I put a beautiful piece of jewelry in here, and here we are. And im going to take tissue, and im going to wrap it up in one, two, three, four, five. Its like three seconds and tie the edges like i did. Tie with some bows, and ds simple. Little scraps and enthisand then you got it. And you can use a dishtowel. And what are we going to put in there, you can put in a tee shirt, sweets, cash. Cash goes well. Cash who doesnt like cash . Now sock it to me. I love it. Straight out of the sock drawer. Im going to open up the sock. Put in the bottle. And look, one, two, three, and youve got it. What i love to do is add a few little bows around the top, one, two, three. Now what is someone going to do with one sock . Well, youre going to reuse it. Give the wine that you love so much. I know you have your favorite wines. The other sock had a hole in it. And you got rid of it. You only had one sock left. All right. All right. Were thinking here. Now marshmallows, dip them in the colors, make polka dots. Is this paint . Yes. This is nontoxic paint. Hold it down, hoda. Product. The kids love it, and they are going to have a blast. Na is fun. Make sure you dont eat it. You eat one and stamp one. Be careful. Look how much fun that is. I alternated colors. You took a little more care. This is my favorite wrap of op time. I want you to try this. Now watch me. All im going to do is take the corners of the bandana and pull them up to the stop. Now, do you notice we have four little corners . Take a rubber band. Oh, he is. Put it around the top. Watch robin. Very simple way to do it. Around the neck of the bottle. And look at that. We have four separate pockets. Hoda you are right on it. I am going to put pretzels, treats, and this is a bandana wrap, one, two, three. And they can repurpose the wrap. Look down there. Really good. Thanks, robin. One, two, three, we wrap it up. Say hello to everybody for us. And if you are a Pitch Perfect fan, we have a group for you. They are the vanderbilt melodors. A big crowd right after this. This. Red 97 set red 97 did you say 97 . Yes. You know, that reminds me of geicos 97 Customer Satisfaction rating. 97 . Helped by geicos fast and friendly claims service. Huh. Oh yeah, baby. Geicos as fast and friendly as it gets. Woo all right, if youre expecting a houseful over the weekend and you dont want to spend the night and the day in the kitchen, we have a recipe for you. We have giada. It keeps on giving for sure. What is it . Kabocha squash. A lot of people in the kitchen called did a kabucha. Its getting confused. But before we get there, youre going to use some beef first. What kind of beef do you use for a stew . Like a tenderloin. Oh, no. Its too expensive. I use the other kind, the cheaper kind, thats what i use. The butt . What part . This is hodas butt right here. Weve cut it up. Really, whats it called . Chuck. Chuck. But not ground chuck. You can use ground meat if you wanted to. Then you want to cut the squash a little smaller. I would do the tri tip if you wanted. A flank steak if you want. Any inexpensive cut of meat. Its going to cook low and slow for a long period of time. So everythings going to melt and be very tender. Moving on. From hodas butt. From hodas butt. You season it with a little salt and flour, and the flour creates a thickness to the stew. And shes going to dump it in the oil. Dump it, hoda and were going to brown it you dont cook it all the way through. You dont cook it all the way through, because the slow cookers going to do it for you. Youre going to put it in the slow cooker yeah, this is something you can do and leave. Heres the squash. You can use butter nut, acorn, anything. What were going to do. You peel it, but you need a really good, sharp peeler, guys, if not, you can take a knife and just chop it off. You want to make sure it sits up nicely. Why . Because you dont want it to roll around and cut your finger. Cut that baby down. You cut this baby down, which sometimes takes a little bit of force, and you can buy this already done by the way. They cube it up and make life easy. Then you move over here. I forgot that, the garlic, the thyme and rosemary. And you let that cook and it looks like this. Okay. Thank you youre welcome. I got distracted with this. Then you want to move the meat over so you can deglaze the bottom of the hand. A key what do you mean deglaze . See all that brown stuff . You want to brown the meat first before you add it in here, otherwise you dont get that little flavor, and you take marsala wine, which i like, or you can use red wine or beef stock. And you scrape it and clean your pan. