Merry Christmas (with a new word for the day)

Though it's not a White Christmas, it still feels pretty hiemal out there.  Stay warm and enjoy this blessed holiday, everyone!

Word of the Day for Sunday, December 25, 2011

hiemal \HAHY-uh-muhl\, adjective:
Of or pertaining to winter; wintry.

Since snow and frost lasted from October well into April, no wonder the mean of my school memories is definitely hiemal.
-- Vladimir Nabokov, Speak, Memory

We took hours to make camp and hours to break camp, and in between tottered like children across the immensity of that bleak and hiemal playground.
-- Beryl Bainbridge, The Birthday Boys