yesterday. omicron cases have now surged past the peak we saw from delta cases in early september. the january high point for this pandemic is a ways off, but we're getting closer by the day. there is one piece of good news. average hospitalizations are still flat over the past week. the bad news is, the u.s. saw more than 3500 deaths on thursday. that's the highest we've seen in some time. as we said, all of this is throw wrench into holiday plans. if you're flying, you probably want to check with the airline before heading to the airport. united cancelled more than 160 flights scheduled for today. that's about 10% of their total flights. they just don't have enough crews to fly. they're not alone, more than 400 u.s. flights and 1900 global flights have been cancelled, including flights on delta, jetblue, and allegiant. if you had your heart coming to new york city for new year's eve, those plans are changing, too. the mayor said the celebration is happening but it will be scaled back. just about a quarter of the regular crowd allowed in. as we've been coming on the air just the last couple of minutes, we learned the white house is now lifting travel restrictions on eight southern african nations. so a lot to get to. let me bring in nbc's sam brock covering the latest on the covid surge from miami. dr. william is professor of infectious diseases at vanderbilt university medical and cdc advisor. and dr. angelique is national chair of the south african medical association. one of the first doctors to treat patients with omicron. it's good to see you. we have been talking about testing for days. lines continue to stretch around the block in some cities. we're even seeing e-mails from at least one testing company that says even if you get the test, you might not get the results for five days. so here is the question for today. if you can't get a test or if you can't get your results, should you be cancelling your holiday plans? >> i think you need to enter your planning with great care, chris. that's the important thing. testing, if it's available, is really a good idea because if you can get one of those rapid tests and you're negative, that will give you a sense of reassurance. please, if you're in any public space indoors, wear the mask! try to do the social distancing. good hand hygiene. do all the things to keep your travel and visit with friends and relatives safer. >> and, sam, you aren't far from miami international. the fact is a lot of people are getting messages their flights have been cancelled on christmas eve. it's heartbreaking considering those most of them didn't get a chance to travel last christmas. what can you tell us? >> reporter: a lot of folks, chris, will be going in scramble mode now. i feel like it will be one of the stories of the day. united airlines cancelled 170 flights so far. delta 128. it represents 9% and 6% of the flights going out respectively for those two arms. it does appear to be a combination of the omicron variant and crews getting sick. also, weather conditions in some cities where those hubs are based. if you look at the statement from united, which said they notified folks yesterday about the fact they should not be coming to the airport if they're on one of the affected flights and give advanced notice and would attempt to rebook as many fliepgts as possible. many travelers have to end up making multiple stops later than they wanted to just to try to get home to see loved ones. it really speaks to an ongoing conversation right now. the ceo of delta had petitioned the cdc director as well as airlines for america, which represents american and united, delta, southwest asking the cdc to shorten the quarantined rules from 10 days to 5 for vaccinated crew members. they're worried about a disruption in staffing. the flight attendant's association don't want to see the rules changed. they're worried folks will be asked to come in and work when they're still sick. there's some controversy around how you'll be able to maximize getting enough people out there on planes to fly folks around while at the same time being respectful of the safety concerns involved. as you see there, 400 plus u.s. flights cancelled right now. this is impacting fort lauderdale airport a little bit more than m.i.a. american only had a handful of flights cancelled. several hundred flights already. the plug has been pulled on them. we'll see if the number goes up tloup the course of the day. >> i hope not. people are looking if are silver lining. that's where south africa comes in. cases continuing to fall. as we just said, the white house looks already to get rid of the restrictions on south africans traveling. people traveling from south africa to here in the u.s. is your best idea that we're going see the same thing here? europe is going to see the same thing that this is going to move through fairly quickly? what can you tell us based on your experience? >> good afternoon from south africa. yes, umm, we saw a right in the beginning the doubling of our cases. and the first week or two, we had the positivity rate around 29 to 30%. for us, our cases were quite high. not all are vaccinated in our country. this is now the sixth week we are into this omicron. so something