Traditional Christmas Letter – 2021 Edition

Happy 6 year anniversary of me sitting down & writing a “traditional” Christmas letter! I’m not sure if this officially makes me an old lady or not, but I refuse to give this up. In a day & age where it seems people slip further & further from the “traditions” of the past, this is one tradition that I really love. I remember, as a little girl, getting Christmas cards in the mail & sitting down with the letters my family would receive to read all about my parent’s friends & what they’d done that year. Most of the families I only knew in passing, so it was a ton of fun to get this glimpse into other people’s lives.

And so, I invite you to take a peak into our lives! I love this part of the year! I love sitting down & reflecting & thinking & remembering – it’s one of my favorite Christmas traditions & I simply refuse to give it up (old lady status or not!)
2020 Letter // 2019 Letter // 2018 Letter // 2017 Letter // 2016 Letter

If you follow along with my blog, my Facebook, or 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 2021 in the Abbey house, I’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!)

Welcome to the end of 2021 – is it just me, or has the year simply flown by?
I’m not sure about you – but after 2020, we had a lot to look forward to in 2021 & we really, truly had a wonderful year. It was packed to the brim with goodness & my heart simply overflows with gratitude for all that we were able to do & accomplish in 2021!

Here is an overview of our year (and fair warning: it’s not short, because, let’s be honest: we all know it is impossible for me to give a “nutshell” version of anything – hey – at least I’m honest).

2021 was a year of traveling for us.
(Ready for this number?) We drove over 7,200 miles this year just to ride roller coasters.
(I should probably give a preface to that statement: hi, if we’ve never met, Derrick & I are roller coaster enthusiasts and Derrick runs a popular YouTube channel based entirely on roller coasters & amusement parks.)
Okay, that gives some context and suddenly we don’t sound like we’ve completely lost our marbles!
We visited a total of 19 amusement parks & rode tons of new roller coasters. It was an incredible year.

Our big trip of the year was spending a full week in Florida (if you’d like an overview with pictures & videos, it’s split into two parts: here & here)! In the spring, we drove down & back (the kids did amazing in the car – bottomless snacks & the iPad were our secret weapons!) We were blessed with incredible weather & simply had the best time.
We rented an AirB&B that was central to the parks we wanted to visit – it had 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a full kitchen, access to a swimming pool, plus an outside, fenced in, patio area, with a hot tub! You might think Florida ≠ hot tubs, but when we went in the spring, it was perfect. Every night, we’d come home from adventuring around a park all day, put our kids to bed, and Derrick & I would sit in the hot tub for hours, it was so relaxing and delightful in every way (exactly the way a vacation should be! I think having a hot tub is going to be at the top of our “must-have” list no matter where we go from here on out!)
While we were in Florida, we visited Sea World Orlando, Busch Gardens Tampa, Aquatica, and both of the Fun Spot parks (with a stop at Busch Gardens Williamsburg on our way home).
When we went to Florida in the spring, mask mandates were still in full-effect, so we made the (difficult) decision to skip a visit to Disney. It literally broke my heart to be in Orlando, driving by signs for Disney World every single day, and not go. It’s been 12 years since the last time I was at Walt Disney World & not a day goes by that I don’t miss it (I did the College Program & interned there in 2009). Ultimately though, my desire to go to Disney & be able to see my children’s faces taking in all the magic of the place was stronger than my desire to go to Disney & wear masks all day long. (Want in on a secret? We hope to go back to Florida this coming spring & this time, we won’t be able to stay away – I get super emotional with anticipation just thinking about it!)

