A Traditional Christmas Letter – 2017

Derrick & I have been married for almost 8 years now and last year was the first year we officially penned a “traditional Christmas Letter”. It was such a hit (and let’s be honest, I so enjoyed writing it) that here we are again in 2017!

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 2017 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!)

2017 has been a rip-roaring-ride for this Abbey family. We have had a crazy, wonderful, busy year. We’ve traveled over 10,000 miles, Derrick’s added almost 40 new roller coasters to his coaster count, and I’ve photographed more weddings than I ever have in the past. The year has flown by.

We kicked off 2017 with the bang that was (my sister) Ellen & Jonathan’s wedding. I was her matron of honor and Braelynn played the role of flower girl. Being just 4 days shy of her 2nd birthday, we had absolutely zero preconceived hope that she’d walk down the aisle & toss her petals. Honestly, we all agreed that no matter what happened, it would be perfect. And as the music rose and the doors opened for her to walk down the aisle, she played her part perfectly. She walked & tossed & Mommy cried in the back because she was doing it! She made it about 75% of the way down the aisle before looking up and realizing that she had the audience of a church full of people watching her. That’s when she turned around & started to head back to Mommy. I met her about half-way down the aisle & we walked the rest of the way together.
The day was wonderful – it was abnormally warm & sunny. Ellen & Jonathan had the most lovely ceremony & reception surrounded by their closest friends & family. We all had a blast celebrating as the Eichelberger girls (and Steve) welcomed another brother into the family.

Four days later, Braelynn turned 2 years old. We had a Daniel Tiger themed birthday party here at our house. It seems like that was so long ago – especially with her 3rd birthday right around the corner!

Like I said, we traveled a lot this year – more than ever before. We were gone just about every single weekend from April thru October. Our biggest & most notable trip was to Texas: Derrick, his Mom, Braelynn, & I flew down on our 7th wedding anniversary and spent a week in San Antonio visiting Derrick’s Grandparents, his Aunt Katie, and his cousins David & Alyson. We loved every single moment of being there. Derrick’s Grandparents had never met Braelynn, so it was a blast getting to introduce them. We packed out our days while we were there – seeing the Riverwalk, the Alamo, the Botanical Gardens, the beach, and of course: Six Flags Fiesta Texas & Sea World. It was hot, we ate a lot of good Mexican food (that I’ve been trying, unsuccessfully, to replicate ever since), saw lots of cacti, and truly enjoyed visiting with family that we rarely see. (Our trip ended with quite the airplane story, it’s too long to post here, but if you jump over to my post about our trip, I tell the whole story there!)

Texas might have been our biggest trip, but that doesn’t mean it was our only trip. We also spent a few days in Mason, OH (to ride roller coasters at King’s Island), took day trip to Erie, PA (to ride roller coasters at Waldameer), drove up to celebrate Derrick’s Grandpa’s 90th birthday in upstate New York, and Braelynn & I went with my Mom & sisters to Berlin, OH for a weekend. We had a quick overnight trip to Mayville, NY (where I photographed a wedding), we visited Derrick’s cousins in Washington DC one weekend, and Derrick & I got away for my birthday to an indoor waterpark in Sandusky, OH. Of course, we still made it to Deep Creek Lake for weekends at the Lake House as often as we could, and traveled up for lots of visits to Derrick’s parents (where the majority of my wedding season this year was centered). Needless to say, by the time the end of November hit and we had “free” weekends on our calendar, it was wonderful. Traveling is definitely fun, but staying home is so refreshing.

So, outside of our insane traveling schedule, what have we been up to?

Derrick is still obsessed with roller coasters. He runs an active YouTube channel and Instagram account – which are the perfect outlet for his obsession. After this summer, his coaster count is officially up to 189 unique roller coasters that he’s ridden. He’s pretty pumped with his plans to ride his 200th roller coaster next summer. His YouTube account consists of theme park reviews, as well as a lot of original coasters he’s created. He also uses his insane talent to write music on his channel as well, as he creates all of the soundtracks that you hear playing behind his coasters. He puts a ton of work into those videos & it’s slowly starting to pay off: he officially got his first check from YouTube last week!
He still works his day-job at Shred-It (he’s been there 3 years now). This year, he transitioned from being a driver with a route – to being a dispatcher & working in the office. It’s more of a managerial position and it was a really fantastic step up in the company for him. If you’d ask him though, his passion lies with roller coasters, so you can only imagine our (combined) excitement when Kennywood (our “home” theme park here in Pittsburgh) reached out to us, asking if we’d be interested to come in & photograph their roller coasters behind-the-scenes. It was a tremendous experience and we literally felt like little school girls, getting up close & personal with the roller coasters and taking photos for the park. It was definitely a highlight of our summer.

