A Diamond in the Snow

Maria: I've always called Gary my "diamond in the snow."  We met when we were a bit older than usual, and we consider ourselves very lucky that I found him!  We love celebrating our wedding anniversary, and early on we got in the habit of using the "traditional gifts" for each year as a guideline.  It's fun and it makes us stretch a bit outside the box to come up with ideas.  This year was our 10th anniversay.  Guess what we got to find for each other!  Aluminum, tin and - drum roll - diamonds!

Gary: Diamonds, believe it or not, were the easiest gift for me to work with. We don't like to break the bank for our anniversary present, but there are a lot of jewelery choices with modest prices. I went with basic quarter carat diamond stud earrings for Maria, something like these:



Maria:  My earrings are beautiful and I am wearing them right now!  Well, diamonds might have been easy for Gary, but they were the hardest one for me!  Gary's not really a jewelry type of guy - his gold band wedding ring, the watch his dad gave him years ago, and an occasional tie clip on the rare occasions he wears a tie.  That about does it.  So, I tried to expand the idea of "diamond."  We love baseball, so something related to a baseball diamond? No, that didn't quite work.  A cute picture book called Diamond in the Snow (See all Children's Mammal Books)?   I liked that idea, but I read the book and it was not quite right.  I would have loved to write Gary a poem because he has composed so many songs and poems for me.  But the creative juices just wouldn't flow.  What to do, what to do?  Time was ticking away.

Gary: Yes, yes, I can't bear the suspense....


Maria:  I had started looking early, but was running out of time.  I finally just decided to go with an actual diamond, but I was hoping to find something somewhat subdued.  My first thought was a tie clip with a simple diamond on it. I found a nice one on Etsy, but I had not allowed enough time for it to come all the way from Israel!  Sigh.  Oh well, I thought.  I'll hit the jewelry stores.  It will be better to see it in person anyway.  Well, surprise, surprise.  Not one of the seven or eight shops I visited carried any tie clips with diamonds.  A nice sales person suggested a watch with diamonds.  Hmm.  I had never considered a watch because Gary is still quite happy to wear the handsome watch his dad gave him some years before he passed away.  However, I thought, maybe that would work.  A nice dressy watch for special occasions.  In the end that's what I chose, but not without some angst.  I wanted diamonds, but not showy diamonds.  I wanted the fewest possible diamond so it wouldn't look too bling-y.  And, of course, it couldn't break the bank!  I finally found one that I thought was almost just right.  It's a Bulova with a stainless steel band, black face and three diamonds (at 3, 9 and 12 o'clock).

 I was still unsure, and worried that Gary would think it was "too much" in the sense of "too out there."  But I do believe he liked it!

Gary: No, Sweetheart, I don't like it - I love it! And I love you, my best anniversary present :-).