Since we’re on the topic of roller coasters – Derrick still runs his XscreamThrills YouTube channel and continues to see smashing success! He hit 10,000 subscribers this summer, which was a huge goal reached. Just a few months ago, he started a second channel – sharing copyright free some of his cinematic footage of roller coasters. People who make YouTube videos about roller coasters always need video-footage, and a lot of times they will look for copyright free videos to use in their own content – which is the purpose of that second channel. His influence continues to grow and open new & exciting doors for him!
This means not only was he invited to several media events at Kennywood (our “home park”) this year, but he was also asked to be on a panel of roller coaster enthusiasts at Keys to the Kingdom – a big roller coaster event held at Kentucky Kingdom every year! It was mind-blowing to see Derrick sit in front of a group of hundreds of enthusiasts & speak to his love of roller coasters – talk about a huge dream come true! I still feel like I need to pinch myself when I think about it – did that actually happen?!
Derrick is recognized at almost every single park we go to (people either recognize his face or his voice!) and so going to parks has become a bit like going to an amusement park with a celebrity. Park guests and employees will stop him & want to talk & snap selfies – it’s absolutely wild. He’s had some really fun interactions with fans of his channel (including a guy who literally stopped dead in his tracks & screamed: “OMIGOSH YOU’RE XSCREAMTHRILLS!” & then almost passed out, at Cedar Point over the summer.
If you’d like to follow along with Derrick & his roller coaster stuff, you can subscribe to his YouTube channel and/or follow his Instagram account (which we also grew to over 10,000 followers this year!) I actually manage his Instagram account (shhh), so that’s why I say “we”. If you’d like to see my roller coaster photography – every single photo that is posted to Derrick’s Instagram account is taken by me. I post photos to my own account here & there, but I post a roller coaster photo to his account every single day – so go check it out!

Other than roller coasters – Derrick still works his full-time job at Shred-It (going on 7 years at the company!) His job saw a lot of changes this year, some good & some not so good. One of the best changes he experienced though was being given the flexibility to re-arrange his schedule to work 4 10-hour days instead of 5 8-hour days – this gives us a lot more flexibility in having 3-day weekends to travel! As crazy as his job has been, we’re so thankful that thru the entire pandemic, Derrick has never experienced a loss in work or a threat that he might lose his job. His job remains constant & it’s something we definitely do not take for granted.

His heart lies entirely in his roller coaster endeavors though. And between his full-time job & his YouTube channel, Derrick is super busy.

Braelynn is 6 years old (with her 7th birthday right around the corner – don’t you forget it)! She is in 1st grade & I’m so proud of how much she has learned so far this school-year! She constantly amazes me with what she remembers & picks up so easily. Her favorite subjects are science & math – reading is a challenge, but she’s progressed by leaps & bounds in the last few months. She’s really starting to get it & that is super exciting for me!

Braelynn wants to be an artist when she grows up and practices every single day. I have to buy new markers every 6 weeks or so, because she literally colors them dry. Our house is filled with her art & I’m constantly amazed at what she comes up with – her creativity is inspiring!
And that creativity spills over into everything – she loves to construct forts out of blankets, she builds castles & cities for her toys, her imagination is simply massive!
Her stuffed animal “collection” continues to grow (somehow, she fell into “collecting” a stuffed animal at each park we went to this year – oops). Her “stuffies” (as she calls them) are truly her most prized possessions.
Braelynn’s best friend is her cousin Cameron – she bemoans the fact that they live 5 hours apart on pretty much a daily basis. Thankfully, the girls have mastered the art of FaceTime & they talk regularly. In fact, they don’t just talk, they will sit & color together, as well as actually playing with each other (full-blown imaginative play). Braelynn props my phone up against something, gets out her toys & they talk & play as if they were sitting right across from one another. It’s truly a marvel to witness & something 6-year-old Kara would have never dreamed of.
She is super social & literally makes friends everywhere we go. She loves going to Sunday School at church, she loves chatting with our neighbors over the fence, she talks to people in the store – she just loves to talk. If you’ll listen, she will talk your ear off!

