May the joy of the season be with you on this white Christmas day. And look at that – it’s snowing again!

If you’re heading out today to be with family and friends, drive careful, the roads are still a mess as you can somewhat see from this blurred photo taken while being bounced in and out of ice potholes Christmas Eve.

A 2 p.m. power outage affecting as many as 4,300 customers is reaching into the northeast corner of Greenwood.

According to Seattle City Light, the outage boundaries are NE 125th on the north, NE 92nd on the south, 34th Avenue NE on the east and Fremont Avenue North on the west.  

It’s the largest of several outages, all believed to be due to falling tree limbs. For updates on the status of any outages, see Seattle City Light’s Web site.

Anna emailed us with a link to the Port of Seattle website, which says that Sea-Tac’s parking garage is currently full, and all nearby parking lots are also full.

The Airport Parking Garage is currently full. Parking is also full in off-airport lots; even parkers with reservations are being turned away. If you have a reservation, call ahead to your lot. Travelers should use alternate transportation to get to Sea-Tac Airport.

So, call a cab or ask a friend to drive you. And keep checking that link to see if the lots open up.

We’ve got a report that a tree has fallen across the northbound lanes of Highway 99/Aurora Avenue by Woodland Park. The northbound lanes are were completely blocked at 10 a.m.

Katie and Gary were heading downtown shortly before 10 a.m. when they saw it  and sent in these photos.

Katie said northbound drivers “were turning around and going back. There was this whole median of snow in the middle and they were driving through it.” Traffic was backed up to about 50th. She figures the tree must have fallen only minutes earlier. There were no road crews on the scene when they went by.

Scott writes in comments: “I was driving north from the airport when the tree came down only a few cars in front of me. We stopped and got some help clearing the median so we could drive around to the other side. Luckily it didn’t hit anyone!”

9:45 a.m. update: Market St. is now open again. At 8:15 a.m., a Metro bus slid sideways near Greenwood Ave., blocking the eastbound lanes.
8:30 a.m. update from MyBallard.com: A Metro bus has slid sideways across Market St. near Greenwood Ave., blocking the eastbound lanes.

Traffic leaving Ballard is being diverted at 3rd Ave.

There’s also another bus, the 44, parked in the road at Market and 3rd. Drivers are being allowed to drive down the hill into Ballard, but conditions are very slick. Leary and 85th are your alternative eastbound routes.

Given the new snow and still terrible conditions on residential streets, garbage pickup is canceled today as well.

This is one of the most amazing snow sculptures I’ve ever seen. Karen sent us this photo taken on 80th, between 3rd and 6th:

Phil sent this photo of a very dapper “snowman”:

And that’s Emily kissing her and her husband, Andy’s, huge snow creation (notice the red “buttons” are actually gift wrap bows):

Karen posts in the forum:

Just a heads up… sleds are disappearing regularly with this wonderful snow we’ve had. Our sled that we bought last winter at the Greenwood True Value was stolen out of our front yard Friday night. With everyone sold out, we now can’t take our 4 year old sledding.

And talking to neighbors tonight, I heard that someone had their sled stolen when they left it outside the grocery store while they did their shopping.

Man, stealing a kid’s sled. That’s cold.

And Jean emailed us to report another sled theft:

Sunday night, two sleds stolen from in front of my house at 62nd and Palatine while the kids ran into the house to use the bathroom. Gone in three minutes! Beware the marauding sled theives out there.

Here’s a pic of another downed tree down. This one is blocking 67th Street NW just east of 3rd Avenue NW.

It looks like we’ll get above freezing today so some snow will melt off other overburdened trees, but another 1-2″ of snow is expected overnight with another 1-4″ on Christmas Eve. Wow. When’s the last time we had a white Christmas? Are there any other trees down besides the one on 79th?

Remember Cooper, the cat who roams the neighborhood with a camera around his neck that automatically takes pictures? Now he’s got his own blog, documenting his travels around Greenwood.

Cooper has become quite famous recently, appearing on Animal Planet, and in the Seattle P.I., Seattle Magazine, Seattle Weekly, the LA Times, and on BBC Radio.

A number 5 Metro bus was stuck on Greenwood Ave., just south of 85th St., just after 6 tonight. The bus tried to make it up the hill but slid sideways into a curb. We have reports that 85th is a mess with the road chewed up by tire chains, and cars twisting in and out of ruts, nearly running into each other in spots.

Update 8:45 p.m. Joe tells us that two buses are also stuck at 80th & Wallingford Ave. Check out a photo from The Stranger here.

Phil sent us this photo of a tree that fell over because of all that heavy snow, on 79th just west of Greenwood.

And several people have sent us photos of a great big snowman at 75th and Fremont. If you look really closely, you’ll see some colored beads hanging from the branches.

Thanks, Anna and Christy, for the photos!

The snow has forced the Phinney Neighborhood Association to close its soup kitchen this whole week, including for its annual Christmas Eve dinner.

The soup kitchen’s coordinator lives in Bremerton and can’t make it in, and the snow also forced the cancellation of the usual Food Lifeline and Seattle’s Table deliveries. PNA Volunteer Coordinator Judith Wood tells us:

We don’t want our volunteers to risk life and limb coming out to help. In the past, we’ve had relatively few clients in a big snow…Hopefully conditions will improve before next week.

Also, the Phinney Center at 67th St. and Phinney Ave. is closed through January 2, with the combination of weather and holidays.