This is the 12th year in a row that I’ve answered this exact set of questions looking back at the year that is quickly slipping away & looking forward to the new year that is upon us! It’s really incredible to look back now over the past decade and read what I was most proud of, what I learned, and what I was most excited for – it’s a little bit mind-blowing to see the progression of my goals growing and changing.
Shout out to Jamie Delaine for originally inspiring & sharing the outline to this post TWELVE years ago!
If you’d like to go back and read over what I wrote the previous 11 years I have done this, click here for 2014’s version, click here for 2015’s version, click here for 2016’s version, click here for 2017’s version, click here for 2018’s version, click here for 2019’s version, click here for 2020’s version, click here for 2021’s version, click here for 2022’s version, click here for 2023’s version, and click here for 2024’s version!
And if the ridiculous amount of words in this post intimidate you – I promise I’m not offended by you choosing to skip this one (there are over 4,600+ words!). In the next few weeks, I have a lot more “pretty” posts planned – my favorite images from 2025, plus the ever-popular “behind-the-scenes” look at me while I’m “on the job”! So, stay tuned!
Of course, if you’re into reading words – let’s dive in!
LOOKING BACK
What are you most proud of this year?
I set myself three goals last year (let’s be honest: I had more than three goals, but I had three very specific named goals that were pretty big) and I’m very proud to say that I accomplished 2 of the 3.
My first big goal for 2025 was to get my YouTube channel monetized (meaning, to actually make my share of the ad revenue that YouTube is already making off of my videos).
Most people don’t realize, but you have to reach two criteria in order to monetize your YouTube channel (YouTube doesn’t just pay you immediately as soon as you start putting up videos). You need 1,000 subscribers (I hit this milestone in 2023) and you need at least 4,000 public watch hours over the previous 365 days. 4,000 is a lot of hours and up until mid-2025, I was only only (consistently) about 2/3 of the way there.
I really wanted to hit this goal though, so that meant that I needed to change a few things with my channel. Sure, family vlogs are fun (and my favorite souvenirs to bring home from our adventures), but they just weren’t getting the amount of views I needed in order to hit that second piece of YouTube criteria. I had brainstormed a bit with Derrick and a few business-minded friends and they all said the same thing: “Why do you only create vlogs? Why not reviews? Tips? Tricks? You have a wealth of knowledge centered around amusement parks, roller coasters, and traveling as a family – why not put that knowledge into the form of long-form videos that will push your channel over the top?”
In other words: I needed “evergreen content” – content people are consistently and constantly searching the internet for – content that I have the answers to.
So, I did.
I must say: putting together that first official review was much harder than I anticipated (but also easier – it was a strange mix of both). It was easy to write the outline of the review (goodness knows I do enjoy writing), to do the research I needed to get the answers to questions I didn’t know, and to try to think up what people would want to know if they were searching (I asked myself a lot of: what would I want to know? questions). Recording the script was easy (turns out, I like talking about a topic I enjoy almost as much as I love writing about it). Editing the audio was much more challenging than I anticipated (but it ended up sounding really good, I’m very proud of it!) And then adding the video pieces on top of the audio was a challenge (especially since I was kicking things off with a review of a hotel we stayed at in Orlando a few months prior – I had lots of video of us at the hotel, but not a lot video of the hotel itself – I didn’t even have a video or a photo of our room!) But overall, I was very proud of the finished product.
The first review didn’t initially get a bonkers amount of traction, but the beauty of creating “evergreen content” is – it still continues to steadily grow! It’s been live for almost a year and it’s pulled in over 16,000 views and counting! It just grows and grows in the background – bringing me new subscribers and (now) a steady paycheck.
From there, over the course of the year, I created five more hotel reviews, four videos giving tips about certain amusement parks or events, and I just published a review of ResortPass (a service allowing you to use a hotel’s pool and resort amenities without booking an overnight stay). None of them have gone crazy in initial views, but they all continue to slowly pull in regular views in “the background” – the definition of “passive income”.
Knowing that hotel reviews seemed to do really well with my channel and audience, I started to actually document the hotels and resorts we went to in a much more in-depth way. I began purposefully walking around the hotel and taking videos and photos (with my review in mind) and I began taking meticulous notes during our stays. Those two factors have helped me put together better and more in-depth reviews (and makes the entire creation process much more fun).
