HILL COUNTY — On this Christmas Eve, families like yours, and ours, celebrate long-standing holiday traditions. But few are like the one we found an hour south of Dallas in Hill County. That's where a single Christmas card is racking up some serious mileage — a couple dozen years and counting.
The two people I went to Hillsboro to meet were Vicki Brown and Christi Pevehouse. And they both admitted they were a little nervous about this whole TV interview thing. But as Brown's dog Ella stuck her nose in one of my camera lenses and began to sample its taste, she helped prove there was no reason to be nervous at all.
"Oh that's funny," Pevehouse said.
But their story actually starts with a cat: Garfield, to be exact.
Brown and Pevehouse were neighbors in Abbott, Texas when Brown decided to send Pevehouse a Christmas card as a thank you. Pevehouse was the substitute teacher who filled in for Brown when she was on maternity leave.
"At the time I was really big into sending cards and everything," Brown said.
And the Garfield the Cat card she sent said this on the front: "Merry Christmas to a good-looking, intelligent, all-around marvelous person." On the inside it said "Save this card. You can sent it to me next Christmas."
"I sent her a Christmas card and she did exactly what the Christmas card told her to do," Brown laughed.
So, Garfield's annual journey through the U.S Postal system began. The women, who realize they could have just walked the card to each other's house, signed it each year, and sent it back and forth each Christmas through the mail instead.
"We've always signed it our first name and last initial. I don't know why. It's not like we don't know who the card is from," Pevehouse laughed.
And Garfield's annual trip continued when Brown moved away from Abbott all the way to Hillsboro — 8 miles away.
"It's like a tradition," Pevehouse said.
"It's like a tradition now exactly," Brown said.
"It's the only Christmas card I think that I still send," Pevehouse joked.
This year was the card's 25th Christmas trip.
"And I enjoy getting it. I look forward to it," Brown said.
"Because every once in a while I forget about it and then it shows up and I'm like, 'Oh, it's the card,'" Pevehouse said.
"That is something we can look forward to. We know it's going to come every year, hopefully," Brown said.
"No matter what we still have one friend," Pevehouse said.
And that's the simple message of enduring friendship in the story of a slightly tattered and worn Christmas card that for 25 years the US Postal Service has not lost.
"I don't want to jinx it, but if the post office loses it, I guess that will stop it,” Pevehouse laughed.
"We're very blessed and thankful that we're both still here and able to send it back and forth,” she said. “And I think nobody wants to be the one to stop!”
"I guess if it quits coming in the mail I'll know you don't like me anymore," Pevehouse said as both she and Brown laughed.
This year the card successfully made it to Brown's house in Hillsboro, where she will keep it locked away until next December, sign it, and send it back to Pevehouse in Abbott again.
"The card's just kind a kept us tied together all these years," Pevehouse said.
"It's just a special kind of thing," Brown added.
A special kind of thing for two "good-looking, intelligent, and all around marvelous" friends keeping Christmas traditions and a quarter-century friendship alive.