Happy 9 year anniversary of me sitting down and 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 and age where it seems people slip further and 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 and sitting down with the letters my family would receive to read all about my parent’s friends and what they’d done that year.
And so, I invite you to take a peek into our lives! I love this part of the year! I love sitting down and reflecting, thinking, and remembering – it’s one of my favorite Christmas traditions!
2023 Letter // 2022 Letter // 2021 Letter // 2020 Letter // 2019 Letter // 2018 Letter // 2017 Letter // 2016 Letter
If you follow along with my blog, my Facebook, my Instagram, or my YouTube channel 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 2024 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! If so, welcome! I’m so glad you’re here!)
.jpg?ssl=1)
Normally, I really look forward to sitting down and writing this Christmas Letter every year. After all, it’s fun to go back and relive what the past 12 months have looked like: the places we’ve gone, the adventures we’ve been on, the things we’ve undertaken, and how we’ve grown through it all.
But 2024 has been distinctly different.
And hard.
At points very hard.
And yet it’s still been full of wonderful moments and memories.
Some of the stories of what has made 2024 feel like we’ve walked through one thunderstorm, into another, and into another are not our stories to tell, yet they’ve affected us deeply. Derrick and I were talking a few weeks ago and I said: “I feel like this year has been so full of grief that I’ve not had enough time to fully walk through one season of grief before entering another, compounding it in ways I never knew possible.”
My Grandfather passed away this past summer, one of my sisters lost a baby just a few weeks before he was due to be born, another sister had a miscarriage, and another of my sister’s was diagnosed with Lymphoma and is currently undergoing cancer treatments. (As I said: a lot of deep stories, not all of which are ours to tell.)
But it all started with our sweet Abby-dog.
If you’ve been around for any length of time, you may have noticed that our family photos look a bit different this year than in year’s past.
Traditionally, we get all dressed up, go to a local park, and my sister takes beautiful photos of us as a family with our dog.
Last year, we began to notice signs of our sweet dog beginning to deteriorate. She was slowing down, not moving as quickly, showing signs of not being able to hear us. She still loved to swim in the Lake and would run around the yard with the kids, but deep down, Derrick and I just knew she was becoming an “old dog”.
At the beginning of 2024, she began deteriorating very rapidly and by March, we knew it was time to let her go.
We said goodbye to our sweet doggie on March 9, 2024. She had been our faithful companion for 13 wonderful years and we still miss her terribly.
The kids keep begging us to get another dog. And honestly, I think there was a place in my head that said: “Of course, we’ll run out and get another dog right away – duh!”
But Derrick was adamant: he did not want to get another dog immediately. Having to say goodbye to Abby was especially hard on him and he wanted us to see what being a family without a dog would be like first.
And so, we’ve waited.
I’m not sure if a single 24-hour period has gone by when either one or both of our kids has mentioned the future when we get another dog. We’ve missed having a dog so much – and yet, equally loved the freedom that not having a dog has given us. Obviously, we travel (sometimes very spontaneously) quite a lot, so not having to constantly ask a family member to watch our dog has been so freeing.
And so, we remain a family without a dog.
As much as I really wish this segment of my letter ended with: “We’re getting a puppy for Christmas!” – we aren’t. Do we foresee the potential of getting another puppy in the future? More than likely yes. But, we’re thinking maybe next year. We’ll see.
SO, since we were a dog-less family for pretty much the first time in our married lives (we adopted Abby when we had been married less than a year), we decided to do something FUN for our family photos this year! Instead of waiting for fall, dressing up “fancy”, and going to a local park, we decided instead to have our photos taken at one of our favorite places to go in the summer: Kennywood Park.
We grabbed my sister Ellen and took her off with us for an evening of fun – and we had a blast. It was so different and perfectly US. (I posted a whole slew of those photos on my Thanksgiving blog post!)
Speaking of US..
