February Valentines 2012 - We have our first Valentines!

[geogem]

OMG I sooo could not leave the christmas tree up that long!!

ours goes up about the 13th december and comes down about 2nd of January! It just annoys me with all the extra dusting and cleaning i have to do!

I am excited for christmas but cant bear the decorations around for too long.

 

[dizzyangel]

When is everyone intending to go on Maternity Leave?
My letter to my employer and my MATB1 form needs to be handed in on Friday and I have no idea when I want to leave!!!! I know my dates dont have to be set in stone but I would prefer just to have one date and stick to it then change my mind and remember to hand a new letter in early enough with the new date!

 

[dizzyangel]

We dont really 'do' Xmas at my house anymore (we are so boring!!) so no decorations go up........EVER!!

Same here, we have 3 families to visit so we are never at home. Last year i tried and I got a real tree (which i will NEVER do again!!). My cats we all in it, we have carpet everywhere so it was so hard to clean. We couldn't get the tree in the front door, therefore we had to put a rope around it and get it over our second floor balcony!! That was not fun, and i am still finding pine needs EVERYWHERE!!!!

Sounds very eventful!

Pine needles are a nightmare but I have to admit I absolutely LOVED having a real Christmas tree when we were younger, much better than the fake trees but a lot more tidying up afterwards

 

[Guppy051708]

Can't answer the Mat Leave questions as i am a SAHM...

 

[TeQuiero]

I cannot do real trees.... my grandparents and my stepmom love them!! I just couldn't handle all of the clean up and maintenance of a real tree!! We don't have animals but my kids probably would be worse, Tony loves to pull things apart, and my kids break the plastic ornaments and my dad's animals can't!

 

[Guppy051708]

yeah, im worried isaiah is gonna yank everything of the tree this year...

 

[TeQuiero]

I am not sure how to answer the Mat leave question either, when I worked with DS2 I didn't stop working until like 3 days before he was born. But again I am not sure how Mat leave works there. I didn't get paid for mine so I was just working to save some money!!

 

[tiger]

thanks ladies love my little man
hes just started saying 'olly' (holly) and its so cute, he kisses my belly before he goes for a nap or sleep now.
i get really worried that hes going to think i dont love him as much because of the time i will be spending with holly when shes born. gets me really upset
i know i went on maternity leave with jesse at 29 weeks but that was because i was in a stressful job and my dr demanded i leave early ! fine with me
we wont be here for christmas, we are leaving 2 days beforehand so i dont know whether we should be putting up the tree or not ? what do u think ladies? i want to !

 

[lilrojo]

We get our real tree the weekend after Thanksgiving.. put it up and decorate it.. my dd was very into it last year hopefully this year will be a bit better.. we hung everything up high.. made the tree look funny but oh well.. then we take it down a few days after christmas.. just to get things cleaned up.. we also do outside decorations.. lights etc.. in november before it snows.. so in a few weeks those will go up.. after halloween..

We too do halloween decor, take that down leave fall up, after thanksgiving do christmas stuff.. cant wait to decorate for xmas.. I love this time of year.. not the colder weather but christmas is the best holiday..

 

[JohnsPrincess]

thanks ladies love my little man
hes just started saying 'olly' (holly) and its so cute, he kisses my belly before he goes for a nap or sleep now.
i get really worried that hes going to think i dont love him as much because of the time i will be spending with holly when shes born. gets me really upset
i know i went on maternity leave with jesse at 29 weeks but that was because i was in a stressful job and my dr demanded i leave early ! fine with me
we wont be here for christmas, we are leaving 2 days beforehand so i dont know whether we should be putting up the tree or not ? what do u think ladies? i want to !

We won't be home for Christmas, either. But Christmas isn't just the Day for me! We'll be home most of the month + so we're def decorating and putting up a tree and all that!

 

[tiger]

i so want to ! im going to ! we didnt have one last year because we had just moved across state, had a baby, got married and couldnt afford a nice one ! so jesse hasnt seen one yet ! im definately going to this year though !

 

[saphire76]

I love love love Christmas! I try to put the tree up the day after thanksgiving and keep it until feb. and I have done a yr round tree. Easter, valentines ect. It was fun but waiting to be able to put the tree up at the right time is half the fun. I always host a big cookie swap w games and prizes oh I can't wait!!

