Create a great family newsletter

• Share a favorite recipe. Include a picture of you and the kids making your famous apple-pecan pie or oversized oatmeal cookies, and add the recipe as part of your newsletter. Instead if including it in the text of the letter, box it and write it in standard recipe style so your readers can cut it out for their own recipe boxes. Or get really fancy and include the recipe separately on colorful holiday card stock. Cut the paper to recipe-card size.

• Handle bad news sensitively. Be honest, but try to concentrate on the positive or hopeful aspects of the situation. Very bad news should probably be hand-written rather than included in your photocopied letter.

• Avoid "brag lists." One way to handle discussing children's grades, sports awards and other accomplishments is to have the children write about themselves. Or ask them questions and write using their own words. Write about or show photos of children's specific gifts and talents, such as their favorite school subjects, Ford suggests. Mention what the children are doing -- don't quantify how they are winning.

• Think beyond work and school. What sport does your family love? What about hobbies? What trouble has the dog gotten into lately? Adding fun details about your family's everyday life will make your newsletter sound less like a status report. Sure, your friends want to hear about your promotion, but they'd rather read the details of how you tried to cram two adults, two kids and a wet dog into a Jeep for a weekend fishing trip.

• Use exclamation points sparingly!!! Let your writing and content share your enthusiasm and save the exclamation point for a punch line or surprise ending.