The trickiest part of the whole process is that these videos take time to create. As it stands, I have three scripts currently fully written, with outlines of at least five more in the notes on my phone. Carving out the 40-60 minutes of uninterrupted QUIET time in order to record the audio is the trickiest part (my kids cannot be downstairs, they have to be upstairs in their rooms doing a quiet activity). So, that’s currently one of my biggest sticky points – as always, there is no shortage in ideas, just shortage in time to actually implement and create them!
(I’ll talk about the second goal I’m so proud to have accomplished below.)
Speaking of my YouTube channel and our family vlogs though – I finally fully caught myself up when I published our “Highlights of 2024” in March of 2025 (not as behind as I was when I published our “Highlights of 2023” in June of 2024, but still behind). I caught myself up though and was determined to never fall so insanely behind again. I stayed “caught up” all year and am SO PROUD to have published our “Highlights of 2025” before 2025 had officially ended (which is something I haven’t been able to do since 2022).
I also continued making our monthly daily life videos – I publish them on a separate, more private, YouTube channel (completely separate from The Adventuring Abbeys). When I create the video for December, I’ll have 5 complete years of monthly videos documenting our family just doing normal, daily life – little magical snippets of silliness, giggles, antics, stories, and “normalcy”. It’s my favorite project I’ve ever created and I never plan on stopping.
I want to also say: I’m very proud of myself for continuing two habits I built in 2020 and hitting the 4-year streak mark on them! At the end of 2020, I got a chronological Bible that is also broken down into daily readings so you can read the entire Bible in one year. As of yesterday, I’ve completed that daily reading for the 4th complete reading of God’s Word in a year in a row.
ALSO at the end of 2020, I started using the Peloton app to exercise and I just hit a consecutive 4-year weekly streak in the app! (It should be longer, but I lost my streak when I had COVID and that knocked me back a bit.) But – two huge goals I hit and continue to continue on!
What was the biggest risk you took?
The second big goal I had for the year was to do more Wedding Content Creation in 2025. I really wanted to branch into this new, budding field, so I posted a lot of reels on social media, wrote a bunch of blog posts, created an official website, and put myself out there as much as I could. I set myself an actual number of weddings I wanted to do Content Creation for as a big goal and I literally cried happy tears when I hit my goal, and then surpassed it.
I LOVE being a part of wedding days and Content Creation is such a sweet spot for me! I bring the wedding experience and knowledge I have and pair it with the experience and knowledge I have in filming with my iPhone and it’s such a sweet marriage. It’s so much fun, so much less stressful than photography, and takes up less of my time (both on the front end and back end) – which, as a homeschooling, stay-at-home Mama – is so appreciated.
What makes it “a risk” is that while I’ve been pushing Wedding Content Creation to the forefront, I’ve been pulling back on my photography. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still a photographer and I’m still photographing weddings – but more and more, if you look at my social media and blog, you see more Content Creation than photography.
It’s been quite the major identity shift. After all, I’ve been pursuing wedding photography since 2008 and I took my business full time in 2015. That’s A LOT of years to pour into one specific thing. So to pivot out of it and into something new (albeit related, but still new) has been a wild ride. I kind of wish I could pivot faster, but so many times I’ve found myself DEFAULTING back into a photography mind-set (nothing to post on social media? let’s pull some of my favorite images from weddings past!) So, as much as I really love being a Wedding Content Creator – it’s been a challenge to actually fully face that fact and truly own it. It’s something I’m still actively working through.
What did you learn this year?
This year’s homeschooling adventure has come with a fairly steep learning curve.
Up until this year, I’d been homeschooling one child (Braelynn) – ONE. Last year, Leander was in kindergarten, so we did “light” school stuff (2-3 days a week), plus he did a lot of stuff with Braelynn (science experiments, listening to history – that kind of stuff). But this year, he’s in 1st grade – which means I have to officially report him. In other words, he can’t just do school 2-3 days a week anymore – he’s all in: 180 days, portfolio at the end of the year, evaluations – the whole nine yards.