here in listening to what has been said -- the treatment actually lies in common sense. common sense of wearing masks, stay away from big crowds, get your vaccines, if you're not vaccinated. get it asap, especially if you are a high risk group. there's something interesting that we have noticed is that the testing. there's no reason to test if you have no symptoms. if you -- the rapid testing will only work if you have positive symptoms of omicron. to have positive symptoms, you have to understand what it is and omicron is a muscular skeletal type of attack, to start with. it's not a nose and throat. so people will tell us they went to bed last night and felt warm and cold during the night. wake up with the headache, body aches, and chest pain or back ache and fatigue. that's omicron. if you have that, wait about 18 hours, go and test. rapid tests are very -- if they're positive after 18 hours, you can believe it. they are very, very -- they are good source to use. >> i want to make i understand, doctor, if i can. are you saying there's not such a thing as an asymptomatic case of omicron? >> we haven't seen it. >> okay. well, so let me go to the white house. josh leatherman is standing by. i'm assuming the task force has weighed all of these things together and now they've decided what? open up the borders again? >> reporter: essentially, yes. the white house emphasizing this was always designed to be a temporary measure. that the point of these travel restrictions was not we're going it keep omicron or any other variant out of the united states. it was, okay, when we have a new variant, we don't know exactly what we're dealing with or how transmissible it's going to be. let's try to slow the entry of that variant into the united states while we have a chance to learn more by ourselves in a little bit more time to figure out what tools we're going to need to address that new variant such as the rapidly increased testing that the u.s. is now trying to pursue. so the white house really, for days now, has been sign posting this was likely going to happen. they were probably going to remove these restrictions once it was the right time to do so. now a senior administration official saying that according to the health and medical experts at the cdc, the value of country-based international travel restrictions is greatest earlier in the outbreak. going on to say that value declines. at this point, there is not a significant impact to u.s. cases from allowing people to come into the u.s. from these southern african countries. so the removal of these travel restrictions, chris, will take effect at 12:01:00 a.m. on december 31st. we should point out, in the interim, the administration has stepped up the travel requirements across the board, including that one day before you come test requirement. the white house emphasizing that restriction will apply to people from the eight countries who are now going to be able to come into the united states but still have to get the test one within day of coming to the u.s. >> okay. so, look, doctor, i want to go back to the whole idea of asymptomatic cases or the lack thereof. so, again, recognizing that in a big swath of this country, it is difficult, if not impossible to get a test. even if you get it, unless it's an instant test, very difficult to get results in a timely maempb. if you find out you've been exposed to someone who tested positive but you have no symptoms, can you feel okay about not getting tested? >> well, i would think that, first, you ought to quarantine yourself if you have been genuinely exposed to someone. if you're vaccinated, then i think you can be much more comfortable about that than if you're unvaccinated. because unvaccinated people can still get seriously ill with this virus. >> doctor, the cdc is now cutting down quarantine times for health care workers who test positive, because, frankly, they're needed at work. they're saying seven days okay. guidelines for the rest of us haven't been updated since omicron. should they be? why would that be? >> i would be inclined to be consistent across the board, yes. so i would hope that the cdc still considering this would come to a similar decision about the entire population. we all want to be doing pretty much the same thing. >> thank you to all of you. i appreciate it. we had a little loss of sound here. so i apologize for the delay. we appreciate y'all being with us on a christmas eve! as we said, a lot of people are on the road today hoping for some good traveling weather. that was not the case in northern california, though, which has already gotten snow and expected to be the nation's center of stormy weather christmas week with huge mountain snowfall and days of rain. temperatures conversely above average in a lot of places other places. our meteorologist is here for us. michelle, what is it looking like out there? >> hi, chris. good to see you. yeah, many of us enjoying sunshine today. above-normal temperatures but out west they continue to deal with the monster storms. we've had storm after storm and that's going to continue over the next seven days. so taking a look at radar now, you can see that high elevation snow, that heavy rain falling in southern california