At the beginning of December, Derrick celebrated TEN years at Shred-It! Isn’t that wild?! It was a job he just “picked up” when we were in the transition of moving across the state, right before Braelynn was born. Over the last decade, Derrick has worked his way up from being a driver, to the dispatcher for the Pittsburgh branch, to the Dispatch Supervisor for an entire region that spans from New York, to mid-Ohio, to West Virginia.
Derrick hasn’t traveled quite as much this year, as Shred-It/Stericycle were undergoing a big transition behind-the-scenes that was officially announced this past fall: they were bought out by Waste Management (which is a very large garbage company). The buy-out simply means that Q1 of 2025 will bring about a whole new round of changes and adjustments for Derrick – almost all of which he’s looking forward to as positive. Of course, it’ll mean a lot of work in steering his team through the transition, but I think in the end, it will be a really great change. Derrick has learned SO MUCH about being a leader and managing a team over the last 18 months! I’ve even seen it change how he “manages” our family. He’s really honed his negotiating skills, his communication skills, and is growing into a fantastic leader.
And yet, Shred-It simply remains his “real” job – while XscreamThrills remains his passion. This year brought lots of ups and downs with his channel, but through it all, he has consistently put out QUALITY content. Last year at this time, his channel was at just under 20k subs, and this year, he’s topped 27.5k subscribers! I’m so proud of the hard work he consistently puts into his channel.
(Going into 2024, things were really slow around his channel and he was a bit discouraged – then we took a SUPER spontaneous trip out to Cedar Point one afternoon to ride Top Thrill 2 during a passholder preview night (which was SO much fun) and the videos he created from those few hours went BONKERS. It really re-ignited his love of creating again in a way that he desperately needed!)
Speaking of roller coasters, we didn’t travel quite as much in 2024 as we have in the past, but we definitely still got our fix of thrills! In total, we visited 12 different amusement parks and 2 water parks (in years past, we’ve shied away from spending full days in water parks because our kids were just too young to truly enjoy them, but after this year, I think that will change: Leander decided this summer that he LOVES water parks and water slides – so we’ll see what that means for our 2025 plans!)
We took a handful of weekend trips to Ohio, Virginia, and across the state of Pennsylvania. And then, in September, we took a week and drove down to Orlando (we always go to Florida in the spring but decided to change it up this year and go in the “fall” – it was definitely a different experience and I think we prefer the spring!)
As the whipped cream and cherry on top of our entire year, we took a BIG trip out to Arizona at the beginning of December to visit Derrick’s parents – and this time, instead of figuring out how to get some roller coaster rides in (we did ride one mountain coaster while we were there), we went to see the Grand Canyon. WOW. What an incredible experience. I’m not sure if Leander was all that impressed (he did love climbing on all the big rocks) but Braelynn loved it, and obviously Derrick and I loved it. We had such a wonderful, relaxing, fabulous time (I think it might be the first trip we have EVER taken as a family that didn’t center around roller coasters – imagine that!)
Of course, in hindsight: planning two big trips for the end of the year turned out to be harder than we thought. We found ourselves constantly wishing away the summer so we could get to our vacations. So, needless to say: I think we’ll try better to balance out 2025!
My business has had a very slow year.
2023 was a slow year for my business, but it kind of picked up as the year progressed and ended up being fairly “average” – and well, 2024 has been well below average.
I can’t explain it (even though I do have lots of theories), but I only photographed 3 beautiful weddings of my own this year. With such a wide open calendar, I was able to pick up a handful of second-shooting jobs, which turned out to be SO much fun! I loved working with a few long-time friends and meeting some new ones! Second-shooting is so chill and relaxed compared to being the main shooter, so it ended up being very refreshing.
Knowing that 2024 was going to be a very slow year for my wedding photography business, I decided to branch out a bit and try some new things. I did more family portraits than I ever have (I did a full day of mini sessions in the spring and two full days in the fall) – and I photographed a handful of events and portraits that I would traditionally say ‘no’ to.
