2. Meals on Wheels. One of the best ways to bond with your family is by helping others together. Volunteer as a family to deliver meals one night per week, throughout the holiday season and perhaps the whole year. After all, it's only 2.5 hours a week.
3. Meals on Wheels, Redux Thanksgiving and Christmas. Long lasting memories are created among families who volunteer at their local soup kitchen for those who are homeless and lonely on the Holidays.
4. Adopt a Family. As an office, GEMaffair.com usually adopts several families-in-need, providing them with Christmas gifts they would otherwise not receive. Your family can do this too, by adopting another family and transforming their Christmas into a joyful experience.
Find out how to adopt a family by calling or dropping by your local homeless shelter.
5. Look Left and Right. Do you have neighbors who are elderly or handicapped? Could your children help them by mowing their lawn, shoveling snow out of their driveway, or cleaning out their gutters this summer? Your neighbor's thankfulness will have an impact on your children, and boost their confidence in the power of doing good.
So while charity work should be a year-round practice, the holidays are a great time to learn!
October Birthstone: Opal
October is a magical month of brilliant, changing colors. It would be hard to find anything more fitting than the
Opal Birthstone. It is naturally composed of round, microscopic particles that refract light into a dazzling spectrum of red, orange, yellow, green, blue yet all neatly contained within each shimmering gemstone.
Certainly the ancients were inspired by the boldness of Opals colors when ascribing it powers of purity and hope, with which it blessed its wearers. The Greeks even supposed the power of foresight to those bearing Opal. Millennia later, medieval Europeans would associate this stone with powerful eyesight.
It is very important to keep
Opal Jewelry in a slightly moist environment, as the stone will actually become brittle if kept unduly dry. For this reason bearing
opal(definition) upon the skin is recommended in other words, wear to care. Be forewarned, however, that you might be rendered invisible, if medieval myth has any say these days.
November Birthstone: Topaz
Apart from its famously bold, blue hue,
Topaz(definition) can also come bursting into pink, amber, red, completely clear or translucent green, indeed, the
Topaz Birthstone aims to please. It also aims to heal, or so thought the people in the past, who would grind up Topaz into a fine dust as treatment for sleeplessness and respiratory ailments. Do not try this at home. Do, however, wear Topaz Jewelry with pride; its allure combines color, elegance and brilliance.
The ancients took to Topaz as a symbol for courage, wisdom and strength, not surprisingly, as even the word Topaz derives from the Sanskrit name for fire. This might explain why the stone responds so dramatically to heat treatment to change its color. Care for your Topaz gemstones by avoiding ultrasound cleaning, but rather carefully washing with warm, soapy water.
December Birthstone: Tanzanite
A favorite among the zoisites, the
Tanzanite Birthstone has an entire country named after it! Okay, it was actually the other way around. But the unique and exciting thing about
Tanzanite(definition) is its sole place of origin on the planet. You guessed it: the Democratic Republic of Congo. What? It appears I'm mistaken again. The real country of origin is Tanzania!
Such a newly discovered stone only a few decades ago. Tanzanite is far less entrenched in lore as other gemstones are. Nevertheless,
Tanzanite Jewelry was made legendary in our day by Tiffany's, capturing the imagination of a generation and garnering December babies with its (mostly) azure beauty. Tanzanite is a very soft gemstone, so gentle care and washing in warm, sudsy water is the best for cleaning. Do not clean with ultrasound.
Thank You!
We at GEMaffair.com would like to extend our deepest gratitude to all our customers during 2007. We are deeply proud of making each and every one of you not just satisfied, but delighted with your purchases. You are important to us, and we look forward to bringing you happiness in the near future.
Summer 2007 