2025 Hills Christmas Card

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE HILLS!

I love looking back on our Christmas card blogs! I know there are more pictures than you’re probably wanting to see, but these are mainly for our family to have cataloged. If you’re interested, you can read our digital Christmas cards from the last few years at the links below. We’re praying for so many blessings to pour out over you and your family in 2026 and that the Lord would do more than you could possibly ask, think, or imagine!

As always, I start these posts from where we left off, so you’ll see a few pics thrown in of how 2024 ended for us. I posted the pics, and if you didn’t notice, Bry is responsible for the captions. Ha! Enjoy.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, friends and fam. We love you!

2024 Christmas Card: Click HERE
2023 Christmas Card: Click HERE
2022 Christmas Card: Click HERE
2021 Christmas Card: Click HERE
2020 Christmas Card: Click HERE
2019 Christmas Card: Click HERE
2018 Christmas Card: Click HERE
2017 Christmas Card: Click HERE
2016 Christmas Card: Click HERE

our favorite moments from 2025

12.23.24 This is the spot where we decided to put our cabin!

12.23.24 We didn’t need our bermuda shorts that day at the land

12.25.24 Santa’s elf reminding us that Christmas Day wasn’t too late to get coal from Santa

12.27.24 All of our family, all together

12.29.24 Julie and Cheyanne before church

12.29.24 My mom with the grandkids, which are all way too tall now

1.1.25 Julie likes to “document” our progress while I do all of the work. (Some call it “delegating.”)

1.1.25 Netflix and Skyjo in the middle of the woods in our barn to ring in the new year

1.2.25 Me and one of the greats, Eric Hinton (smoking a pipe like Gandalf, of course)

1.8.25 Our favorite restaurant, Quartino

1.9.25 Julie’s birthday present - our neighborhood had some serious dandruff, which is unusual for this part of the country

1.11.25 Julie loves it when we pretend to make pasta and then make homemade alfredo sauce to go with the noodles

1.12.25 Andrew’s 21st birthday— he got so chocolate wasted

1.19.25 We paid a guy a kajillion dollars to push down trees with his big Tonka truck that probably cost more than a kajillion dollars, but it created a road between our small barn parking area and where we want to put our cabin

1.24.25 These three people from work saved Julie from homelessness.

1.25.25 We had to physically drive to Oklahoma to order the shell of our cabin, so we dragged Chey to the land again. This is here at the lookout with the 10-12 foot cliff right before she learned she can’t fly

1.25.25 The kajillion dollars paid to the land clearing guy were worth it because this would have taken me more than a year with a chainsaw to get ready for our cabin shell delivery

2.15.25 Yeah we know how to put some food away

2.22.25 Andrew had a fan club at his Battle of the Books competition

3.7.25 Julie with most of the wives at our church small group that we love

3.7.25 We went to a country dancing bar where I focused more on the bar than the dancing part, but we did see a septegenarian twerking by herself—so there’s that, I guess.

3.7.25 I was probably saying something really funny, and then Julie was probably telling me how lucky she is to be married to me

3.10.25 Julie pulled out her big girl camera to take an updated (graduation picture) of Chey

3.11.25 Cheyanne and her best friend Kaya came up to to the land for spring break and had lots of fun at the nearby Robbers Cave State Park, where Julie and the ladies stayed at a cabin

3.12.25 We finally got a grill for our land so we can grill food (way faster cleanup when you have to haul water in and boil water to wash dishes). This is my dad supervising my work.

3.22.25 Julie’s parents had their 40th wedding anniversary this year (!!!!), and Julie’s brother and our new sister-in-law Kia announced that Don & Ellen have a grandbaby in the oven!

3.22.25 I’m probably smiling so big because Don picked up the check

3.22.25 A girl never gets too old for her dad

4.4.25 Julie got to go away for a few days to relax while I went to work on the cabin. Fair deal.

4.6.25 She had a great time meeting new friends.

4.16.25 Proof that Julie has a job and has friends that she works with

4.17.25 Dang that lookout view at the land never gets old. I was there to…

4.18.25 …have our cabin shell delivered!!! This was such an awesome day, but a difficult delivery. Those vehicles are pretty awesome, and if you’re an equipment nerd like me, ask me how they are able to fit whole buildings in tiny offroad places. (The cabin had less than 6” of clearance on each side when he worked it into its final resting place.)

