A Traditional Christmas Letter

We’ve been married for almost 7 years now and even though every year we’ve sent out Christmas cards, we’ve never penned a Traditional Christmas letter. Well, this year, that changes!

If you follow along with my blog, my Facebook, and my Instagram on a regular basis, you probably have a pretty good idea of what our year looked like, but in an effort to give a complete overview of the year 2016 in the Abbey house, we’ve put together this Christmas letter (and hopefully at least a few of you are here reading this because you got the note in our Christmas card & hopped on over! If so, welcome! I’m so glad you’re here!)

Here we go!

The year 2016 was super memorable for so many reasons. Every year has it’s milestones and memories, but 2016 was full to the brim and we wouldn’t have had it any other way. I must admit, by the end of fall, we were really looking forward to some weekends at home with nothing on our calendars (which, I think we’ve had 2 of those so far! we’re busy people, what can I say?)

Our January of 2016 kicked off with the grand event of Braelynn turning 1! We didn’t have much snow all winter long, but the weekend of her birthday, we got 10 inches of the white stuff, which meant 4-wheel-drive vehicles had to pick everyone up and several trips were made to get all 24 of our guests here! We had a delightful time though and just thinking about it makes me so excited for her 2nd birthday party – which is right around the corner! I didn’t really struggle with her turning 1 year old, but I think the 2 year old marker is going to be a little more difficult to swallow – I’m not sure how it is even possible for her to be turning 2?!

Speaking of Braelynn, she has grown by leaps & bounds in 2016. She learned to walk, run, jump, and climb this year (yep, hold on to everything because if she wants something, she will figure out how to get it, no matter how high or far you put it up!) She speaks really well for an (almost) 2 year old and definitely gets her thoughts, questions, and concerns across. She is a fabulous traveler, still doesn’t sleep through the night, is cutest in pigtails, is best friends with Abby, can count to 6 (that’s a new thing just in the last week!), and loves Daniel Tiger & The Little Einsteins. She is quite attached to a number of stuffed animals (her favorite is a Daniel Tiger we got at Idlewild) and is also very fond of washcloths. Yes, you read that right. She is obsessed with washcloths. In fact, that’s what we’re stuffing her Christmas stocking with – she’s going to go crazy!
It’s amazing how the introduction of such a little, opinionated, giggly person can change your life and she sure has changed ours. She is a little ray of sunshine (usually) and makes even the littlest tasks (like walking up the stairs, or doing the laundry, or cooking dinner) an absolute delight.

We went on the most lovely vacation in the spring of 2016! We went round and round regarding what we wanted to do and finally settled on renting a cabin in the Smokey Mountains with my family for a week. We went to Dollywood, hiked, shopped, ate (a lot), played lots of pool & air hockey, and sat in the hot tub every night (no matter how chilly it was). We had so much fun! You may think that I’m totally crazy, but spending a week straight with my parents & my siblings was honestly the best part of our entire trip. We loved Tennessee, but I think we could have gone anywhere, and as long as we were all together, I would have been the happiest. But of course, the highlight of Derrick’s trip was riding new roller coasters at Dollywood.

Speaking of roller coasters, Derrick definitely got his fill of them this year! He would argue otherwise, but he was able to ride more roller coasters this year than any other year ever. After this summer, he officially has ridden over 150 roller coasters! We kicked off the year with Dollywood, took a day-trip to Cedar Point to celebrate Derrick’s 30th birthday (!!), and took another day-trip to King’s Dominion where we also got to visit with Derrick’s old college friend Becky. Braelynn and I also made it to Idlewild & Kennywood (twice! once in the summer & once for Holiday Lights) this year! Lots of roller coasters! And here’s a shameless plug, you should go follow my crazy-roller-coaster-junkie husband on his Instagram & YouTube channel! He posts fun things all the time plus a lot of photos that I’ve taken for him! Go check it out!

Since we’re talking about our traveling kick – we also took a weekend to go out & visit Derrick’s college roommate Caleb & his adorable family, and we also spent a weekend in Buffalo to visit & celebrate with Derrick’s childhood best friend Jake, as he got married! Paul & Naomi came to visit us twice (here & here) It’s so much fun to have friends to go & visit and who can come spend time with us! If you’re reading this – we’d love to have you come visit! Send us a line when you’re available & we’d love to have you come!!

Braelynn & I spent a total of 46 days at Derrick’s parent’s house this year – what?! That’s over a month! That’s a lot of traveling! I am so so thankful that they are so hospitable & welcoming to us staying with them! I also love the fact that my business allows (and forces) us to drive up and spend long weekends & sometimes even a week at a time with them. I love that Braelynn knows Nana & Papa and loves them just as much as my family that we live only 5 minutes away from.

Speaking of me & my little business – I photographed 13 weddings this year! I also shot 9 engagements and 21 portrait sessions (and drove over 6,600 miles!) I’m not sure what those numbers sound like to you, but I assure you, it was plenty to keep me on my toes & busy! I was gigantically blessed to be able to attend a one-day photography workshop in West Virginia this fall and I love attending the monthly Tuesday Together meetings hosted by my friend Tiffany (through the Rising Tide Society) Also, if you hadn’t noticed, I upgraded my website recently (very recently, within the last week!) It’s still a bit of a work in progress, but I LOVE the new look & feel!! I’m super excited for what 2017 holds for me & my little business but am definitely looking forward to a little “down time” before everything picks back up again!

Derrick still works at Shred-It full time and enjoys the independence and flexibility his job there allows him to have. In our spare time we watch a lot of Netflix, eat a lot of ice cream, and usually fall asleep watching movies – that’s about it! He is on staff at our church as part of the worship team and really enjoys playing the keyboard & singing every Sunday. He doesn’t play video games anywhere near as much as he used to, since he now comes home & spends time with Braelynn and then works on his own roller coaster ventures (see above where I mentioned his Instagram & YouTube channel) That’s quite alright with me though.

Abby remains the star of our home. She holds down the fort while we are out on adventures, keeps our feet warm at night by sleeping at the end of our bed (and sometimes we wake up to find her snuggling up closer and closer to us!), and remains a best friend for Braelynn. I still take weekly Abby photos (see the Abby’s Saturday category of my blog) and write about what we were up to that week! So, if you’d like mini-updates on us, that’s where you should check in every Saturday!

Well, now you know why I’ve never written a traditional Christmas letter before – this would easily take up more than one printed page! As you can tell, we are very busy people, but we love everything about our lives right now & are doing our best to enjoy this season. Looking ahead to 2017, we have some big huge events coming up & we are so excited! We kick off the year with my sister’s wedding & I couldn’t think of a better way to start a new year!

If you enjoyed reading this, I invite you to subscribe to my blog via BlogLovin’ – it’s the easiest way to keep up to date anytime I post anything! If you’d like a step-by-step tutorial for setting that up, you can check out this post I wrote here! It’s super quick & easy and you’ll never miss another blog post I write again! I promise, not everything I write is this long (although, you’d doubt that from my posts this week!)