I said there was no holiday knitting around here but when I saw the puppet in IK's holiday gifts, I had to make it for my niece. Pink and purple are her favorite colors. I got some Caron Simply Soft and it feels rather nice and has a little bit of a sheen to it. How cute is that?

I changed the pattern a little. I like my red felt tongue better than their red yarn "fire". She doesn't have a name, I'll let Maggie name her. Kate is making one for Maggie's brother Daniel. He is only 2 so his will be a baby dragon with bright primary colors.

My holiday preparations are moving along slowly. I have all the ingredients in the house for making cookies but no inclination to do any baking today. It is raining, hard and cold rain. I took El to work at 8 and will pick her up at 4. I have some bread rising for a soup and sandwich dinner and all I feel like doing is working on some mittens to go with the scarf that Em made for Maggie. Instead, I have spent the entire afternoon, I can't believe it's 3 o'clock already, reading blogs. I think of it as keeping in touch. I like to see how everyone else balances work, family and holiday prep. I finished shopping for folks outside the immediate family and just have to shop for PK and the girls. They are easy and I love to shop for my family. I probably won't get to it until Friday but I don't mind.

Work will be busy this week. The closer it gets to the holiday, the more anxious and distressed people become and the more needy they get. I have two more crisis classes to teach on Thurs and Fri and then I am done until January when we teach the support staff. I noticed last night that my wrists have bruises shaped like fingers on them. The man I teach this class with is a big guy. We try to show folks, especially women, that our techniques work so he holds onto my wrists hard enough to make it look real. I hadn't realize I was carrying bruises. They don't pay me enough.