…it wasn’t totally dark when I left work at 5:00.
Yay! The days really are getting longer!
Yeah. How much daylight are we actually gaining per day anyway? I figure it’s around a minute.
The earliest sunsets of the year aren’t actually at the winter solstice- they’re earlier in December, around December 7th. This page explains why.
I go home from work around 5:45, and now when I go out to the parking lot, it’s not completely dark anymore. Yay! 
You’re right- it’s somewhere between one and two minutes a day. It varies, of course, with the time of year and with your latitude.
Yeah - I noticed the other day that as I walked home from the train around 5:30, there was a hint of light in the west sky. Yippee!
This week I have seen a large number of fat robins along the lakefront. My buddy and I counted over 15 on one run past the Field, with some acting downright frisky (if you know what I mean - wink wink, nudge nudge ;)!) I know some overwinter, but seems a little early for such large numbers. I usually start listening for cardinal song around Groundhog Day…
So far, at my latitude (42 degrees), sunset has crept forward from 4:20 in early December to 4:41 today. Sunrise is still at about the same time every morning, so we gain a minute a day. Later on the sunsets will continue getting later and the sunrises will also get earlier, so we’ll be gaining two or three minutes a day by the equinox.
There’s supposed to be a lot of cold and snow coming, so spring is still a long way off.