Cypress Creek Lakes Family Rings in the Holiday Season with Favorite Traditions

The White Family

Cypress Creek Lakes Family Rings in the Holiday Season with Favorite Traditions

By Patricia Hudson

Mathew and Angela White were born in Houston and grew up in the Cypress area. Angela recalls, “Some of my best family memories growing up involve traveling with my immediate and extended family. Mostly beach vacations, as that is our happy place. It was very important to my grandparents that we spent quality time together, so they arranged a couple trips through the years for all of us… aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.” “My grandparents and uncle took my sister and I skiing in Colorado every year,” shares Matthew. Angela reminisces about their first meeting. “We joke that we probably crossed paths as kids, but didn’t meet each other until we moved to another city to attend college. We met at Texas State on a blind date by a mutual friend. Mathew was unlike all other guys I had dated. I knew he was ‘The One’ pretty quickly. Although he graduated in 2004, Mathew waited to propose until I had finished college in 2005. We moved back to the Cypress area to live close to our families, and were married in 2007.” Mathew had ambitions to run a business, but didn’t know that it would be his family’s enterprise. “My grandfather established D&W Nameplate Service, Inc., in his garage in April 1958. The ‘D’ is for my Uncle Dennis and the ‘W’ is for my father, Wayne. When my dad passed in December 2005, I stepped in and filled his role at the company. After graduating from college, I became an essential part of D&W Nameplate Service, Inc. Dennis retired in July 2020, and I became President of the family business. Today, we service such industries as oil and gas and electrical fields. My dad was my role model; I strive to be as much like him as I can. I think that my dad would be really proud of the changes that I have made and the fact that I have kept it afloat through the downtimes and Covid.” Angela adds, “I help when I can, and assist with accounting work once or twice a week.” The Whites have two children: Collin, 13, and Lexie, 10. Collin, a 7th grader at Smith Middle School, is a member of the school choir. “Collin spends every second he can playing baseball. He plays with the OPA Jays organization for his longtime coach, Alex Lator,” comments Angela. “Lexie attends 4th grade at Warner Elementary, where she is a junior counselor and member of the choir. She enjoys cheerleading with the Cy-Fair Sports Association.” Angela considers herself ‘blessed’ to be a stay-at-home mother; she began teaching preschool several days a week when Lexie started Kindergarten.

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Photo Credit: Patricia Hudson

“The biggest challenge we face as parents is worrying if we’re doing it right! We want to raise responsible, independent kids and try our best to balance letting them be kids versus giving them responsibilities such as mowing the lawn and weeding the flower beds,” says Angela. “I just want to raise good kids that are well mannered, respectful and have a sense of working to get what they want,” adds Matthew. The White family enjoys special holiday traditions. Angela explains, “First, we ring in the season by having a Christmas movie night. We always watch “Elf” first because it’s our family favorite, complete with popcorn and M&M’s. We like to make a cup of hot chocolate and drive around the neighborhood looking at Christmas lights. We have a tradition of seeing the ‘Christmas Spectacular’ at Champion Forrest Baptist Church each year. We enjoy decorating cookies and gingerbread houses, and we try to get to see Santa. Christmas just wouldn’t be the same without playing our favorite game, Left, Right, Center. We laugh so hard; it is so much fun with a big group!” For Matthew, Christmas ‘musts’ include Buckeyes, (chocolate peanut butter balls), and peppermint mocha coffee. “We are a very blessed family and think it is important to pay it forward, especially around the holiday season,” asserts Angela. “We complete a random act of kindness during the holidays. Most years, it involves helping a family with gifts, or sometimes giving monetarily toward a hard time they are going through. It’s someone different each year.” When time allows, Angela looks to some kind of quiet activity to re-charge, usually “…reading or grabbing a cup of coffee by myself.” Matthew prefers a “hands on” activity. “If I have a few hours to spare, it would most likely be working on a car. I have owned a couple of Mustangs in the past; they are my true passion and enjoyment. I like to work with my hands, so from changing the brakes to replacing the oil, I do my own maintenance on our vehicles.

“Together, Mathew and I really enjoy tasting and learning about wine. I am a (low level) certified wine sommelier, although I don’t tell most people that,” confesses Angela. “We take a yearly trip without the kids to taste and purchase wine. We travel within Texas and have also visited California and Oregon to search for hidden gem wineries. We LOVE to support family run wineries and have joined wine clubs at several throughout our travels.”

If you know of an exceptional Greater Fairfield, Bridgeland/Blackhorse Ranch, Towne Lake, Coles Crossing, or Cypress Creek Lakes individual or family that needs to be featured in an upcoming issue of PinPointe Magazine, please contact me: texasteacher024@outlook.com.