high five for friday

hey! it's friday! 

that means it's time to link up with lauren over at from my grey desk who is saluting friday with her

high five for friday link up. we are taking a look at our five favorite things this week.

check it out!

1. date night ~ friends, i'll be honest, i seriously cannot remember the last time we went out on a date. i mean, that's not saying much because you know i can't remember what i ate for dinner 4 days ago, but it was WAY OVERDUE!!!!! we had some gift cards so we had dinner at the OG and of course, had to have dessert at sweet frog. of course!  we also went to target. yep, we are classy people.  when we were dating, we used to play this game where we would buy each other little gifts at random times at whatever store we happened to be in.  so we played last night & one of my gifts was that very special rose :) mister thought he was playing it smart because it's "reusable".  hmmm...will that really work?

2. devotions ~ i started a new reading plan with she reads truth this week. i can't tell you enough how much i enjoy this!
3.  dance party ~ here are 2 little facts about me: i love music & i love dancing. when i was younger & would dream about my future life, i would always dream about the dance parties that my kids & i would have! as a kid, on saturday nights, i remember listening to my dad's records & dancing.  lots of CCR, fleetwood mac & rolling stones.  i cherish those memories & i so want my kids to have the same kind of memories.  the other day we had an impromptu dance party that seriously made my cup overflow.  michael franti's "the sound of sunshine" came on & i just started dancing around. eli came over & i grabbed his hand & he started jumping & dancing.  we were both laughing & having the most joyous, carefree moment.  i WILL NOT forget this moment!
4. packages ~ i was crafting like crazy this week & made a couple gifts to send to eli's future wife.
5. breakfast ~ next to ice cream, breakfast is my favorite. we eat breakfast for dinner probably once a week & for years my mom & i have met for breakfast a couple times a month. this week we (my parents, eli & i) hit up the hershey pantry. if you know my dad, you know that driving an hour to get a meal is no big deal. usually it's some restaurant he's read about in a magazine. omgoodness, so much food & so good!

it has started snowing here & i'm in need of a hot drink. definitely hot chocolate.
but before i do that, i'm leaving you with this because you'll definitely want to do yourself the favor & have a listen. if this doesn't make you want to dance, well, then there's just something wrong with you & you'll want to get that checked out. soon.

hope you'll stop in again soon.
stay warm & have a great weekend!!

high five for friday {link up}

This morning I was checking out my blogroll as I do most mornings & read Holly's post for today and was inspired to join in the linky fun.
Picking favorites is really hard for me, so I'm really happy to have 5 choices! 

 welcome to my edition of 

1. Family time ~ It seems that some of the best family time we've been having lately is spent on the kitchen floor {which if you've seen our kitchen floor, you'd probably totally judge me}. We play a lot of ball with Eli in the kitchen & now he requests that we sit on the floor by either taking our hands & tugging on them or by slapping the floor.  It's become a "thing" for us & I really like it dog hair, crumbs & all.
2. Truck book ~ Of course, Eli will always be in my list of favorites, but this week it's been his enthusiasm over trucks. His vocabulary at this point consists of 2 words: ball & truck. "Truck" sounds more like "buck", but there is a distinction from ball. {yeah, makes this momma's heart so happy that "mama" is not on that list} But to see his little face light up at the sight or sound of a truck melts my heart every time. So, when I saw this truck book, I just had to buy it. We now read it about 12 times a day.
3. Headbands ~ I've been crafting a lot lately & these have been one of my projects. I'm really considering selling them.  What do you think? Would you wear one? Buy one for a friend? A daughter? A sister?
4. Redecorating ~ I am slowly, s l o w l y trying to get our living room complete. As soon as I took down the Christmas stuff, I got out these owl friends to be my inspiration to get a move on.  This week I've been doing some planning {even if it is only in my head} & I'm ready to start completing projects to hang on the walls.
5. Alias ~ Now, this may seem quite random & really quite outdated, but this has been a favorite lately! Since we cancelled our cable almost a year ago, we find old series that we can watch together.  Recently the ones we've chosen have been so short & it really stinks when you get so into a show & then BAM! It's over. Thankfully, Alias has about 5 seasons.  On a side note, since starting Alias, I have literally had a spy dream every night that we have watched it.

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

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!