4.18.25 Eventually the clearing will be full of grass (more for me to mow every time I go up), but for now it was all sandy, rocky clearing.

4.18.25 I brought up all of the electrical supplies I needed to immediately wire the cabin for off grid generator electricity: a breaker box, cabling, outlets, switches, fan boxes, and light boxes. The worst part was hammering a 10-foot tall grounding rod with a sledge hammer, straight through solid rock. (It took about 4 hours just for hammering the grounding rod.) Weekends like this usually mean going to bed at 12-1 AM and waking up at 6 AM…woof.

4.25.25 Bennett at his Edward Tulane performance! He had a blast and you can tell he is so loved by his peers.

4.26.25 Dakota’s best friend, Mia, hanging out with us for the weekend

4.30.25 Julie’s BFF and entourage—they live 100 hours away from each other now, so it usually can only happen when I’m working on the cabin

5.10.25 Sisters-in-law at Kia’s gender reveal party on South Congress in Austin. It was tons of fun, and Don & Ellen were so excited.

5.16.25 At work, they force us into gangs a couple of times per year for fight club. But they give me a check every month so I’ll keep showing up.

5.16.25 Do you like mowing your lawn? Buy land so you can do it twice every weekend. But on a serious note—this red “string trimmer” is a game changer since you can’t use a mower on rocky terrain. It’s like thick licorice-like plastic noodles that weed eat super thick brush as you push and walk behind it.

5.16.25 One of our first sunsets at the cabin

5.17.25 Foof with one of her tiniest besties

5.18.25 The nation’s best grocery store, HEB, finally opened up in our town. We went from 0 grocery stores to 3 grocery stores within a few months.

5.20.25 Our 19th anniversary, but we had to be at work—at least we work together!

5.23.25 HOLY CRAP CHEYANNE GRADUATED HIGH SCHOOL

5.23.25 Cheyanne’s amazingly sweet and wonderful grandmother, Nonnie. Nonnie and Pawpaw (who we miss all the time) are the only reason we have had a regular, continuous relationship with Cheyanne since she had to leave us when she was 7 years old

5.23.25 Cheyanne—I hope you know how ridiculously proud we are of you, and you changed our lives in the best ways. You’re strong, hilarious, so kind, and interesting. You’re fun to talk to, a great partner in crime, and have been a permanent, long distance part of our family for over 10 years. You make Julie and me better people, and we’re so excited to see who you have become. <3

5.23.25 I think it was starting to sink in that Cheyanne was DONE done

5.23.25 Cheyanne had a huge fan club cheering her on, and my parents, younger brother Josh, sister-in-law Chrystal, and my two nephews all drove from DFW to Huntsville to celebrate her graduation.

5.23.25 Cheyanne with Landon aka Dragonball Z

5.24.25 One of my favorite picture of Chey with cousins Andrew and Bennett

5.25.25 We told Chey and Kaya (whose boyfriends also graduated) that we wanted to take them to lunch the next day. It was fun to check out the downtown Huntsville shops and then watch our Chili’s waitress bring 71 ramekins of sauce

5.25.25 Kaya’s family hosted a dual graduation party for Kara and Cheyanne

5.25.25 We had so much meeting so much of Chey’s family and friends, and it’s nice that we have started to really get to know a lot of her extended family

5.30.25 Julie got to hang with a lot of the teachers from her previous campus for Mr. Hill’s retirement party

5.31.25 Our first wild berry bush sprouted on the land near the driveway. Hope these come back next spring!

6.17.25 We told Cheyanne last winter that we would take her anywhere in the USA on a vacation for a graduation present, and she chose the first place we took her on vacation about ten years ago! It was great to go back to Rocky Mountain National Park and Estes, Colorado…

6.17.25 …but after we had already paid the deposits, she signed up to go on a month-long mission trip in Osaka, Japan and forgot the dates overlapped…

6.18.25 …so Julie and I still went to Estes Park and decided to take pictures for her while she was in Japan!