now into the four corners today. we'll continue to see these storms move in over and over again. it's been the december deluge. it's called the atmospheric river. it's a river in the sky. it's a plume of moisture that continues to bring in the very heavy rain. you can see the darker colors here, the greens, yellows, oranges indicating that rain is falling. so we do have a flood threat because we have the be burned areas in many spots in southern california. that's the concern over the next several days. this is a set up. we had the first area of low pressure come through yesterday. now it moves to the four corners. they'll -- we'll have the another storm on christmas day. it will bring high elevation snows. we're bringing in 8 feet in some spots. that's a lot of snow in the highest elevations of the sierras. we're looking at snow in the cascades. lots of cold air in place. we could see snow possible in seattle, rain down into san francisco. chris, in the contrast, as you mentioned before, looking at summer-like weather in the central and southern plains. a lot of people barbecuing. the temperatures in the mid 80s. >> barbecue for christmas. michelle, thank you! happy holidays. >> how crazy. thank you. the expolice officer kim potter found guilty in the death of daunte wright. what is next? what could it mean for future trials? we're live in minneapolis. plus, the january 6th committee ramping up the fight to get its hands on the documents that donald trump is trying to shield. their newest strategy all the way to the supreme court. airporl challenge for new homeowners who have become their parents... okay, everybody, let's do a ticket check. paper tickets. we're off to a horrible start. ...but we can overcome it. we're not gonna point out our houses, landmarks, or major highways during takeoff. don't buy anything. i packed so many delicious snacks. -they're -- -nope. would you say, ballpark, when group two is gonna get boarded? 2 hours and 58 minutes. progressive can't protect you from becoming your parents, but we can protect your home and auto when you bundle with us. someone should've left home earlier. are you tired of clean clothes that just don't smell clean? but we can protect your home and auto when you bundle with us. what if your clothes could stay fresh for weeks? 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>> good morning. i think what will happen is they're going to say even though she didn't have a prior history, she served, you know, the state and her community honorably for 26 years, her conduct was so reprehensible and so inexcusable and so much in violation of the rules that they're going to argue she should be sentenced for a greater period of time. i believe the prosecutors will make an argument she moved to another jurisdiction. she dereceived rank and file police officers. they think it's important for law enforcement to be held accountable. that these types of faux pass, she called them mistakes, should not be tolerated. i think they'll make a compelling -- they're going to ask for more time in light of the significance of the severity of her actions and her misconduct. >> so if we look beyond this, we mentioned how rare police convictions are, ck. do you think that this is part of a bigger pattern of change. if you're a defense attorney, does the case play into decisions whether or not to put your client on the stand? >> i hope it's a bigger pattern of change. there needs to be change in police misconduct and excessive use of force. there are literally thousands of cases like this. thousands of cases like the ahmaud arbery case. but thousands of cases like the george floyd case. there's a need for federal reform. there's a need for reform at a state and local level. i think, if i'm a defense attorney, i'm going think twice about putting my client on the stand in these types of cases. why? because it's an awful risk you are only rolling the dice. even if you have a compelling witness who breaks down and cries, when it's police misconduct, there is no guarantee they will get off or get acquitted. it could backfire on them. i think the most compelling evidence is the video footage. that's the silver lining of the crowd. but for the video footage, this case would have been much different. just like in george floyd -- in the murder of george floyd. in the derek chauvin case, that video footage was so compelling. but for the video footage of that case and this case and ahmaud arbery case and so many others, you would not see this type of conviction. i hope this is the beginning of change for policing reform, and that everybody reevaluates, reassesses what they need to do. because after all, daunte wright lost his life for no reason. and -- absolutely. >> ck hoefler, thank you. the investigation into the attack on the capitol is escalading. the house january 6th committee now asking the supreme court to speed up its consideration of donald trump's appeal as the former president fights to block the release of key white house documents that are being sought by that committee. lawmakers in recent days also say they want to question, too, republican members of congress. joining us now nbc tuesday justice correspondent pete williams, nicklaus wu, and msnbc