The Gold Ball

Several years ago, 7 to be exact, for Christmas of our 25th wedding anniversary year, my husband, Ed, decided to surprise me with a new diamond. What I hadn't realized was how much I'd unwittingly helped him. While at the jewelers, he was given a choice between the usual presentation box or a gold ball to house the ring. He choose the gold ball. Several days later, I took to the task of tree decorating. Much to his delight that was one year of many that I picked to decorate the Christmas tree in gold balls.

Christmas Eve night after our family get-together and gift exchange Ed calmly asked me to stand by the tree so he could "take my photo", but before doing so, he insisted one ball needed moved because of it was too close to another and left a gap. It was just ruse to get me to notice one very special gold ball with a red velvet bow holding it to a branch. I had a little holiday cheer earlier so neither my vision nor common sense were functioning at 100%.

It was minutes before I zeroed in on the "odd" ball. I removed it from the tree, opened it and voila! Nestled inside the red velvet lined box was a beautiful past-present-future ring. Who'd have thunk the shy, sometimes backwards, hometown boy I married would turn into such a romantic?

Each year since I've joked about returning the gold ball to the tree to see if Santa would fill it with another treasure and each year it remained empty.

Maybe this year?