Sharing Christmas

Tonight I'm linking up with Julie at Green Eggs & Hammes. 

She and some other gals are hosting a link up party: 

Friends, I love Christmas time.
I just love everything about it.
The decorating, the baking, the picking out of gifts, the making of gifts, the lights, the music.....it's just such a special time that I truly cherish. 
So, I thought it might be fun to join in the fun to share some of our Christmas with you & check out how others make Christmas special in their homes as well.

So this is about as festive as the outside of the house gets.
We don't have any electrical outlets outside which makes it pretty difficult to do anything really nice, so I just stick a wreath on the door & call it decorated.
{and yes, those pumpkins are still there....meshing of the holidays? i don't know!}
This year I switched it up a bit, & I decided to make this frame wreath I found on Pinterest.

I think it turned out pretty cute, but I just can't figure out how to get it to stay up!
Every few days after I fix it, I hear a crash at the front door & find it in shambles on the ground.
I'm on my second frame. The frame in this pic broke.
I will persist though!

Onto the entry way:
{not that people actually enter our house this way. if you came to our house, we'd totally invite you to use the back door just like everyone else!}

This year I wanted to get an Advent calendar & went with one from Naptime Diaries. 
We don't do a very good job of completing an Advent activity everyday, but it looks really pretty!

And here's a look at the living room:
{which is still not complete, so please ignore the blank walls & lack of curtains}

 {ooh sorry for the blurry pic}

 I got this little tree from a friend a couple of years ago & I really like it because the stars are magnets so I can change them around. This year Eli decorated this tree!

 I used to put all of the cards we got around a door frame, but this year I decided to use this planter I had as a card box instead.
{maybe you see yours in there?}

This year our tree came from the lovely tree farm found at Home Depot. We used to cut it down, but found it to be much cheaper {and easier} to just buy one with the work already done for us.
Our tree pretty much looks the same every year, but I really love it.  I have a thing for stars, so you'll find quite a few variety hanging on the tree. I also love the word "joy", especially at Christmas, so there are a few of those floating around as well.

The one thing I did differently on our tree this year was make a new garland.
At midnight. On a Saturday night.
It just had to be done then!

Here's a pic at night, when let's be honest, is the best time to gaze upon the tree.

I've done quite a bit of Christmas crafting in the last couple weeks:

I like how this garland frames the tree when you look at it through the doorway.
{and in this pic, the cute little one playing with the trashcan}

And a few other random decorations...things I've picked up over the years:

Even though we aren't going to "do" Santa with our kids, I really like the vintage look of this little guy. And if our kids ask, I'll call him St. Nicholas.

As far as traditions go, the biggest one is a big family breakfast on Christmas morning.
And because breakfast is my absolute favorite meal, this is one of my favorite traditions.
And with the invention of Pinterest, there are so many recipes I want try this year.
We also host Christmas for my mom's side of the family, so in the evening we'll have everyone here to eat dinner & exchange gifts.
Mike & I exchange one gift Christmas Eve and then do the rest before our families come over Christmas morning. 
I'm excited to see how Eli reacts to opening gifts this year. I'm sure the paper & boxes will be a huge hit, which is ok, because honestly, he's not getting a ton from us.  Between grandparents, aunts & uncles, I'm sure he'll get more than enough!

I'm sure there is more that I could share, but I feel as though this post might just be the longest post ever.
So, thanks for allowing me to share Christmas at the Rubin household with you.
May you be blessed this Christmas season & experience true Joy in the birthday celebration of our Savior!