Braelynn’s biggest milestone of the year was finally growing to be 48″ tall & finally being able to ride some bigger roller coasters! In fact, she can now ride Phantom’s Revenge at Kennywood (it’s her favorite)! She rode it for the very first time on National Roller Coaster day with her Daddy – I feared that Derrick’s heart would burst out of his chest with pride.
Since then, she’s ridden it somewhere around 20 times – if that seems like a lot, you have to realize: Derrick & I cannot ride roller coasters at the same time – one of us has to stay off with Leander. So, we are masters of “the parent swap”. Braelynn is the true winner of the whole scenario though because she waits in line & rides the coaster with Derrick, and then when he gets off, she simply stays on the ride & I jump into Derrick’s seat. In other words, pretty much every single time we’ve been to Kennywood & ridden Phantom this year – Braelynn has ridden it twice in a row (talk about a great gig!)
Other notable roller coasters Braelynn has ridden this year: she rode her first looping roller coaster at Busch Gardens Tampa (going upside down), and then her first triple looper at Cedar Point. She also rode her first giga coaster: Millenium Force at Cedar Point (a giga coaster is one that stands over 300 feet tall).
It’s been an exciting year for Braelynn! Thankfully – she likes roller coasters (or else we’d be in big trouble!)

Leander just turned 3 years old (I’m a bit in denial over that). He is all boy. He loves trucks & trains & cars & motorcycles. He loves dinosaurs & sharks. He’d happily spend every single day outside if he could – digging in the mud, running endless laps around the yard, and swinging & climbing on our swingset. He loves to swim & climb & run & jump – he’s a bit exhausting.

Leander’s big accomplishment of the year is still a bit on-going, but he’s getting better & better every day! What am I talking about? Potty training – yay! Potty training a boy has definitely been a different experience than potty training a girl – it’s taken him a little longer to “get” it, but I think it finally started to click last week & he’s been doing better & better!
He continues to be the best sleeper (he still takes a nap every single day) and his most prized possession continues to be his blankie.

This year he learned to count, he knows his colors, & we’re working on shapes. He loves to tell knock-knock jokes (even though he typically doesn’t get the punch-lines he’s telling – or forgets them altogether!) and he loves to play hide-and-seek. He is currently super obsessed with Mickey Mouse (we had a Mickey Mouse themed birthday party for him!) and Bluey & Blaze (TV shows).
His imagination has exploded this year. Sure, he did some imaginative play last year, but this year he is all about it. He will sit & play with figures, making them “talk” back & forth in his tiny voice, he will run his cars & trucks over the walls & furniture, making motor noises as he goes, and he will pretend to be any animal Braelynn thinks up & want to play that day.

Speaking of which: Braelynn & Leander are best friends. Whenever Leander takes a nap, Braelynn mopes around until he wakes up because she’s bored without him. And if ever Braelynn leaves (to run errands with Mom or Dad, or to have a craft-day at Grandma’s) Leander mopes around because he’s bored without her. They have their moments of fighting with one another (a few weeks ago, Braelynn had something in her mouth & Leander ripped it out in a fight & it loosened an already-loose-tooth enough to fall out!), but overall they adore one another & follow each other around like puppy dogs. (No joke: pretending to be puppy dogs is one of their favorite games.)
It makes my heart so happy to see them love each other so fiercely. I hope their love for each other only grows deeper!

As for me: I am still a full-time wedding photographer. I photographed 11 weddings (plus a handful of engagement sessions & a slew of family sessions) this year. I’m not sure what that number sounds like in your head – but my goal is to shoot 10 weddings every year, so this year I booked an extra one (it was actually a small wedding that landed at the very end of my wedding season & the couple choose to keep all of their images completely private, so you won’t find an 11th wedding on my blog or social media at all). It was absolutely wonderful to have a more “normal” year after the insanity that was working weddings in 2020.
I continue to be the co-leader of our Greensburg, PA Rising Tide Society chapter (if you haven’t heard me explain what the Rising Tide Society is: it’s a worldwide organization made up of local groups of creative entrepreneurs that meet once a month for networking, encouragement, and education). I help my good friend Tiffany run our little group & it is a constant source of joy & encouragement for me!

