Inversion prospects look decent at least. That would certainly soothe me for a while.

Fair enough. There was a pretty good inversion here around Christmas 1993. Salem only had one freezing high, but the fog didn't clear for over a week in the east valley and Silverton had 5 days with highs below freezing around Christmas. I remember it was so miserable because my whole family had the flu during that time too. We were all so sick we just had some chicken soup and green beans for Christmas dinner.

Ouch!

Those are two biggest fake cold spells I've had here. Jan 2013 was a bit more impressive, but the 2005 one actually began with some snow.

Correct, the monthly 500mb mean in Dec 2005 is similar to the upcoming pattern because the timing of the MJO was different. I was referring to how the 2005 pattern broke down into a more progressive regime (see below). While I don’t think we will match the huge AL/+EPO that followed the +TNH/+PNA in Dec 2005, I do expect a more progressive pattern across the CONUS as we head through December.