holiday season is in full swing today, thursday, december 1st, 2011. captions paid for by nbc-universal television and good morning, everyone. welcome to today on a thursday morning and isn t she beautiful? take a look at the rockefeller center christmas tree as we have stepped out to the channel gardens on this chilly thursday morning to admire her in all her glory. i m matt lauer along with savannah guthrie and mr. al roker. ann is on assignment. you guys did the honors last night lighting that tree with 250,000 of your closest friends. exactly. absolutely. we slept right under the tree to get here in time for the show this morning. it is beautiful. al, you ve done this so many years. this was my first time. it was absolutely amazing. you never get tired of that thrill when the lights go on for the first time. it s beautiful. if you look back here, savannah, if you could do this for one second, you re kind of looking just like one of the angels here. oh, mat
exactly. absolutely. we slept right under the tree to get here in time for the show this morning. it is beautiful. al, you ve done this so many years. this was my first time. it was absolutely amazing. you never get tired of that thrill when the lights go on for the first time. it s beautiful. if you look back here, savannah, if you could do this for one second you look like one of the angels here. what s come over you? it s the cold apparently. i know. by the way how about the good news on wall street? wow. things definitely looking brighter. 490 points on wednesday, good news from the central banks as they take action to alleviate some of the fallout from the european debt crisis. some good jobs numbers. here in the united states and of course holiday shopping sales going pretty well. jim cramer is going to stop by the studio in a couple minutes to talk about the state of the economy. okay. if you do have a little extra money to spend these holid
today, thursday, august 4, 2011. captions paid for by nbc-universal television r welcome p s thursday morning. i m ann curry. let s go right to the map. if you live in the southern half of the united states, you don t have to know how hot it is. arizona to florida, that s the area trapped in this brutal heat wave. excessive heat warnings are in effect for a dozen states as little rock smashed the city s all-time high. why the summer has been so brutally hot. and when we could see some relief. also ahead, remember the georgia mother convicted after someone else killed her 4-year-old son in a hit-and-run accident? she was found guilty of jaywalking. at her sentencing, the judge sald she could take probation or endure a new trial. she has made her decision. she ll reveal it. very tough choice. also, the intruder breaks into the home of the wealthiest man in sydney, australia and put what he claimed was a collar bomb around the neck of that man s teenage daughter. m