legal analyst. trump is trying to block hundreds of pages of documents from being handed over to the committee. the house is trying to speed it up. how does it work? how unusual is what the house is asking for? >> unusual in one sense. there's a federal law that governs. it's called the presidential records act. that's what congress has invoked here. and the problem is, you have a former president who doesn't want the documents released, and the current president who said they should be released. now, in one sense, it's novel because it races a question and invites the supreme court to say exactly how much executive privilege a former president has. in another sense, it's not a new question because the 1977, in a kind of similar dispute between richard nixon and the archives, the supreme court said yes a former president does have some executive privilege, but the controller here is the current president who is in the best position to decide what documents should be released. in this case, president biden has said that the january 6th commission has -- committee has a great need to see this information and it outweighs whatever residual executive privilege the former president has. that's what the lower courts have said here. >> so what does the timeline look like? do we have a guess? >> well, it sort of all depends. one option is the supreme court will look at this case and say, nope, we're not going to take the appeal. this is one of the cases the supreme court has the discretion to decide whether or not to grant the president's appeal. they could just say no. that would leave the lower court rulings in effect and require the archives to hand the documents over. if the court does decide to hear arguments in this case, then it's probably not going to be getting a decision until possibly late june. so the house is asking the court to hurry -- speed it up. it said it needs the information urgently to guide its investigation. they want the court to decide whether to take the case in mid january instead of the normal timeline of waiting until mid february. even if the court does take it on an accelerated timeline, there's no guarantee we'll get a quick decision. the court will take its time. >> how strong a case do you think the sides have? what do you think are the arguments on either side? >> well, president trump is invoking executive privilege. certainly the supreme court has recognized the doctrine as not specifically in the constitution but implied by the separation of powers. the policy reason for it is that presidents want and need candid advice from aids when they're making important decisions. for that reason, we protect those things from disclosures so people can feel free to speak their mind when they're advising the president. that's well and good. but as we learned in the nixon case, it's a qualified privilege. one that must yield when there is a greater national interest. this is not there to protect donald trump the individual. it's there to protect the office of the presidency in the best interest of the country. so the current president gets to decide, is it in the best interest of the country to protect that privilege in this instance? or to wave it for some greater good? what president biden here, by the way, has a very vested interest in a strong executive privilege for himself and his own protection has said the interest here is so great i want to wave the privilege so that the committee can learn what actually happened on january 6th. that's what the committee wants. that's what they're pursuing here. what president trump is saying is that this is a novel question, which is true to some extent. and the supreme court should look at this to decide the contours of executive privilege. so the question of whether they should look at it is maybe a little stronger than the actual merits themselves. because i think it's pretty clear that it is the current president who gets to decide, with some input from the former president, whether the privilege should yield. joe biden made the decision. i think on the merits, the committee eventually will get the documents. >> yeah. the question is how quickly. so meantime, nicklaus, the january 6th committee is looking into -- looking to question republican congressman jim jordan and scott perry. last night congressman aguilar hint there had are other lawmakers, too, they want to talk to. do we have any idea who they might be? whether is the committee going next? >> the committee made no desire to look into aspect of the attack. whether it involves lawmakers or former officials, the list goes on and on. for example, alexander, one of the organizers has acknowledged contacts with people like congressman paul gosart, a republican. the question is how far the committee will go to try to get out the communications with lawmakers. they sent friendly requests, basically, to congressman scott perry and jim jordan and perry outwright rejected. they have stopped short of subpoenaing members' phone records. that sets up a question and test for the committee whether they will subpoena another member of congress. a sitting member's phone records and ask them to testify. it would be crossing the rubicon for the committee. >> nicholas wu, pete williams, barbara williams, thank you so much. up next, putin pointed a finger at the west as his troops build up on the ukraine border. the global alarm bells ringing this morning. and as the world struggles with that surge in covid cases, a lot of tourist spots were just starting to make a comeback are worried. what impact is the omicron surge going to have on them? 