Ornamental

Coat: c/o Sheinside; Sweater: Gap; Jeans: Gap (in stores, similar); Boots: Freebird; Necklace: Blue Nile

My mom and I have an ornament tradition. When I was growing up, she bought one new ornament and one new Christmas album every year. I remember the year it was a gold fish that moved in the light, its scales all movable parts. One year, it was a glass pig with a gold nose. The new ornaments were always pulled out and unwrapped with the old - the sheep that were made of puffs of wool, a reindeer ornament that I made in grade school, a little painted piece of wood, shaped like a moon, that my grandmother made, some stitched mice made of walnuts. 

Now that I don't have the privilege of spending Christmas with my family every year, I send my mom a new Christmas ornament for her tree. And she sends me mine. Somehow it makes it feel like we're sharing a tradition even 2,500 miles apart. I took today's lunch hour to pick up my ornament for my mom. I usually look for slightly fuzzy, unique yet glittery ornaments that fit the theme of her quirky pretty tree. Last year I think it was a little woolen polar bear and a year prior it was a mouse with a backpack on. I revel in picking out a silly, but pretty, little ornament and find that the process of picking it out, off a store tree or at a little holiday boutique, gives me a sense that it really is the start to the season. I won't share this year's purchase - it's a surprise, after all - but thought I'd share my tradition with any of those early-Christmas-spirit-ers in the bunch.

What're your traditions that start in November?