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then you take all of these ingredient. And they go in the crock in the slow cooker . Careful. You dont want to wear it the rest of the day . No, i dont. Nice get all the bits in there. O im getting as many as i can. The beef broth on top of that. Dump it, hoda and what about the tomatoes . And the sundried tomatoes. I love sundried tomatoes. And we have the squash. These are great. People love using a slow cooker. And look at this ooh. I think this is a lyle nicereally nice meal. And its nice and hot when you get home. Im going to dunk a little bread in it. Ooh, it just falls apart. The meat should fall apart. It does. After four hours up to eight hours, that meat should really fall apart. What do you think . Mm. The only thing were missing, guys . Is a glass of wine. Really, this needs a glass of wine. You can find this delicious stew recipe, today. Com food. The melodors sing for us right zmip [cough, cough] mike . Janet . Cough if you can hear me. Dont even think about it. I took mucinex dm for my phlegmy cough. Yeah. But what about mike . He has that dry scratchy thing going on. Guess what . It works on his cough too. Cough guess what . It works on his cough too. What . Stop dont pull me spoiler alert she doesnt make it only mucinex dm relieves bothwet and dry coughs for 12 hours start the relief. Ditch the misery. The citi Concert Series on today, is proudly presented to you by citi. The vanderbilt melodors are not only a talented a cappella college group. They are champions of the sing off. The only collegiate champions they have ever had. They are singing off of a mellow little christmas. Here they are. Hang all the mistletoe im going to get to know you better ba,ba,ba, da and as we trim the tree how fun its going to be da, da, together this christmas the fireside is blazing bright ah with carolling through the night and this christmas will be a very special christmas for me, yeah ba,ba,ba whoa, ba, da, da,ba,ba,ba,ba da cheer and you this christmas and as i look around your eyes are shining as they do oh, this christmas fireside is blazing bright with carolling now and this christmas will be a very special christmas for me whoa, whoa ba,ba,ba,ba, da, da, da, da, ba,ba,ba,ba,ba, da, da, da, ooh, ooh, ooh oh, this christmas you know its going to be now this christmas ba,ba,ba, a very special christmas this christmas this christmas whoa and this christmas will be a very special christmas for me yeah, yeah, yeah ba,ba,ba,ba, da, da, da, take a hand now ba,ba,ba,ba, da, da,ba, merry christmas, baby whoa, whoa, whoa well be together to make this christmas bright all right that was so fun that was awesome great. A teen sensation spreads the joy to needy children. But first, this is today, on nbc. My world is filled with cheer with you partment, but the rent is outrageous. Good thing geico offers affordable renters insurance. It protects my personal belongings should they get damaged, stolen or destroyed. [doorbell] uh, excuse me. Delivery. Hey. Lo mein, szechwan chicken, chopsticks, soy sauce and you got some fortune cookies. Have a good one. Ah, these small new york apartments. Protect your belongings. Let geico help you with renters insurance. Ugh heartburn no one burns on my watch try alkaseltzer heartburn reliefchews. They work fast and dont taste chalky. Mmm. Amazing. I have heartburn. Alkaseltzer heartburn reliefchews. The challenges facing the country never stop. So neither does the u. S. Army. We train. Adapt. And get smarter. Every soldier. Every unit. Every day. Not to keep up with change; but to drive it. Nobody knows what problems tomorrow will bring. But we do know who will solve them. Ugh heartburn no one burns on my watch try alkaseltzer heartburn reliefchews. They work fast and dont taste chalky. Mmm. Amazing. I have heartburn. Alkaseltzer heartburn reliefchews. Its our final donation for the toy drive, and its from our friends from the folks who make hello kitty and here to tell us about it are maddie and mckinzie. Before we get to how fabulous you are, what are you giving away from hello kitty . They raised 130,000 in toys and merchandise, and were just so excited to represent, because these are like so cute and Everybody Loves them. So cute. We love hello kitty. You guys have major things mckinzies a big singer, tell us about that. Well, i just released my single sleigh ride, a christmas song. Number one album on itunes last year, right . Yes. And i wrapped my first role in a movie for the book of henry. And it was so exciting. Who are these people in. I dont know, but theyre raised by very fine parents. Congratulations. Merry christmas. Thank you, merry christmas. Wow. Wed like to thank everybody for the more than 37. 5 million noin donations, helping 3 million families. Our second biggest year in the toy drive ever. We a proud to announce that in the 22 history, more than 434 million in gifts have been received. He of that makes me cry. All right