There are 5 Christmas traditions my family will follow forever.

1. The Christmas Letter. Every year my Mum writes a 2 sided A4 newsletter. Starting in January (this year with a burglary that forced them to leave my brother's in the States at New Year early) through to the Jubilee, my brother's USA wedding and small boy's Olympic 1st Birthday Party, right up to my sister announcing her first pregnancy and our family Safari Christmas to honour my cousin moving to Kenya. I love that my Mum still does this. That she is so proud of all of us, she wants to tell over 100 people, our family year story.
2. Presents. We only have Father Christmas stocking presents in the morning. No early openings on Christmas Eve and no other presents until the afternoon. Shock horror! But at least we don't have to open them one by one. I adore this because the children actually play with what they unwrapped so hastily at 7am and it spreads out the day.
3. The Queen's Speech. We always watch the Queen's Speech and my Granny always used to comment on her outfit. We stand and sing the National Anthem too. All 14 of us once. It made me feel immensely proud. My big boy sang his 2 year old heart out at the Royal Wedding. I just need to work on teaching him the second verse!
4. Mint Viennetta. It's a running joke that I adore this rather naff dessert that you can buy for £1. I can't stand cream, brandy butter or Christmas pudding so I shall be having a slab of this delicious Eighties dessert! My Mother in Law has bought one especially, how sweet!
5. Sparkle. We always dress up on Christmas Day. As in dress to the nines! The sparklier the better. You can dress in jeans every other day of the year! I have some new Christmas shoes to wear this year. If only they were red I would feel just like Dorothy.

I realised I have never posted a family snap from my brother's wedding. So here is the one straight out of the Christmas newsletter!

Amazingly we all didn't coordinate our outfits but looked perfectly matched on the day! I love traditions, what are yours?

My new obsession - what I can make on the end of a stripey straw! Today it's Father Christmas!

Ingredients:

• Pink Marshmallows
• Icing sugar and water
• Plastic sandwich bag
• Desiccated coconut
• White chocolate chips
• Black icing pen
• Strawberries
• Straws

Mix up your icing into a bowl and dip your marshmallow. Coat the bottom third. Then dip into the coconut to make the beard. Dip the bottom of 2 chocolate chips in the icing and place on as eyes. Draw on pupils with the black icing pen. Leave to set on some baking paper so they don't stick. Push a straw into the bottom of the beard when dry.

(Big boy decided he needed to prod Santa's head with a straw. Poor Santa. Easier to just hold and dip!)

Cut the top off a strawberry and use a blob of icing to attach it to the top of the marshmallow. Pour a little icing into a sandwich bag and snip the corner. Squeeze a little on the top of the strawberry to complete the hat!

I am finally getting the hang of making my photos more blog savvy. A primary photo for a tutorial or ideas post that can be easily seen, eye catching and pin worthy to Pinterest. If you are not on Pinterest I beg you to read this. You will adore it and won't know what you did without it!

I have collected a group of fonts that match the style of my blog and pretty up my pictures!

Best of all they are all free!

When it comes to fonts my husband and I are definitely snobs! With so many engaging fonts available why use something boring when you can use something beautiful! (I love all the anti Comic Sans web designers out there. Google it - hilarious)

Favourite Fonts

The top ten blog fonts typeface is Rochester which I've used for my logo. Do you use labels on your photos? What are your favourite blog fonts?

You can download my favourites here:

Rochester, Sail, Rockwell, Pacifico, Weston, Dusty Matchbox, Lobster Two, Champagne and Limousines, Murray Hill, Bready, Contribute. If you like the title image font it's Ostrich Sans.

ut without doubt the most breathtaking typographical artwork is by Jessica Hische. You will adore it! Daily drop caps to use for your blog! My favourite is this M, this more simple P and this blurred P! They are free to use for personal use. Simply copy and paste the html code into your post. There are twelve alphabets to choose from and one special guest alphabet! What a woman!