I woke up this morning with pain at the base of my head, on the left side, there was a small knot there, at this point that swelling is now up to the middle of my ear, still in just the back of my head and just on my left side... Ice did not help with the swelling or the pain.

You don't want to go to an ER on New Year's Day? No one can give you a diagnosis online. A possibility is a swollen lymph node, which would swell to fight infection, - a molar perhaps, or mononucleosis (I had my entire back of neck and base of head swollen from mono), or ear infection, but it could be anything, and might not even be a lymph gland. See a doctor.