I have been busy. Very very busy. Busier than ever before. I photographed 14 of my own weddings this year, as well as second-shooting additional weddings for my sister, Ellen. One of those 14 weddings was for our cousin Zeb – who after attending Ellen & Jonathan’s wedding in January – got infected with “wedding-fever”. He proposed to his girlfriend just 8 days later. Being able to capture the memories of so many amazing couples is truly a humbling experience, but there was something extra special about photographing Zeb & Emilie’s wedding: it was magical. Most of my wedding season still centered around the NEPA area tho – which meant I was driving up to where we used to live almost every other weekend this summer. It was intense. Mid-summer, I officially announced that I would not be booking any more weddings in NEPA (with exceptions, of course). It was a really tough decision to make, but ultimately the best decision. My wedding season for next year looks completely opposite what it did this year & I’m already excited for all of the weddings I’ll be able to come home & sleep in my own bed after!
In February, one of my images was picked to be featured in the Captured::Pittsburgh Open Air Gallery in Pittsburgh. It was a crazy honor – they only pick 8 images each month to be featured. It was so much fun to go down for the unveiling & see my photo hung with 7 other amazing images. And that wasn’t the only place my work has been featured this year – online, I’ve had weddings featured on: Rustic Wedding Chic, Wedding Colors, How He Asked by The Knot, Borrowed & Blue, A Princess Inspired, Daily Dog Tag, and Love & Lavender.
Outside of my business – I’m not really sure what else I do. I feel like I’ve been running non-stop all year long and I’m not really sure what to do with myself now that my wedding season has come to an end. I think I used to read & crochet & watch movies with Derrick – maybe I’ll have some spare moments to catch up on some of that in the coming weeks before my 2018 wedding season begins in February!

It seems that Braelynn has transformed from a baby to a toddler to a little girl so sneakily & quietly this year. It’s crazy how much she’s grown & changed in just one short year (I know every parent says that, but it’s so true). This past spring, she gave up her afternoon nap. I was pretty devestated as nap-time was when I’d get the most concentrated work done for my business. Enter Auntie Ruby: who came & babysat Braelynn for me a few hours every week. She single-handedly saved my sanity this summer when things were at their most busiest. We started potty training shortly after her 2nd birthday & very quickly, she seemed to understand. She still had accidents (of course) but she was definitely on the right track. Until that is, we went to Texas & our crazy traveling kicked in – then we lost absolutely every ounce of progress we had made. It’s been an uphill battle ever since. Thankfully, now that our traveling has cooled down, she’s finally starting to get back on track. Let’s just say: it’s been a rough summer for going on the potty.
Braelynn loves to sit and read, has a mountain of stuffed animals (and she adores each one individually), and she still doesn’t sleep thru the night. She loves to watch tv, movies, and roller coaster videos with Daddy, she is proficient at using my iPad, she loves to sing, and is very mischievous. If there is something she wants, she will find a way to get it. She is a big climber and loves to jump off of things. Abby is her comrade-in-arms, but Auntie Ruby remains her best friend. She continues to get taller, loves to “do school”, and is obsessed with being outside. She keeps us running, that’s for sure. Ultimately, we couldn’t imagine life without her and all the silly things she says & does that adds sunshine to our days.

Abby still remains the rock of our home. She continues to be the star of “Abby’s Saturday” (the weekly update from our family that I post every Saturday right here on my blog). And, she’s one of the big reasons we bought a new car this summer. Well, not really, Derrick’s Jeep was literally on its last leg, but it was also breaking Derrick’s heart to make Abby ride all smushed up next to the car seat on our travels. So, we bought a 2015 Mitsubishi Outlander. I literally can’t imagine how we were surviving before we had it. It’s a wonderful, roomy SUV that we absolutely love and are so happy that we (finally) pulled the trigger on!

Obviously, we’re a busy little family. And everyone is busy, I totally get that, but we seem exceptionally busy. Looking forward to 2018, we are very excited to be welcoming new little cousins into the family (both Ellen & Jonathan and Paul & Naomi are expecting!) and who knows what else is to come?

There will be a lot of exciting things happening on my blog soon! I’ve got 2017 highlights, the ever popular behind-the-scenes post, an Abby’s Saturday bloopers reel, my 2018 goals – so, lots of fun to come! Stick around & enjoy!

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