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[daughter] slurping don't pay for water. pay for clean. it's got to be tide. take a look at the new satellite images. it's the russia/ukraine border you're seeing there. a new escalation of fighting vehicles, self-propelled are tilly. going into the new year russia is front and center with the concerns. with yesterday vladimir putin in a four-hour press conference given two chances to say russia would not invade ukraine, again demanding a promise nato would not extend eastward. i want to bring you president of the council of foreign relations and author of "the world of brief introduction." richard, good to see you. what is your take away from the annual press conference? what is the threat level, as you see it? >> well, the threat level has gone up. one thing we can measure, as you know, are capabilities. what we can't do is measure retentions. with mr. putin, it's impossible to know whether it's a prelude to an invasion. he's put forward demands he knows will not be met, or whether it's a piece of bargaining and take half the loaf and still call it a victory. what is extraordinary is how he portrays himself and russia as the victim here. >> yes. >> a crisis generated by the ukraine and the west but it's obviously anything but. >> yeah. you know, is he setting things up for the talks in january, including that white house delegation and nato in geneva next month? what are you going to be looking for that would suggest to you that, again, more of an escalation of a threat or more keeping the focus on diplomacy? >> well, he is setting up for the talks. you know, we don't know which way he's going to go. i think he'll look at everything. he'll look at the western cohesion. right now i think any sanctions that would be imposed would probably not be so severe that i would get into the changes policy. i think he'll want to look at the arming of ukraine. he'll want to look at nato plans to reinforce poland and the baltic's, and he'll be interested in the talks and what kind of comprises the united states and the europeans are willing to put forward. you're not going to get a formal refusal to contemplate ukraine and nato. the bottom line, there are no plans to bring ukraine into nato for the foreseeable future and then some. there are possibilities for various limitations on forces on the nato side as well as on the russian side. so, i think, i think so much depends on putin's definition of success is or victory. at the moment, we're only guessing. this is, honestly, he said the ball is in our court. no, the ball is 100% in his court. >> yeah, again, you know, you never know what is in vladimir putin's brain. that's a dangerous place to try to project, but if you talk about the idea of comprise, is it necessarily something that really is significant? is it something that he can go back and say i got them to move? >> well, i can imagine comprises both sides can live with. that's what diplomacy is about. comprise will be criticized by some as too much. some people will inevitably call prize appeasement. i can imagine things nato can put out there formally and informally that russia could live with and we could live with, if we got something that was reciprocal. again, would it be perfect? no. it would be a lot better than having a massive war in the center of europe. so that's the real alternative, whether we have some kind of war, whether there is a diplomatic outcome that we can live with, even if it's inperfect. that's the decisions we have to make. >> richard haaas, good to see you. thank you so much. have a great holiday season! coronavirus cases in florida are exploding. rising by 420% just weeks after the first omicron case was reported by the state. new infections yesterday topped 26,000. at a time when tourists normally flood the sunshine state, will visitors opt to stay away this year? joining me now jorge pascara, a tourism marketing agency for the county. good to see you, jorge. cases on the rise. palm beach county has one of the lower vaccination rates in the state at 63%. are you seeing already these rising cases are affecting your industry and visitors? >> well, chris, thank you for having me. certainly we have seen, according to forecasters, that there's been a dampening of travel intentions up to about 25% of folks are postponing trips, but the good news is that only 10% are cancelling. for us here in florida, and particular in the palm beaches, we're looking to buck the trend and receive as many visitors as we proudly had in 2019, which was a record year. that has to do with the wonderful attributes that we have in the palm beaches with less congestion, smaller cities, lots of open spaces, and great parks and beaches to spread out and be safe from activity. >> so you just put forth one of the things you can obviously tell people. look, this is not