Got back from Minnesota the snowpack was pretty good early in the week and gradually diminished by Friday. Below zero felt great

.
Looks like the well advertised torchmas week is on tap. The -NAO will allow systems to dig to the SW but these will largely be cutoff from the cold supply due to the persistent Aleutian ridge holding the frigid air in Alaska and NW Canada. And it is a very persistent signature, it's not going away anytime soon. I don't think anything will change until at least week 2 of January and models tends to rush things.
If we don't get an MJO propagation, the pattern will repeat. It will be building cold over Alaska/NW Canada and spilling into the GOA, and then east of us. We'll see if anything changes mid January but there is no real sign of it. 300+ hours out isn't believable if there isn't a true mechanism for it.
Back in late October and November there were signs of cold for early December because of the Aleutian trough, so 300+ hours out you can see kind of why. Aleutian ridge doesn't translate to cold down here 2 weeks down the road.