I am a couple hours West of Ottawa and it is right around freezing right now. We took the dogs for a walk on some logging roads this afternoon and the snow was hardpacked and slippery(from heavy equipment and the temperature dropping from just above 0 to just below). We had no snow until a major dump on the 28th of Dec, which is odd. And we are expecting warm temps and rain this weekend, so XC skiing might be on hiatus for a while.