like going on to necessarily a super crowded beach, like you said, some beautiful small towns. there's a little more room. >> right. >> i'm wondering what the conversations are like with other tourism officials you're talking to. what can you do -- what more would you like to see from, say, the governor or federal government going into 2022? unlike where i live in new york city, where january and february could be a little bit of a dead zone in terms of tourism. you know, we're really getting hit at christmas when it's one of the biggest times of the year for new york. not so for you guys. what can you do? what do you want to see done? >> well, you know, we put health and safety first since the beginning of this crisis. you know, the palm beaches was first out of the gate in terms of implementing rigorous sanitation and cleanliness standards for our airport, our hotels, cultural institutions, the ballparks, and the convention center. we're going to continue to promote cdc guidelines. we had something called the palm beaches pledge, which is about distance, masking, and sanitation. we had a campaign for vaccination to improve vaccination levels in the county. we'll do everything we can to communicate to the world that we are serious about keeping everyone healthy and safety foremost in our minds, for both residents and visitors. >> jorge, good luck. thank you so much. happy holidays to you and all the visitors who go into the palm beaches. coming up, why a third of teachers nationwide said they could leave the profession. a startling report ahead. nope nope c'mon him? 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>> no. it's a difficult time for teachers, for principals, for bus drivers, for parents, for students. do i think half the teachers will leave the profession next year? probably not. do i i think teachers are under tremendous stress. our helpers need helpers. teachers are heros today. we need to look out for them when we can to keep it going through the difficult time. >> i want to do a deeper dive on what can be done. madeline, let me ask you, first, clearly teachers have a lot of reasons to be stressed. what can you tell us about this very real threat of teacher shortages? are these folks who had not, frankly, thought about leaving before the pandemic? >> yeah, we found that many of these teachers said before the pandemic they would not have wanted to leave and now they do. teaching has been a high-stress job but teaching in 2021 has been difficult. i think that the secretary is right that many of these teachers will find that quitting is not a sustainable option for them for whatever reason. so many of them might not actually quit, but even the fact that half of teachers want to quit within the next two years is a big concern for district leaders and policy makers. >> so what, very specifically and realistically, secretary, can be done to support them? >> well, i think supporting our students, bus drivers, teachers, everybody. as i said earlier, our helpers need helpers. helping them deal with their stress. giving them, you know, counsellors, you know, therapists. schools actually have more resources than they've had in a long time. schools are dramatically underfurnitured. thanks to president biden, schools have more resources today. making sure teachers are dealing with the secondary trauma or primary trauma of what is going on in their own homes and lives. making sure they have a way to sustain themselves through the difficult time. it's hard to filibuster. it's hard to help our kids and we're feeling more full, more sustained, then our teachers can do a better job of helping our students. i think it has to be a primary responsibility for principals, for school superintendents to help our teach aerns our staff through the extraordinarily difficult time and get to the other side of covid. >> but what you say, arnie, do we have the band width emotionally, realistically, financially to do the things that need to be done? i mean, it does feel like talking to teachers, talking to other people involved in education it's a struggle to get from one day to the next let alone look big picture at what are complex set of circumstances. >> yeah and to think we have resources we've never had. it's great we have the opportunity. the question is can we be strategic enough, thoughtful enough, understand how significant the social and emotional needs of our students and the adults in our school buildings. if we understand that and thoughtful principals and superintendents get that and creating those support systems to help keep our teachers sustained through of the difficult times, it's absolutely possible. i can tell you anecdotally many schools are taking this extraordinarily seriously. i talked to superintendents. >> madeline, part of that, i mentioned, you know, student learning loss. concerns that have teachers have. tell me about what you found about sort of what is on the top of their list of concerns, their priority list to fix. >> right. there's a lot -- teach verse a lot of demands on their plate. they're trying to catch students up academically from the pandemic. they're working to help students grapple with trauma and mental health as the pandemic has caused. they're