Muppet Face

Here’s a picture of my Mom, her brother “Doc”, and my Grandma taken at my Mom’s cousin’s wedding in 1991.




I inherited many things from Mom. Her top teeth (the bottom teeth I inherited from my Dad), her sense of humor, and her love of making ridiculous and sometimes inappropriate baked goods (more on this later). But, I look at this picture and I’m able to piece together a couple more pieces of my genetic puzzle. First, I did NOT inherit my Mom and Uncle’s ability to achieve a glorious summer tan without looking like a ripe tomato. It seems I got some of my pasty skin tone from Granny. (Thanks, Granny!) Second, see that open-mouth “smile” on my Uncle? Well, as I was going through some photos, I noticed he often smiles like that. I like to call this the “Muppet Face.” A big, open mouth and wide and/or crazy eyes. And I’m not sure if you could classify a Muppet Face as genetic, but I have a few examples to support my theory:



Here’s a Christmas photo of me and my sisters. Every year, Ma would put us in Christmas outfits the included red and green rick-rack and pose us in front of the wood paneled wall in our living room. The one with the open mouth? That’s me. Apparently I can hardly contain myself, so there’s also some flailing with my arm. This is an early example of Muppet Facing; I’m guessing I was 3 or 4 at the time.



Here’s me and Heather a few years later. Again, we’ve got the wide open cakehole, a bit of the crazy eyes, and a similar flailing of the arm.



And just so you don’t think: “Oh, I bet when she was young she just couldn’t keep her mouth shut,” I’ve included a photo from my young adulthood. Here’s a picture of me and Indiana Jones – I mean - my husband, Jason, from our early dating days. Heavy on the crazy eyes and molars in this Muppet Face.



And just to round out my examples, here’s a photo of me and Jason taken in the limo after our wedding at the “Viva Las Vegas Wedding Chapel” in 2004. Here I’m high-fiving and Muppet Facing at the same time.