6.18.25 Since we had already rented a cabin with two bedrooms, my parents came along! We had a lot of fun. Originally being from Wyoming, it almost feels like home when we go to Colorado and see summer snow.

6.18.25 My dad was probably smiling because he remembered he is retired

6.19.25 We have a picture almost exactly like this from about 10 years ago, and we were glad to see COVID didn’t claim them as a victim

6.19.25 One of my mom’s best friends, Randy and Rhona (and parents of one of my good friends from back in the day) happened to be in Estes to drop off his pottery at a shop, so we met up for lunch

6.19.25 This was right before I stopped them from making out

6.19.25 It was great to spend one on one time with my parents in the mountains

6.25.25 Almost immediately after returning to the searing heat, I had a work trip to San Antonio. I work with some awesome people at Education Service Center Region 10’s Supervision & Leadership Department. Our bigger team helps principals and principal managers turnaround schools and increase their focus on instructional leadership. (Boring to you to hear about but fun for me.)

6.23.25 Met my high school BFF, Chris, for dinner at the oldest bar on the Riverwalk. It has the longest wooden bar top in Texas (over 100’ long!)

6.25.25 While I was earning a paycheck in San Antonio at a Texas Education Agency conference, Julie was living her best life on her parents’ patio in New Braunfels in the rural hill country. Her mom Ellen does such a great job with her garden.

6.28.25 Yep, Cheyanne was still in Osaka, Japan. We are very proud of her because she learned a lot about herself, her leadership, her faith, and interconnectedness of the human experience. This is her on one of her days off at Nara Deer Park.

6.28.25 She had such a good time, and it’s partly in due to the sweet generosity of our parents who gifted her money towards her fundraising efforts as a graduation gift

6.28.25 Julie’s real reason for heading to New Braunfels was because her mom needed a knee replacement due to an old college D1 football injury (actually, it was probably her 4x daily HEB shopping visits.) Julie was a drill sergeant and her mom was a rockstar.

7.12.25 Phase 2 of the cabin build was insulation. THE. WORST. EVER. It was itchy, irritating, and painful (even with goggles and a mask). I think I took 18 huge packages of insulation bats (4 feet long and about 2-3 feet thick), and it was another weekend of 12-16 hour days of work.

7.14.25 My brother (pictured) gave me a potion that shrank my size, so now I’m too small for my desk

7.17.25 I finally got an American flag up! We love our neighborhood—lots of diversity, friendly neighbors, pretty quiet, and small.

7.18.25 *FINALLY* got her back from Japan. She flew to DFW so we got to spend some time with her.

7.21.25 Her Nonnie drove up from New Waverly to take her home, which meant we got to take Nonnie to our favorite BBQ joint, Hutchins BBQ.

7.25.25 This was inside my barn (bunkhouse) while there to work more on the insulation project. It was BRUTAL.

7.26.25 Did I mention that you have to wear pants, long sleeve shirt, gloves, goggles, a hat, and a mask when installing insulation (even in that heat)? Yeah, I threw those clothes away after the weekend was over.

7.30.25 Julie has had the time of her life nerding out over math this year at work

7.31.25 About a week after our cabin shell was delivered, the only entry bridge to our off grid community was washed away in a 100+ year flood. Many of my neighbors live there full time without running water, electricity, or septic, and those without lifted 4X4 trucks were stranded for months while the bridge was being replaced. Fortunately, the community came together to help provide water, food, generator gas, and baby supplies until the bridge was finished. Until then, the only way in or out was to drive across a 50-foot wide creek that was impassible during/after rains.

8.2.25 Combined birthday lunch for Josh and me meant a chance to see the niblings!

8.2.25 Julie’s mom Ellen was a machine with her rehab exercises and was back to breakdancing in no time

8.2.25 Such a great picture of Julie and her parents! Ellen’s knee replacement surgery and Julie’s extended time there reminded both of us that we have limited time with our parents, and we want to be more intentional visiting with both of our parents.

