Huh? The big Veterans Day storm was in 1987 - granted, December was mild and snowless, but we got an inch right after New Years, then 4-8 inches on the 8th accompanied by almost two weeks of serious cold. Another 4 - 6" on January 25th (rain changing to snow, which hardly ever accumulates that much around here), a couple dustings in February with cold snaps, and measurable snow on March 20!
1988-89, granted, was disappointing in the DC area - that was the year that a bunch of storms missed us to the *south*, and Tidewater Virginia got the jackpot (like 1980).
Even then, the first week of January brought three light-to-moderate snowfalls, the one on January 6 being slush in downtown DC but three or four inches even in Cleveland Park (I tried to visit the zoo that day to see what it was like in the snow, but it was closed).