doing this while schools are dealing with significant staff shortages. so there is less support for teachers. it's kind of the perfect storm of a lot to do and not a lot of help. >> so, arnie, what would you say to the average parent out there? would you want to be a teacher right now? >> you know, well, our teachers have never been more important. never been more needed. as difficult as it is, as challenging as it is, teachers go into the profession to make a difference in students' lives. i think teachers today aren't just educating. they're literally helping to save lives. it's extraordinarily difficult and challenging. it's that much more important. what i would say to teachers, the students, to parents, is more than ever before, we need each other. we understand how interdependent and connected we are. we need to support each other. we need to be helping each other. i want to hit on one of your slides and make clear here personally, the school shooting, the mass shootings and shootings daily across america, it's a made in america problem, it doesn't happen in any other nations. it is unfair to our parents, teachers, students. parents are worried about their children coming home every day. schools should not have to deal with that on top of everything else. we, the nation, have to decide our children and families are more important than guns and take common sense steps policy sense steps policy wise to make sure our children, parents, teachers can go to school and not live with the daily fear. it makes no sense whatsoever, it does not have to be this way. >> on that note. thank you, arne duncan, madeline will, great reporting there. thanks to both of you and happy holidays. coming up, incredible christmas displays. the work of just one family. it's a holiday story you have to hear on the other side of the break. break. s of the great highway. all they need is a bike and a full tank of gas. their only friend? 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[ chuckles ] well, he may have friends, but he rides alone. that's jeremy, right there! we're literally riding together. he gets touchy when you talk about his lack of friends. can you help me out here? no matter why you ride, progressive has you covered with protection starting at $79 a year. well, we're new friends. to be fair. eh, still. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪ ♪ ♪♪ ♪ downy's been taking you back, since way back. with freshness and softness you never forget. feel the difference with downy. well, the holiday weekend is here. look, i've got the christmas tree from rockefeller center right behind me. if you're not in the spirit yet, this story might do it for you. the gaddy family in fayetteville, georgia have turned their home into a multi-acre light display and turned christmas into a full-time job. the best part, they're doing it all for a special cause. alisyn barber has their story. >> reporter: for residents of fayetteville, virginia, a visit to the north pole is a car ride away. every december larger than life nutcrackers, fairy tale characters and ninja turtles come to live. curt see of mike and gwen, the unofficial mr. and mrs. claus at the heart of the wonderland. it all began 33 years when the couple, parents of three, decided to add a little magic to their front yard. >> we put up three words, hohoho and that was it. >> reporter: one displayed grew to dozens that attracted cars up to two miles long. 73-year-old mike is building six months of the year. his crowning achievement, two large working ferris wheels. >> my son road the ferris wheel when he was four and five years old, now his children ride the same ferris wheel. >> merry christmas. >> reporter: there's no fees for onlookers but the couple accepts donations, toys go to toys toths. financial contributions go to march of dimes for personal reasons. >> ten years ago, my daughter had twins, you have to excuse me, but we lost one of them at 11 weeks. it was devastating. we decided that that would be another great way to give back. >> reporter: last year the couple raised nearly $40,000 for the cause. >> i like the princess one. >> reporter: even with pandemic and politics dividing the nation, the gaddys have found their winter wonder is magic everyone can agree on. >> it's like a family tradition to come see the gaddy's light show. >> let's face it, in today's world, some things are just kind of weird and this is old school, and we try to make it whimsical for the kids. they think it's amazing. >> a christmas toast to cold school and the gaddys and thanks to alisyn barber. coming up how the omicron surge and grounded flights are leading to tough decisions for families this holiday. and we have another hour of news on the other side of the break. s on the other side of the break watch this. that was in these clothes... ugh. but the clothes washed in tide- so much cleaner. if it's got to be clean it's got to be tide hygienic clean. no surprises in these clothes! couple more surprises. ♪ limu emu... & doug ♪ ♪ superpowers from a spider bite? i could use some help showing the world how liberty mutual customizes their car insurance so they only pay for what they need. 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