This year's Christmas Card

I have always wanted to do the photo-Christmas card. But I feel it's reserved for children. Sure, there's the occasional "Us and Our Pets!" card, but since we have one very camera shy cat, not to mention the very resistant husband, that's not going to happen.

Is this card inappropriate? I think it tells the story of our year and how we've spent the holidays so far.

Then there are the holiday letters. You know the ones, the one full typed page of crap people send? If you send them, I mean no offense, but I do think you're lying. No one's life is that great. No one's kid is that smart and just freaking fantastic. No one's jobs are that grand, and no one is getting a raise every month. And seriously, no one cares what new car you bought. If indeed your life is all sunshine and roses, it's really best to not advertise like that. People don't like braggers. Where are the truthful letters? Where people talk about how Bob lost his job and it nearly caused a divorce, or Jimmy got caught (again!) smoking pot at school and got expelled.

If we did a letter, it would be truthful. Who wouldn't want to receive this?

"Happy Holidays, Friends and Family!
We may not have spoken with many of you this year because we have been so gosh-darned busy with our fertility treatments. January started with us in the middle of our first treatment cycle, our first cycle on Clomid! Those hot flashes sure helped with the winter chill. We were so excited and hopeful, but alas, Katie ended up not responding at all to that silly drug! No worries, in February, we tried it again! This time the moodiness, hot flashes and night sweats were especially bad, but we persevered. But once again, Katie's defective body still didn't respond! In March we increased the dosage which meant...you guessed it, twice the side effects! Hey and guess what!? She ovulated for the first time ever! But poo, no pregnancy. Not all was lost though, Katie developed a nice big cyst from the cycle and had to take a break from meds in March. In April she was back on that Clomid horse, suffered through another month of debilitating side effects to find she once again didn't respond. Well, drats. How about a different drug!? OK! In May she tried Femara, and hey...the side effects weren't so bad. Her response was less than thrilling, but shock of shocks...in June we found out Katie was pregnant! June and July marked big milestones for us as we saw our baby's heartbeat twice, once early at 5.5 weeks (such an over-achiever! must take after her mom! ha!) and again at 7.5 weeks. Then August rolled around and WHOOPS! Looks like we spoke too soon! Katie miscarried at 12 weeks. September and October were spent recovering from the D&C with no anesthetic - both Chris and Katie needed recovery time since Chris was in the room the whole time and saw the whole procedure! Talk about a memory he'd like to erase! Katie also needed to seek therapy during this time because the miscarriage made her a little wackier than normal! But in October, we tried Femara one last time...and wouldn't you know it? Katie didn't respond AGAIN! By the end of October, we were meeting with our new clinic and RE and decided it was time for IVF/ICSI - and we were starting in November! November and December were a blur of shots, pills, appointments and well, no surprise to us, quite a few disappointments! By the end of December we were anxiously awaiting the final outcome of our IVF cycle, and....to be continued.