8.4.25 While in Austin for a work trip, Julie got to meet up with her baby bro and sis-in-law…who were only two months away from meeting their BABYYYY!

8.11.25 Back to school picture—I think this is my 18th year in education?? (I lost count.) The only number that will start counting soon will be my countdown to retirement pension!

8.16.25 I was beginning to think I would never finish that insulation job

8.17.25 Julie with the little guy who first made her Aunt FuFu. Also, she was supposed to be Aunt JuJu, but when this guy started talking, he called her FuFu and it stuck, obvs.

8.22.25 Dakota’s best friend had an owie and had a bandaid, but Dakota was getting jealous. So she got a matching bandaid.

8.25.25 On my birthday mastering how to win an argument

8.28.25 Work back-to-school party for Julie. They went to painting with a twist. Not sure what they’re working on there.

8.29.25 Our town approved an insanely ridiculous bond package to build this high school football stadium. But our philosophy is that if our property tax is paying for it, we might as well enjoy it! We try to go to a couple home games per year when we aren’t at the land.

8.30.25 These boys are obsessed with Dakota, and she’s obsessed with them. It’s adorable.

8.30.25 Josh and I scheduled a hangout with the boys, so we held a Grillmasters Academy for them. We went to the HEB grocery store together to show them how to order steak from the butcher, explained all of the different cuts and grades of meat, then we chose one of each to come home and learn how to grill them.

8.30.25 They’re seeing the difference between ribeye and New York strip here

8.30.25 Next was how to best season thick cut steaks.They had a blast and did a great job— their favorite cut was the New York Strip.

9.5.25 Instead of staring at the Brazos River, why not sit IN the Brazos River?

9.7.25 I heard a joke one time that was saying the biggest miracle from the Bible about Jesus wasn’t the resurrection—it was that a middle aged man had 12 good, close friends that hung out together. As you get older, you have to be really intentional about building and maintaining relationships— not just because they’re convenient, but because they are meaningful. This is a collection of guys that Julie and I knew at Dallas Christian College. It is a tiny tiny Bible college, but dang to be still hanging out at a big Air BnB each year after all of this time says something about community, intentionality, and recognizing the need to be with people who get you.

9.12.25 Julie collected positive COVID tests like Pokemon this year. Somehow, I STILL have not had COVID yet. Yes, I’ve been vaccinated each year, but I’m starting to wonder if I’m immune like those people who are immune to poison ivy rashes.

9.20.25 Foof with ANOTHER tiny best friend.

9.23.25 Our church does an annual “Sisters” night each fall. Julie got to go with some of the wives in our small group.

9.26.25 The girls added some bling to their cowgirl boots for our downtown date the next day. They got SO many compliments on these!

9.27.25 Cheyanne and Kaya back to cause trouble in Melissa, Texas! I wish Cheyanne could come back every weekend, but now she’s “an adult” and “has to work” and “has a life” and “can’t drive 2-3 hours each way from New Waverly” every three days. I call those excuses, but I’ll take what I can get!

9.27.25 Kele (second from the right) had a fundraiser for her ministry, Do Good ministries. It was special because Chey and Kaya were able to join, too.

9.27.25 After the fundraiser, we walked around Oktoberfest and had lunch at one of our favorite spots, Union Bear.

9.27.25 Octoberfest in downtown McKinney (the coolest downtown that’s only 10 minutes from where we live)

10.4.25 Julie and this crew do a pumpkin patch excursion each fall. This year was especially HOT.

10.4.25 One of my oldest and bestest bros came up to the land with me to run around on four wheelers and solve the world’s philosophical problems around a campfire until 3 AM

10.5.25 One day, Andrew woke up and chose violence by joining lacrosse, and I love it

10.10.25 While we were in New Braunfels visiting with Julie’s parents for her dad’s birthday weekend, I got to go see one of our coworkers on tour in San Antonio. I didn’t realize he’s kind of a big deal.

10.13.25 No rest for the weary! Even before I finish a cabin project, I’m already researching and prepping for the next project. This was me going through about 800 tongue & groove wall planks to find about 234 that were straight. Keep in mind each one weighed 5-10 pounds.

