Dear friends, family, and anyone who still hasn’t blocked our number,
2025 is officially in the books, and I’m convinced the calendar companies are speeding up the months just to mess with me. 2025 has been a full one—full of snow, surgeries, surprises, and one big “yes” that has changed our family forever. Here’s the annual report from our trip around the sun, the year our house went from “loud” to “where is everyone?”
We kicked things off with Winter Retreat up at Story Book Lodge—nothing like sub-zero temps and youth-group worship to remind you you’re alive. We made it home just in time to ring in the New Year together, then Ethan headed back to Missouri while Lish, Riana, and Larissa escaped to Sedona for a Reeves sister’s trip. Red rocks, spa days, and zero boys allowed. They came home glowing, and a few days later Ethan flew back up so the whole crew could freeze together at Lake Metigoshe. The kids hit the hill with snowboards and Lish hit it with her shoulder. The end result: the kids shredded the slopes and Lish shredded her rotator cuff.
The February youth conference in Fargo was fantastic; the teens came back on fire and sleep-deprived—basically the youth-ministry sweet spot.
March brought shoulder surgery for Lish and a few surprises for the rest of us. Surprise 1: Lish can’t do all the household tasks with one arm tied behind her back. Surprise 2: I can do laundry, dishes, and basic house cleaning (who knew?). Surprise 3: Riana is a good cook. I had a little conversation with her boyfriend where I thought about telling him to follow Jacob’s example and work for 7 years before taking my newly discovered chef extraordinaire, but I didn’t. Then I had a little dinner conversation with Larissa where I thought about pointing out that I was eating enough for 2 people (hint, hint), but I didn’t because she beat me to the punch and casually announced that she was eating for 2 people. Best jokes I never told.
April: Riana and Gabe drove out to Montana to visit his family, hiked up a mountain for sunrise, and—with half the Rockies as witnesses—Gabe got down on one knee. She said yes (obviously). Absolutely thrilling. Riana came home, bought one of the first wedding dresses she tried on, and the house instantly filled with tulle and happy tears.
May: Lish snuck down to her parents house in lowa for a week while they were gone and digitized 5,000 family photos for their 50th anniversary. Meanwhile, Riana’s wedding planning hit warp speed. Ethan wrapped up his Construction Management certification and immediately started sketching house plans like he’s been doing it forever. We also road-tripped to Montana for a Thronson wedding and spent a few extra days just drinking in the mountains.
June was pure whirlwind. Mom, Evie, and Danielle drove to Grand Rapids, Michigan for InTents Discipleship week. They came home, Riana went on her bachelorette trip, Titus shipped off to Storybook Teen camp, and somehow everyone converged back home just in time for the wedding rehearsal dinner. The next day—June 29th—Riana married her Gabe in a beautiful outdoor wedding. As the officiant, my job was to make it through the ceremony without bawling. And I succeeded. For the most part. (we are so happy for them)
July: Scarcely a week after the wedding, we joined the extended Bulow family for a tent camping trip. It was a typical camping experience filled with jet skis, a tree limb falling on Grandpa’s tent, swimming at the lake, fireworks, and a rainstorm so strong it blew down half the tents. We took a couple weeks to recuperate, and then took a van full of teenage girls to Bunkhouse Camp in Wisconsin where I got to speak and pretend I’m relevant.
August: A big one—Grandpa and Grandma Reeves’ 50th anniversary blowout in Iowa. Whole family, whole weekend, whole lot of good food while watching a whole lot of newly digitized family pictures in a slideshow.
September: Went to a friend’s wedding in Utah—gorgeous. We added Yellowstone to the trip because apparently we hate our savings account. Titus played accordion at Hostfest; he’s basically the Norwegian Justin Timberlake now. The ladies started a reupholstering project involving Larissa’s dining-room chairs and approximately 47 million staples. I nearly offered to help. Riana and Gabe hosted supper and casually served us a dessert with frosting letters that spelled, “April 2026.” Color me surprised. I did not expect that they were expecting. In the midst of these events, Lish and I saw Sam and Venissa get saved, baptised, engaged, married, and moved.
October: Ethan drove home to load up his truck and life for Missouri. He stopped in lowa with Lish, Titus, and Danielle for Josiah & Destiny’s wedding. When Lish returned home, she turned our kitchen into a freezer-meal factory: 90 meals in one week, in preparation for the arrival of Larissa’s baby. Lish and I took Titus down to Missouri, so he could hang out with Ethan for a week while we went to a Marriage Intensive (transformative).
November: Larissa hosted Riana’s birthday lunch. Grandpa and Grandma Reeves rolled into town to help with the coming baby and finish digitizing their mountain of old photos. Just watching them wore me out. Titus passed his driver’s test, bought a manual tranny truck 36 hours later, and drove it home without stalling once. I told him, “Welcome to adulthood; your insurance just doubled and your coolness tripled.”
Ilse Louise Nelson arrived November 26—perfect, tiny, and already has her grandpa wrapped around every finger. Thanksgiving was at Riana and Gabe’s—first time hosting as married folks and they crushed it. But Lish and I couldn’t resist sneaking over to Truston & Larissa’s house to see our day-old granddaughter.
December commenced with a Christmas cookie-baking bonanza. Acacia discovered that hiding the caramel in Rolo cookies is the best job ever invented. Ethan is coming home for Christmas, and the house is officially full of love and people again. I’m speaking at Winter Retreat after Christmas, which means I get to tell teenagers that “Yes, your parents were cool once… then they had you.”
So yeah… we added a son-in-law, a granddaughter, a truck, some weddings, a shoulder surgery, 5,000 digitized photos, 90 freezer meals, and approximately 2,500 cookies to the family archives.
Thank you for loving our crew, praying us through the crazy, celebrating the wins, and sending grace when we’re barely hanging on. You’re the reason we keep the Christmas letter tradition alive instead of just texting “We’re fine, kids are loud, send help.”
May your Christmas be merry, your coffee strong, and may someone else do the dishes at your house this year.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from North Dakota—
where the wind blows,
the trucks are manual,
and the coffee is strong enough to wake the dead.