Tomorrow, in some of your homes, there will be something under the tree that sparkles and fits on your finger, hangs from your earlobe or dangles on your wrist, because that's just what happens — sometimes — at Christmas.
But it's not true what they say about diamonds. They're not rare.
If they were, how could there be so many diamond stores in cruise ports in Alaska, and the Caribbean, and Europe, and Mexico, and everywhere else big cruise ships stop? If they were, how could cruise ships be stocked with enough expensive diamonds (are there any other kind?) to outfit the crown jewels…of every country that has a queen?
The only place diamonds are rare is in the homes of those of us who can't afford to buy them by the bucket. That's what makes them so memorable on days like tomorrow, wrapped in colorful paper under a tree glistening with lights and shiny decorations.
Here's how memorable they are in our house…
One year, the Man Of The House (MOTH) bought the Woman Of The House (WOTH) diamond earrings. As is his custom, he wanted the surprise to continue beyond the mere opening of the gift, as if she was being fooled. Wrapping them in a box big enough to handle four bottles of wine, MOTH wanted to carry the escapade even further so he attached each earrings to scrunched-up pages from the daily newspaper. WOTH, he thought, would never guess what was inside.
Well, not only could WOTH not guess what was inside, but she couldn't find anything…except scrunched-up newspapers. All of this was fine — at least in MOTH's world — until helpful children started stuffing newspaper into the fireplace to generate a little heat. That generated more than a little panic, because who would want burnt diamonds?…and nobody knew they weren't until MOTH located the earrings right where he put them…in the classifieds.
The moral of this story is…you can ALWAYS find diamonds.
Norwegian Sky
3 nights
January 11, 2013
Miami (return): Great Stirrup Cay, Nassau
Inside: $149
Cost per day: $49
www.ncl.com