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Renew Your Spirit This Holiday Season

December 24, 2022

Whether you are celebrating Christmas, Hanukkah, or another tradition this year, we are all gifted with a chance at renewal—of hope, of joy, and of a life we’ve always dreamed of celebrating at this time of the year. Maybe you grew up watching the movies they now show annually as “holiday timeless classics,” and there’s music, a plot, Hollywood stars and a feel-good ending that reminds you that miracles can and do happen, and even to regular people like us.

Life moves quickly and change can happen overnight as we all know. We all respond to good times in different ways—some of us are open with our emotions and others keep our emotions close in check. The same response happens when the news is sad. Holidays remind of us of treasured events in our past—recent and distant. If our life is full of one thing consistently—it is change.

The holidays are an encapsulation of our memories from the very first time we saw a group of packages with our names on them to six decades later as we watch new generations developing their personalities as they approached wrapped packages with anticipation and delight.

Then, too, there’s time spent remembering days when all of the family gathered around a single dining table and maybe overflowed to a second table and good-natured conversation. Families gathered together for infinite quantities of sharing stories, remembering family members newly departed. Simply by saying their names aloud and remembering what they loved best about the holidays, they stay alive in our hearts. This is how we remember people we never even met. Our loved ones talk about the people who they loved and who loved them. The more frequently we hear stories about our ancestors, the more they come “alive” to us. Photographs help so much to put the life in full memory mode.

Writing down the memories of our senior loved ones, especially expressed on Christmas Day, will become like gold to you in 2, 3, or 10 years. You will never regret recording, video or audio, the original voices who tell the stories. Even if your home ‘movies’ are cell phone recordings with kids ducking in and out to photobomb and wave and laugh…they will become more prized with each passing year. One day you will be the one who is being remembered, so don’t be shy in sharing your feelings. Let your love flow and let your grief out; both actions make you stronger each day.

May your holidays be filled with voices raised in laughter, good food available in abundance, enjoyed in warmth and safety, and may there be peace in your heart as we celebrate these special holy holidays. From our family to yours, Merry Christmas!

Cody D. Jones ’02

Owner & Community Member

New Beginnings, Clean Slate Begin This New School Year

August 27, 2024
As longtime Brazos Valley residents know, we’ve been taking the back streets the past two weeks now, and until after the first home game traffic settles back, you can count on our staying there. The annual ritual of Back-to-School brings yet another 1500 Aggies to the community, much to the delight of local business owners, who survive the summer to reach the thriving days of fall and summer.

Olympic Times and Trials —What We Learn and Can Teach From Them

July 29, 2024
It’s an exciting first weekend we just experienced, with the opening of the Summer Olympic Games in Paris, France. The week of the Olympics landed in the midst of a very busy series of news cycles that document world events and daily news. Good and bad news abounds, everywhere you look it seems. You just have to pick and choose what you want to let into your day. Yet, it’s important to be aware of the world around us, because the earliest displays of the lessons we teach our children revolve around how we respond to the ups and downs of life.

Independence, Freedom, and Choices

July 4, 2024
This is the day when we break out the red, white, and blue décor and display our pride in being Americans with the rest of our community, same as we do every year at this time. Across the Brazos Valley some of our neighborhoods are staging their own parades and parents have helped their children decorate their bike handles with streamers. Sound systems are playing “The Stars and Stripes Forever” as a parade route forms. Pedal cars are moving into position behind the four- and five-year-old drivers maneuvering into position. Electric cars driven by Batman or John Deere III slide into view.

Why We Attend — The Value of a Visitation

July 1, 2024

The Love Wrapped Inside My Father’s Arms

June 16, 2024
Just looking at these two photos, separated by three decades, I’m overwhelmed to think of how it still just seems like yesterday that my dad was loading up the station wagon, ready to drive me and our soccer team all across the back roads of Texas as we competed across the state, trying our best to stand out.

Mother’s Day — A Promise of Remembrance

May 12, 2024
Of all the women in our lives, mothers certainly hold a position of supreme love and regard that often are set far above others we hold dear in life. Mothers are, frankly, our first very best friends and throughout life, others may come close but there’s a place that only they can hold dear in our hearts.

Who Will Be Your Informant (When the time comes)?

April 29, 2024
In the past few weeks, I’ve heard from high school friends that two of our classmates had died. This is not uncommon by itself, but the surprise came as I learned that one of our classmates had died two years ago, and another some three months ago. Yet, not one person we knew in common had known of their passing before now, so none of us who grew up together had any idea that we’d lost two “of our own.” That meant sorrow upon sorrow at the delay in learning of their passing.

Joy in the Morning: Easter Blessings for All

March 31, 2024
Just as excitedly as children rush from their beds on Easter morning to see what might be awaiting them in their Easter baskets from the Easter bunny, adults have reason to approach this blessed Sunday with similar enthusiasm. The promise of the memory of the stone that was rolled back, revealing an empty tomb brings to all of us the reminder that Christ rose from the dead and God took him back home to be with him. The victory of the resurrection is our guarantee as adults that we can celebrate each year.

Teaching Our Children About Holy Week — Introduction to Palm Sunday

March 24, 2024
Now that our son Rowen is two years old, Chelsea and I are beginning to introduce him to the elements of a regular church worship service that occur with regularity each year. True, one can only make a preliminary impression on a youngster with respect to helping him or her understand the rituals we as adults have grown up with, all of our lives. The occasion of Palm Sunday gives us a chance to help Rowen know that on Palm Sunday, we are going to be seeing everyone we know waving a large palm frond as we come into the church.

Social Media Footprints — Have You Planned for What Happens When You’re Not Here?

March 19, 2024
Over the years we’ve all become more friendly with social media, whether we’re texting our family and friends or whether or not we are adding a smiley face to the post of our latest grandchild playing a sport, and we share it on all our outlets too, because you know, we are proud!
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