I did have COVID at the end of the summer (still not sure where I picked it up – it could have been the grocery store – who knows?) Overall, I had relatively mild symptoms & after 2-3 days of feeling icky, I was just super tired for about 10 days. I lost my sense of smell & even tho’ it did eventually come back, sometimes it still seems off (along with my taste). The kids had minor colds in the weeks following me being sick (but we have no idea if it was COVID or not) and Derrick never got sick at all (which is so bizarre since we did not quarantine from each other at all).
Other than that (and a round of hand/foot/mouth disease for the kids at the end of summer) we’ve been relatively healthy all year!

As if being a full-time wedding photographer, wife, Mom, homeschooler, & homekeeper isn’t quite enough, I’ve decided to add “video curator” to my list as well. For the entire year of 2021, I’ve created monthly videos of our family – as well as vlogs from each of our trips. It’s something I’ve become quite passionate about over the last year – especially when I dug up some old videos of Braelynn as a baby & heard her tiny little squeaky voice! You don’t even realize how much your kids are growing & changing (at least, I don’t). Photos are amazing & will always been my first love (I create big, fat family yearbooks for us every year with the photos that I take), but I’ve fallen head-over-heels in love with video & all the extra stuff that comes with it (sounds, voices, laughter, movement).
It’s something I hope to turn into a business in 2022 – stay tuned! (And while you’re at it, go subscribe to my YouTube channel!)

Derrick & I celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary this past spring (we celebrated with our trip to Florida!) There are just no words to explain how much I do not feel like we’ve been married 11 years. I honestly feel like we just got married a handful of years ago – where does the time go?
We had plans to do some major renovations to our house in 2021 (windows, siding, a new bathroom/laundry room, & a mudroom), but with inflation & the cost of everything going thru the roof, we ultimately decided to hold off & wait. I feel like I’ve been saying that every year now – maybe 2022 will be the year of the renovations – who knows? (I half-heartedly threatened that I would not potty train Leander until we had a bathroom downstairs – and well, here we are. It’s challenging, but we’re surviving.)

Abby is now 11 years old – she’s not as spry as she once was, she is showing more and more grey where she once was all black. She still is overwhelmingly loved & adored (sometimes a little too much). She is Braelynn’s constant companion, sleeping beside her bed & constantly cuddled up to her. Abby still loves to chase a frisbee & will swim in the Lake for hours on end.
I still take weekly photos based around her (I’ve taken 380+ photos – can you believe that?!) – you can follow my blog every Saturday for a fresh Abby’s Saturday photo, plus a little update on what we’ve been up to that week!

PHEW – so now you know why I write these Christmas letters digitally. Can you imagine if I printed this beast out to mail to our family & friends? If you’ve read all of this & made it this far – you deserve a gold star! Thank you so much!

BUT WAIT: there’s more! The Adventuring Abbeys (that’s what I call my vlogs of our roller coaster trips) Highlights of 2021 is coming out on Thursday! I considered sharing it here, but we can all agree that this post is already a little overly long. So, come back on Thursday to see all of the highlights of roller coaster riding adventures from 2021 condensed into 10 minutes! Trust me, it’s really good (if I do say so myself).

Along with that, I also have all the traditional “end of year” stuff coming up: highlights from all the weddings & engagement sessions I photographed, the super popular behind-the-scenes post of Derrick & I working throughout the year, an Abby’s Saturday bloopers reel, my 2022 goals – so, lots of fun to come! I invite you to stick around & enjoy!

If you’d like to follow Derrick on YouTube, here is the link to his channel.
If you’d like to follow me on YouTube, here is the link to my channel.
If you’d like to follow Derrick on Instagram, here is the link to his account.
If you’d like to follow me on Instagram, here is the link to my account.
(Following our accounts listed above & my blog here is the best way to keep up with us throughout the year! We post a lot of content & we’d love it if you stuck around!)