10.14.25 That looks like a hernia. I know because it gave me one.

10.22.25 We are so happy that Chey continues to be involved in music ministry at her church. I have a music degree, and she sings harmony way better than I do. This her volunteering for a high school worship night called Field of Faith.

10.24.25 Julie’s brother became a dad! His wife Kia got turned into a Hawaiian shirt right after my new niece Lenora was born.

10.25.25 Celebrating my sis-in-law’s bday at her favorite place, Uncle Julio’s

10.25.25 That smile from Lenora looks like she will be a very expensive teenager for Donny and Kia

10.31.25 Julie spent Halloween night with his crazy crew

11.7.25 Julie doesn’t like to be at our land if it’s colder than 55* or warmer than 56*, but it worked out that she came to see the cabin for the first time. Of all the great views we had that weekend, she took a picture of these hot dogs. After this, we installed gable vents in the cabin before the interior walls go up.

11.15.25 With all of the extra rain this year at our land, we had a great fall foliage show. I had been going nearly every weekend for a couple of months to prep, take materials, and do light construction to prepare for the interior tongue & groove wall plank install, so I got a front row seat. This is our barn (bunkhouse) on a perfect day with perfect temperatures with perfect fall foliage.

11.15.25 I couldn’t get off work to go see Lenora in Rockport, but Julie did! Here’s Lenora with Julie’s mom Ellen. They both look pretty happy right now.

11.15.25 Julie’s dad Don was on his best behavior with the tiny human

11.16.25 Julie with her first niece is one of my favorite pictures of 2025

11.16.25 That’s a proud pair of grandparents - Lola and GPops!

11.16.25 I wish I could have been there! That’s a happy family picture.

11.21.25 I called in a favor to the A Team for the tongue & groove install, and one of my old college friends Taylor came out to spend all weekend (something like 32 hours in 2-1/2 days) teaching me how to install our walls in the cabin. It was much more work and difficult than I thought it would be, but fortunately he also had a table saw for us to rip and bevel the final pieces once we got to the tops of the wall.

11.23.25 We finally finished everything and packed up about 30 minutes before thunderstorms rolled in, which would have meant getting stuck on the mountain for another day

11.23.25 And while I was working on getting some new hernias at the land, Julie and Chey went to the theater to watch the new Wicked movie

11.24.25 Chey doesn’t come up every month like she used to, but we still love every day she’s with us! She was sweet and stayed over a week during Thanksgiving, which we soaked up. First stop was a little taste of Japan for her at a new all-you-can-east sushi and hibachi restaurant in McKinney.

11.26.25 We hosted Thanksgiving this year, as you can tell based on the fine china plates

11.26.25 Chey helped make a charcuterie board and set up appetizers

11.26.25 With the exception of one year during COVID, we have a Christmas tradition where we take Chey to buy a new ornament for the tree, and then take a picture of Cheyanne putting her ornament on the tree. Then, this picture is put in a tiny picture frame ornament that has the year.

11.26.25 The work on the cabin never ends! I went back the next weekend to finish the electrical on the ceiling lights, fans, and switches. Next up are cabinets and countertop, wood burning stove (including tile base), flooring, window trim, and wall trim…hopefully all before the rainy season hits and we can’t get up the mountain for a while.

12.4.25 I went out for stroll and found a stranger dressed like me, so of course I had to ask them to take a picture with me

12.4.25 We love our church small group! Only two couples were missing.

12.6.25 I found a full-timer on the mountain to outsource our stoop build so I could focus on the rest of the cabin

12.6.25 Then he took a picture of us from the back of the truck for Julie’s favorite picture of us in 2025

12.9.25 Julie went on a quick work trip to Waco, TX and was able to hear from Pam Harris, one of her math idols

12.13.25 Thanks to Julie, all of our Christmas shopping was done 2 weeks before Christmas. She’s amazing. (And yes, Julie wrote this caption.)

12.19.25 Julie with her work team at our end of year event

12.19.25 And our last pic of the year…Merry Christmas, friends!

how can i pray for you?

FaithJulie HillsDecember 20, 2025Faith1 Comment