3DPO has continued to enjoy his time at the Cumberland office.  Since he last wrote about helping Heather Iman get the office extra specially clean for the holidays, he helped her decorate.  He found himself strangely fascinated with Santa's hat.  Even though Santa did not look particularly amused, 3DPO wore it a lot, along with his new bright yellow work pants.  He did think that perhaps if his pants were red, he would look more holiday like, and perhaps even mistaken for an elf!  As long as no one thought he was that green guy the Grinch, it would be ok.  

Once the office was all decorated, though, he did have to get serious and do some work with Mark Treasure in the shop.  3DPO got some practice mixing up plaster so that he could help Mark modify a cast.  He had to mix it up in small batches, but they used that cupful to add some plaster in some different areas to build up the cast.  After it was dry, Mark showed him how to smooth and shape the rough plaster. It had to be just right so that it could be laminated.  

Another thing he learned to do was to use the sewing machine to sew some velcro straps for an orthosis.  He learned to thread the sewing machine and once the velcro was measured and cut he could do the sewing.  Though, he did have a tendency to get caught up in the velcro and had to be rescued once.  He knew that practice makes perfect, and he did want his work to be perfect.  After all, he wanted to be on the Nice List!  

A few evenings after work, he got with friends and watched some TV and sang some holiday songs.  Mark, who plays the guitar, accompanied him several times.  Digit even had a play date with a friend and they watched some classic holiday animated shows.  3DPO thought perhaps his time in the western Maryland mountains had been just about perfect, if only he could see some snow.....