Bette tore the envelope open and pulled out the invitation. Across the top of the single 5×7 invitation read “It’s Time to Get Ugly” with UGLY in bright bold red, green, and yellow colors. “Well isn’t this just delightfully tacky.” Bette marveled at the annoyingly busy design of the card. “I’m not going.”

“Babe,” Tina began to plead.

“Baby, I really don’t want to waste money on an ugly sweater that I’m only going to wear once and is just for Alice’s amusement.”

“But Momma B, it’s going to be fun.” Her eight-year old looked up at her with those big brown puppy-dog eyes that never experienced anything but acquiescence on the part of Bette. Bette could feel her resolve slipping away at the sight of Angelica’s impending disappointment in her decision to skip the party.

“Is this party really important to you, sweetheart?” She asked her daughter.

A slow nod from Angie sealed the deal.

“Then I guess I’ll have to look for a sweater within the next four weeks and let Alice know I will be at the party.”

“Yay!!!!”

—

Bette’s Gallery

Bette was taking lunch in her office and trying to decompress after spending the morning giving private tours of the gallery for some well-to-do collectors who loved spending money on new and obscure artist pieces. As she slurped her soup, she maneuvered her mouse to scroll through the website she was surfing for gift ideas for Tina and Angelica.

Not finding much that interested her, she opened a new tab and checked her Facebook account. She had a few notifications and one of them was a list of previous Facebook memories from years past. Clicking on the link, she was re-directed to an album of old photos from a Christmas party a few years back that she and Tina threw when they first got back together after the Jodi debacle.

She smiled as she looked through the photos. It was a happy and carefree time. Everyone they loved came to the party and there were plenty of silly, drunk photos of all of them. Including Alice who was sporting a Santa hat in each picture, for better or worse.

“These are just awful.” Bette mused.

She suddenly had an idea and began a search for websites that sold ugly Christmas sweaters. There were 10 days left until Alice’s party, and Bette still had not figured out what she was going to wear that would be both festive for the event and tolerable for her own liking.