And on top of that, Braelynn’s in fifth grade. She’s not just learning letters and numbers anymore – we’re into improper fractions, greatest common denominators, long (long) division, grammar rules that I’ve had to Google for clarity – you know, fun stuff.
So, needless to say: school is taking much longer these days than they did in days past.
In other words: I’ve had to completely re-think my own personal schedule and re-evaluate my expectations. It’s been quite the adjustment (and many days, I feel like we’re still adjusting!) It’s made us leaving the house before lunchtime very difficult and more and more I find myself scheduling appointments for the afternoon (instead of the morning) and saying, “No” to invitations to things that happen before noon.
I know this is a lesson we’ll have to re-learn every year (and it will continue to evolve year over year) – but this year, 5th grade and 1st grade, has definitely been the most challenging to adapt to.
What do you wish you had made more time for?
At the end of 2024, I was diagnosed with a small Vertebral Artery Dissection – basically a tear in an artery in my neck. On the way home from the Emergency Room, Derrick called his physical therapist to see if she would be able to see me. Derrick’s been going to the same physical therapist for years and she’s revolutionized his health. Believe it or not, once upon a time, Derrick had such debilitating back pain that he could hardly get out of bed in the morning. It was an awful season of life. He tried different chiropractors and while they helped a little bit and made the pain more manageable, nothing really moved the needle toward “better”. Until he tried an appointment at King Physical Therapy and met Dr. Visnja King (whom we simply and lovingly call Visnja). She changed his life and actually fixed his back problems so that now, he has no pain.
So, on the way home from the ER and being told I had a Vertebral Artery Dissection, Derrick called Visnja. Hearing my diagnosis, she said, “I really can’t see Kara until that heals – it’s too dangerous. Wait the allotted time, get cleared by her doctor, and then call me.”
Well, I was nervous (and rightly so), so I waited a little longer than the allotted time, but then finally gave her a call. She was incredible: she listened to everything I’d been through, all of my symptoms, asked a ton of questions, did a bunch of mobility and nerve tests, and then gave me a path toward what she said would help me feel better. And guess what? She was 100% correct and not too much time passed before I truly felt better. Why did I wait so long to call her?
And again, I actually just called her again this week because I was experiencing weird numbness and tingling in my hands at night and when I’d wake up in the morning. Again, she listened to me, asked her questions, and knew precisely what to do to get me on the right track. I felt SO much better walking out of her office, again it left me thinking: why did I wait so long to call her?
(In other words, if you’re reading this and have ANY sort of health issues that a physical therapist might be able to help you with, both Derrick and I (and a bunch of my family members) HIGHLY and unabashedly recommend Dr. Visnja King at King Physical Therapy!)
What are 3 highlights (business or personal) of your year?
- We visited two theme parks this year that still don’t quite seem real: Epic Universe and Legoland. I have the videos and photos to prove that we did it, but it still seems like the happiest of dreams.
We planned a trip to Florida (accidentally) during the last week of Epic Universe’s preview days (before their official grand opening). We had debated whether we wanted to try to get tickets, but after hashing it over for literally hours and days, we ultimately decided to wait. We were worried our kids wouldn’t like all the dark rides, that the lines and crowds would be insane, and we’d end up more frustrated than excited.
That is, until Universal (very quietly) announced a round of preview tickets that anyone could purchase (in other words, you didn’t have to be a annual passholder). Derrick and I looked at each other and said: “What the heck, let’s try.” He hopped in the virtual queue and 10 minutes later, we had 4 tickets to visit Epic on the very last day of previews.
For all our fears, most of them were completely unfounded. Being the last day of previews, the crowds were surprisingly light and lines weren’t as long as we were expecting. Our kids weren’t interested in any of the dark dark rides (they cried when we walked into the Ministry of Magic, just to see what the inside of the building looked like), but they LOVED Isle of Berk and Super Nintendo World. As in, they were OBSESSED. And still to this day, they ask when we can go back. It was so magical and wonderful in every way.
And finally, after visiting a Legoland Discovery Center in Arizona in 2024, our kids were dying to visit an actual Legoland in 2025. They’ve become absolutely, maddeningly, OBSESSED with Legos (and many of the characters Lego has created), so it was literally their Walt Disney World.
