I love Christmas. It’s the most wonderful time when just a sight or smell can bring back a flood of memories. Tradition is the reason - those familiar ties to family and life’s best memories. Tradition is made up of our rituals and beliefs. Tradition makes us feel safe and comfortable and brings us joy.

We have many Christmas traditions in the Preuss home. This season my wife, Elizabeth, and I will sit down to watch our favorite Christmas shows – “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” (the animated version, of course); Mom knows to make molasses cookies; and on St. Nick Day the stockings will be hung.

But this year some things will be different. Our children have children and in-laws and obligations of their own. So our Christmas morning celebration will now be a Christmas Eve morning celebration. At first I was disappointed with the change, but I quickly turned to thoughts of how this change in tradition is because of growth in our family and this is a chance to make even stronger connections and memories. I am so happy to see my children carrying on some of our old Christmas traditions in their families while at the same time starting their own.

In our Hermann Sons Life family, a lot of work has been done over the last couple of years on image, engagement and governance to lay the framework for growth. The work has culminated in much of the information we’ve been sharing in recent months. Getting to this point has meant looking at some traditions in different ways because our organization, like all of our families, has been changing through the years.

And how we adapt to those changes will foreshadow our future successes. At Hermann Sons Life, one of the best parts of looking forward is that we have such rich history and tradition to stand on.

All year and especially during this time of year, I’m thankful for all of our members. From our founders who had the vision to come together to the members through the decades who have created traditions, passed them on and adapted them to the changing world. I’m proud to be part of a community that has so many dedicated individuals who’ve made this organization great and who are looking at how we can gain membership so that we will thrive and be able to pass on traditions for generations to come.

May the good times and treasures of the present become the golden memories of tomorrow.

Elizabeth and I wish you lots of love, joy and happiness; and a merry and blessed Christmas.