I look at photos from my parents’ and grandparents’ younger days, and they were so poised and serious. They rarely even smiled in photos.  Photographs were valuable and rare.  They only had a handful of opportunities in life to have their images captured on film.

We, on the other hand, have had cameras pointed at us regularly our entire lives.  Apparently, that gives us carte blanche to make the ugliest faces on earth.

For the record, I should note that Laura and I are drinking ginger ale in that first photo, not actual champagne.  Secondly, notice the expression on my mom’s face.  If she pursed her lips any tighter they would have turned purple.

This was only one example of the hundreds of photos we “ruined” for our parents by contorting our faces into the most hideous countenances imaginable.  Back when it cost money to take film to be developed, my parents were none too pleased to open the envelope to discover glossy fresh prints of us making stupid faces in all their nice family photos.

But wait, there’s more…Laura & Maria Ugly Pics (The College Years)

One would assume we would have outgrown this juvenile behavior.  One would be mistaken.

Every time I look at these idiotic photos, I hear my mother’s voice in my mind, making a tsk sound and saying, “Really, Maria?  Stop ruining all our pictures!”

Alas, I’ve never seen it as ruining the pictures.  Every time I open our family albums and look at photos of my sister and me and our silly faces, I get uncontrollable fits of the giggles and think how awesome it is to be a couple of goofballs.