Additionally, I also opened myself up to more content creation – specifically Wedding Day Content Creation. If you’ve never heard of it (most people haven’t), it’s a brand new field in the wedding world where a person walks around all day and takes behind-the-scenes photos and videos on their phone. It’s totally separate and different than being a photographer or videographer. They then turn all of that content into a few short form videos and social media posts and give the bride and groom ALL of the raw footage that was taken. It sounds weird and kind of bougie, but in our world of social media, it’s a thing. And, if you think about it, it’s right up my alley. With my experience as a wedding photographer and my experience as a content creator (in the roller coaster world) – stepping into Wedding Day Content Creation simply seemed like a very logical next step. I worked my first Content Creation wedding at the end of the summer and it was SO MUCH FUN. It seriously was like a breath of fresh air – I had full creative control over whatever I wanted to do (my only responsibilities were capturing the footage for the specific reels we had pre-selected – otherwise, I simply got to do whatever I wanted!) I had a BLAST and can’t wait to do it again!
The Adventuring Abbeys continues to grow and thrive. Yes, I still vlog every single amusement park we visit and every trip we take. Last year at this time, I had just shy of 750 subscribers – and right now, my channel is sitting at just over 1,400 subs – meaning I doubled my audience over the course of the last year. (Which is really amazing!)
Derrick and I were talking about my channel a few weeks ago and I told him I feel like I’ve come to an impasse with it: the content I’ve been creating so far has been great, but it’s been entirely centered around our family vlogs. And we both agreed: in order to take my channel to the next level, it’s time to change some things up. I’ll still be posting our family vlogs (I’ll never stop – it’s the ultimate souvenir from each of our trips!) but I want to start creating some more “evergreen” content: tips, tricks, reviews – things that people are searching for. So, if you want a sneak peek at my 2025 goals – that’s a big one!
Braelynn is now in 4th grade and will turn 10 years old next month (how is that possible?!) School doesn’t exactly remain her “favorite” thing, but I love to see the progress she’s been making! Long division, fractions, more reading, cursive handwriting – she doesn’t see how far she’s come just from the beginning of the school year, but I do! And I’m so proud of what she’s learned and accomplished so far!
Art remains her favorite subject though and more often then not, you will find her with paper and markers or a crochet hook and yarn in her hands. She is constantly creating something.
She’s staring down the barrel of braces (something she can’t decide whether she’s excited for or terrified of). She has a tooth that’s come in in the completely wrong place and it needs fixed before the rest of her adult teeth come in, so that will likely happen in the first weeks of the new year.
She really REALLY learned how to swim this year. She’d been a “decent” swimmer, but this year she really figured it out (perfected by using the diving board at a friend’s house).
She is OFFICIALLY tall enough to ride every single ride at every single park we visit! Talk about a massive milestone! That means that we were finally able to put her on some of Derrick and I’s favorite roller coasters this summer and her “top 3” favorite roller coasters completely changed (they’re Manta at Sea World Orlando, Storm Runner at Hersheypark, and Fury325 at Carowinds if you were curious).
And – her most exciting biggest news of the year is that she got baptized! We’ve been talking about what baptism means and her getting baptized since this past spring. When we were in Arizona, the subject of baptism came up and she asked if she could get baptized that week. Papa said: “Sure, you can get baptized in my hot tub!” and so she got baptized! Her Nana and Papa, as well as her Great Aunt Susie, and Great Grandma Derrick were able to witness and be a part of such a special time (and we took a full video to show everyone back home).
Braelynn remains a very social person who makes friends (almost) everywhere she goes. She has the nicest group of friends at church and loves her cousins dearly.
I know they wouldn’t claim each other as their “best friend”, but deep down, Braelynn and Leander remain the best of friends. They adore each other and are constantly cooking up something. They play hard, create entire worlds of their own, and regardless of the weather, are probably running around our backyard.
