A frigid white Christmas and the rest of the morning's news

1 Merry Christmas from the Dept of Health and Human Services

Uninsured Americans who want to have Obamacare health insurance by Jan. 1 have until midnight tonight to sign up for it. The deadline was supposed to be yesterday, but the feds extended it in the wake of HealthCare.gov’s disastrous rollout. [Sun-Times]

2 Stay inside and bake something

This will be the coldest Christmas Eve in nearly 10 years. But we could be in for a white Christmas morning. [Tribune]

3 How to make the world mad at you

A Snarf’s sandwich shop in River North summarily fired all of its employees. Three days before Christmas. By email. This just three weeks after the workers went on strike to protest for higher wages. Oy. [Grid]

4 Big new building lures Blair

William Blair, the city’s most prominent local investment bank, will move its headquarters to a new office tower in the West Loop. The building will rise 45 stories above Randolph St., and the river, and looks quite shiny. [Crain’s]

5 Ahmad cops a plea

Former Chicago comptroller Amer Ahmad pleaded guilty to corruption charges in Ohio. [Sun-Times]

6 Airbnb boom

Vacation-rental website Airbnb is making inroads in Chicago, with a growing number of homes, apartments, rooms, couches listed on the site. But most of the rentals are illegal, and many lessees are skirting city licenses and taxes. [Crain’s]

7 No mystery in officer’s murder

Police solved the murder of a Cook County Sheriff’s Officer by following footprints in the snow from the murder scene to the killer’s home. There, they found more evidence, and the killer. [Sun-Times]

8 Remember the neediest

Here’s wishing you and yours a warm and happy Christmas. Not to be a downer, but let’s not forget that thousands of Chicagoans don’t have a home for the holiday. Mark Brown introduces us to a 13-year-old girl facing her first Christmas in a homeless shelter. [Sun-Times]