As far as maternity w Jonas a week before he was do I decided it would be my last day I woke up on my 1st me day got a pedicure went to my ob appointment, had lunch w friends, had dinner w family went home and into labor 10:30 that night so this time I am either cutting down or stopping earlier but like I said before in my business if I don't work I don't get paid and my husband was layed off so I'm playing it by ear.

 

[KellyC75]

Dizzy, children make the spirit of Christmas reappear!! The look on their faces when they get presents that they love is amazing!!!! DS2 was thrilled when he got his rocking horse for Christmas last year, and he was even more thrilled when he saw it was still there the next morning!

Its amazing ~ Truly amazing

I also love my DS2 writting to Santa & then leaving the mince pie, milk & carrot out

 

[becstar]

You ladies chat a lot!

We put our tree up the first weekend of December usually. We can't wait longer than that! Our tree is very eclectic... We got married in December 2007 and had an empty tree at the reception that we asked guests to bring a decoration and put it on. Now every year we are reminded of our wedding day. We also collect decorations, like on honeymoon and holidays, and the day I got my bfp with La I bought a decoration. I love our decorations. Wa have to have a crap skinny fake tree as we are short on space but at least we have good decorations.

I am planning to start mat leave on Jan 22nd, the latest possible date I can give. La was over 2 weeks late and I was bored stupid with waiting around, so was glad to have given ths latest date. If I need to stop sooner, then being off sick with a pg related issue in the last 4 weeks of of automatically triggers may leave over here, so I have flexibility.

 

[dizzyangel]

I was thinking of leaving on the 31st January but Im due the 4th Feb so I may be cutting it a bit fine.......Im an accountant so January means Tax Return time and one of our busiest months so Im torn between staying to help out (its such a cushty job I dont want to take the piss and leave them extra work!) and leaving early so I dont have loads to do.
The earlier I leave then the earlier I will have to come back so ideally I want to leave it as late as possible without going into labour at work lol!! Im swaying towards leaving on the 20th Jan - thats not going to leave me too much time to get bored at home is it?

 

[becstar]

I was thinking of leaving on the 31st January but Im due the 4th Feb so I may be cutting it a bit fine.......Im an accountant so January means Tax Return time and one of our busiest months so Im torn between staying to help out (its such a cushty job I dont want to take the piss and leave them extra work!) and leaving early so I dont have loads to do.
The earlier I leave then the earlier I will have to come back so ideally I want to leave it as late as possible without going into labour at work lol!! Im swaying towards leaving on the 20th Jan - thats not going to leave me too much time to get bored at home is it?

Everyone's different, I could happily have stayed pregnant for few more weeks even at 16 days late, but others are climbing the walls at 29 weeks wanting the baby out! Like I said, you can trigger your leave early just by going off sick with a pregnancy related issue in the last four weeks before your due date.

 

[swanxxsong]

Great bump Junebugs!

Congrats on hitting double digits Night! Since I'm always on mobile now I can't see anyone's tickers, not even my own! I feel lost.

Dizzy, beating a dead horse but since mat leave here sucks... I can't be helpful in answering your question rofl. I'm basically working until I physically cannot. They want my date 30 days in advance but are understanding that with babies you never know what will happen lol. So I'm winging it.

Last year we did no tree because we were traveling and because we were not sure how the dog would handle it while we are at work. This year I want a small, real tree. Hubby could do without - loves Christmas, hates dealing with a tree haha. So we will see! In years past we put it up around Thanksgiving and took it down not long after new year. I'm sure I will want it down ASAP because I can't imagine tending to it when I'm even bigger haha! I already have issues keeping things as tidy as I please now.

 

[saphire76]

Off to my massage

 

[tiggertea]

dizzy - with Abbie I went off as early as I possibly could (11 weeks pre-due date) and didn't get one bit bored at home (then she came 2 weeks early!)! I guess it just depends on yourself really!

 

[AmaryllisRed]

SAHM = no mat leave. Pretty much the same as anyone else in the US, though, right?

We have a small tabletop tree that DH and I bought when we were living in a small apt and it suited us well for after DS was born, too. I wanted to get a bigger one (still fake) last year after the holiday when they were all heavily discounted, but now I'm glad we didn't since we will still have a LO around for a few more years.
They are so mischeivous with trees! Can't blame them. The blinking lights and dangly ornaments are very tempting.