Leander just turned 6 years old and is officially half-way done with kindergarten this year. Repeating what he hears his big sister says, he says he doesn’t like school (but secretly, he loves it). He’s mastering writing his letters and numbers, and I love all the practical life-stuff and manners that his school books sprinkle into the lessons.
He’s currently missing his top two front teeth (last Christmas, he was missing his bottom two front teeth!) and so everywhere we go, people comment that: “Hey! All you want for Christmas is your two front teeth, right?”
Up until this point, Leander has really just followed along with whatever Braelynn is doing and into. She loves stuffed animals? So does he. She loves certain TV shows and movies? So does he. She loves to play with her little Calico Critters? So does he.
But this fall, Leander discovered something that HE loves (and Braelynn has followed him on this one!): LEGOS. Leander realized that he LOVES Legos! He started by really becoming obsessed with the Ninjago characters (there’s a movie and TV show), but it’s grown into other Lego characters, and simply Legos in general. He will sit for (no joke) hours and build with his Legos. My mind is always blown by what he creates and comes up with – it’s incredible!
Leander still is NOT interested in roller coasters though. Oh, he’ll ride a few select SMALL kiddie coasters, but even though he’s now tall enough to ride a good number of “family coasters”, he remains a solid “No.” Derrick is determined not to push him and keeps saying that he’ll get around to riding our favorite passtimes in his own time.
I still co-lead the Greensburg, PA chapter of the Rising Tide Society with my sweet friend Tiffany (our group just celebrated it’s 10-year anniversary!)
I still teach on Wednesday nights for the kids’ program at our church.
And I still create monthly films of our daily life (when I put together the December film in January, I will have 4 full years documented in video form – it might be my proudest accomplishment EVER).
Derrick & I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary this past spring, which means our 15th wedding anniversary is just a few short months away! (I have no idea how that’s even possible!) We still have our weekly “wine and cheese” nights (something we both really look forward to!)
AND, we bought a new car just a few weeks ago! Derrick has been researching new cars for months – he knew that his car, which we bought brand new almost 14 years ago, was on it’s last legs. On it’s last trip to the garage, our mechanic told us that it’s transmission was on the verge of dying and it would be almost impossible to replace. This sent Derrick down the path of looking for a new car (a process he thankfully undertook almost completely on his own – the thought of buying a new car was paralyzing to me!) He finally found exactly what he wanted less than a month ago and we’re now the proud new owners of a 2022 Mitsubishi Outlander.
So, that’s been our year.
I’m a Type-A-Perfectionist, so it’s very easy for me to simply sweep “bad” things under the rug and spin things into a positive light in an attempt to make everything “golden” and “perfect”. But as I said at the beginning, it’s been a hard year. We’ve faced storms and troubles as a family that we never have before. But through it all, we’ve grown. We’ve learned to lean deeply into our faith and hold fast to our hope in Jesus.
And that’s the bottom line: it’s all about Jesus.
I truly don’t know how people walk through this life without a personal relationship with Him. Holding onto the promises of the Bible and the hope of heaven have honestly been the only way we’ve gotten though the year. Our faith has become more real to us than ever and I feel like we see the world in a completely different light. I pray that the love of Jesus would permeate your world as it has our own and you’d come to know Him in a deeper and more personal way in 2025.
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! Normally at this point, I am working on the highlights film from our “Adventuring Abbeys” vlogs from the year – but since we just got back from a really big trip, I have to finish going through all of that footage first – so our 2024 highlights will likely come out in January.
I do have all the OTHER traditional “end of year” stuff coming up: highlights from the weddings and portrait sessions I photographed, the super popular behind-the-scenes post of Derrick and I working throughout the year, my 2025 goals – so, lots of fun to come! I invite you to stick around and 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 and my blog here is the best way to keep up with us throughout the year! We post a lot of content and we’d love it if you stuck around!)
