Nancy had worked hard to keep up the appearance of the perfect girl, always sensibly dressed, no fuss and definitely nothing juvenile or outlandish. She did her best to keep the mundane look of a straight A student without wanting any additional attention upon herself. In the time you had known her, you hadn't seen her attempt to add any form of silliness to her wardrobe and normally you didn't care but for once it was something that seemed to pose a problem.

Your family had a tradition of ugly Christmas jumpers for Christmas Day, and it was especially important for new members to participate, almost like a rite of passage. It was trivial to most people, but you did value it and it felt special due to it being something prevalent since your childhood.

It was the first year that Nancy would spend Christmas Day with your family and although you didn't want to pressure her into joining in with the tradition, you did mention that it meant a lot to your family and offered her participation, leaving it until Christmas morning for you to find out if she decided to join in.

That morning, you were excited by the festivities, but you still felt a strong sense of anxiety to see what Nancy would arrive wearing. When the doorbell rung, it felt as though your heart leapt into your throat. Nervously you opened the door.

There stood the woman you had fallen in love within sophomore year, an excited smile upon her face. For the first time she didn't don her sensible blouse, rather a gaudy green jumper that looked as though it may have been hand knitted but had a few moth eaten holes spread across it. Wrapped around the jumper were a few lengths of varying colours of tinsel, baubles tied amongst them along with a variety of glittery decorations sewn into the wool or merely stuck on. On top of her curled dark hair was a star that you recognised from living on her mother's Christmas tree.

"Merry Christmas," she grinned.

"You look amazing," you said, still slightly slack jawed.

Her cheeks became rosier from the compliment along with the chill of the winter air.

"Well, I didn't have an ugly Christmas jumper but my nana knitted me this a couple of years back and I raided my mums decorations to make my own," she smiled, giving you a twirl. "I hope it's okay."

"It's amazing."

~*~

Written by Charlotte.

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