The search for the smiles...

I know you all have better things to remember than my many posts of chaos and Christmas and making toffee out of Saltines, but do you remember that post I wrote about Ramblin' Rod?  That television personality from my childhood that had the big smile contest every morning? 

I had written that post to preempt my entry into the  Invisalign Teen Bright Smiles Holiday Photo Contest...in fact...after having typed that once...let me repeat it in the phrase I have to use as part of the contest...

“I am participating in the Invisalign Teen Bright Smiles Holiday Photo Contest with Dumb Mom.”

There...no more confusion now about what I'm doing.  BUT, back to Ramblin' Rod and those crazy smiles. 

So, for the past week or so I've been searching for that smile...camera in hand...stalking the girls...hoping for that perfect moment when the hot chocolate has still left a marshmallow mustache or the hysterical tears from the trip to Santa are being soothed with the peppermint candycane...

And then I realized something that I should have seen all along.

The smiles never left...

They were there when the leaves fell and the air turned cold...

They were there on that last unexpected day of an Indian Summer when we played in the courtyard of the Burgruine Flossenbuerg...

They were there when we found that perfect Christmas tree and when she sat on Santa's lap...

And when she hugs on her mama or swings in the snow...

They didn't disappear when Daddy went to Afghanistan...even though we miss him so much!

They didn't leave when I invoked child labor laws with the cookie cutters after a playdoh mess...

And so I think it could be said that those perfect smiles...well, they never were hidden or gone....

I just had to stop looking so hard and realize they were already there.