That trip was insanely expensive. We decided if we were going to go, that we’d go all-out: stay in the Legoland resort in a Ninjago themed room, spend 2 days at the park – the full experience. (Yes, it ended up costing more than staying at Surfside and visiting Epic Universe.)
But, it was completely worth it. The kids were in HEAVEN and just could not get enough. We had SO much fun and the kids ask (again, daily) when we can go back to Legoland again. - Speaking of trips that feel like dreams, Derrick and I did escape for a 24-hour getaway to Cedar Point in the summer to attend a preview event for their newest roller coaster: Siren’s Curse. It was super fun, but felt a little bit like work (because, let’s be honest: it was). Then, when we went to Arizona to visit Derrick’s parents, we snuck away for another 24-hour getaway, leaving the kids with Nana and Papa. Derrick had a free stay through Hilton (thanks to all the traveling we do), so he found us a really nice resort to stay at. Now that was a relaxing time. It was so lovely to sit in the pool and be able to talk without constantly keeping an eye on the kids. Thinking back, that time still feels like a really wonderful dream – we had a wonderful (much needed) time.
- Of course, the biggest and best highlight of 2025 was the day when my sister, Ruby, was declared to be in remission. It’s so wonderfully delightful to have her BACK.
2024 into 2025 was full of so much heartache and missing her (and my parents) so much. But, all praise to God, she’s recovered from her chemo treatments, has sprung back to life, has gone back to work and regular life, and we no longer worry about being around her and having a small sniffle.
When it really hit me though that she’s better – she’s always made the kids’ birthday cakes every single year, but with her being in the middle of chemo for Leander’s 6th birthday and Braelynn’s 10th birthday – I found myself having to decorate their cakes. It’s a job I very quickly learned that I did not care for.
So, needless to say, when Leander’s 7th birthday rolled around at the beginning of December, it was so delightful to collaborate with Ruby again for his cake – and the afternoon that she walked in the door in order to decorate his cake was the happiest day ever.
LOOKING FORWARD
What “word” do you want to define 2026?
I know that the word “joy” is cliche, but I really want to find the JOY in the little things again. I let a lot of things wear me down so quickly and it’s time to let personal expectations go and just enjoy life. I’m currently living the answered prayers of many many years, so why do I let the little things get me down?
What are 3 big goals (business or personal) for 2026?
- My website needs a major overhaul – right now it still very much centers around wedding photography, but as I’m working to step away from that (I’m still doing it and have a handful of weddings booked for 2026 and 2027, but it’s taking a back seat) I need to put more of an emphasis on Wedding Content Creation. But, I don’t need to pivot my website to be more Content Creation focused instead of photography focused, I also need a branch of my website to showcase my YouTube content as well. In other words: I need a homepage with a three-prong purpose and the options to take you off to where you need to go, depending on what you’re looking for. It’s a major task and quite overwhelming whenever I think about it, but it’s long overdue. I need to break this goal down into smaller bite-size pieces and map it out so I can actually attack this goal (instead of simply being overwhelmed by the enormity of it).
*Going along with this goal, I had some pretty major website issues a few weeks ago (it was a FULL 10+ day ordeal of not having access to my website – talk about a nightmare). Well, I fixed half of the problem and got my website back up and live (YAY), but still have to fix the second half of the problem. I currently put it off because the service doesn’t expire until June 2026, but I need to figure out a solution BEFORE then, so I’m adding this as a goal because I had kinda-sorta (purposefully) forgotten about it (and then the secondary issue reared it’s ugly head this morning and I had to deal with it again). - I need to overhaul my systems. I had some really good systems down (that was a big goal in 2023 and 2024 that I crushed) but things have changed and the systems have become dusty. Literally, they feel grimy and like they just aren’t quite working right anymore. They need overhauled, updated, and refined. This includes everything from my morning routine, to my work routine, my house routine, to what I’m prioritizing my time to do (the only system that I created and continues to work like a well-oiled machine is my meal-planning/grocery system that I created 2 years ago – it’s still working splendidly and I can’t imagine my life without that system!)
