By Lester Holt, NBC News anchor

Hello from New York. Brian is taking the week off and I'll be in the anchor chair again tonight.

If you are celebrating the day I hope you are having a merry Christmas. I'm pleased to say I got every thing I was wishing for, which is basically anything with a power cord and/or battery compartment. Tonight we'll sit down as a family, try out the new chocolate fondue maker and watch our favorite holiday film "A Christmas Story." ( I never tire of watching Flick get his tongue stuck to the playground pole).

Meantime, if you were anywhere near a department store or mall this past weekend you may find it hard to imagine that retailers still managed to come up short of their sales expectations. Despite the huge crowds and long lines, a consumer spending report issued by Master Card, Inc. today, finds holiday sales were up just 2.4 percent when you exclude gasoline expenditures. They are, of course, early numbers, and in no way the final word on Christmas 2007. The good news for consumers is that we may see some big sales as soon as tomorrow. We'll have more on all this tonight on Nightly News.

With just over a week now until the Iowa presidential caucuses, the candidates will be back out in force tomorrow shopping for votes. We've asked CNBC'S Chief Washington correspondent John Harwood to join us tonight to talk about what are essentially still some very wide-open early races.

NBC's Stephanie Gosk spent this Christmas day touring nine American bases in Iraq with a top U.S. General in Iraq. We'll hear from troop who in some cases are spending their fourth Christmas in harm's way far from home.

Thanks for clicking on the blog. I hope you can spend some more time with us tonight when we come on the air with NBC Nightly News.