What I Wore: Making it Official

Ack! There's only three days until Christmas, people. I have a lot to do. I have to go to Costco today, for goodness sake. COSTCO. I have an unnatural fear of Costco as it is, so Costco during the holidays practically brings me to my knees.

So I'll make this short and sweet and then make myself scarce until things calm down.

I had my swearing-in ceremony on Friday for my citizenship and it was actually a pretty cool experience. No offense or anything, but I was less interested in swearing to bear arms for the United States, and way more interested in the people who were in the room with me. There were 35 naturalized citizens from 19 different countries, and the person officiating called out each country in turn, and all those from that country stood up. For Utah, the diversity was pretty astounding: There were people from Burma, Sudan, Vietnam, South Korea, Honduras, Russia... and three of us from Canada (for some reason, I thought there'd be more). I sat next to a man from Alberta and we chatted with our other seatmates, who were from Mexico and Vietnam, while we waited. By the time the ceremony was over, I honestly felt like they were all my new BFFs, despite age and language barriers.

I'm now the very proud owner of a handy naturalized citizen certificate, and a bunch of new friends that I met over the past couple of weeks. They separate the immigrants from their families for the ceremony, and there's a lot of waiting, so mostly you just sit and talk with the other people there. And everyone is super nice and friendly and humble, and really, isn't that just the kind of person you want immigrating here? I'm probably prouder to identify with that group of people than anything else. 

Also, the oath they make you take is very long and I think I screwed it up. Otherwise, it was very interesting and I'm very very glad I never have to deal with immigration ever again.

I wore this. For obvious reasons.

Top: PattyBoutik (here) (similar)

Pants: Calvin Klein (similar) (plus)

Scarf: David & Young (similar) (cheap)

Jacket: Guess...sorry I basically wear it every day (similar) (love this one!)

Boots: Frye (here and a pretty good price!) (these are super cute)

Aaaand one without the jacket so you can see the adorable buttons this shirt has down the side. I just tucked my scarf into the cowl of the top. It ended up being kiiiind of perfect. You know, if you were looking for outfit ideas for your naturalization ceremony. 

Man, this $15 David & Young scarf (I got it from Nordstrom a few years ago) has really come in handy. You know, if you're part of that strong ex-pat living in the United States market. 

Alright, I'm signing off for the holidays. Thanks to everyone's kind words during this whole weird process and thanks for being readers that I consider friends. Find me a blogger who a has a cooler reader base and I'll show you a liar. I win that contest forever and ever.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, guys! Check back next week and we'll dish about it all. 

xo,
Jae