- I need to create more evergreen content for YouTube. As I said above, I have so many ideas – it’s just finding the time to actually create the videos. Now that my channel is monetized though, there’s actually a payoff at the end of creating that content (it’s not just for likes and subscribers, there’s actual real money at the end of that task!) And from there, I need to follow that path to see what would happen next: Do I create a freebie? An email list? A sellable product? In other words, I foresee lots of exploring around the evergreen content I create for YouTube in 2026 and I’m excited to see what ideas I come up with and where that leads me!
*Here’s an AUDACIOUS goal: can I create ONE piece of long-form YouTube content every week in 2026? As exciting as that sounds – I honestly think that might be too big of a goal, so let’s set the bar high, but not impossible: THREE long-form YouTube videos every month (this includes vlogs, so I feel like this is doable!) Let’s GO! Kara’s getting even more serious about YouTube in 2026!
What do you want to stop doing in 2026?
(Once again, this is always the last question I’m left to answer because it’s so challenging!)
One of my biggest and most overwhelming tasks that I do every year is create our family yearbook. I adore the finished product, but it takes SO MUCH WORK to get there.
Last year, I had the brilliant idea: I should cull through at least my iPhone photos at the end of every month because that will greatly cut down on the amount of work I have to do at the beginning of the yearbook-creation process.
It was a great idea. But did I implement it? NOPE.
I already “clean off” my phone every month because I need the video files to create our monthly family videos, I just failed to take the extra step in culling my iPhone PHOTOS.
Well, no more. In 2026, I want to stop putting the task of culling and editing my iPhone photos off until the beginning of the year and instead do it every month (making it a much smaller and easier to manage task).
What things excite you about the upcoming year?
We have a big California trip ALREADY booked for 2026. (Cue the confetti!) Normally, we are still very much in the talking-about process of what we want to do and where we want to go for the next year, but we’ve already bought the tickets and started laying out our time away. (And to be very clear, when I say: “we”, I definitely mean: “Derrick” – he is our travel-planning extraordinaire and I leave all of the travel planning stuff up to him. He’ll run ideas by me and I’ll give my input, but I leave all the research, comparing flights, working with airline miles and hotel points, comparing hotels – I leave all of that up to him. He loves it and has never let us down, so I trust him completely and it takes a massive burden off of my shoulders! Comparing hotels and flights is stressful to me, but he loves it – so it’s a win for both of us.)
So, not only do we already have a trip to California booked, but we have a lot of fun in mind for when we’re there (lots of new parks and new experiences!) I’m so excited, I cannot wait.
I’ve also got a bunch of weddings booked for 2026 (and even one for 2027). More inquiries are rolling in for 2026 weddings (mostly Content Creation – YAY!) and I’m so excited for what the year holds!
What do you want to learn in 2026?
I would really like to explore affiliate marketing and/or content creation for businesses (either working with local small businesses or “user generated content”) in 2026. I’ve had a few people ask if I do Content Creation for more than just weddings, and so far I’ve always said that I just do weddings and amusement park/travel stuff – but now I’m wondering if I shouldn’t crack open the door to more things. I truly have no idea what I’d be getting into (what do businesses want? raw footage? edited TikToks?) so I need to do more research, but I’m CURIOUS (and curiosity is the beginning of new and exciting things, right?) And the same goes for affiliate marketing – now that I’m creating more evergreen content (and not just vlogs) I figure: why not look into affiliate marketing to go alongside the reviews I’m creating. Again, I really don’t know much about it at all, so I need to do a bunch of research, but I’m CURIOUS.
So, there you have it! If you’re interested in playing along and looking back over 2025 & looking forward to 2026 along with me – here is the list of questions to copy & paste! If you do, would you tag me in your post either on Instagram or on Facebook? I’d love to read up on your year in review & your goals for 2026! You can even grab my graphic to use! Here’s the link to download it!
LOOKING BACK
What are you most proud of this year?
What was the biggest risk you took?
What did you learn this year?
What do you wish you had made more time for?
What are 3 highlights (business or personal) of your year?
LOOKING FORWARD
What “word” do you want to define 2026?
What are 3 big goals (business or personal) for 2026?
What do you want to stop doing in 2026?
What things excite you about the upcoming year?
What do you want to learn in 2026?
